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Homily #100831 ( 09min) Play – How many will be saved? Our Lord tells us that few will be saved. St. Thomas in his clarity and brevity says, “Those who are saved are in the minority.” Why did Our Lord give us this knowledge? He told us that we might never become presumptuous, that we always might be striving to enter the narrow gate. This is a widespread error in our day and age – everyone goes to Heaven. Let us not be fooled by the lukewarmness and religious indifference prevalent today. Let us work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
Ave Maria! St. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor – Mass: EF, Os Iusti – Readings:
1st: sir 31:8-11
Gsp: luk 12:35-40

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Homily #100830m ( 13 min) Play – In His hometown, our Lord Jesus preached on the fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures, which though fell into deaf ears. Fr John Joseph preaches on the importance of accepting Holy Scriptures as inspiration to bear our Cross faithfully and willingly. Let us be “doers of the word, and not hearers only.” (Jas 1:22) Ave Maria!  Monday in the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time – Mass: OF, – Readings:
1st: 1Co 2:1-5
Resp: Psa 119:97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102
Gsp: Luk 4:16-30

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Homily #100830 ( 06min) Play – Today we celebrate the feast of St. Rose of Lima, one of those saints that strove for perfection from the dawn of reason. St. Rose found much spiritual nourishment in reading the lives of the saints.
Ave Maria! St. Rose of Lima, Virgin – Mass: EF, Dilexisti – Readings:
1st: 1cor 7:25-34
Gsp: mat 13:44-52

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Homily #100829t ( 06min) Play – God lust is when we desire to put ourselves at the center of the universe. Pride invites us to do good for the wrong reasons. In order to have great virtue we must have deep humility.

Ave Maria! 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Mass: OF, – Readings:
1st: sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Resp: psa 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11
2nd: heb 12:18-19, 22-24
Gsp: luk 14:1, 7-14

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Ave Maria Meditations

Courage and strength in ordinary life.

Living up to the full the demands of the Faith and of our vocation.

If, upon realizing that his life was in danger, the Bap­tist had remained silent or retired to the sidelines of public affairs, he would not have been beheaded by Herod. But John was not that kind of man. He was not like a reed shaken by the wind. He was true to his vocation and his principles to the end. If he had remained silent, he could have lived a few more years, but his disciples would not have been the first to follow Our Lord. He would not have prepared and made straight the way of the Lord, as pro­phesied by Isaiah. He would not have lived up to his voca­tion. His life would have been bereft of meaning.

Jesus is probably not asking us to suffer a martyr’s death for him. But He is asking us for courage and fortitude in facing up to the demands of ordinary life – to stop watching a bad television show, to cease putting off an apostolic conversation … We cannot allow ourselves to hide behind excuses when there is so much apostolic work to be done. We have to act with optimism, loving the world and the good that is in it while seeking to increase that goodness. We can do this with the example of a joyful fam­ily and of the youthful love that is born of holy purity.

There are other kinds of cowardly silence which we have to struggle against. There is the silence we maintain with the person next to us. God has put him there so that we might be a beacon of light for him or her. In addition, it is hard to imagine that we can be courageous at all in this life if we are not first courageous with ourselves, espe­cially when talking with our spiritual director.

Many of our friends, on seeing that we truly practice what we preach, will be attracted to the Faith. Centuries ago, many people converted after witnessing the martyr­dom of the first Christians.  We dedicate this day to Our Lady. We ask her to teach us when to be silent and when to speak out.

Fr. Francis Fernandez (In Conversation with God)

Homily #100829 ( 13min) Play – Will we follow Him? Fr. Angelo Geiger preaches on today’s Gospel where Our Lord admonishes us to live a sacrificial, spiritual life and not be worried about things of this world. For as the Gospel states, the Lilies of the field which work not nor spin not are clothed by God more gloriously than Solomon. He points out that to not follow this basic spiritual discipline is to live inconsistently when so many follow harder discipline in the secular corporate world.

