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Homily #100530 ( 26min) Play – For Holy Trinity Sunday and the closing Mass for the Knights of Lepanto Father-Son Encampment, Fr Angelo preaches on how the Trinity is three Persons and yet united as if it where and Army, working as one for the salvation of all men. He stresses the need to acknowledge that the Second Person of the Trinity became man to win our salvation and so enable the Holy Trinity to dwell within us. Our hearts then become the divine fortress of the Trinity and this forms the base to sally forth and practice the virtues, especially charity.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
1: Prov 8:22-31
R: Ps 8:4-9
2: Rom 5:1-5
G: Jn 16:12-15

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Homily #100427 ( 10min) Play – St. Peter Canisius lived in the 1500s in a time that fulfilled the prophecy of St. Paul in today’s first reading:

For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables.

Listen how St. Peter tactfully and lovingly deals with these errors.

Ave Maria! St. Peter Canisius, Confessor and Doctor of the Church – Mass: EF, In Medio Ecclesiae – Readings: 1st: 2ti 4:1-8 – Gsp: mat 5:13-19

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Padre Pio, an Italian monk from an obscure town,changed the lives of Catholics around the world by his prayers, …

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One Minute Meditation

It is a great thing to realize that in order to be saints we have only to be what God made us to be, and to do what God made us to do. If we are clever, then to be clever; if we are not clever, then not to be clever; if we are successful, then to be successful; if not successful, then not to succeed; if in good health, then to be healthy; if sickly, then to be sickly; and so on. Perfect simplicity with regard to ourselves; perfect contentment with everything that comes our way; perfect peace of mind in utter self-forgetfulness.

This becomes easier the more we realize the utter greatness and goodness and allness of God. Then we realize our own utter insignificance and worthlessness and nothingness; a mere squeak of a mouse in the infin­ity of God. If we see the whole, we shall easily despise the trifles; if we lose ourselves in God, how puny the rest appears!

This is the cure for making too much of little things whether they go right, or whether they go wrong, which is the cause of all our loss of peace of mind. This is the real test of sanctity, that simplicity of trust in God, which is the perfection of human nature. In the end, when life is done and all is over, such a soul is found more precious than one that has shone in many deeds.

Therefore:

First make a great deal of God, forgetting, if we can, at times everything else in His presence. Secondly, make nothing at all of ourselves, whether we are clever or whether we are not, whether we are loved or whether we are not, whether we succeed or whether we do not, whether we get what we desire or do not.

In the midst of all we can rejoice: (a) that we are what He has made us; (b) that those things happen which He wants to happen, (c) that if all the world were to collapse and the very heavens were to fall, there would be still the great, living, loving God.

So, if we want to be saints:

(1) Sit still often in the presence of God, lost in acts of faith, and love, and hope, in acts of praise, and adoration, and thanksgiving.

(2) When the thought of ourselves with our own petty worries creeps in, sit still again in His presence, with acts of humility, and contrition, and oblation, telling Him how small we are, how sorry we are for ourselves, how we would like to be and do better.

(3) When the human heart is hungry, as at times it must be, come again to the feet of God, and fill it with acts of longing for Him and His love and His glory, rather than with the little husks of self-satisfaction; fill it with acts of rejoicing in Him and in His tremendous almighti­ness, such that nothing in the world really matters any­thing at all.

PRAY LIKE THIS, and we shall lay the foundation on which sanctity is built.

LIVE LIKE THIS, and sanctity will build itself.

DIE LIKE THIS, and we shall die “good and faithful servants.”

+Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J.

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Homily #091130 ( 05min) Play – Fr Ignatius explains the importance of the calling of the Apostles and how we are all called to be Fishers of Men
Ave Maria! St. Andrew, Apostle – Mass: EF, Mihi Autem – Readings: 1st: rom 10:10-18 – Gsp: mat 4:18-22

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Fr. Bonaventure explains in today’s Gospel that we should not worry about the time and place of the tribulations that will come before the Second Coming of Christ.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Andrew Dun-Lac and Companions who were martyred in Vietnam for their faith.

Ave Maria! Mass readings
1: Dan 2:31-45
R: Dan 3:57-61
G: Lk 21:5-11

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Ave Maria Meditations

Mary’s humility

Our Lady teaches us the way of humility. This virtue ­should not be thought of as an essentially negative sense, even though it does involve a denial of one’s pride, a tempering of our ambition and the extinction of our ego­tism and vanity. Our Lady did not experience any of these temptations and yet was blessed with the highest degree of humility.

