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Face of Pro-Life #119 – Corinn Dahm and Jill Sackidovitch on the youth ( 30min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Jill Sackidovitch director of the Westbrook, CT branch of Birthright offers her insight of how to reach out to youth with a Pro-life message in this modern, changing, materialistic world, making use of her ample experience working with young teenage mothers coming to her local Birthright facility. She also set up a booth at a local fair and had much more contact with youth in general. She believes that the joy of life message has been received very well by youth. She believes that youth are increasingly pro-life and describes the free materials that she offered to the youth. She also mentions how ultrasound images of their little babies is very powerful for young mothers and how the youth and even young children understand the sanctity of human life very well. The youth are also very quick to notice a lack of sincerity and are quite skeptical in general so it is important not to talk down to them. They want to hear the other side of the story as opposed to the line they get from TV etc. We must provide them with this other side, the culture of life that raises the dignity of humanity and leads to eternal life.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #101107 ( 13min) Play – In today’s Gospel the Sadducees try to trip up Jesus with a question on marriage and in regard to life after death. He answers that there is life after death, but that marriage is not for the after life. Fr. Bonaventure takes these basic statements about marriage (where life begins) and death (where life ends) and preaches on the meaning and sanctity of human life. He mentions the reasons why God Created us, the relationship between God and man, and how Jesus and Mary is key to both of these and to attaining life everlasting.

Ave Maria! 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Mass: OF, – Readings:
1st: 2ma 7:1-2, 9-14
Resp: psa 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
2nd: 2th 2:16-3:5
Gsp: luk 20:27-38

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Homily #101101 ( 12min) Play – Fr. Dominic preaches on the need to desire sanctity in order to get to heaven and this is why we honor all the saints on this Solemnity of All Saints, to spur our desire. This desire must extend beyond our first fervor of a moment of conversion, and be fostered until the day we depart from this life. We must have purity of heart to achieve peace with God and peace among men in the likeness of Mary Immaculate. To get this long-lasting desire we must pray for it.
Ave Maria! All Saints – Mass: OF, – Readings:
1st: rev 7:2-4, 9-14
Resp: psa 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
2nd: 1jo 3:1-3
Gsp: mat 5:1-12

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Homily #101001 ( 07min) Play – Today is the feast day of St Therese of Lisieux of the Child Jesus. Fr. Ignatius celebrates this in the Extraordinary Form as a votive Mass since her feast day is on the 3rd of October in the old calender. He preaches on St. Therese’s life who through the help of her very devout parents was given a very good start on the road to sanctity. He describes how even though she was an almost entirely unknown nun who died at the young age of 24 in a cloistered convent, her great sanctity was discovered by the outside world and she was Canonized as a saint, made a patron of missionaries throughout the world, declared a doctor of the Church and virtually every Catholic Church has set-up a statue of her.
Ave Maria! Votive for St. Theresa of the Child Jesus – Mass: EF, Veni De Libano – Readings:
1st: isa 66:12-14
Gsp: mat 18:1-4

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Homily #100918 ( 06min) Play – On this Feast of St. Joseph Cupertino Fr. Bonaventure preaches on the firm basis on which this saint flew to the heights of sanctity. He did not have much to offer society in regard to worldly, natural ability but he would never be discouraged but continue on in humility and this lowliness lead to his sanctity that was so extraordinarily manifested in the gift of physical flight. Father also exhorts us to reject the modern eugenics movement in the form of abortion and infanticide of babies that are not deemed perfectly formed, useful or convenient like St. Joseph.
Ave Maria! St. Joseph of Cupertino – Mass: OF, – Readings:
1st: 1co 12:31, 13:1-10, 13
Resp: psa 25:1-3, 4-5, 8-9, 10
Gsp: mat 11:25-30

Audio (MP3)

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Mary Vitamin for July 22nd
Feast of St. Mary Magdalen

Topic: Gaining the affection of Mary by practicing courtesy

Quote:
St. Alphonsus di Liguori
Saint Gregory Nazianzen assures us that there is nothing by which we can with
greater certainty gain the affection of Mary then by charity towards our
neighbor.
St. Alphonsus di Liguori, The Glories of Mary, (Tan Books), 479.

Meditation:
The charity and courtesy of St. Mary Magdalen

Why was St. Mary Magdalene unable to recognize the risen Christ? Why did she not
recognize the Messiah after the Resurrection if she was one of the few that
recognized the Messiah when “there was no beauty”? Was the Lord testing St. Mary
Magdalene’s charity? Did He want to leave a testimony of her great love? She
treated someone to whom she thought stole the body of her Lord with great
respect. After she spoke, Jesus revealed His identity to her.

