We Need FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY

View 'The Letter' ~ Celebrate Life ~ For YOU and YOUR BABY!

2012-01-24T09:34:00.006-06:00

Life ~ a Precious Gift ~ a Miracle to be Treasured!

Prayer to Mary, Mother of the Life Within

O Mary, Mother of the Life Within,
all life we entrust to you;
The life of every expectant mother
and the child within her womb:
The life of every human body,
the life of every human soul;
The life of every newborn child
and the life of all grown old.
You held the Lord to your own heart
and drew Him so close in.
So draw us now in all our needs,
O Mother of the Life Within. Amen.

The Letter ~ from a Young Mother to her Aborted Child

Modern medical science has clearly shown us that human life begins at conception.

*At conception a new human being begins, complete with his or her own unique set of DNA; which is present from the first day of life. The new little person’s sex is also determined from the beginning.

*Eighteen days after conception the baby’s heart is beating.

*During the first month the baby grows to 10,000 times his/her size at conception.

*She or he moves six weeks after conception though the mother does not yet feel the movements.

*At eight weeks every part of the body found in an adult is already in the baby.

* At eleven weeks after conception the baby has finger-prints and the finger nails are growing.

*At twelve weeks the baby’s lips open and close. S/he can wrinkle his/her forehead, raise his or her eyes, turn his or her head, smile and frown.

*At sixteen weeks she or he reacts to sound, sucks and swallows, may get hiccups, yawns and stretches.

*Although moving since six weeks, at eighteen weeks the mother now feels the movements. The baby pushes with his or her feet and head to exercise and tone his or her developing muscles and also sucks his or her thumb. His or her toenails, hair, eyebrows, fringe of eyelashes on closed eyelids are growing.

*At twenty weeks the baby sleeps and wakes and is fully able to hear.
At twenty four weeks the baby may possibly dream and can make a fist and punch it against his or her mother.

*By twenty-five weeks the baby in the womb has the ability to hear like that of an adult and can discern the moods and attitudes of its mother. So we obviously want happy Moms so that we can have happy babies!

*The baby from an early stage can show the usual symptoms of pain during a pre-birth operation and even release the chemicals associated with adult pain but nobody can judge definitively whether it is in pain or not.

Hearts on Fire Retreat ~ St. Louis ~ Young Adults!

2012-01-22T12:19:00.006-06:00

Apostleship of Prayer ~ Hearts On Fire Retreat

February 24-25, 2012

Cardinal Rigali Center
20 Archbishop May Dr.
Saint Louis, MO 63119

Start time 6:30pm Friday, ends with 5:00pm Vigil Mass on Saturday

This Hearts on Fire weekend is hosted by the Archdiocese of Saint Louis Office of Young Adult Ministry

A retreat event for young adults - age 18-39, single or married

If you'd enjoy an introduction to some practical ways of connecting your faith and your everyday life, come join us. Whether you're new to prayer or are just looking for new ways to pray and live a more meaningful life, this event is for you!

REGISTER HERE!

A TEAM OF YOUNG JESUITS • A GROUP OF YOUNG ADULTS

A THOUSAND GRACES • ONE HEART

HEARTS ON FIRE RETREATS

Living Faith in Daily Life with the

Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola

News from 'Catholic League' ~ We Must Not Be Silent ~ We Must Stand Up for CHRIST and His Teachings!

2012-01-22T11:23:00.006-06:00

POPE’S OBLIQUE SHOT AT OBAMA

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on today’s address [to read it click here] by Pope Benedict XVI to U.S. Bishops on their “Ad Limina” visit:

Without explicitly naming President Barack Obama, Pope Benedict XVI made it clear today that he sees the administration as a threat to religious liberty. The pope spoke eloquently on the role that religious freedom has played since the founding of America, and of the need for Catholics to follow the natural law. But he also said, “The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues.” Specifically, he called attention to the “grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres.”

How do we know that the pope was addressing the Obama administration when he cited the threats emanating from the political sphere? Speaking of his discussions with U.S. bishops, the Holy Father said: “Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices. Others have spoken to me of a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.”

Pope Benedict XVI is obviously aware of the public pronouncements of people such as Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, Bishop William Lori, and others. They have rightfully objected to the Obamacare provisions that would mandate Catholic institutions to provide sterilization and contraceptive services (including abortifacients) without any realistic religious exemption, and of the decision to deny funding to a Catholic agency that combats human trafficking simply because the Church opposes abortion. The term “freedom of worship,” which was coined to distinguish it from “freedom of religion,” expresses a highly privatized understanding of religious liberty that does not embrace the public expression of religion. It is the preferred term of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

http://www.catholicleague.org/pope%e2%80%99s-oblique-shot-at-obama/

OBAMA’S CONTEMPT FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on today’s announcement from the Obama administration that it is going forward with its original “Obamacare” policy that mandates coverage of sterilization and contraceptive services in most healthcare plans:

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said today that aside from houses of worship, all other religious agencies and organizations will be required to provide sterilization and contraceptive services, including abortifacients, in their employee healthcare plans; none will be allowed to charge co-pays or deductibles. The policy goes into effect in August 2013 for these entities; all others will be required to provide these services in August 2012.

Sebelius explained how her directive applies to non-church religious entities such as Catholic hospitals and universities: “Employers wishing to take advantage of the additional year must certify that they qualify for the delayed implementation. This additional year will allow these organizations more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule.” She also said, “I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services.”

The language is Orwellian. With stunning magnanimity, Sebelius tells Catholic non-profits that they can take advantage of their one-year reprieve as long as they seek the blessings of the federal government. If they pass muster with the bureaucrats, then they have time to figure out how they can prostitute their religiously ground convictions, or prepare for bankruptcy. To top things off, after shoving the radical secular agenda down the throat of Catholics—and other people of faith who share their concerns—Sebelius congratulates the Obama administration for striking a “balance” between religious liberty and Obamacare. But, of course, no balance was struck: the edict grants nothing to those who believe in religious liberty, and she knows it.

That this dictatorial edict is being announced in an election year indicates both contempt for the First Amendment and plain stupidity.

http://www.catholicleague.org/obama%e2%80%99s-contempt-for-religious-liberty/

Obama Administration Refuses to Change Abortion-Drug Mandate

Administration delays inevitable judgment day
For Immediate Release: January 20, 2012

Today, according to press reports, the Obama administration refused to change a controversial rule that would require religious institutions, in violation of their conscience, to pay for contraceptive drugs—including those that could cause an abortion. Instead, the administration merely delayed the effective date of the rule by one year.

The rule is currently subject to two lawsuits filed by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty—one on behalf of Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, and one on behalf of Colorado Christian University.

“This is a shameless attempt to kick the can down the road in an election year,” says Hannah Smith, Senior Legal Counsel for The Becket Fund. “Religious colleges, universities, and hospitals will never pay for abortion drugs in violation of their religious beliefs–this year or any other year. The right of conscience has no expiration date.”

The announcement comes just one week after the Supreme Court’s decision in EEOC v. Hosanna-Tabor, a landmark case involving the right of churches to select their religious leaders. In that case, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the Obama administration’s “extreme” position that would have allowed the government to decide whom churches could have as a minister. The Becket Fund also represented the church in that U.S. Supreme Court case.

“The administration has seen the writing on the wall. They know that this mandate cannot survive constitutional scrutiny any more than their ‘extreme’ position in Hosanna-Tabor did. So the administration is trying to delay the inevitable judgment day,” added Smith.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. The Becket Fund has a 17-year history of defending religious liberty for people of all faiths. Its attorneys are recognized as experts in the field of church-state law.

http://www.becketfund.org/obama-administration-refuses-to-change-abortion-drug-mandate/

Homily by Fr. Altier! ~ PRO-LIFE ~ WE ARE CALLED TO BE A PEOPLE OF LIFE! ~ VOTE FOR LIFE! ~ BE A VOICE FOR LIFE!

2012-01-21T19:02:00.012-06:00

Let Us Be a People of LIFE!

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: 22 January 2006

Reading I (Jonah 3:1-5, 10)
Reading II (1 Corinthians 7:29-31)
Gospel (St. Mark 1:14-20)

In the Gospel reading today, we hear about the beginning of Our Lord’s public ministry. The very first thing He preached to the people was the message: Repent, and believe in the Gospel because the kingdom of God is at hand. When we look at that point of repentance, we can see what follows from it. In the first reading today, for instance, we hear about Jonah going into the city of Nineveh and preaching to the people. When the people heard the message of Jonah, they believed. They turned their lives around, they called a fast, they put on sackcloth, and they repented of their sins. Because of their repentance, God did not carry out the destruction of the city which He had threatened.

Saint Paul tells us in the second reading today that the world as we know it is passing away; and thanks be to God, I might add. But regardless of that, we need to be able to look at the necessity of repentance, because repentance can mitigate the chastisement that is to come. And why do we need to repent? All we need to do is think about the tragic anniversary that we observe today, the most horrific decision the United States Supreme Court ever made, in 1973, to allow babies in the womb to be killed. Since then, 47 million American citizens have been surgically aborted. Since 1980 (that is, in the last 25 years), throughout the world 1 billion children have been aborted. One billion in the last 25 years. If we think the tsunami that hit over in the Indian Ocean last Christmas was pretty bad, think of what the blood of a billion babies is going to be. Think of the tidal wave of blood that has been shed upon this earth, and think all the way back into the Book of Genesis when Cain killed his brother Abel. God spoke to Cain and said, Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the earth. The unjust taking of innocent life is one of the four sins that cries out to heaven for vengeance, and the blood of these babies must be atoned.

Even though the vast majority of Americans are opposed to abortion, that seems to mean nothing. Objective truth seems to mean nothing. One of the hopeful things, at least, that we can look at is that the vast majority of college-age students are pro-life. In a recent CBS poll, 55% of Americans said they opposed abortion. Then beyond that, another 17% said they thought abortion should only be allowed in very specific cases, which means that 70% or so of American people are opposed to more than 98% of all the abortions that go on in the United States right now.

But things are even worse. In America, even though we are still surgically aborting 1.3 million babies a year (that, of course, does not include the contraceptive abortions), we are not the worst. The average woman in Russia right now has had 8 abortions – average. In the Low Countries, they are aborting approximately 50% of all their babies. Throughout the world right now, 1 out of every 3 pregnancies ends in abortion – 1 out of every 3 worldwide. In some countries, for instance, China and India, they have decided that boys are far more important than girls. After all, the way they would look at it, the boy maintains the family name; in those countries, when a girl gets married, she is owned by her husband’s family or becomes part of his family; the boy receives the inheritance; and, in China, they have determined that the boys would be able to do more physical labor than the girls. Therefore, they do not want girls and they kill them purposefully so that they can have boys, because in China they have a one-child policy. You can only have one baby, and if a woman is pregnant with her second baby, they will forcibly abort the baby; they will force the mother to kill the child. Oftentimes in China, if the first child born is a girl, they will kill her because they want a boy. So right now in China there are 25 million males of marriageable age with no girls to marry. And because of that situation, what is happening is the girls have become an object. For the few girls there are, there are many young men who want to marry them, and the jealousy factor that gets involved has turned out in many cases to be a situation where “If I can’t marry this woman, nobody will” and they kill the woman; they murder her so that nobody can marry her. So even the few girls who have made it to marriageable age, a lot of them are being exterminated because some jealous male was not able to marry her. In India right now, we are having the exact same problem. They are aborting the girls for the same reasons I mentioned earlier. Right now, for every 1,000 boys there are approximately 800 girls being born. This has been going on now for the last several years. Consequently, in India we are going to have the same problem coming up in a few years as we are having in China: many boys, few girls.

Just two weeks ago, the European Union decided that the right of a woman to kill her baby in the womb is more important than the right of a doctor to say that he will not do it. And so the forty nations that comprise the European Union have decreed that it is an international right – imagine that! – for a woman to have an abortion, and a doctor has no right to make a conscientious objection, even if the doctor is Catholic. The only exception to that rule is if the doctor will take the woman to another doctor and guarantee that the other doctor will abort the baby. Otherwise, the right to have an abortion in the European Union overrides the doctor’s right to say that he has a conscientious objection to killing babies. This is what is going on in our world today.

All we have to do is look at the present Supreme Court hearings that have been going on over the last few weeks. It does not have anything at all to do with whether a judge knows much about the law; it does not matter what he knows about the Constitution; it is a question of: “Where do you stand on certain political agenda issues, primarily abortion?” And isn’t it interesting that even though these politicians, who over the last number of years have constantly beat the same drum saying, “My constituents are pro-abortion, therefore I have to vote pro-abortion,” now we have 70% of the American population saying they are pro-life, and the politicians continue to beat the pro-abortion drum. They can no longer blame it upon their constituents because their younger constituents realize that one-fifth of their classmates have been killed.

So we do indeed have much to repent of. But at the same time, we have to understand the mercy of God. We are not going to escape entirely what is coming. Look back, again, into the ancient world and you will find that God tells the Israelite people that the very reason He sent them into the Promised Land to exterminate the peoples who were there was because they killed their babies and because they worshipped idols. What do we have going on in the world today? The people of Nineveh at least believed because they had some belief in God. We live in a pagan society now. The worship of idols has become rampant and the offering of babies is happening on a daily basis. These are sins God cannot tolerate.

If we look into our own hearts, we realize that all of us, from one degree to another, are also responsible for the mess in the world. We have all sinned. But God’s mercy is far greater than our sinfulness; and if we are willing to repent, God, Who is faithful and Who is merciful, will forgive our sins. It does not matter what the sin happens to be. Perhaps there has been an abortion. Perhaps you have been involved in contraception or sterilization or any other mortal sin you can think of. God’s mercy is infinitely greater than our sin. No matter how horrible the sin might be, if we are willing to get down on our knees before the priest of Jesus Christ and humbly confess our sins, they will be forgiven. God will remove those sins from our souls. And if we are willing, then, to learn the lesson from the people of Nineveh, to truly repent and be willing to do penance, we can mitigate whatever is going to befall this world.