If we examine the word humility we find it to be derived from the Latin humus, which means earth, soil, or dirt. Humility signifies a recognition of our human origin in the dust of which Adam was made. The virtue of humil­ity, therefore, consists in the living out of a realistic appraisal of our comparative insignificance as creatures who are totally dependent on God. Humility,by inclining us towards the earth, recognizes our littleness, our poverty, and in its way glorifies the majesty of God.  The interior soul experiences a holy joy in annihilating itself, as it were, before God to recognize practically that He alone is great and that, in comparison with His, all human greatness is empty of truth like a lie. This self-abnegation in no way impoverishes the soul. It does not limit the legitimate aspirations of the creature. On the contrary, this virtue works to ennoble the soul, giving it wings on which to explore wider horizons. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

Faith, Hope, and Charity

“And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Cor. 13: 13).

For St. Paul life was Christ, a life of faith in the Son of God. Death was gain, a passing in joyful hope from this earthly habitation to the blessedness of Heaven. Both in life and death he belonged to God and was motivated solely by love of God and neighbor. Faith, hope and charity were the source of his unparalleled zeal for souls. These theological virtues, poured into the soul by the Holy Spirit, practiced heroically by ones generous response, and ordered to union with God, are the foundation for any authentic and fruitful missionary zeal.

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Ave Maria Meditations

November 17th: St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Patroness of the Franciscan Third Order (1207-1231)

She was the daughter of the King of Hungary and in 1221 married Ludwig, the Landgrave of Thuringia. With Ludwig she had four children. After her husband’s death in 1227, she became a Franciscan tertiary, devoting herself to caring for the poor, the sick, and the aged. She died in exceptional poverty and was canonized in 1235.

Collect:
Father,
You helped Elizabeth of Hungary
to recognize and honor Christ
in the poor of this world.
Let her prayers help us to serve our brothers and sisters
in time of trouble and need.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Ave Maria Meditations

A soul united with Jesus can do anything…
Mother Cabrini

We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on arms and human industries, but on Jesus alone. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (feast day is November 13th)

Inspired by the grace of God, we join the saints in honoring the holy virgin Frances Xavier Cabrini. She was a humble woman who became outstanding not because she was famous or rich or powerful, but because she lived a virtuous life. From the tender years of her youth, she kept her innocence as white as a lily and preserved it carefully with the thorns of penitence; as the years progressed, she was moved by a certain instinct and supernatural zeal to dedicate her whole life to the service and greater glory of God.  It must also be mentioned that Mother Cabrini was a Third Order Franciscan. (more…)

Homily #091101 ( 08min) Play – Fr. Ignatius draws from today’s Gospel reading how all are called to be saints, no matter what our station in life is.
Ave Maria! Readings EF – 1st: rev 7:2-12 – Gsp: mat 5:1-12

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In possessing me, my poor Lord possesses a nothing,

and I, in possessing Him, possess everything.

St. Anthony Mary Claret, feast day is October 24th

I will ask the Blessed Virgin for an all-embracing charity and perfect union with God, a most profound humility, and the desire for contempt from others. I will greatly esteem virtues in others.  I will look on everybody as my superior, judging well of all his works, reprehending, cen­suring, and judging only myself. This will be for my own profit. Any other kind of judgment will not profit me in the least.

I will remember what our Lord once said to a mis­sionary, namely, that he had preserved him from falling into hell, so that he might work for the salvation of souls. For my part, I too, will think that God delivered me from the untimely death of drowning and from other perils, so that I might labor afterwards for his greater honor and glory, and for the salvation of souls which he redeemed at so great a price.

What has our Lord not done for the glory of his Father and for the salvation of souls? Ah, I see him agonizing on the cross, despised, and loaded with suffer­ings. Then am I, for the same reason, and aided by his grace, firmly resolved to suffer, to toil, to be despised, to be laughed at, calumniated and persecuted, and even to suffer death itself. Thanks be to God I am having my share of these crosses in my life. I live, but my life is that of Christ’s, and in possessing me, my poor Lord possesses a nothing, and I, in possessing Him, posses everything.

I pray to Him like this: O Lord, you are my love. You are my honor, my hope, and my refuge, my glory, and my last end. 0 my love, my happiness, my conserver, my joy, my reformer and my master! You are my father, the spouse of my life and of my soul! I do not seek or desire to know anything but your holy will, in order to do it. I love only you, my God, and all other things only for you, in you, and for your sake. You are more than sufficient for me, and I love you, my strength, my refuge, and my consolation. You are my Father, my brother, my spouse, my friend, and my all. Help me to love you as you love me, and as you will that I should love you.

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