Ave Maria!

Fr. Joseph Michael McShane the Vocations Director for the Franciscans of the Immaculate in N. America delivers his first episode of our new weekly series on vocations. This will be dedicated to discerning what God is calling us to do with our lives, focussing on the very special calling to the priesthood and religious life. It will be based on our very popular book Come & Follow Me which has many spiritual treasures from the lives and sayings of the saints to help inspire young men and women to give themselves totally to God. This episode will discuss what is a vocation and the importance of taking time to discern what you are being called to.

Come & Follow Me By Fr. Stefano Maneli, Founder the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Help get this book distributed in Parishes, adoration chapels, CCD classes, vocation directors, for the renewal of the Church. Volume discounts available.

The post Video – Fr. Joseph – Come Follow Me #1 – Pilot first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Fra Solanus Mary reviews our great little book authored by the founder of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, Fr. Stefano Maria Manelli. This book is particularly good for teenagers as it is an easy read and of course, it is about one of the most popular saints of modern times – St. Pio of Pietrelcina. This is another great episode of Book Log and I’m sure you’ll not only enjoy the show, but I hope you enjoy the book even more.

Ave Maria!

The post Video – Friar Solanus Mary – Book Log #2: St Pio of Pietrelcina first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Is it true that one religion is no better than the other? How is Christ unique?

All founders of religion claim that they teach the truth about God. In this episode, Raymond de Souza discusses the unique claims Christ made as the founder of Christianity. Has any other founder of a world religion claimed to be one with God? Was the birth of any other religious founder pre-announced hundreds of years beforehand by various men living in different ages? Has any other founder of a religion performed miracles as proof of the words he spoke?

Raymond also talks on contraception in our day, and on how post WWII Europe, and the western world en masse, is contracepting and aborting itself to death. He mentions the main facets identifying the de-Christianization of Europe: politics without God, law without God, and economy without God. Raymond also speaks on how a non-childbearing Europe will fare with its increase in Muslim immigrants, and he adds this pearl as a postmark: “Between certitude (Islam) and weakness (European Christianity), certitude will win at the end of the day.?? He ends the episode with a fascinating story on the fruit of contraception and childlessness in Japan, where elderly couples pay to be visited by a younger couple (with one child) who pretend to be the children (and grandchild) of the elderly couple. The cost is $2,000 US dollars for a two-hour visit.

Ave Maria!

The post Video – Raymond de Souza: Christ’s Uniqueness and Western Contraception first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #080727 ( 10min) Play – Fr. Bonaventure preaches on this 3rd Order Sunday where Fr. Stefano Manelli, our founder, is the celebrant. Fr. Bonaventure points out that the parables of the Buried Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price tell us that all things are to be counted as loss compared to the treasure of the Gospel. This treasuring of the Gospel is key to being a true disciple of Christ, and so, Mary is the greatest disciple who pondered the Gospel in her Immaculate Heart.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
+++

The post Jul 27 – Homily – Fr Bonaventure: The Gospel is Treasure first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Prayers to St. Clare of Assisi
(Patroness of Television Workers
Patroness of Sore Eyes)

O Glorious St. Clare! God has given you the power of working miracles continually, and the favor of answering the prayers of those who invoke your assistance in misfortune, anxiety, and distress. We beseech you, obtain from Jesus through Mary His Blessed Mother, what we beg of you so fervently and hopefully, (mention your petition) if it be for the greater honor and glory of God and for the good of our souls.?? Amen.

God of Mercy, You inspired?Saint Clare with the love of poverty. By the help
of her prayers, may we follow Christ in poverty of spirit and come
to the joyful vision of your glory in the kingdom of heaven. We ask this
through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You
and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Dear St. Clare, inspired by St. Francis, you became a poor nun for the sake of Jesus, and established the “Poor Clares.” We are told how greatly you cherished Christ present in the Sacrament of the Altar. Is the Mass not a kind of television of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross? Help all television workers to broadcast the truth and draw away from falsehood and evil. Amen.

NOVENA TO SAINT CLARE

Dear St. Clare, as a young girl you imitated your mother’s love for the poor of your native Assisi. Inspired by the preaching of St. Francis, who sang enthusiastically of His Lord Jesus and Lady Poverty, you gave your life to Jesus at nineteen years of age, allowing St. Francis to cut off your beautiful hair and invest you with the Franciscan habit. All through your life you offered your great suffering for your Sisters, the Poor Clares, and the conversion of souls. You greatly aided St. Francis with his new order, carrying on his spirit in the Franciscans after his death. Most of all you had a deep love of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, which fueled your vocation to love and care for the poor. Please pray for me (mention your request) that I will seek to keep Jesus as my first love, as you did. Help me to grow in love of the Blessed Sacrament, to care for the poor, and to offer my whole life to God. Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of St. Clare. Through her intercession, please hear and answer my prayer, in the name of Jesus Your Son. Amen.

Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road. Go forth without fear, for he who created you has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Blessed be you, my God, for having created me.???????? – Saint Clare of Assisi

?

O wondrous blessed clarity of Clare!
In life she shone to a few;
after death she shines on the whole world!
On earth she was a clear light;
Now in heaven she is a brilliant sun.

O how great the vehemence of the
brilliance of this clarity!
On earth this light was indeed kept
within cloistered walls,
yet shed abroad its shining rays;
It was confined within a convent cell,
yet spread itself through the wide world.

-Pope Innocent IV

St. Clare was born in Assisi on July 16, 1194 and died on August 11, 1253. She is a Founder of the Second Order of St. Francis, the Poor Clares.? Once when her convent was about to be attacked, she displayed the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrace at the convent gates, and prayed before it; the attackers left. thus her patronage of television. She was ever the close friend and spiritual student of St. Francis.

Toward the end of her life, when the was too ill to attend Mass, an image of the service would display on the wall of her cell:;

The post A Clear Light of Faith: St. Clare of Assisi first appeared on AirMaria.com.

August 1st: St. Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorist Order

SAINT ALPHONSUS LIGUORI Bishop and Doctor of the Church (1696-1787)

An Act of Spiritual Communion

My Jesus, I believe that You are truly in the Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I long for you in my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart as though You have already come. I embrace You and unite myself entirely to you; never permit me to be separated from You!

I say that it is the will of God that all graces should come to us by the hands of Mary. Sooner would heaven and earth be destroyed than would Mary fail to assist anyone who asks for her help, provided he does so with a good intention and with confidence in her.

To learn more of this good doctor, continue on…

Saint Alphonsus was born near Naples, in 1696. He was a devout child and also a prodigy in many ways. At sixteen he became a doctor in civil law; and upon entering this career he met great success and fame A mistake, however, by which he lost an important case, showed him the vanity of human fame and glory. He decided to abandon the legal profession at the age of twenty-seven, to serve God alone.

Saint Alphonsus was ordained a priest in 1726, and he soon became as renowned a preacher as he had been a lawyer. He was an excellent confessor, and wrote a manual which has been used ever since for the instruction of those who administer the sacrament of Penance. A musician, Saint Alphonsus gave up his instruments to devote himself more perfectly to his priestly duties; he nonetheless composed joyous religious hymns for the poor folk he heard singing in the streets, that they might glorify God and not waste their voices and efforts in vain and worldly songs.

He later founded the missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, for the evangelization of the poor. At the age of sixty-six he became Bishop of Saint Agatha and undertook the reform of his diocese . He made a vow never to waste a moment of time, and, though his life was spent in prayer and work, he also wrote many books. These volumes were filled with such great wisdom that in 1871 he was declared by Pius IX a Doctor of the Church.

Saint Alphonsus wrote his first book at the age of forty-nine, and in his eighty-third year had published about sixty volumes; at that time his director forbade him to continue writing. The best known of his books is his volume entitled “The Glories of Mary”, by which he exalts the graces and narrates the wondrous deeds of mercy of the Mother of God for those who invoke Her. He is also well known for his writings on the Holy Eucharist.

St. Alphonsus lived a long life and he came to know much suffering in his later years with arthritis and is the patron of those who suffer with this disease. He died in 1787 at age 91.

Reflection: Let us do with all our heart and attention the duty of each day, leaving to God the result as well as the care of the future.

To Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

My Lord Jesus Christ, Who, through the love which You bear toward men, does remain with them day and night in this Sacrament, full of mercy and love, awaiting, inviting and receiving all who come to visit You, I believe that You are present in the Sacrament of the Altar.

From the abyss of my nothingness, I adore You. I thank You for all the graces which You have bestowed upon me, particularly for having given me Yourself in this Sacrament, for having given my Your most holy Mother Mary for my advocate, and for having called me to visit You in this church.

I pay my homage to Your most loving Heart for these three ends: first in thanksgiving for this great Gift; second to make amends to You for all the outrages which You do receive in this Sacrament from all Your enemies; third I intend by this visit to adore You in all the places on earth in which You are present in this Sacrament and in which You are the least honored and the most abandoned.