God will take the blood of all of those babies and He will make something great, as only God can, because the old saying is The blood of martyrs is the seedbed of faith. There is no blood more innocent than that of a child in the womb; therefore, there is no blood that is going to be more powerful than that of a child from the womb. And we have now spilled upon this earth the blood of over 1 billion babies. That is a powerful force crying out to heaven, and God will hear the cries of those babies. But God will also hear the cries of the mothers. We recall when we think about the Holy Innocents, the Gospel writer Matthew tells us that that was to fulfill what was said: Rachel wailing for her children because they are no more. There is not a heart of a woman who has aborted a baby that does not cry out in pain. As much as they might want to try to hide it, they cannot. The reality is there. And if any woman will turn to God and allow those cries to be cries of repentance directed to Almighty God, those will be powerful prayers. So instead of turning upon ourselves, which is what this world tells us to do, we need to turn to God and we need to hear the words of Jesus Christ: Repent, and believe in the Gospel because the kingdom of God is at hand.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Rick Santorum ~ He Defends Life!

LIFE ~ A BEAUTIFUL GIFT ~ TO BE LIVED & CHERISHED!

CHERISH ALL LIFE ~ BORN & UNBORN ~ YOUNG & OLD!

Happy Birthday, Dear Saint Philomena! ~

2012-01-10T09:12:00.005-06:00

The Rosary in Honor of Saint Philomena

The rosary also known as the chaplet or Little Crown of Saint Philomena is made up of red beads to signify her martyrdom and white beads; a token of her virginity and purity.

This Rosary is one of the simplest ways of praying to the Saint.

First the creed is recited on the Crucifix or medal of St Philomena; to ask for the gift of faith.

Then three Our Fathers on each of the white beads; to thank the Blessed Trinity for the gifts given to the Holy Virgin, for in whose honor, laid down her life.

The red beads are thirteen in number and signify the 13 years our martyr lived on earth, and this prayer is recited on each bead:

Hail, O Holy Saint Philomena, my dear patroness. As my advocate with thy Divine Spouse, intercede for me now and at the hour of my death.

Saint Philomena, beloved daughter of Jesus and of Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen.

Conclude with…

Hail, O Illustrious Saint Philomena, who so courageously shed thy blood for Christ, I bless the Lord for all the graces He has bestowed upon thee, during thy life, especially at thy death, I praise and glorify Him for the honor and power with which He has crowned thee, and I beg thee to obtain for me from God the graces I ask through thy intercession. Amen.

Santa Filomena
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,
Our hearts, in glad surprise,
To higher levels rise.

The tidal wave of deeper souls
Into our inmost being rolls,
And lifts us unawares
Out of all meaner cares.

Honor to those whose words or deeds
Thus help us in our daily needs,
And by their overflow
Raise us from what is low!

Thus thought I, as by night I read
Of the great army of the dead,
The trenches cold and damp,
The starved and frozen camp,--

The wounded from the battle-plain,
In dreary hospitals of pain,
The cheerless corridors,
The cold and stony floors.

Lo! in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room.

And slow, as in a dream of bliss,
The speechless sufferer turns to kiss
Her shadow, as it falls
Upon the darkening walls.

As if a door in heaven should be
Opened and then closed suddenly,
The vision came and went,
The light shone and was spent.

On England's annals, through the long
Hereafter of her speech and song,
That light its rays shall cast
From portals of the past.

A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood.

Nor even shall be wanting here
The palm, the lily, and the spear,
The symbols that of yore
Saint Filomena bore.

Santa Filomena was first published in The Atlantic Monthly magazine in the very first issue, November 1857

Celebrate the Ephiphany of Our Dear Lord, Jesus ~ Homily by Fr. Robert Altier!

2012-01-07T18:40:00.011-06:00

Collect for the Epiphany
O God
Who on this day
through the guidance of a star
didst manifest
Thine Only-Begotten Son to the Gentiles;
mercifully grant
that we who know Thee now by faith,
may one day be brought
to the contemplation of the beauty of Thy majesty.
Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
~ Benedictine Monastic Diurnal

Epiphany of the Lord

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Sunday ~ 8 January 2006

Reading I (Isaiah 60:1-6)
Reading II (Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6)
Gospel (St. Matthew 2:1-12)

The feast we celebrate today of the Epiphany was one of the most important feast days in the ancient Church year. The reason for that is one that we tend to take for granted. It is made very clear in the second reading today, that is, the mystery has been revealed. And the mystery that was revealed was demonstrated in a very particular way through the feast we celebrate today, that is, the Gentiles are now coheirs with the Jews, members of the same body, they are heirs of eternal life, and they are brought into one with Jesus Christ. Saint Paul tells us this is something that was made known to him by a revelation.

For the Jewish people, of course, we understand that they were the chosen people of God, and they understood fully well that they were the means to salvation. But there were also a number of prophetic statements of the Old Testament talking about the fact that there would be a new covenant and that the Gentiles would become one with the Jews. More than likely, the average Jewish person reading this would have assumed that meant the Gentiles would become Jewish. But, in fact, we can look at it now in Christ and see that is not what it meant at all; there was something entirely new. This is precisely what Our Lord talks about when He says, for instance: No one takes a new piece of cloth and sews it on to an old coat, and, No one puts new wine into old wine skins. In fact, it is something that must be entirely different, something new. It builds upon what was there of old because God’s truth does not change, but it fulfills everything of old.

So what Saint Paul and the other apostles would not realize for many years to come was revealed in a very profound way in Our Lord’s birth, that here we have the pagan nations, the Gentiles (the word Gentile, by the way, means “nation,” so it is every nation that is not Israel; anyone who was not Jewish was considered a Gentile; it is all the people of the nations), the representatives of various nations coming to give homage to Christ. In fact, the word in the Gospel that is translated as homage is actually the word worship in Greek. They worshipped Him. We are told in the Gospel that they prostrated themselves and they worshipped Him.

Now contrast that with what we see in the Gospel reading about Jerusalem. We are told that King Herod and all Jerusalem with him were afraid. They trembled at the news that the Messiah was born. Why would that happen? What we celebrate today goes rather contrary to what we heard in the first reading. We heard: Darkness covers the earth and thick clouds the peoples; but upon you, Jerusalem, the Lord will dawn and in you His radiance will be revealed. The people of Jerusalem were the ones who were to be enlightened. They had the truth. They had the prophets. They had the Scriptures and everything that was contained within. But what happened in ancient Jerusalem is tragically similar to what is happening throughout the world right now, but we just have to look around our own backyard here, and we have to say that the darkness covers and the thick clouds have enveloped the people. Just ask yourself right now: If Jesus were to be born into our world, not coming in glory again, but what if He were to be born into our world today, to come in a very hidden form? How many people do you know in your neighborhood, in your office, even perhaps in your own home, who would rejoice that the Light has come into the darkness? The tragedy is people of our day have chosen the darkness. They like it because evil deeds are done in darkness, but those that are good are brought into the light. So in our world filled with corruption, selfishness, and all kinds of unfortunate things, people just like of old have chosen the darkness over the light. And I do not think it takes a genius to be able to recognize that it is getting darker. But that is okay because the darker something is, the brighter the light shines within it.

Now if people like it dark, they do not want the light to shine, which is why they are going to give you all kinds of trouble if you are doing what Christ told you to do, that is, to be the light of the world, to go out into the darkness and bring the light of Christ into the world. Because unlike what happened two thousand years ago, where Our Lord was born in human form and was revealed to the nations through a star, today He wants to be revealed through us. He wants us to be like that guiding star to bring people to Him, to point the way beyond ourselves to Christ Himself. That is the task that is given to each and every one of us.

We can understand, perhaps, a little bit of the reaction of the people of Jerusalem. For many of us, perhaps the thought of going out into the world and bringing Christ into the world, living our faith out in this world of darkness, being truly Catholic in this neopagan society in which we live, brings a little bit of trembling into our heart. The trembling is in people who claim that they know and love Jesus. What about people who did not know and love Him? They were awaiting His arrival, but they did not know Him yet; consequently, they were not able to love Him. They were not sure what was going to happen to their way of life and they were afraid.

We know what is supposed to happen to our way of life. We are supposed to overcome sin and we are to live as children of the light. We are to live holy lives. Still, we tremble at the thought of having to change our lives in order to live them for Christ. How many of us have chosen to live like the pagans around us, just so that we fit in? Isn’t it interesting that the people of the promise trembled in fear when they heard about the Messiah being born? But the pagans came and prostrated themselves and worshipped Him. What about us? Are we willing to bow down before Him, not just on Sunday morning, not just when we receive Holy Communion, but are we willing to live our lives that way? Are we truly willing to live our lives for Christ?

The word epiphany means a “manifestation.” Our Lord has made Himself manifest to the nations, and He has made Himself manifest to each and every one of us. There is not one single person who can say that Our Lord has not made Himself clear. I am not saying that He has somehow appeared in some extraordinary form, because in most of us, thanks be to God, that has not happened – and do not pray that it does. But we know Him. He is right here in the Blessed Sacrament, and He has made Himself manifest to us. We have the fullness of truth regarding Christ.

In the ancient world, there were actually three feasts that were celebrated today – the Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord, and the Wedding Feast at Cana – because these were three things that manifested the true divinity of Christ. The pagans recognized Who He was and bowed down and worshipped Him; the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and the voice of the Father was heard saying, You are My beloved Son, on you My favor rests; and in the wedding at Cana, the first of His miracles where His apostles began to believe in Him and He manifested Himself at the beginning of His public life.

Now we have the fullness of the Gospel; we have the fullness of truth given to us. The manifestation of Christ is truly present within the hearts and souls of every single one of us. If that is the case, then we have to ask ourselves: Is Christ being manifest now through us? He has been made manifest to us, is He being made manifest through us to others? That is what He is looking for. When Our Lord was brought to the temple by His mother, Simeon took Him in his arms and proclaimed that He is the light to the nations and that through Him we have the revelation of God. What Simeon recognized in the humanity of Christ was His divinity shining through. Our Lord desires that we would do the same, that we will recognize Him hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, but also hidden within each one of us. If we are in the state of grace, remember that the Holy Trinity dwells within. All three persons of God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – dwell inside of each one of us as in a temple. And He desires that we would bring Him out into the world and make Him manifest, a light of revelation to the nations.

Again, if you think about it and you look at yourself and think, “Well, I’m really not shining too terribly brightly for the Lord,” then rejoice all the more that the darkness is becoming so much worse, because even the dimmest bulb shines rather brightly in great darkness. But we need to make sure we continue to try to increase the brightness that is there, that we develop the holiness and the prayer life, that we seek true union with Christ. The times in which we are living should certainly be clear to anyone of faith. They are extraordinary times, certainly times of extraordinary evil – never in the history of the world has there been such an evil day. If you think about that from past events, the Flood came at the time of Noah because of the evil that was present in the world. Back in the late 1950’s, Pope Pius XII said that we live in the most sinful society that history has ever known. That was in the 1950’s. And so if that is the case, things are far worse now. We need to make sure we are living our faith. We need to make sure we are not giving way to the darkness to become like everyone else. We need to make sure we are not compromising our commitment to Jesus Christ, because in the midst of such an evil time we know there are going to be extraordinary things that are going to be happening, and each and every one of us needs to be prepared for that. We know not the day nor the hour, and it does not matter when. All that matters is that we are found watching and ready.

We need to learn from these three truly Wise Men of old. They watched in the darkness for a bright star. In the darkness of this world, we need to keep our eyes on He Who is the Light of the world. And from His light, we need to be enlightened so that we can go out into the darkness and the light of faith will brighten the path upon which we are to walk. We are to recognize Christ in the midst of this darkness, and we are to prostrate ourselves before Him and we are to worship Him. There is no need for fear. There is no need for trembling. But rather, as is said of the ancient Jerusalem so it is said of the New Jerusalem: You will be radiant at what you see. That is what Jesus wants from us: to see His extreme and ultimate radiance, the light of God, the light of truth, the light of love shining forth from the Blessed Sacrament and shining forth from within us, that we too will be radiant, that we too will be filled with His grace so we will bring God, Who is truth and Who is love, out into the world of darkness, of hatred, and of lies; and that the mystery that was revealed and is celebrated today will continue to be revealed and celebrated; that even those who have chosen to live a pagan life in this world will be able to see the true light and they will come to Jesus Christ, and they too will prostrate themselves and worship Him.

But before that happens, it needs to happen in us. We rejoice when there are conversions. We rejoice when people see the light. But how often we are put to shame by the way these people live their lives. They have seen the truth and they have changed their lives to conform to the truth, whereas so many of us continue to try to compromise the truth, to be mediocre Catholics, and to find a way to let the darkness attempt to cover the light. We cannot do that any longer. The Wise Men were smart enough to look to the light in the darkness. We live in a day where darkness covers the earth and thick clouds cover the people, but there is a brilliant star that shines in the darkness. If we have any wisdom about us at all, we should be able to see that star – Who is Jesus Christ – shining in the darkness and to follow that star, to keep our eyes fixed upon it until we find Him, we unite ourselves with Him, and we bow down before Him and worship Him.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Rosary Crusade ~ Rick Santorum ~ 2012 President!

2012-01-02T12:10:00.011-06:00

Rosary Crusade ~ Rick Santorum ~ 2012 President

Join me in praying the Rosary with the special intention of Rick Santorum becoming the next President of the United States of America… Why Rick you ask? He is the Presidential Candidate that honors God by living out fully the Commandments… Rick Santorum is Pro-Life, Pro-Family, & Pro-Marriage (as designed by God Almighty) – and yes, Rick Santorum wants to see America once again as the great Nation she was established to be… one with true Freedom and true Honor. Read about it for yourself ...HERE!

Sweet Virgin Mary, O Holy Mother of God,
Pray for us!

How to Pray the Rosary

The Mysteries...

Joyful Mysteries: The Annunciation, The Visitation, The Nativity, The Presentation & The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple

Sorrowful Mysteries: The Agony in the Garden, The Scourging at the Pillar, The Crowing with Thorns, The Carrying of The Cross & The Crucifixion

Glorious Mysteries: The Resurrection, The Ascension, The Descent of the Most Holy Spirit, The Assumption & The Coronation

Luminous Mysteries: The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordon, The Wedding Feast at Cana, The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, The Transfiguration of Jesus & The Institution of the Most Holy Eucharist

The Sign of the Cross:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Apostles Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.