Ave Maria! Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost – Mass: EF, Protector Noster – Readings:
1st: gal 5:16-24
Gsp: mat 6:24-33

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Roving Reporter #116 – The Feast of the Covo ( 11min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Every August here in the countryside of Campocavallo, Italy, the first Sunday of the month is set aside to honor the Queen of the town, the Madonna of Campocavallo. The residents of this town- located in the “campagnia”, or countryside – gather together, fashion with their own hands, and present a unique offering to the Queen, whose sanctuary (Beata Virgine Addolorata) is the heart of the town and houses the miraculous image of the Sorrowful Mother. The offering, roughly the size of a Hummer automobile or larger, is church or religious structure constructed of steel, wood, and, most importantly, the grain of the local fields. The members of a group called “The Covo” and comprised of lay people (Italians, obviously) male and female, young and old. This year the offering was a replica of the lovely Basilica of Pompei, located in the southern part of Italy.

I had the privilege of observing and filming, over a period of 5 or 6 months, the work of the Covo, and I present to you my own offering, albeit hastily done and always incomplete, to the same Queen of Campocavallo, whose feast day happens to be the day of my birth.

Ave Maria!

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Homily #100828 ( 09min) Play – Fr. Bonaventure preaches on the Feast Day of St Augustine. He connects the Parable of the Talents in today’s Gospel to the many natural talents that Our Lord had given our saint, all of which were augmented with the power of miracles showing how God gives more to those who do well with the free gifts given to them.
Ave Maria! – Mass Ordinary Form: – Readings:
1: 1 Cor 1:26-31
R: Ps 33:12-13,18-21
G: Mt 25:14-30

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The Catekids #4 – Explaining the 5th Commandment ( 13min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

The Catekids are taking on a serious one this time, the 5th Commandment, You shall not kill.  Catechism of the Catholic Church has the more general term “Respect for Human Life” and the Catekids cover the many areas that this involves.

Ave Maria!

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Ave Maria Meditations

Nothing is far from God. - Saint Monica

Son, nothing in this world now affords me delight. I do not know what there is now for me to do or why I am still here, all my hopes in this world being now fulfilled.

- Saint Monica, about the conversion of Augustine

The day was now approaching when my mother Monica would depart from this life; you know that day, Lord, though we did not. She and I happened to be standing by ourselves at a window that overlooked the garden in the courtyard of the house. At the time we were in Ostia on the Tiber. And so the two of us, all alone, were enjoying a very pleasant conversation, “forgetting the past and pushing on to what is ahead..”

We were asking one another in the presence of the Truth – for you are the Truth – what it would be like to share the eternal life enjoyed by the saints, which “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, which has not even entered into the heart of man.” We desired with all our hearts to drink from the streams of your heavenly fountain, the fountain of life. That was the substance of our talk, though not the exact words.

But you know, O Lord, that in the course of our conversation that day, the world and its pleasures lost all their attraction for us. My mother said, “Son, as far as I am concerned, nothing in this life now gives me any pleasure. I do not know why I am still here, since I have no further hopes in this world. I did have one reason for wanting to live a little longer: to see you become a Catholic Christian before I died. God has lavished his gifts on me in that respect, for I know that you have even renounced earthly happiness to be his servant. So what am I doing here?”

 I do not really remember how I answered her. Shortly, within five days or thereabouts, she fell sick with a fever. Then one day during the course of her illness she became unconscious and for a while she was unaware of her surroundings. My brother and I rushed to her side, but she regained consciousness quickly. She looked at us as we stood there and asked in a puzzled voice: “Where was I?”

We were overwhelmed with grief, but she held her gave steadily upon us, and spoke further: “Here you shall bury your mother.” I remained silent as I held back my tears. However, my brother haltingly expressed his hope that she might not die in a strange country but in her own land, since her end would be happier there. When she heard this, her face was filled with anxiety, and she reproached him with a glance because he had entertained such earthly thoughts. Then she looked at me and spoke: “Look what he is saying.” Thereupon she said to both of us, “Bury my body wherever you will; let not care of it cause you any concern. One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.” Once our mother had expressed this desire as best she could, she fell silent as the pain of her illness increased.