My Jesus, I love You with my whole heart. I am sorry for having offended Your infinite goodness so many times. I purpose, with the help of Your grace, never more to offend You; and, at this moment, mniserable as I am, I consecrate my whole being to You.

I give You my entire will, all my affections and desires and all that I have. From this day forward, do what You will with me and with everything that belongs to me.

I ask and desire only Your holy love, the gift of final perseverance and the perfect fulfillment of Your will. I commend to You the souls in Purgatory, particularly those who were most devoted to the Most Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary; and I also commend to You all poor sinners.

Finally, my dear Saviour, I unite all my affections with the affections of Your most loving Heart; and thus united, I offer them to Your Eternal Father, and I entreat Him, in Your Name and for Your sake, to accept and answer them. Amen.

When we have recourse to this Divine Mother, not only we may be sure of her protection, but that often we shall be heard more quickly, and be thus preserved, if we have recourse to Mary and call on her holy name, than we should be if we called on the name of Jesus our Savior. And the reason is that to Jesus, as a Judge, it belongs also to punish; but mercy alone belongs to the Blessed Virgin as a patroness. Meaning, that we more easily find salvation by having recourse to the Mother than by going to the Son–not as if Mary was more powerful than her Son to save us, for we know that Jesus Christ is our only Savior, and that He alone by His merits has obtained and obtains salvation for us; but it is for this reason: that when we have recourse to Jesus, we consider Him at the same time as our Judge, to whom it belongs to chastise ungrateful souls, and therefore the ,confidence necessary to be heard may fail us but when we go to Mary, who has no other office than to compassionate us as Mother of mercy, and to defend us as our advo­cate, our confidence is more easily established, and is often greater.

+

We often obtain more promptly what we ask by calling on the name of Mary than by invoking that of Jesus. Her Son is Lord and  Judge of all, and discerns the merits of each one; and therefore if He does not immediately grant the prayers of all, He is just. When, however, the Mother’s name is invoked, though the merits of the suppliant are not such as to deserve that his prayer should be granted, those of the Mother supply that he may receive,  Many things are asked from God, and are not granted but if they are asked from Mary, and are obtained. And how is this?  It is because God has thus decreed to honor His Mother.

It is impossible for a client of Mary, who is faithful in honoring and recommending himself to her, to be lost. To some this proposition may appear, at first sight, ex­aggerated; but anyone to whom this might seem to be the case I would beg to suspend his judgment, and, first of all, read what I have to say on this subject. When we say that it is impossible for a client of Mary to be lost, we must not be understood as speaking of those clients who take advantage of this devotion that  they may sin more freely.

And therefore, those who disapprove of the great praises bestowed on the clemency of this most Blessed Virgin, because it causes the wicked to take advantage of it to sin with greater freedom, do without foundation, for such presumptive people deserve chastisement, and not mercy, for their rash confidence. It is therefore to be understood of those clients who, with a sincere desire to amend, are faithful ­in honoring and recommending themselves to the Mother of God. It is, I say, morally impossible that such as these should be lost.

The post St. Alphonus Liguori first appeared on AirMaria.com.

The post Our Seraphic Holy Father Francis first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #100716 ( 10min) Play – Today is the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel which commemorates the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St Simon Stock a Carmelite Monk. During the apparition Our Lady gave St Simon the scapular, an apron-like piece of cloth worn outside of all Carmelites’ habits (and by any lay person who wants to wear it under their clothes) as a sign of their trust in Our Lady’s intercession. Father explains the symbolism of the scapular and the importance of Marian apparitions and devotions for upholding Christian doctrine and devotion.
Ave Maria! – Mass: – Readings:
Genesis 3:9-15, 20
First Samuel 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8
Luke 2:27-35

Audio (MP3)

+++

The post Jul 16 – Homily – Fr Bonaventure: Our Lady of Mt Carmel first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #101004 ( 07min) Play – On the feast of St Francis of Assisi Fr. Dominic preaches on how the founder of our order was the great rebuilder of the Church at a time when it was crumbling. All Franciscans are called to carry on this work as did many Franciscan saints like Bonaventure, Anthony, Padre Pio and many more.
Ave Maria! Our Holy Father Francis – Mass: OF, – Readings:
1st: sir 50:1, 3-4, 6-7
Resp: psa 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 11
2nd: gal 6:14-18
Gsp: mat 11:25-30

Audio (MP3)

+++

The post Oct 04 – Homily – Fr Dominic: St Francis, Rebuilder of the Church first appeared on AirMaria.com.