The Our Father:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name: Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread: and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The Hail Mary: (3x ~ for faith, hope, & charity)
Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The Glory Be to the Father:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

*Now the first Mystery of the Rosary + the Our Father (1x) + the Hail Mary (10x) + and then the Fatima Prayer.* Repeat this pattern for each of the five Mysteries of the Rosary, all the while meditating on the particular Mystery of the Rosary*

The Fatima Prayer:
O my Jesus, forgive our sins; save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.

*We conclude with the following prayers.*

Hail Holy Queen:
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley, of tears. Turn, then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus; O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:
O God, whose only begotten Son, by His life, death, and resurrection has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating upon these mysteries in the most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain, and obtain what they promise: through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saint Michael Prayer:
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in our day of battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through this world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

The Memorare:
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly to you O Virgin of virgins, my mother. To you I come; before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.

Glory Be to the Father (3x) For Our Dear Pope!

Christmas Homily by Fr. Robert Altier ~ What Child is This... It is Christ the King... Come Let Us Praise HIM!

2011-12-24T09:45:00.005-06:00

Unto Us, a Child is Born...

Christ the New Born King!

Christmas Day
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Sunday ~ 25 December 2005

Reading I (Isaiah 62:11-12)
Reading II (Titus 3:4-7)
Gospel (St. Luke 2:15-20)

Today we celebrate what on the natural level is always one of the most joyous events: the birth of a baby. There is always great joy when a baby is born, but the baby who is born today brings even greater joy. As we heard in the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the Lord proclaims to the ends of the earth that the Savior comes. And so it is not just a matter that a particular couple had a baby and their friends and family rejoice with them, but rather in this situation the whole world rejoices because today, as Saint Paul made clear in the second reading, the kindness and the generous love of God have appeared. Even prior to that, in the second chapter of his Letter to Titus, Saint Paul says that the grace of God has appeared offering salvation to all men.

Now you ponder just those points: the grace of God and the kindness and the generous love of God have appeared. That is what we have in this little baby. Saint Paul says to the Philippians that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. So the miracle of what we celebrate today is God Who is born as a human baby. This is something which is completely beyond anything that our minds can even begin to grasp. This child on one level is just like any other baby who is born–tiny, innocent, vulnerable, dependent upon his mother, all of the things that we could say about a baby–and yet at the same time this child is unlike any other who has ever been born, not only because this child is God, but every single baby who is conceived is conceived only by the will of his parents; this child is conceived because He willed it. It is the parents who unite together to bring forth a child under normal circumstances. In this case, the child created His mother in order that He could be created in her. He is born because He chose to be born. Obviously, none of us can do such a thing because none of us existed before we began in our mother’s womb. But when the human nature of Jesus Christ began to live within the womb of His mother, His divine nature had already existed from all eternity.

The fact that God would become one of us is the most astounding thing that we can even imagine. Yet we have to ask the question of why. Perhaps we can grasp the idea that God wanted to become man in order to save us from our sins, but even so, the question is: Why would He become a baby? God created Adam and Eve as adults; He could have just done the same Himself. But we know, as Saint Paul would tell the Galatians, that in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to deliver from the law those who were subjected to it. Well, Saint Paul then also tells us that the law brings death. So Jesus is born subject to the law, to the law of death. It is the very reason why He chose to come into the world: to die.

But He came as a baby, I think, for a couple of reasons; number one, because a baby is about life. When you see a newborn baby, immediately the hope that humanity is going to continue is present in that child. Immediately, when you see a newborn baby, your heart is wide open with love and with joy. Our Lord comes into this world subject to death in order to teach us that He came for life, that He came to give us life and to give it to us abundantly. In fact, as Saint Paul told us in the second reading today, by the grace of God we have become heirs of eternal life. God chose to take on our temporal life so that we could have eternal life. He chose to be subject to death so that we could have life. He chose to become man so that we could become God.

If you ponder the idea that the one title Jesus gave Himself and called Himself over and over is simply “Son of Man,” the question is why. Why would He call Himself the Son of Man? He is the Son of God from all eternity. Why draw attention to the fact that He is the Son of Man when by nature He is the Son of God? First of all, it is because we would have to have complete faith that He is God; but secondly, He calls attention to that which He was not and has now become. If that is the case, if He became the Son of Man it was so we could become the sons and daughters of God, and to draw attention to that which we were not. By nature we are human, but by God’s grace we have become children of God.

Again, go back to that point which we heard already from Saint Paul’s Letter to Titus: The grace of God has appeared. The grace of God is Jesus Christ. His grace is His very life. The grace of God has appeared; this is something that cannot happen by nature. How can your life appear someplace? It cannot. Your life is not visible. But the grace of God has appeared in the person of Jesus Christ, and it is by the grace of God that we become children of God and heirs of eternal life.

Now if you think about it again in this exchange, Scripture tells us with regard to the One Whom God calls His own Son, that He will make Him the heir and give Him as His inheritance all the nations. So Jesus, He Who created all of the nations, comes into this world and becomes one of us, and His inheritance has to do with this world–all of the people in this world. In exchange, what is our inheritance? It is God; it is heaven; it is eternal life. And so He Who was not of this world becomes of this world in order to inherit every soul who would inhabit this world, so that those who are of this world would be able to become other-worldly, so that our inheritance will be heaven and will be God Himself.

He comes to us as a baby to show us life. He comes in a way that we can see and that we can understand the natural life in order to point beyond it, because the child upon whom we gaze in the manger, the child whose humanness we can see is God. If the grace of God has appeared, it is so that through the appearance of Jesus Christ in human form we would be able to look beyond to see the reality of what lies underneath. Only with the eyes of faith can we see that.

The other reason I think He came as a baby is to teach us what we are to be. Jesus tells us that we are to be as innocent as doves, and yet as clever as serpents. What is a baby? Innocent. Pure. Gentle. Vulnerable. Dependent. Trusting. The list could go on and on. And what does He want from us? To be exactly that: to have the innocence and the trust and the dependence upon God that a baby has upon his mother. That is what He wants from us. He took on our nature so that we could take on His. We could say in a way that He was transformed to become one of us so that we would be transformed to become Him. As Saint Paul points out in the second reading, it is through Baptism that we have become members of Christ and heirs to eternal life. He became one of us so that we literally could become a member of Himself, to be a member of Jesus Christ, to share His life, to share His nature.

And so today, as we celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord, we need to think very deeply about the joy that comes with the birth of a baby, and we need to think about the peace that is there. Mary, we are told, held all of these things in her heart; she pondered them. Just think what a mother does with a baby. She sets the baby on her lap and she just simply gazes at the child, looks deeply into the eyes of the baby if the baby is awake; and even if the baby is asleep, the mother just stares as if to look beyond what is physical into the very depths of the being of that child. That is what Jesus asks of us today, to have the kind of joy and the kind of peace that is experienced by a mother in union with her child, the kind of innocence that is present, and to be able to look beyond what is seen into the very depths of this Child, Who looks beyond what is seen in us to the very depths of our being. And what is it that we do with a baby? We love the baby. How could you not love a baby?

That is all Jesus wants from us. He wants us to come near to Him. He wants us to let down our guard just like we do with a baby, and He wants us to love Him. But the difference with this child as opposed to any other baby is that under normal circumstances a baby cannot love in return–but this baby is Love itself. He loves us first so that we can love Him. That is what He is wanting. That is what He is waiting for. He shows Himself to us in a way that we can be vulnerable. That is what we do with babies because we know a baby is not going to hurt us. We know that a baby is not going to violate us, so we can let our guard down and we can make funny noises and funny faces and we can just be as innocent as can be in the presence of a baby. Do not put up any pretenses with Jesus. He looks beyond what you can see anyway, and He knows what is in your heart. Let the guard down. Come to Him in innocence, in gentleness, in trust, in dependence upon Him. Be filled with the joy and the peace of this child. Love Him, and allow yourself to be loved by Him. Then you too will be able to hold all of these things in your heart and ponder them, to ponder the great mystery of God made man, born for us as a human baby of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Rick Santorum ~ Stands Up for the Teachings of Christ & Holy Mother Church!

2011-12-21T11:51:00.012-06:00

Rick Santorum for President ... check out his website Here!

Support the teachings of Christ and His Church ~ Support people who honor God with their actions... if everyone who says they are a Christian, would vote for candidates who live out their faith - to the fullest - then our country would once again be a Great Nation...

One Which Knows the value and dignity of human persons ~ born and not yet born ~ created and blessed by God, to know Him - to Love Him and to serve Him.

One Which Knows the value and the dignity of holy matrimony ~ created and blessed by God, for the good of each other and all of mankind.

Rick Santorum ~ He's Got My VOTE!

Our Babies Need Our Help ~ Support National Right To Life ~ Important New Campaign

2011-12-02T07:56:00.005-06:00

We must do our part to end the Evil of Abortion ~ Our babies are being Murdered, Our Mothers and Fathers are being Hurt, Our Families are being Destroyed!

Pray, Work, & Financially Support...do all that you can - in the Fight for LIFE!

In the last week, I've shared with you information about the important campaign we're conducting to let millions of Americans know the truth about unborn babies: that long before birth they can feel pain and that their lives should be protected so no baby ever has to suffer from such cruelty.

I mentioned that by the end of this week, we would have to finalize our budget and purchase of ads and other media to get the word out to millions of Americans during the period around January 22nd, when the anniversary of Roe v. Wade is in the news and the issue of abortion is on people's minds.

That makes the opportunity great, but unfortunately, we are still short of our goal.

If we meet our goal, we could potentially reach as many as 22 million Americans with the truth that unborn babies feel pain and deserve legal protection. I've been deeply touched by the response so far. I can see that some donors have stretched themselves with extra generous gifts to help us meet our goal and be a voice for babies who suffer the pain of abortion.

But we still need the help of more pro-lifers to make the campaign a rousing success and save every life we can. As we conclude the campaign this week, I want to ask each of you to please donate all you can, to forward this plea to your pro-life friends and to ask them to give, as well.

Next week, we will order as many ads and signs and other ways of communicating our message to America as funds allow. Lives will be saved and hearts will be changed by our campaign. But how much we can do depends on you.

Can you please help with a donation of $500 or $250 or $100 to give the lift we need to meet our campaign goal and reach 22 million Americans with the truth about fetal pain?

Every baby at risk of a being aborted should have every one of us standing with him or her to prevent the tragedy of their painful death. I'm offering a way we can all stand with the babies today and tomorrow as we wrap up our campaign.

For their sake, please help!

Thank you and may God bless you for caring for His most defenseless children,

Carol Tobias,
President
National Right to Life

PS: Can you please forward this to your friends with a request that they help, too?

National Right to Life
512 10th St. NW, Washington, DC 20004
202.626.8800 - http://www.nrlc.org/

Praise Him ~ Christ The King! ~ Seek His Will in All Things ~ Christ The King!

2011-11-20T08:34:00.008-06:00

Collect for the Solemnity of

Christ the King

Almighty and merciful God, you break the power of evil and make all things new in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe. May all in heaven and earth acclaim your glory and never cease to praise you. 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.

Feast of Christ the King

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
from: 24 November 2002

Reading I (Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17)
Reading II (1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28)
Gospel (St. Matthew 25:31-46)

In the readings today, we hear something that might sound a little bit startling to us, that is, as we celebrate this feast of Christ the King we hear readings about a shepherd. And so we ask ourselves, “What does being a shepherd, which is considered the most lowly task in the ancient world – the task for the person who is the least able to do anything else, totally unskilled and considered among the lowliest of all tasks – [have to do with] the feast of Christ the King?” Normally, as we think of the king, we think of the most exalted position in society: the one who is leading the nation, the one who sits upon the throne, the one who has the responsibility for all the nation and all that will be going on within.

Yet when we think about it, these two things really are the same; it is just a question of what title you want to give the individual. The purpose of the king is to lead the people who are entrusted to his care, to be able to provide the direction, to be able to be the center of unity, to be the one who is going to show the people the way, to make the determinations and the decisions, to let the people know (as a shepherd does his sheep) when it is time to move forward, to bring them to the green pastures, to bring them to the still waters. That is the task of a king.

And the Church wants us to understand very clearly, as we celebrate the kingship of Jesus Christ, that it is not celebrating the glory of Christ seated upon the throne next to His Father in Heaven. Rather, kingship in the Church is an office of service, and the service of Jesus Christ was to come into this world to live and to suffer and to die for us. He continues in His kingly office as He continues to mediate for us before the throne of His heavenly Father. And so it is the task of the shepherd, it is the task of leading each one of us to Heaven. He is the firstfruits, as Saint Paul told the Corinthians in the reading today, the firstfruits of the Resurrection; and each one of us who is going to rise from the dead is also part of that Resurrection. The question for us is, simply, are we going to rise to be with Christ, our Shepherd and King, or are we going to refuse our Shepherd and King and wander away from Him to decide that we have a different shepherd or that we, in fact, want to shepherd our own selves?

That is what the Lord talks about in the first reading today. He tells us through the prophet Ezekiel that He Himself is going to shepherd His sheep. And that is exactly what He does in His Son; it is God Himself who is our Shepherd, as we also hear, of course, in the twenty-third psalm: The Lord is my shepherd. But then we have to ask ourselves, “If the Lord is the shepherd, why in Ezekiel would He say that He will heal the wounded and bind up the weak, but He is going to destroy the sleek and the strong?” What shepherd is there who would take the best sheep that he had and destroy them while instead looking out for those who are weak, who are wounded? Naturally, in our humanness, we would think that the weak and the wounded are the ones we would destroy because they are the ones that are holding up the flock; we are not able to move along as quickly because we have these sheep that are limping along. We cannot go nearly as far because the weak ones are not able to handle it. But these strong ones, after all, at State Fair time those are the ones that would be entered in the fair as being the best sheep, the ones that might gain a blue ribbon because they are the best looking of all. Yet those are the ones that God says are going to be destroyed.