- from the Confessions of Saint Augustine

Homily #100827 ( 08min) Play – Fr. Angelo Geiger preaches on the Feast day of St. Monica where we  have the Gospel story of the only son who is raised from the dead and given back to his mother with great rejoicing. Father relates this to the conversion of St. Augustine the son on St. Monica who prayed and wept for his conversion for decades. He points out the need for prayer and penance to bring about conversions.
Ave Maria! – Mass Ordinary Form: – Readings:
1st: 1 Cor 1:17-25
Gspl: Luk 7:11-17

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Homily #100826 ( 07min) Play – On this feast day of the Seven Joys of Our Lady, celebrated by the Franciscans, commemorating the Franciscan Crown of the Seven Joys of Lady. Fr Angelo Geiger preaches on the Gospel account of the Annunciation where Our Lady finds joy in the message of the angel that she was to conceive by the Holy Spirit and have the presence of God within her. He ralates this to St. Francis who, after his conversion, was liberated from all that held him back from following Christ and was able to find joy in the ever-present Lord despite the fact that he had no earthly possessions.
Ave Maria!   Readings: 1st: Song 2:1-14
Gspl: Luk 1:26-38

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I am currently reading Phantastes by George McDonald.  The following is the epigraph at the beginning of chapter seven and is taken from “Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton”:

Fight on, my men, Sir Andrew sayes,
A little Ime hurt, but yett not slaine;
Ile but lye down, and bleede awhile,
And then Ile rise and fight againe.

One is permitted to lay down and bleed awhile as long as he gets back into the fight—a soldiers rule of life.

Filed under: Catholic, Chivalry, Guy things, Heroes, Knights, Swordplay Tagged: George McDonald, Phantastes, Sir Andrew Barton
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MaryCast Specials #86 ( 10min) Play – Dr. Mark Miravalle announces a year long  worldwide Rosary Crusade for the 5th Marian Dogma Starting from August 15th 2010 to August 15th 2011. The broad based initiative has been endorsed by Cardinal Aponte of Puerto Rico, Mother Angelica of EWTN, Archbishop M. Chinnappa of India and Ambassador Howard Dee, Sr. Briege McKenna and Fr. Kevin Scallon, Ambassador Mercedes Tuason and Dr. Judith Gentle. You can read the full Declaration at Mother of All Peoples.

Along with the daily Rosary, we also encourage you to pray daily the Prayer of the Lady of All Nations, given by Our Lady for the proclamation of the fifth Dogma in the ecclesiastically approved apparitions in Amsterdam (local approval, May 31, 2002). You may also add the prayer below for the fifth Marian Dogma.

Lady of All Nations Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, send now your Spirit over the earth.

Let the Holy Spirit live in the hearts of all nations, that they may be preserved from degeneration, disasters, and war.

May the Lady of all nations, the Blessed Virgin Mary, be our Advocate.

Amen.

Prayer for the Fifth Marian Dogma

Most holy Mary, Mother of God, we pray,

Come quickly and save us from degeneration, disaster and war.

Come quickly, we pray, Mother of All  Nations.

Come, most holy Mother,

Our Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces and Advocate.

Protect us with your motherly mantle.

Please do not delay.

Protect our world in this hour of need.

To ask questions regarding Mary, email Dr Mark Miravalle: marycast@airmaria.com

Ave Maria!

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Homily #100825 ( 10min) Play – Fr Angelo, on the occasion of the Anniversary of the Dedication of our Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe here in Griswold, preaches on how we are on a journey, a pilgrimage, here on earth where we are searching for our final resting place, the Heavenly Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the subject of the first reading taken from the Book of Revelation for the dedication of a church and Father points out how the physical churches that we build are little way stations along this journey a small piece of heaven for rest along the journey.

Ave Maria! Readings:
1st: Rev 21:1-5
Gspl: Luk 19:1-10

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