But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into
the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at
the feet where the body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have
taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know
it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you
looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you
carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
which means Teacher.
John 20:11-17

Resolution:
Today, I will work to win the affection of the Blessed Virgin Mary by speaking
with courtesy.

Marian Vow:
St. Claude de la Colombiere
We have no reason to despise anyone. A humble man sees only his own faults. It
is a sign of little virtue to notice the imperfections of others. A person may
be imperfect today who in a little while, recognizing this, may rise to great
sanctity.
Mother M. Philip, I.B.V.M., arr. & ed. The Spiritual Direction of Saint Claude
de la Colombiere,(

Related sites: Castle of the Immaculate

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Mary Vitamin is a daily Email support for Marian mental prayer. Each day (Monday through Friday) members will receive a brief Marian quote with a corresponding Marian meditation and resolution. The Mary Vitamin is designed to make mental prayer a little simpler and bring Our Lady into your day in a systematic way.

Homily #100715 ( 11min) Play – Today is the Feast day of St. Bonaventure and Fr. Angelo preaches on how St Bonaventure combined true sanctity and high education and so he became the Seraphic Doctor in the footsteps of his spiritual father, St. Francis, the seraphic saint. St Bonaventure focused on the importance of the will in theology as opposed to St Thomas who focused on the intellect. He also worked to ‘refound’ the order when it was in danger of splitting.
Ave Maria! St. Bonaventure – Mass: OF, – Readings:
1st: wis 8:2-7, 16-18
Resp: psa 16:5-5, 7-8, 9, 11
2nd: 1co 2:6-13
Gsp: mat 5:13-19

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #100116 ( 05min) Play – St Berard and Companions were the first martyrs in the Franciscan Order when they were killed after having preached to the Mohammedans. Father explains that martyrdom is the ideal in that it is the ultimate sacrifice and so the ultimate love and sanctity. He further explains that we are all called to martyrdom but more to the martyrdom by “slow fire”.
Ave Maria! St Berard and Comp – Mass: EF – Readings: 1st: 1co 4:9-14 – Gsp: mat 10:16-22

Audio (MP3)

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Ave Maria Meditations

And Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary,

of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. (Mt.1:16)

Among the Jews, as among other peoples of nomadic origin, the genealogical tree was of vital importance. A person was known fundamentally of the clan or tribe to which he belonged rather than by the place where he lived.  Among the Hebrews we have the added circumstances ­of belonging to the chosen people through ties of a person’s ancestry being traced through the male. Joseph, as the husband of Mary, was the legal father of Jesus and, as such, carried the duties of a true father. Joseph, like Mary, was of the house and family of David of whom would be born the Messiah.

It would also be Joseph’s responsibility to name the Word incarnate, in accordance with the instructions given him by the angel: You shall call his name Jesus.

God had foreseen that his Son would be born of the Virgin Mary, in a family just like any other, and that in her he would develop in his humanity. The life of Jesus had to be in this respect the same as that of other men. He was to be born defenseless, in need of a father who would protect him and teach him the things that all fathers should teach their sons. The essence and ultimate meaning of Joseph’s life had to lie in the fulfillment of his mission as Mary’s husband and as the father of Jesus. He was born into the world to act as the father of Jesus and to be Mary’s most chaste spouse, in the same way that every person who comes into the world has a specific vocation from God, in which is rooted the whole meaning of his life.

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Homily #090718 ( 10min) Play – The life of St. Camillus de Lellis is proof that anyone can become a saint and how sickness is an opportunity for the sick to turn to God and for the healthy to practice charity to them. [Sorry the recording was cutoff early.] Readings 1Jn 3:13-18 John 15:12-16
Ave Maria!

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Homily #090613 ( 11min) Play – The wise man sets aside everything to purchase wisdom. Listen as Father explains that true wisdom is to take up your cross and follow Christ as did the St. Anthony, Franciscan and Doctor of the Church.
Ave Maria! Mass readings

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Homily #080918 ( 8min) Play – On this Feast of St. Joseph Cupertino, Fr. Ignatius Manfredonia describes the life of this great saint who despite many limitations and difficulties in regard to natural ability rose to such heights of sanctity that he was often found levitated off the ground.? Ave Maria! +++

Ave Maria Mediations

September 8th: Nativity of Mary,

the CAUSE OF OUR JOY

Causa nostrae laetitiae, ora pro nobis

Homily #080810 ( 28min) Play – On this 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Fr. Angelo preaches on the miracle of Our Lord walking on the water. Listen as Father explains how Peter’s faltering when he tries to join Our Lord points to the need for us to work on our own faith and sanctity.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
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