Why would a shepherd do such a thing as that? It is precisely because in a flock of sheep very often the ones that are sleek and strong are the ones that do not follow the shepherd. They are the ones who wander off. They are the ones who do it their own way. They are the ones who do not want to be among the flock. And worst of all, they are the ones who in doing these things lead other sheep astray because one of the things that is natural to sheep is that they follow. And so if you have a rebellious sheep, even though the sheep may be the best looking and the strongest in the entire flock, the fact is that if it is disobedient and rebellious it is going to lead many others astray. That is why it is going to be destroyed, because otherwise the sheep that are supposed to be heading for Heaven are going to turn and follow the wrong direction.

When we look at this we begin to understand something within our own selves: that it is precisely our weakness and our woundedness that is drawing us to Christ. It is precisely those areas where most of us get frustrated in our own lives that really wind up to be the greatest gift that God has given us. Think back in your life to how many times you have complained – or kicked or screamed or done even worse! – because God has allowed bad things to happen in your life. All the negative things that have occurred, how much we have despised those things and how angry we get at God because, after all, if He is supposed to be taking care of us, He would not allow these things to happen! If He loved us, after all, He would keep us from having to endure all of these painful and horrible things. And then when we look at the reading today, we see it is the weak and the broken that He is going to bind up, that He is going to heal. Those are the ones who draw very near to the Shepherd; they stay right next to Him. He picks them up and puts them on His shoulder or He sets the pace for the walking of the entire flock according to what the broken and the weak ones are able to handle.

The sleek and the strong, He lets them go their own way and He is going to destroy them because they have no part of the flock. They do not want to walk at the pace of the rest of the flock. They do not want to do what the Shepherd is asking them to do. When we are strong and sleek we do not think we need the Shepherd; we think that we can do things our own way. The King lays out for us what we are to do but we do not want to do it because we think we have a better way. We can see a better pasture. We think we have a different way that is going to lead us where we want to go, and that is the direction we take.

And so in order to bring us to the Resurrection, our Shepherd, our King leads us according to the same path that He Himself has taken, according to a path of suffering, according to a path of brokenness and of weakness, so that Saint Paul can say, “When I am weak then I am strong,” and, “God chooses the weak to shame the strong.” That is exactly the same pattern we see God telling us in Ezekiel. If we are strong and sleek, we have no part of Christ. Not because He does not want us to be apart of Him, but because we do not think we need Him, and, therefore, we do not want to be a part of Him. But when we are broken, when we are wounded, when we are weak, it is then that we recognize our dependence on the Shepherd, it is then that we hold very close to the throne of the King so we will be protected, it is then that we realize how much our Shepherd really does love us.

For all of us, when we are in the midst of our woundedness and our brokenness, of course, we do not see the love of God. But when we can look back over the course of our life and we see those times where we were hurting the worst, where we were wounded and broken, it is those times above all that we can see that the greatest graces were given, that we drew the closest to Christ, that we saw our dependence on Him more than ever before. And we can see in a totally paradoxical manner – according to our human ways of thinking – that that brokenness, that woundedness, that weakness is the greatest of all the gifts God has ever given us. That is what our Shepherd is doing.

It is when we are broken and wounded and weak that we learn compassion. Compassion, remember, means “to suffer with” and only people who have suffered are able to be compassionate. Just look around our world: When you suffer, the only ones who are going to stay with you are the ones who have suffered. You have lots of fair-weather friends, who as long as it is win or tie they are going to be with you, but if it does not look like you are winning, if it looks like you are being crushed in your suffering, they walk away. They can handle your suffering for a day or two: “As long as it’s one of those ‘down days’, well, that’s okay. Just don’t call me that day.” But if you are going into a slump – you are down in the valley and it is painful and it is extended – they all walk away. They do not want to be with you in your suffering because they do not know how to suffer. Americans shun the suffering and we do not want to have anything to do with it. But our Shepherd is going to lead us through the suffering, through the Cross to the Resurrection where He is the firstfruits and all of us are to follow.

It is when we understand and learn the compassion that can come only through suffering that we are going to receive the blessing the Lord tells us because He says His sheep are the ones who fed the hungry, who gave drink to the thirsty, who clothed the naked, who visited the sick and the imprisoned, and in doing so they did the same for the King, for their Shepherd, because the Shepherd, in His compassion, binds up the wounded, heals those that are broken, and draws the weak next to Himself. When we are willing to do that with Him because we have suffered with Him and therefore we are willing to reach out to those who, like us, are weak and wounded and broken, then we are being one with our Shepherd. We are not only drawing near to Him but we are drawing others near to Him. We are being humble, docile, and obedient sheep who recognize that we need a shepherd and that our task is also to bring others to the Good Shepherd. We realize that we ourselves are not the shepherd to the sheep, but only Jesus is; and that when we know our Shepherd, we will bring others to Him.

If we are sleek and strong, if we do it ourselves and we lead others astray, we will not be there for those who are suffering, we are not going to reach out to the broken and the weak, we are not going to clothe the naked and feed the hungry and visit the imprisoned because they are a nuisance and they require something of us. We are not going to be able to do what we want if we have to take care of those people. So we go our own way. We do not draw near to our Shepherd and we do not do what He did. And we refuse to be compassionate because we cannot – because we refuse to suffer with the Lord.

If we refuse His Passion then we refuse His Cross and we refuse His Resurrection. But if we accept the path that our Shepherd leads us upon and we endure the Passion and the Cross then with Him we will be united in His Resurrection, we will be seated next to Him upon a glorious throne, and we will enter the kingdom of our heavenly Father. That is what our Shepherd is offering us. He is offering us the greenest pasture. He is offering us the most still and pure water. But we will only find it if we are united with Him in His suffering. Our Shepherd will destroy the sleek and the strong because they do not think they need a shepherd. But if instead of destroying us He wounds us or allows us to be wounded, it is because He loves us – not because He hates us; it is because He is trying to draw us close to Himself and through us to draw others close to Himself. In our suffering, we are united to Him and to His suffering. In our suffering, we learn compassion, we learn true charity, and we learn our need for our Shepherd and our dependence upon Him. In our suffering, we are united to Christ so that we can be united with Him in His Resurrection and that with Him we will suffer in this life and be glorified with Him and be seated next to Him on His glorious throne.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Read previous Homily of the Feast of Christ the King, by Fr. Altier!

The Communion of Saints ~ Let Us Strive to Imitate Them ~ Homily by Fr. Altier

2011-11-01T08:40:00.007-05:00

The Communion of Saints

Feast of All Saints

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier

from ~ Tuesday: 1 November 2005

Reading I (Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14)
Reading II (1 John 3:1-3)
Gospel (St. Matthew 5:1-12a)

Today as we celebrate this glorious Feast of All Saints, we are reminded that one does not have to be among the most extraordinary of human beings who have ever walked the face of the earth, but that holiness is attainable by each and every one of us, and that each and every one of us has everything we need to be able to get to heaven. Now the question, of course, is whether we are cooperating with the grace of God so that we can live holy lives. Most of us, I suspect–hopefully, all of us–would certainly say that we want to go to heaven, but do we want to do what is necessary to get there? That is the real question we have to ask. As we consider this feast, from the greatest being Our Blessed Lady, all the way down to the least, the little babies who are destroyed through contraception, through abortion, and through all of the other unfortunate things that medical people are doing with little embryos these days, all of these souls that have entered into glory are praying for us. They are praying that we too are going to choose Christ, not in a generic way but in a very specific way: to do His Will.

When we think about all of the things that the saints have done, we then need to go to prayer and ask the Lord: What is it that You want of me? Now one thing that we can all know is that God wants obedience to the duties of our state in life; that is always a given. But even beyond that, what is it that He is asking for? We need to understand that with the condition in the world today as it is, and with the things that are to come very soon, the world today needs saints more than it ever has before. And if where sin abounds grace abounds all the more, and if God raises up His saints where He needs them the most, then the principle is a very simple one: We are going to see in our day the greatest saints that have ever lived. These people have not yet come to the fore. They will come to the fore as soon as it is time, and you could be one of them. There is no reason in the world why you cannot be. The question is whether we are willing to be.

What does it require to be one of these great saints? It simply requires a great love for God; that is all. Now that does not mean a gushy emotionalism when we think about God, but rather what it means is spending time in prayer seeking the Will of God and trying with all our might to carry it out. Knowing that we cannot do it ourselves, we look to God for the grace to do it. It is just that simple. It does not require doing huge extraordinary things. As Saint Therese made very clear, it means doing the ordinary things with extraordinary love. The one who loves the most is the greatest saint. It is just that simple.

Are we willing to do what God needs? We do not need to start all kinds of new social programs and all sorts of things that are already out there, causing us to run here and there; there are plenty of those already there. What we need are people who are willing to pray. We need people who are willing to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament because absolutely nothing–ZERO–will be accomplished without prayer. Nothing. You can spin your wheels all day long and rev your engine; it will sound great and it will look impressive but nothing will happen unless we are praying. All the things that are already in place, they are only going to succeed if people are praying. That is what we need more than anything right now. We need people who will pray.

So what do we need to do to become a great saint? We need to pray. We need to love God. We need to spend the time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It is a very simple proposition. The more time you spend with Him, the more obedient you are going to be to the duties of your state in life. If you spend the time in prayer, you will be a better husband or wife; you will do better at your job; whatever it is that God is calling you to be, you will do in a way that is much better than you have ever done before because you are united with Jesus in prayer. Beyond that you will find yourself growing in virtue (your family will probably be much appreciative!), more patient, more charitable, all the virtues that we need. It is very simple, yet it is the single most difficult thing you will ever do. It is the greatest privilege we can have. Are we willing to do it?

The world today needs saints. Are you one of them? Is God calling you–and He is– to be a saint? The call is there; the question has to do with the answer. God needs saints. The world needs saints. Are you willing to be among them?

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

View Last Years Post: click here!

The Narrow Way ~ Homily by Fr. Robert Altier

2011-10-26T09:36:00.005-05:00

Choose, The Narrow Way!

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Wednesday ~ 26 October 2005

Reading (Romans 8:26-30)
Gospel (St. Luke 13:22-30)

When Our Lord is asked in the Gospel reading today if there are few who will be saved, He tells us that we need to enter through the narrow gate. And as He is teaching, He tells the people the parable about how there are going to be these people who will say, “But we ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets,” and He is going to say, I tell you, I do not know you. These are kind of scary words because these are people who were with the Lord, these are people who would claim to be religious; yet, at the same time, He tells them, You are going to see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourself locked out. So it becomes very evident that there is more than just simply saying, “We were near You; we were in Your presence.” We have to, once again, live what it is that we profess. When we think about the prophets, when we think about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they believed, and because they believed they lived what they believed. They changed their lives to follow the Will of God and to do His Will even when they were rejected for doing it. That is what we have to be looking at ourselves.

Saint Paul tells us in the first reading that the Spirit is the One Who will intercede for us before the throne of God, that we have the Holy Spirit. We have to pray, but he says, We do not even know how to pray as we ought. I suspect every last one of us has experienced that. We sit down in front of the Blessed Sacrament and we say, “Well, I don’t know exactly what I’m supposed to do. What am I supposed to say?” Just open your heart to the Lord–that is all that is necessary–and then let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest. Just be there and do not put up any barriers. We do not have to control the prayer; we do not have to try to make something happen; all we need to do is come before the Lord. We simply need to open our hearts to Him, and the Holy Spirit is the One Who not only will pray within us, but He is the One Who will enlighten our minds and our hearts so that we will understand what Saint Paul tells us, that all things work to good for those who love God.

What happens in most of our lives is when things get particularly difficult that is when we pull away from the Lord. We complain and we kick and we scream and we basically rebel against God, but then we are going to try to say, “But we ate and drank in Your company.” We cannot be fair-weather friends of Christ. We have to remain faithful to Him, and it is only the Holy Spirit Who dwells within our hearts Who is able to give us that grace. We cannot do it by ourselves, and I think we all understand that well enough. We have all demonstrated it to ourselves plenty of times over. But now what we have to do is rely on the grace of the Holy Spirit to keep us faithful to Christ.

We do not need to fear as long as we are being faithful. As long as we are giving lip service to Christ, if we are telling Him that we want to be with Him but we keep Him at an arm’s distance, if we refuse to open our hearts and allow ourselves to be vulnerable with Him, if we do not let Him in, then we have plenty to worry about because then we are going to say, “We ate and drank in Your company and You taught in our streets, but we did not change our lives. We did not do anything with regard to the truth that You taught.” But if, on the other hand, we are coming to Him, we are striving to change our lives, we are striving to open our hearts, we want to be united with Him and we are trying to be, then there is nothing at all to fear.

That is the narrow way. The difficulty is that if we wait until the very end the Lord says they will not be strong enough. But if we work on it now, even if we do not have the strength today to be able to do it, as we continually try over and over and over, day after day after day, that strength develops. Then no matter what happens we will be united with Christ. And if we are united with Him in prayer, we have nothing at all to fear because, first, we will have seen how many things have all worked to our good even when they did not seem so good at first, and then no matter what happens in the future we will know that is the pattern the Lord establishes in our lives. We will be firmly rooted in prayer, we will trust, and we will have the Holy Spirit to lead us into full union with Jesus Christ.

That is the narrow way. That is the way which can be done only in prayer. It is not going to be done at the last minute by anyone because they will not be strong enough, but if we are rooted in prayer then we have this wonderful guarantee of Our Lord that we are going to be united with Him. And if we are united with Him, we will not be lost.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ DesertVoice

October ~ Respect Life Month ~ Dedicated to Our Blessed Mother ~ Pray the Rosary! ~ Plus, Please Watch "180" The Movie!

2011-10-04T19:52:00.017-05:00

All Life is Sacred & Created in the Image and Likeness of God! Our Lady of the Rosary ~ Pray for Us!

STATEMENT FOR RESPECT LIFE MONTH

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo
Chairman, Committee on Pro-Life Activities
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
September 26, 2011

This October the Catholic Church throughout the United States will observe Respect Life Month, an annual tradition now in its fortieth year.

Beginning on October 2, 2011—Respect Life Sunday—Catholics across the nation will join together to witness to the inherent equality and transcendent value of every human being.

In countless liturgies and events we will give thanks to God for the gift of human life, and pray for his guidance and blessings on our efforts to defend the most vulnerable members of the human family.

We will voice our opposition to the injustice and cruelty of abortion on behalf of those victims whose voices have been silenced. At the same time, we will remind the living victims of abortion—the mothers and fathers who grieve the loss of an irreplaceable child—that God’s mercy is greater than any human sin, and that healing and peace can be theirs through the sacrament of reconciliation and the Church’s Project Rachel Ministry.

The theme chosen for this year’s Respect Life Program is I came so that all might have life and have it to the full. In this brief explanation of his mission (cf. John 10:10), Jesus refers both to our hope of eternal life, to be restored through his death and resurrection, and to our life in this world.

By following Jesus’ new Commandment of unselfish love, our lives can be richly fulfilling, and marked by joy and peace. In contrast, treating others as either means or obstacles to one’s self-serving goals, while never learning to love generously, is an impoverished way to live.

Viewing life as a “zero sum” game, in which advancing one’s interests requires putting aside the needs of others, can lead to callous unconcern for anyone who is especially weak, defenseless, and in need of our help. The unborn child, the aging parent who some call a “burden” on our medical system, the allegedly “excess” embryo in the fertility clinic, the person with a disability, the cognitively impaired accident victim who needs assistance in receiving food and water to live—each today is at risk of being dismissed as a “life unworthy of life.”

Jesus’ promise of “life to the full” is especially poignant today, when our culture and sometimes our government promote values inimical to the happiness and true good of individuals and society. We face increasing attempts to expunge God and religious discourse from public life. This promotes the dangerous proposition that human beings enjoy no special status by virtue of their God-given humanity. Some now even seek to eliminate religiously motivated people and organizations from public programs, by forcing them to violate their moral and religious convictions or stop serving the needy.

The same forces, aided by advertising and entertainment media, promote a selfish and demeaning view of human sexuality, by extolling the alleged good of sexual activity without love or commitment. This view of sex as “free” of commitment or consequences has no place for openness to new life. Hence contraceptives are promoted even to young teens as though they were essential to women’s well-being, and abortion defended as the “necessary” back-up plan when contraceptives fail. And fail they do. Studies report that most women seeking abortions were using contraception in the month they became pregnant. Again and again, studies show that increasing access to contraception fails to reduce rates of unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

Both these trends—a distorted view of sexuality and a disdain for the role of religion—are exhibited by the Department of Health and Human Services’ recent decision on the “preventive services” to be mandated in virtually all private health plans under the new health care law. The Department ruled that such mandated services will include surgical sterilization and all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and devices—including the abortifacient drug “Ella,” a close analogue to the abortion pill RU-486.

The decision is wrong on many levels. Preventive services are aimed at preventing diseases (e.g., by vaccinations) or detecting them early to aid prompt treatment (e.g., screening for diabetes or cancer). But pregnancy is not a disease. It is the normal, healthy state by which each of us came into the world. Far from preventing disease, contraceptives can have serious health consequences of their own, for example, increasing the risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease, such as AIDS, increasing the risk of breast cancer from excess estrogen, and of blood clots that can lead to stroke from synthetic progestin. Mandating such coverage shows neither respect for women’s health or freedom, nor respect for the consciences of those who do not want to take part in such problematic initiatives.

The “religious employer” exemption offered by the Department is so extremely narrow that it protects almost no one. Catholic institutions providing health care and other services to the needy could be forced to fire their non-Catholic employees and cease serving the poor and vulnerable of other faiths—or stop providing health coverage at all. It has been said that Jesus himself, or the Good Samaritan of his famous parable, would not qualify as “religious enough” for the exemption, since they insisted on helping people who did not share their view of God.

All these misguided efforts to foster false values among our youth, to silence the voice of moral truth in the public domain, and to deprive believers of their constitutionally-protected right to live according to their religious convictions, must be resisted by education, public advocacy, and above all by prayer.

The founders of our nation understood that religion and morality are essential to the survival of a freedom-loving society. John Adams expressed this conviction, stating: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

Catholics must not shrink from the obligation to assert the values and principles we hold essential to the common good, beginning with the right to life of every human being and the right of every woman and man to express and live by his or her religious beliefs and well-formed conscience.

As Pope Benedict XVI reminded us last year in one of his Ad Limina addresses to visiting bishops, “a society can be built only by tirelessly respecting, promoting and teaching the transcendent nature of the human person.” That common nature transcends all accidental differences of age, race, strength, or conditions of dependency, preparing us to be one human family under God.

During this Respect Life Month, as we celebrate God’s great gift of life, let us pray and reflect on how each of us might renew our commitment and witness to “respecting, promoting and teaching the transcendent nature of the human person,” thereby shoring up the foundations of a society sorely in need of this guidance.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"180" The Movie

Love, Love is the Only Answer!
Mercy and Forgiveness
are God's Gift to Each of Us
but, What Do We Give
to Each Other...
Love = Mercy & Forgiveness...
We Must LOVE as GOD LOVES!

Thank You, Rev. Father John Lankeit ~ Altar Boys Hear Calling ~ Vocation to the Priesthood!

2011-08-23T10:51:00.005-05:00

Phoenix cathedral limits altar serving to boys to promote vocations

EWTN News Article

By Kevin J. Jones
Phoenix, Ariz., Aug 23, 2011 / 06:09 am (EWTN News)

The rector of the Diocese of Phoenix’s Sts. Simon and Jude Cathedral has decided to allow only boys to be altar servers, while girls will be sacristans. He hopes the change will help avoid “gender confusion” and will help promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

“There’s evidence that shows that when we honor that God-given differentiation of male and female, both men’s and women’s vocations flourish,” Fr. John Lankeit told EWTN News on Aug. 22. “We don’t discourage one or the other, but we honor them for what they are, both male and female.”

“We live in a society where there is deliberate gender confusion. I want to make sure that we don’t allow that to happen, especially in the Church.”

Fr. Lankeit said he had “felt the brunt” of the priest shortage in his own life, since he was made rector just before the fourth anniversary of his ordination. “That’s a sign of how deep the issue is. You get thrown into the fire that quickly,” he said.

He noted that boys’ service at the altar has long been “part of the apprenticeship for the priesthood.” The “vast majority” of seminarians have served at the altar, which he said was a “very important factor” in his decision.

“A particular service points to a very particular vocation. That’s why I think it’s important that we’re very clear about that,” he said.

Altar service for boys exposes them to the ministry of the priest “very closely,” he explained. “They can see what happens on the altar. They can see the importance of fatherly leadership.”

The priest at Mass stands in the person of Christ and in the role of father. Altar boys “get to see that modeled in a very clear way,” Fr. Lankeit said.

Girls will be offered the role of sacristan, the person who prepares the church and the altar area before Mass.

The sacristan plays an important role because he or she helps provide a “smooth liturgy” without distractions because things are not set up properly.

That allows the focus to be “where it needs to be: on the proclamation of God’s word and on the body blood, soul and divinity present on the altar.”

The sacristan is “an incredibly important role,” the rector said. “When you have somebody that has great attention to detail and great care, and really sees the important of that service, it enhances the liturgy amazingly.”

“We have very good sacristans at the cathedral. It makes me privileged to be a priest to celebrate Mass there, because I can concentrate on sharing the Gospel and making Christ present for the people, and I don’t have to worry about the details,” he added.

Fr. Lankeit noted that girls’ earlier maturity and their “great attention to detail and conscientiousness” at an earlier age means the role is “perfectly suited to them.”

Although the cathedral is the home church of Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, Fr. Lankeit explained that he made the decision on his own authority.

Phoenix resident Bob Lutz, a Catholic with three grown daughters, was critical of the move.

“It is a shame on how the church continues to abuse the females,” he told the Arizona Republic. “Church attendance is shrinking now, and this adds more fuel to the fire on how females are treated as second-class citizens.”

Fr. Lankeit responded to Lutz’s criticisms in his remarks to EWTN News.

“I would encourage him to hesitate (in) saying something like that that to the adult women who serve wonderfully in my cathedral as sacristans. I think they would take great offense at that to be belittled.”

The priest suggested that society sometimes shows a “backlash” against decisions like his because it views the change as a denial of rights. However, it is an error to think that serving at the altar is a right rather than a privilege.

“Starting with the priest, there is no right to serve in any particular ministry,” he added. “As a single Catholic man, I had no right to the priesthood. When I went in believing to be called by Christ to be a priest, the Church could have said ‘no’ at any moment.”

He repeated his belief that there is “an incredible amount of gender confusion.”

“We live in a society where there are some people who would say that a man can be a wife and a woman can be a husband,” he said, cautioning against allowing that mindset to be the paradigm for the Catholic Church.

The Diocese of Phoenix also explained the change in an Aug. 22 statement.

“The first girls to train in the cathedral's sacristan program are learning quickly, serving well and enjoying the important responsibility of sacristan,” the diocese said.

The cathedral parish is also working with a contemplative women’s religious order to hold a vocation event at their monastery for interested women.

Read more: http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php?id=3846#ixzz1Vrs8R6UU

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Read an earlier post at We Need Faith, Hope & Charity ~ Rev. Fr. John Lankeit

St. Bartholomew, Pray for Us! ~ Homily by Fr. Robert Altier

2011-08-23T07:57:00.006-05:00

Prayer to St. Bartholomew

O Glorious St. Bartholomew, Jesus called you a person without guile and you saw in this word a sign that he was the Son of God and King of Israel. Obtain for us the grace to be ever guileless and innocent as doves. At the same time, help us to have your gift of faith to see the Divine hand in the events of daily life. May we discern the signs of the times that lead to Jesus on earth and will eventually unite us to him forever in Heaven.

Saint Bartholomew: A Man Without Duplicity

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
From: Wednesday ~ 24 August 2005

Reading (Revelation 21:9b-14)
Gospel (St. John 1:45-51)

In the Gospel reading today, we hear Nathaniel speaking to the apostle Philip, and he says to Philip, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Now we ask ourselves: Why would he say such a thing? Well, you can put it into two points of context.

First of all, for Philip to come up to Nathaniel (who is also known as Bartholomew) and to say to him, “We found the Messiah,” just put yourself into that situation. What if somebody came up to you and said, “Guess what! We found the one we’ve been waiting for! The one promised in the Scriptures, we found him!” What would your initial reaction be? To jump up and say, “Let’s go,” or to say, “Sure you have. We’ve been waiting for a couple of thousand years; why would we think it’s going to happen now?” One can understand why there would be a little bit of incredulity right from the start.

Yet, at the same time, there is more. Nazareth is a place that has its name from the Hebrew word Nazar, which means “a shoot.” In the Book of Isaiah, we are told that a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse. They knew which family was going to bear the Messiah because it was from the line of David. They did not know who it was going to be. They did not know which sibling it may have been, and so on, but they knew generally which tribe and which family the Messiah was going to come from. And so they founded a town because this little group of people knew that from their numbers the Messiah would come, the shoot that was promised. They founded a place and called it by the title which they expected to be fulfilled: Nazar – Nazareth.

These people were made fun of; they were ridiculed and rejected. Nazareth would have been a little tiny Podunk place out in the middle of nowhere that would have had no more than a couple of dozen people living in it, a very, very small place. In fact, if you go to Nazareth today, the Church of the Annunciation sits over the entire town of ancient Nazareth. That is how small it was. Today Nazareth is a pretty large city, one of the Christian cities in Israel, but if you go to the Church of the Annunciation, there you will find all of the places where people lived in ancient Nazareth. There is a particular cave there that has always been reverenced as the home of the Holy Family. These were not people who were living in the lap of luxury. They were not even people who would have been living according to modern standards at the time. They lived in caves. So one can understand, putting it that way, that these people were seen as being kind of backwards. They were seen as being a little odd and rather eccentric. They though the Messiah was going to come from their numbers – imagine that! They were right.

There is another prophecy about each Israelite sitting under his own tree. And so when Jesus looks at Nathaniel and says, Before Philip called you, I saw you sitting under the fig tree, Nathaniel understood immediately that this was the fulfillment of prophecy. Not only was the prophecy regarding the Messiah fulfilled and suddenly he began to recognize this in his own mind, but also what Our Lord had told him, which is why he would respond by saying, You are the Son of God. This is why Jesus would say, You believe that just because I told you I saw you sitting under the fig tree? The whole exchange would seem a little bit odd to us, but if you put it into the context of what had been prophesied, the things that needed to be fulfilled with regard to the Messiah, and the natural doubts that the people would have had, then we can understand why Saint Bartholomew would have had a few doubts and how his doubts were completely removed by this one little statement, because Our Lord said of him that he is a true Israelite in whom there is no duplicity.

No duplicity means that as soon as he recognizes the truth, he is going to reject everything contrary and embrace the truth in its fullness. There is no falsehood. There is no deceit. There is no selfishness. He was a man of virtue and he would give his life for the Lord – in a most grueling manner, actually. Saint Bartholomew was flayed; he was skinned alive. That is how they killed him. So we see that once he understood Who Jesus was his entire life was changed and he dedicated himself one hundred percent to the service of God.

Now we need to look at our own selves because we know Who Jesus is and we have a few changes we probably need to make because most of us are probably not one hundred percent devoted to the service of God to make sure that we are seeking to do His Will in all things. That is the lesson we have to learn from Saint Bartholomew today: We need to be without duplicity. We cannot put up a façade and make ourselves look nice while underneath we are really pretty rotten. We cannot be living this dual life where we want people to think we are saints while when we are on our own we are anything but. We need to be striving for true holiness. We need to be striving to know and to do the Will of God. We need to be seeking perfect union with Jesus Christ. That is what our lives have to be about. Then we can be members of the New Israel, the new people of God, without duplicity, seeking Jesus Christ with a pure heart so that there is no falsehood in us, that there is nothing phony, but rather that what we are seeking and living is one and the same: Jesus Christ – the Truth, the Messiah, the Son of God, the One Whom we have found, the One Whom we know to be true – and to model our lives after Him and to change so that we are seeking to live only for God every moment of every day of our lives.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ A Desert Voice

St. John Vianney ~ Intercede for All Our Priests ~ that they May Be Holy ~ that they May Be Protected from the evil one!

2011-08-04T10:07:00.009-05:00

For priests: How to be a good confessor, the example of St. John Vianney

August 4th, Feast of St. John Vianney

The holy Curé of Ars is well recognized as the great apostle of the confessional. Pope Benedict, in declaring the Year for Priests, explicitly presented St. John Vianney as a model for priests in their ministry as confessors.

Much has been said and much is known of how this holy priest spent untold hours (even to sixteen and more hours a day) in the confessional. That he could “read souls” is well attested by testimony even from before his death. It has even been related that the evil one once cried out, “If there were were two priests like John Vianney, my kingdom on earth would crumble!”

And so, we all must pray that the good Jesus would send us more priests like the humble St. John Vianney. The priests as well must implore the Savior for all the many graces necessary for growth as a confessor.

Still, the priests must also imitate the example of St. John Vianney – we priests should be asking ourselves, “How did the Curé become such a good confessor?” This question will lead us back to Monday’s saint: Alphonsus Liguori.

Read More ~ all of Father Ryan Erlenbush's Homily on St. John Vianney, from his blog: The New Theological Movement!

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St. John Vianney on Prayer

Man has a noble task: that of prayer and love. To pray and to love, that is the happiness of man on earth.

Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When the heart is pure and united with God it is consoled and filled with sweetness; it is dazzled by a marvellous light.

In this intimate union, God and the soul are like two pieces of wax moulded into one; they cannot any more be separated. It is a very wonderful thing, this union of God with his insignificant creature; happiness passing all understanding.

Read More ~ all of Father Dwight Longenecker's thoughts on this topic, from his blog: Standing On My Head!

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Saint John Mary Vianney ~ Pray for Us!

America 2012 ~ We Need Real HOPE & We Need Real CHANGE ~ Stand Up for America & Stand Up For Life, For Marriage, For Family! ~ Stand Up For FREEDOM!

2011-07-02T07:15:00.013-05:00

Who are you going to support? Do they support the teachings of our Lord, our Church? Your Faith and Your Politics - they go hand-in-hand. Practice what you preach - better still... Practice what Jesus Preached! This is the duty of every Christian the world over. How do you do this; Read the word of God, Listen to the teachings of the Church - God sent the Holy Spirit, {the Spirit of Truth} - to guide the Church in her teachings on Faith & Morals... listen to Holy Mother Church, this is the Word of God! And Pray, and Pray some more!

Thaddeus McCotter ~ for President 2012

Michele Bachmann ~ for President 2012

Rick Santorum ~ for President 2012

Tim Pawlenty ~ for President 2012

Remember... Real Freedom is the Freedom to Choose GOOD!

Choose Good this coming election... Choose GOD!

Remember... He Choose You!

Psalm 139:16
"Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."

Month of the Sacred Heart Coming to an End ~ We Need Our Lord's Mercy More than Ever! ~ Pray for Purity for Our Nation ~ Homily by Fr. Robert Altier

2011-06-28T10:32:00.009-05:00

Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Have Mercy on Us,
We Pray!

A Prayer for Purity

Dearest Jesus!

I know well that every perfect gift, and above all others that of chastity, depends upon the most powerful assistance of your providence, and that without you a creature can do nothing.

Therefore, I pray that you defend, with your grace, the gift of chastity and purity in my soul as well as my body. And if I have ever received through my senses any impression that could stain my chastity and purity, I ask you, who are the supreme Lord of all my powers, to take it from me, so that I may with a clean heart advance in your love and service, offering myself chaste all the days of my life on the most pure altar of your divinity. Amen. ~by St. Thomas Aquinas

It is Divine Law – Homosexuality is Never Acceptable

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Tuesday 28 June 20005

Reading (Genesis 19:15-29)
Gospel (St. Matthew 8:23-27)

In the Gospel reading today, the apostles are amazed that even the winds and the sea obey Our Lord. We have to remember always that He is God and He is all-powerful and He has authority over everything. So as we look around at the things going on in the world today, we realize that none of this is happening without God tolerating it, without Him allowing it. And He is allowing it as a test for each and every one of us to see if we are going to remain faithful.

We see the grace and mercy of God, for instance, in the first reading when we hear about how He removed Lot from the city of Sodom before He destroyed it, and how when Lot tried to play the American problem and be as lazy as he possibly could – “No, no, I can’t go that far” – the Lord even pulled him right out of the city and then allowed him to go to a small town that would have been overthrown, but was determined to save his life because he was innocent. And so we see that even if we are willing to make a minimal effort to do what is right, God is going to take care of the rest. That does not excuse us by saying it is okay to do the absolute minimum, but rather what we see is that if we are willing to at least take the first step, God is going to then provide the grace so that we can take the next step. It is the way the spiritual life begins. All we have to do is get started and the Lord will take care of helping us to move along. Then we can keep taking one step after the next step after the next.

At the same time in the readings today, we see another situation. As Sodom and Gomorrah are being overthrown for the homosexuality that was going on in those towns, we look around and see that the same thing is happening today. And we see the exact same attitude among people today: “It’s okay. It’s not a problem. They were born that way. How can I judge?” These are not from God. Number one, we have to realize that if somebody is acting on something that is completely contrary to nature, it is a mortal sin and it is from Satan. God created us male and female, and he placed within our hearts an attraction to persons of opposite sex. Now the Church is very clear that a homosexual orientation is not a sin. It is disordered, but it is not a sin. To act upon it, however, as it would be for anyone outside of marriage to act on anything sexually, is a mortal sin.

So for us to be able to sit back and think that it is not so bad or that we have to accept this is playing right into Satan’s hand. It is not acceptable in any way, shape, or form. And the fact that in some places, at least, people would suggest that the majority of people are in favor of these sorts of things does not mean anything. Morality is not based on an opinion poll. It does not matter if everyone except one person agrees. If that one person is God, Who does not agree with it, then God is right. The prescriptions against homosexuality are Divine Law. This is not even a Church law. This is not something that the Church can change if She wanted to, or if enough people thought they were homosexuals and therefore we need to think about changing this. It is Divine Law. It is God’s Law and it cannot change ever, under any circumstances. We need to be very clear about that.

As Christian people, we need to make sure that we always treat others with charity and respect. However, we also need to make sure we are clear that if someone is doing something which is objectively wrong that we recognize that and we acknowledge it. It is not being judgmental of the person to say that the action is wrong. We do not know what is going on in their heart and in their mind, but this is what they are doing. We cannot make a judgment on the person, but we can and we must make a judgment on the action. The actions are wrong. They are mortal sins. There is no justification ever for acting in a way that is mortally sinful, and in this particular case, contrary to nature. We must be very clear and not fall into the prevailing thought that making any kind of judgment is therefore wrong because we cannot judge. That is wrong and we need to make a distinction. We must judge actions. We cannot judge persons. That is where the difference comes. And when we are talking about the action of homosexual sin, it is a flagrant violation of the law of Almighty God and never under any circumstances is it acceptable. We must be very, very clear about that.

So we must love the sinner but hate the sin. That is the proper response we have to have. That is not always easy for us to be able to do, but that is what we have to be about. We have to extend the mercy of God. We have to pray for people’s conversion. We have to treat them with charity and dignity. But in all cases we must always acknowledge that a sin is a sin, and it is never under any circumstances acceptable.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Read this informative article at LifeSiteNews ~ Words of Wisdom from, Bishop Robert Vasa: gay ‘marriage’ supporters misunderstand sex, human nature

We lost the New York gay ‘marriage’ battle decades ago ~ another article at LifeSiteNews ~ this one by Dr. Gerard M. Nadal

Read this important article too, from The Catholic Thing ~ Obama’s Obsession with Sexual Orientation ~by Austin Ruse

Fr. Robert Altier ~ Homily ~ Only Consecrated Hands Should Touch Our Lord! ~ The Real Presence of Jesus The Christ!

2011-06-14T06:31:00.006-05:00

Act of Humility

O Lord, Thou art that God, before whom heaven and earth fade into nothingness. Oh, how unworthy then am I, to appear in Thy sight! Yet I hasten to receive Thee, for this is Thy will and command. Let the Seraphim, let the Saints, let the ever blessed Mary satisfy for my defects and want of devotion, O Lord, I am not worthy to love, and receive Thee, but Thou deservest to be loved, and received by me.

Take, then, courage my soul. Go and meet thy Bridegroom; hunger and thirst after Him. Awake! Invite Him with a burning love, and an ardent desire.

Only Consecrated Hands Should Touch Our Lord

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Tuesday ~ 27 January 2004

Reading (2 Samuel 6:12b-15, 17-19)
Gospel (St. Mark 3:31-35)

In the first reading, we hear about the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant from the house of Obededom up to the tent that David had pitched for the ark. The part that we did not hear was the reason the ark was at the house of Obededom. You may recall that the Philistines had captured the ark (we saw that last week) and afterwards they ran into some problems with the ark down in their temple of the false god, Dagon. They would wake up in the morning and the statue of Dagon was flat on its face, they would put it back up, and the next morning it was the same way. Then there were all kinds of plagues that were breaking out in Philistine. And then what happened is they put the ark of God on an oxcart and sent it back. At the house of Obededom, as the oxcart was making its way up to Jerusalem, the wagon started to tip over. A young man reached out to steady the ark –it was forbidden that anyone would touch the ark – and immediately upon touching it, the young man died. So David said, “Well, if this is the way the Lord is going to be, I can’t bring the ark up to Jerusalem.” And so he left it at the house of Obededom. After seeing that God was blessing the house of Obededom abundantly for having the ark there, then David decided that he could bring the ark the rest of the way up to Jerusalem. Now when we hear about the fact that he sacrificed an ox and a fatling with every six steps, we have to realize that the house of Obededom was right on the outskirts of Jerusalem. So it was probably only a couple of blocks’ distance that he was actually having to transfer the ark. It was not like he was going for miles and miles, sacrificing an ox and a fatling every six steps, but maybe only a few blocks that he would have been having to do this. Nonetheless, what we see is the attitude that one really needs to have when it comes to the Lord.

First of all, we see that there has to be the reverence. The people of the Old Testament were absolutely forbidden to touch the ark, and this young man who was acting out of charity certainly would have known that. That is, he was trying to save the ark from falling; yet at the same time, because it was forbidden under the pain of death, he undertook the penalty at that point. We see David then acting in fear, which was not the right thing to do, because he left the ark at the house of Obededom on the threshing floor because he was afraid that God might do something more in Jerusalem – purely selfish. That is, “If it’s going to cause problems, let it stay at the house of Obededom and let him suffer; I don’t want to have to deal with it,” is basically the attitude that he took, which was completely wrong. But then at the point when the ark was finally transferred up to the tent, because there was no temple built at this point, then we see again the festivities, the joy, and the reverence that we need to have as we come before the Lord.

When we think of Our Lord being truly present in our midst, again, we stop to think about the reverence that we need to have. We have gotten to the point now where everybody and their brother and sister is reaching out their hand to the Lord – which is not what God would want nor is it what the Church wants. But it has just gotten to the point where it does not seem to matter to anybody whether or not they are handling Jesus. Everybody seems to be passing out the Lord as though this is no big deal. It is not popcorn that we are handing out; this is God that we are distributing to the people of God. It also reminds us that we should not be receiving Holy Communion in the hand. After all, if it is forbidden to touch the ark (in which the two stone tablets were contained) under pain of death, what are we going to have to answer to one day for having stuck our hands out to the Lord, for having put Jesus in unconsecrated hands? There is no excuse for such a thing. True, it is allowed by the bishops of America, but we should all know better as well. The teaching of the Church is exceedingly clear that this is not what the Church desires. The Church allows it because the bishops have allowed it, but it is not what the Church desires at all. The documents make it very, very clear that Communion on the tongue is exactly the way that the Church wants Communion to be received.

So we need to think very seriously about our disposition toward the Lord. Thanks be to God, here we do not have that to worry about so much. But it still amazes me that when I go elsewhere the people of Saint Agnes stick their hands out when they are not at Saint Agnes. My heart just breaks because these are people who know better, and still they reach their hand out to the Lord. It is not right. We should come before the Lord with only the greatest reverence, the greatest joy, and we should have the proper disposition. Be very, very careful. The only ones who were allowed to handle the Ark of the Covenant were the priests, and that was if they put two poles in it and they held the poles. They could not touch the ark itself. Not even the high priest was allowed to touch the Ark of the Covenant.

Well, if that is the case, what are we doing with the New Covenant? How badly have we violated Jesus in the way that we are dealing with Him: having everyone coming up to distribute Communion, receiving Holy Communion in the hand, taking Jesus here and there with the greatest irreverence, throwing Him in a purse and leaving Him there overnight, sticking Him in a pocket, whatever it might be? We are going to have very much to answer to for our irreverence toward the Blessed Sacrament. At the same time, we have an opportunity to make reparation for our own sins and those of others, and to be able to recognize that this is truly God in our midst. As such, we want to come before Him with the most perfect disposition and the greatest reverence in the way that we come before Him to pray, and most especially, in the way we receive Him in Holy Communion.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Fr. Robet Altier ~ Homily ~ Communion in the Hand ~ Receive Our Lord as The Gift Given!

2011-06-10T06:17:00.007-05:00

Real Presence of Jesus Christ,

in the Most Blessed Sacrament

of the Altar.

Body and Blood,

Soul and Divinity,

of the Risen Lord!

Act of Adoration and Reparation

To Jesus in the Most
Blessed Sacrament
I ADORE Thee profoundly, O my Jesus,
in Thy sacramental form;
I acknowledge Thee to be true God and true Man,
and by this act of adoration
I intend to atone for the coldness
of so many Christians who pass before Thy churches
and sometimes before the very Tabernacle
in which Thou art pleased to remain at all hours
with loving impatience to give Thyself to Thy faithful people,
and do not so much as bend the knee before Thee,
and who, by their indifference
proclaim that they grow weary of this heavenly manna,
like the people of Israel in the wilderness.
I offer Thee in reparation for this grievous negligence,
the Most Precious Blood which Thou didst shed from Thy five wounds,
and especially from Thy sacred Side,
and entering therein,
I repeat a thousand times with true recollection of spirit:

O Sacrament most holy!
O Sacrament divine!
All praise and all thanksgiving
be every moment Thine.

Our Father...
Hail Mary...
Glory Be...

Communion in the Hand

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Monday ~ 10 September 2001

Reading (Colossians 1:24-2:3)
Gospel (St. Luke 6:6-11)

In the first reading today Saint Paul, in his Letter to the Colossians, talks about how, in Christ, is hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This is because He is almighty God; He is the Creator of the universe; He is the Savior of the world; He is God, absolute and perfect. Saint Paul says at the beginning of the reading that he makes up in his flesh for what is lacking in the suffering of Christ, for the sake of Christ's body, the Church.

In Christ, now, there is no suffering, but only in the Mystical Body. But there is one place, which I would like to address this morning, where I believe that Our Lord is truly grieved. I want to challenge you in that area: That is, the manner by which we receive Holy Communion. The Church is very clear in Her documents that she desires that we would receive Holy Communion on the tongue and not in the hand. The bishops of America, as well as a few other countries in the world, have allowed Communion in the hand as a dispensation. But the Church is very, very clear that She does not want us receiving Communion in the hand.

Let me explain a little as to why. First of all, to receive is something that is passive. The priest takes Holy Communion because the priest is the one who offers the Victim in sacrifice. Therefore, the one who offers the Victim must also take part in that Victim. But the people of God are to receive Holy Communion. To take the Host from your hand and put It into your own mouth is to take Communion, not to receive Communion; and so it is an active thing, not a passive thing. The Lord desires to give Himself to you as a gift, not to be taken by you. We need to be very careful that we do not lose the symbolism of what is happening in the Blessed Sacrament.

Also, if you will notice, during Mass after the Consecration, my fingers remain together because of the particles of the Host that are there. When we take Holy Communion in the hand, there are particles of Our Lord that are on our hands and on our fingers. That is why, after Communion, the priest will purify his fingers - because of the particles of the Host. But how often the people of God, after receiving Holy Communion, simply brush the particles onto the ground and walk on Our Lord. Or they put their hands in their pockets, and Our Lord is right there on their clothing. The abuses that this opens them up to are very grave. Not that anyone is intentionally doing that, but I think it is something that we need to consider exceedingly carefully.

What I always tell people is that you can look forward to the Day of Judgment and ask yourself how you intend to approach Our Lord, because He is your Judge. The same Lord you approach in Holy Communion is the same One you will approach on the Day of Judgment. Do you assume that you will put your hand out to Our Blessed Lord on the Day of Judgment? Is your view of judgment that you will shake Our Lord's hand and tell Him how wonderful it is to see Him? Or is your view that you will do great reverence to Our Blessed Lord? My view is that I will be flat on my face - not shaking His hand.

We do not put out our hand to God. Scripture says that God holds us in the palm of His hand. We should not be holding God in the palm of ours. He created us; He made us in His image and likeness. He is the Creator; we are the creature. We must approach Him with the greatest reverence, the greatest respect.

If we simply look at the fruit that has been borne by Holy Communion being taken in the hand, it is not good: the loss of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, the familiarity. Thankfully it is not happening here, but go to most churches and ask yourself if you see people praying before Mass or if they are chatting, goofing around, and talking. We have lost the reverence for the Real Presence because Jesus is just "our buddy" when we put our hand out to Him; He is not our God when we do that. So we need to be very careful.

But beyond that, we can look also at what has happened spiritually to the people of God. Since we have been receiving Communion in the hand, we have lost sight of the idea of going to Confession, of our own sinfulness, of the reverence we must have for Our Lord. We have made Communion so easy a thing and so nonchalant a thing that people have lost that sense of reverence, of awe, and of respect in the Presence of Our Lord.

I challenge you to think very seriously about this issue. The bishops, like I say, have allowed it; it is not a sin if you receive Holy Communion in the hand. In some places in the early Church they did that; Saint Justin talks about it. But the Church stopped it because of the abuses against the Blessed Sacrament that were occurring. I ask you to really pray about that. Look at Jesus in the Eucharist and ask yourself, "Do I really, truly believe that this is God? That this is my Creator and my Redeemer? How, then, do I desire to approach Him?" I really believe, if you pray that through, that there is only one conclusion to which you can come.
Then, I beg you, do not remain silent about it. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Bring that word to others because all those good people out there, I do not think that they are willfully trying to do anything that would grieve Our Lord; they are doing what they have been told to do. But again, look at what has happened in the last forty years of this particular practice and ask yourself if the fruit it has borne has been good. Obviously, you love Our Lord: You are here at daily Mass; you are here every morning. The love of Our Lord is evident in you. Bring that love of Jesus out from here. The love that is in your heart, proclaim it to others and ask them in the same way to consider their actions toward Our Lord. Let us bring the reverence to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament back so that we can give Him fitting worship and praise because He is God, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are contained.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Fr. Robert Altier ~ Homily ~ True Presence of Christ Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament! ~ Do You Believe? ~ I Believe!

2011-06-08T16:14:00.007-05:00

Ad Sacrosanctum Sacramentum
~by Prayer of Saint Thomas Aquinas

O sacred banquet at which
Christ is consumed,
The memory of His Passion recalled,
our soul filled with grace,
and our pledge of future glory received:

How delightful, Lord, is Your spirit,
which shows Your sweetness to men,
offers the precious bread of heaven,
fills the hungry with good things,
and sends away empty the scornful rich.

V. You have given them bread from heaven.
R. A bread having all sweetness within it.

Let us pray:
God, Who left for us a memorial of Your Passion in this miraculous sacrament, Grant we implore You, that we may venerate the holy mystery of Your Body and Blood, so that we may ever experience in ourselves the fruitfulness of Your redemption. You who live and reign, world without end. Amen.

Let There be no Doubt – He is There!

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier

From: Friday ~ 9 May 2003

Reading (Acts 9:1-20)

Gospel (St. John 6:52-59)

In the Gospel reading today, Our Lord tells us that unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have no life in us. And He tells us very clearly that His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink and that we have not a choice: Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He could not make it any clearer than what He did. And in case there is any necessity of having it backed up (other than the words of Our Lord), what we see in the first reading today when Saul, prior to his conversion, is along the road to Damascus is that Our Lord appears to him and asks him, “Why are you persecuting Me?” Saul is persecuting the Church – Jesus is already in Heaven – the Church is Jesus Christ. And the Church has been given the Holy Spirit to lead Her into all truth, as Our Lord had promised. From the very first century, the Church has proclaimed the reality of the True Presence, the substantial presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. There is no doubt when you read the Fathers of the Church of their absolute and unwavering belief in the Real Presence. There is absolutely no doubt when you just read the little passage that we heard about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

In fact, in the passage that will be read tomorrow, you will also hear about the people walking away from Jesus. Keep in mind when you hear that, that in every instance where His disciples did not understand what it was that He was saying, He either straightened them out immediately on the situation or He took them off aside by themselves and He explained the situation to them – which He did time after time after time every time that they did not understand. But when it was about the Eucharist and they walked with Him no longer, Jesus did not stop them. He did not tell them that they misunderstood; they understood perfectly well. And He looks at His twelve disciples and asks, “Do you want to leave Me too?” It is clear and it is absolute; we need to understand that.

It is also fascinating when you hear the verses we will be hearing tomorrow that that little verse which says, “They walked with Him no longer,” is John 6:66. Interesting little coincidence, right? 666 is the diabolical number. The fact that it is John 6:66 and it tells us that they walked with Him no longer because they refused to believe in the Blessed Sacrament should tell us something by itself. But then if you listen very carefully, you will also hear the reason why Judas betrayed Jesus. Jesus tells us twice toward the end of John, chapter 6, and it is because Judas refused to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. He could not accept it. And so Jesus looks at them and says, “Did I not choose twelve of you, and one of you is a devil?” right in the context of the Blessed Sacrament!

It is very clear and it could not be made any more clear for us. All that remains for us is to pray that God will take the scales from our eyes like He did for Saul. Once Saul recognized what was happening, he went out and he began to proclaim Jesus Christ. He went off for three years to learn about the Lord and then was the indomitable apostle for the Lord, willing to suffer anything because he knew the reality of Jesus Christ and he knew the Real Presence of Jesus Christ. If we read 1 Corinthians, chapters 10 and 11, once again there is no doubt that Saint Paul knew and understood well exactly what is going on every time that Mass is celebrated, and he taught that to his converts. It is this point and the reality of the fact that the Church is Jesus Christ and the Blessed Sacrament is Jesus Christ and the priest is Jesus Christ which Saint Paul understood. That is the reality that he lived and that he preached. And that is the reality into which each one of us also has been baptized and which each one of us must accept and live in our lives. The Lord has given us Himself. We need to beg Him to let the scales fall from the eyes of our souls so that when we receive Him in Holy Communion, we will see the reality of the One Whom we receive.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Worthy Reception of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar ~ True Presence of Christ Our Lord & Savior!

2011-06-07T09:02:00.009-05:00

John 6: 47-51
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Act of Reparation to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

With that profound humility which the
Faith itself inspires in me,
O my God and Savior Jesus Christ,
true God and true man,
I love Thee with all my heart,
and I adore Thee who art hidden here,
in reparation for all the irreverences,
profanations and sacrileges
which Thou receivest in the most adorable
Sacrament of the Altar.

I adore Thee, O my God,
if not so much as Thou art worthy to be
adored nor so much as I am bound to do,
yet as much as I am able;
would that I could adore Thee
with that perfect worship which the Angels
in heaven are enabled to offer Thee.
Mayest Thou, O my Jesus, be known, adored,
loved and thanked by all men at every moment
in this most holy and Divine Sacrament.

Amen.

30 January 2011

A Letter From: The Cathedral Rector

By Very Rev. Fr. John Lankeit

Sts. Simon and Jude Cathedral

Dear Parishioners,

I want to thank all of you who have recently started receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, not to mention those of you who already had been. This subject has generated a lot of buzz over the past few weeks, the vast majority of which has been overwhelmingly positive.

While my main objective in encouraging reception on the tongue is to deepen appreciation for the Eucharist, I also have a pastoral responsibility to eliminate abuses common to receiving in the hand. Such abuses are no doubt unintentional. Nevertheless, what I witness troubles me. And I’m not alone.

In 2004,responding to the problem of Eucharistic profanation, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament released an official instruction entitled REDEMPTIONIS SACRAMENTUS: On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist. Regarding Holy Communion the document states:

“[S]pecial care should be taken to ensure that the host is consumed by the communicant in the presence of the minister, so that no one goes away carrying the Eucharistic species in his hand. If there is a risk of profanation, then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful.” (Paragraph 92)

Here are 7 common Holy Communion profanations that I see all too frequently:

• Blessing oneself with the host before consuming it. (The act of blessing with the Eucharist is called “Benediction” and is reserved to clergy).
• Receiving the host in the palm of the hand, contorting that same hand until the host is controlled by the fingers, then consuming it (resembling a one-handed “watch-the-coin-disappear” magic trick).
• Popping the host into the mouth like a piece of popcorn.
• Attempting to receive with other items in the hands, like a dirty Kleenex or a Rosary.
• Receiving the host with dirty hands.
• Receiving the host, closing the hand around it, then letting the hand fall to the side (as if carrying a suitcase) while walking away and/or blessing oneself with the other hand.
• Walking away without consuming the host.
• Giving the host to someone else after receiving (including animals)…yes, it happens!

We would never treat a piece of GOLD with the same casualness –especially in this economy! Yet many treat the Eucharist “piece” of GOD with casualness at best, indifference and irreverence at worst. Of course, much abuse is due to ignorance, owing to poor catechesis, which is precisely why I have written about this issue for four consecutive weeks.

Yet we have another great incentive…

When Holy Communion is received on the tongue…every single one of these abuses is instantly eliminated!

The way we treat another person says more about our relationship with that person than any words we might say. This is especially true of our relationship with the Divine Person, Jesus Christ. So let us continually seek to increase our reverence for our Eucharistic Savior, and to eliminate anything that degrades the respect He deserves.

God’s Blessings…
my prayers…

Rev. Fr. John Lankeit,
Rector, Ss. Simon & Jude Cathedral
Phoenix, AZ

Happy Memorial Day ~ Homily from Fr. Robert Altier!

2011-05-30T06:43:00.008-05:00

I know that I said this blog would not be updated... but there have been a few, and today is one of them!

Happy Memorial Day...

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier

From: 30 May 2005

Reading (Tobit 1:3; 2:1a-8)

Gospel (St. Mark 12:1-12)

Today as our country takes a day off to consider those who have gone before us – in a particular way, of course, those who have died in the service of the country, but for all of our beloved dead – we ask ourselves, “Why would we remember those who have died?” It is because their souls are immortal, because they still live. Each and every one of us is endowed with an immortal soul. Our bodies will indeed die, our souls cannot. So these are people whom we loved in this life, but they are people who we still love because they are still alive. The question, of course, is always “Where are they alive?” There are only three possibilities for that answer. Either they are in eternal life with God, or they are in Purgatory preparing themselves for eternity with God, or, because they had rejected God and died in the state of mortal sin, they have tragically gone to hell, if that would be the case.

It is a duty of ours not only like Tobit to bury the dead, but to pray for the dead, to remember those who have gone before us. It is not enough for us as Christian people to remember the dead only once a year. It is a wonderful thing for the country to take a day every year for this purpose, but our task is to make sure we remember our beloved dead every day of the year. If we think about what happens at Mass every day, at every single Mass there are prayers for the dead. It is right in the Eucharistic Prayer. As we offer the sacrifice of Jesus, in the midst of that we are praying for those who have died.

We want all people to be able to see God face to face, to live with Him for eternity. If you think about a person whom you might consider in this life to be your worst enemy, all you have to ask yourself is, “Would I wish for that person really to go to hell?” We should wish no one to be in that position for eternity. Christian charity requires that we pray for the conversion of sinners. Christian charity requires also that we pray for the repose of the souls of those who have died so that we will help them to be able to get to heaven. Those who are in Purgatory can do absolutely nothing more for themselves than what they are already doing. They are part of the communion of saints. They are united with the saints in heaven, and they are united with us here on earth, if we are in the state of grace. But we can do acts of charity, of self-denial, to help them. And so it is days like this that even our secular society sets aside to honor those who have died that will help to serve for those of us who are Christian to remind us of our obligation in charity to pray for those who have died.

It is certainly a wonderful and charitable thing to go to the cemeteries, to care for the graves of those who have died, to prepare them with flowers, and to make sure that the graves are properly cared for, because, again, this is the final resting place on earth for these people, for people whom we loved. We do not want to forget them. Just because they have died in the body does not mean that they fail to be united with us. And because their bodies are the mortal remains that are part of their person, and those are bodies that will rise from the dead, we want to prepare for them and maintain for them a fitting place. While, of course, their bodies lie dead, they have no feeling, there is nothing, they are not going to be grateful in the body that we have done something for them; but their souls, if they are in the state of grace, are indeed grateful because their personality resides in the soul. So their soul remains very grateful because their person remains grateful. These are people who still love us and we need in turn to love them.

As we take time this day to remember those who have died, we need also to think forward to the day that each one of us will be called from this life. We need to look very seriously at our own lives and ask ourselves, for instance, “Are we being like Tobit in the first reading, performing works of charity, doing what is right and just even when other people think we are strange, even when they make fun of us for doing what is right?” The only one who matters is God. What does He think of what it is that we are doing? That is what our focus has to be. We must perform acts of charity, we must keep ourselves in the state of grace, and we must pray because this is not the place God has prepared for us for eternity. This is merely a place of testing and of purification. But where we choose to go for eternity is a decision we make in this life, and the way we make that decision is not a generic way of saying, “Oh yeah, I’d like to go to heaven.” Well, who wouldn’t? But it is a decision that is made in the practical order by remaining close to the sacraments, by praying, by living lives of charity in love of God and love of neighbor because the day will come for each of us when we will be the object of Memorial Day. We want to make sure that when those who remain behind after we have been taken from this life remember us, when they pray for us, that it will be fruitful, because we want to make sure that we remain united with them in the communion of saints. We want to make sure that we are going the right direction. So in this life we set our focus on God, so that in eternity we will be able to be with Him.

As we think about those who have gone before us, pray for them, not only today but every day. And then look into your own heart and ask yourself, “If God were to call me home today, would I be prepared? Would I be ready to join those who have gone before me? Have I lived my life for God? Or am I living a life that is contrary to the way that I should be living?” Pray for the dead, and ask the souls in heaven and those in Purgatory also to pray for you. In that way, the mutual charity which is ours in the Mystical Body of Christ will bear great fruit, we will help the souls in Purgatory to get to heaven, and they will help us to stay in the state of grace so that we can join them in the glory of God forever.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

My Posting from Last Year!

Saint Philomena, Powerful with God, Pray for Us!

2011-05-25T09:49:00.009-05:00

Dear Devotee
In this month of May dedicated our Heavenly Mother Mary let us pray:

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.

It is with the great joy during this Feast of the Discovery of the Sacred Body of Saint Philomena, 25th May, Catacombs of St. Pricilla in Rome. To announce the 70th Birthday of our Bishop of Nola, Archbishop Beniamino Depalma, who is the:

Honorary President of the Universal
Archconfraternity of Saint Philomena

Archbishop Beniamino Depalma was ordained a priest on 3rd April 1965 and was consecrated Bishop 16th January 1991. Became Archbishop of Amalfi – Cava de’Tirreni until 15the July 1999 when he then became Archbishop of Nola, in this diocese is held Sacred Body of Saint Philomena within the Sanctuary of Saint Philomena, Mugnano del Cardinale.

Let us keep him in our prayers in the ever growing Archconfraternity of Saint Philomena.

Dear Jesus Christ we thank you for allowing this Archconfraternity to continue to be ever blessed.

During last year’s May edition of the enewsletter I announced my new book in Italian being published. I am overjoyed to tell you that we now have it translated into English, French and Spanish and they are in the process of being published and will be ready for release in September.

Some of the most relevant information within the book for this feast is new scientific finding regarding the tomb of Saint Philomena.

The tomb was discovered on 25th May 1802 in the catacombs of Prisilla in Rome. The tomb had three terracotta slabs covering it, with markings stating that the person inside was a Virgin Martyr who was persecuted by arrows. It was also written on the tomb in Latin - PAX TECUM FILUMENA (Peace be with you Filumena). From the Sacred Relics within the tomb it was evident that it was a young female, virgin martyr around the age of thirteen. There was also a vial which has now been undoubtedly proven to have blood in it.

We also know from the scientific findings that this tomb was sealed only once which immediately stops any previous arguments that the tomb tiles where reused. This tomb was discovered in the oldest part of these catacombs which was reserved for very important Martyrs.

You can read in more details of this and much more in my new book. You can rest assured that the information in the book is accurate and has been personally researched by me for twenty six years.

My dear devotees of Saint Philomena join with me spiritually in these precious days of celebration and thanksgiving to our Lord Jesus Christ for giving to us such the wondrous and powerful tool of Saint Philomena in this dark world that we live in. A little girl so mature for her years who was so courageous and loving to God that she gave her life for Him. This should give us the courage of heart to seek her intercession and go forward particularly when we feel we are being beaten and attacked.

There are many changes occurring within the structure of the Universal Archconfraternity of Saint Philomena at present and our next newsletter will outline many of them. We will talk about the ever growing devotion to Saint Philomena within the new Universal Archconfraternity worldwide under my guidance.

Please be assured of my prayers during the celebration of Holy Mass on this Feast Day offered for you and all Archconfraternity members and groups who spread devotion to our Princess. I wish you a very blessed day as we unite and join in prayer to Saint Philomena, powerful with God!

I now close as I pass you over to the words of our newly appointed Spiritual Director for the whole of the United States Fr. Robert Gibas, and honest and respected person. This is the first of many messages he will share with you. Please listen to him as there is no doubt in his ability to guide the devotees and workers of the Archconfraternity of Saint Philomena within the U.S. and beyond with his words.

With my deepest affection and appreciation,

Msgr. Giovanni Braschi

Rector of the Shrine of Saint Philomena

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the Heart of Fr. G. Robert Gibas

Having been recently appointed by Msgr. Braschi to the role of Spiritual Director for the Archconfraternity of Saint Philomena throughout the United States, I wish to thank Msgr. for the confidence he has placed in me and for the opportunity to have a greater part in the spreading of her Devotion, especially throughout the United States.

To better appreciate this Devotion, I suggest we review the history of the Archconfraternity of Saint Philomena. You will find on the Website – www.philomena.us, an article entitled, The History of the Universal Archconfraternity of Saint Philomena, which points out to us that the Archconfraternity is the work of a zealous French priest, Fr. Petit. In 1859, Fr. Petit consecrated his life to making the "Little Saint" known and loved. He wanted to make it clear that what he was establishing was not intended to replace the cult of the Blessed Virgin or the adoration of God. Fr. Petit says that through our devotion to Saint Philomena we proclaim the power of God in the strength of His Martyrs, and his infinite Goodness manifested in the favors he grants through their intercession on our behalf.

In November of 1886, Pope Leo XIII, raised the Confraternity of Saint Philomena to the rank of Archconfraternity. In June of 1907, the Pope received Fr. Petit in audience and told Fr. Petit that he was saddened by certain detractors claiming that St. Philomena didn’t exist. "It is incredible," the Pope said, "that such things can come about without them looking at the great argument in favor of the saint, the holy Cure of Ars. By her, in her name, and through her intercession, he obtained innumerable graces and continued prodigies."

As an act of final affirmation of the cult of Saint Philomena and to give what we might say is the final word, Pope Pius X raised the Archconfraternity of St. Philomena to the status of a Universal Archconfraternity ("Pius Fidelium Societates"). The Holy Father further stated that whatever decisions and declarations were made by his previous successors should in no way be altered.

The Archconfraternity is an association of prayer and apostolate inviting us to commit ourselves to the work of promoting the Gospel message: that we have been called to love God with all our heart and soul and to love one another as He loves us. Our present Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has suggested that we use the popular social media to get this gospel message out. There are other means: newspapers, magazines pamphlets etc. Is it possible that we could invest some of our resources in helping organizations, or individuals, who have dedicated themselves to such activities?

St. John Vianney was especially concerned about the education of children and the youth. And so should we be. As an association dedicated to honor a 13-year old virgin martyr who gave her life to defend her faith and virginity, we too, should want our children and youth to have enough appreciation of our Catholic faith to proclaim and defend it at whatever cost the Lord asks of them.

I suggest that we all review the structure of the Archconfraternity as given in the article "The History of the Universal Archconfraternity of Saint Philomena", that appears on the Sanctuary’s webiste. I also suggest we declare the membership we choose to embrace and record it. Also, attempt to encourage children and youth to do likewise. I believe that it would be a good idea to review the structure each year in addition to the obligations, privileges and feast days.

All that I have suggested here I am doing with the members of our Archconfraternity at St. Clement Parish in Navarre, Ohio. I wonder if the fact that we are located in Bethlehem (House of Bread) Township is a mere coincidence.

Please keep me in your prayers as I will all of you. We celebrate a special Mass on the third Saturday of the month for the intentions of the living and deceased members of our Archconfraternity. I will extend it to include all living and deceased members of the Universal Archconfraternity. Pray with me in a spirit of gratitude for the generous love with which Saint Philomena has embraced me. She has helped me overcome serious temptations against purity; she has also encouraged me not to give up during some difficult times in recent years; she tells me I am not a failure as a priest (a statement with which satan constantly nags me); she intercedes with me as I pray the Rosary, asking Our Blessed Mother to help me to know, love and serve Jesus now and forever.

Through the intercession of Saint Philomena, Virgin and Martyr, may the Father bless us with the gift of the Holy Spirit that we may boldly proclaim with her: Jesus is Lord!

Fr. Gibas

~ ~ ~

Saint Philomena,

Powerful with God,

Pray for Us!

Support the Good Priests of Miles Christi!

2011-05-19T07:53:00.004-05:00

Dear Friend of Miles Christi,

As you may know Miles Christi is in the process of raising funds to build a Religious and Family Center in South Lyon, MI. We have already signed the contract with the builders and the construction of the first phase will start in a few days.

This is a great endeavor that we can accomplish only with your support and help. We need the generous support of all the friends of Miles Christi. The Miles Christi Religious and Family Center will provide a chapel for daily Mass and Eucharistic Adoration, meeting rooms, office space for our day to day activities and will be also a place for the formation of future Priests.

One concrete way in which you can help is to purchase raffle tickets that are currently being sent to you. You can win a week-long vacation to Hilton Head, SC, a Gateway Laptop computer or an iPod Touch (click here). But not only may you be able to win some of these great prizes, but by purchasing raffle tickets you will be helping a worthy cause.

The drawing of this raffle will be on June 26, 2011, during the Miles Christi Conference of Study and Prayer, at The Holiday Inn, Livonia, MI. You need not be present to win.

If you have already been able to support us purchasing tickets for this raffle, we truly thank you, and invite you to please forward this email to your friends, inviting them to purchase tickets.

How to buy tickets:

You can call us at (248) 596-9677, you can respond to this email requesting tickets, or you can purchase raffle tickets online by clicking here. We will make sure to include your stub in the raffle drawing.

Thank you so much for supporting the work of Miles Christi in America! The Lord will no doubt reward your generosity.

We count on your prayers for the success of our campaign and remember that we keep all of the friends of Miles Christi in our prayers.

May God bless you!

In Christ,

The Priests and Brothers of Miles Christi

~ ~ ~

Miles Christi Website ~ Check Out these Faith Filled Priests!

Susan B. Anthony List ~ Needs Our Help ~ The Babies & Their Mothers ~ Need Our Help ~ Betrayed by Driehaus!

2011-05-12T09:02:00.000-05:00

Dear Pro-Life Advocate,

What you’re about to read might shock you, but please bear with me — I really need your urgent help.

As you know, the SBA List fought vigorously against the abortion mandate in Obamacare. Ultimately, unborn babies and vulnerable women were betrayed by a group of self-described “pro-life” Democrats – who turned their backs on those who elected them and gave Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi the votes they needed to pass the biggest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.

Your SBA List vowed to defeat every single one of those “pro-life” Democrats who caved – and ultimately, we defeated 15 of 20 in last November’s mid-term elections. We did it by aggressively educating their constituents about their betrayal using every means of communication possible.

One of those Representatives we targeted and defeated was Congressman Steve Driehaus of Ohio.

During his re-election race, Rep. Driehaus did everything he could to muzzle the truth we were trying to share– even using criminal statute against us with the threat of stiff fines and jail time. Your SBA List fought back every step of the way. We refused to be intimidated and continued our efforts to share the truth about his vote for taxpayer funding of abortion in Obamacare.

After we defeated him, Rep. Steve Driehaus responded by filing a federal lawsuit charging us with “depriving a person of their livelihood.”

I know how absurd it sounds. And Pro-Life Advocate, I might be able to laugh about it if I wasn’t about to cry.

You see, I just received a bill for $76,000 in legal fees for just the past two months alone.

This outrageous lawsuit is bleeding us dry and I need your urgent financial support.

We absolutely cannot let Steve Driehaus achieve his ultimate goal: to shut us down.

This court battle has been draining us for months, Pro-Life Advocate.

Already, we’ve had to pay nearly $164,000 in legal fees since the beginning of this federal lawsuit. This enormous amount has been covered by generous grants and donations, including incredible support from our friends at the Alliance Defense Fund.

But with $76,000 in outstanding bills and even more coming our way as the lawsuit continues, I need all SBA List family members to help to pay off this debt and to ensure we have the funds to continue fighting this battle in court.

We need all hands on deck to ensure the SBA List doesn’t shut down because of this court battle… Please donate right now.

You see, Pro-Life Advocate, my team did its best to budget for our legal bills at the beginning of the year. But then Lila Rose released undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood employees aiding and abetting in the alleged sex trafficking of girls as young as 13. I knew the SBA List needed to put all its strength behind efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

And we did. We spent over $800,000 in the fight to defund Planned Parenthood. We ran radio ads. Our Education Fund ran a television ad featuring former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist, Abby Johnson. We ran newspaper ads. We did a grueling bus tour through key states and Congressional districts. We aggressively lobbied Congress and armed key lawmakers with the best facts and figures to help them win the debate.

We gave it our all, and while we may have fallen short in the budget negotiations, we dealt Planned Parenthood a big black eye that is now being seen at the state level. In fact, just yesterday, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed a bill that completely defunds Planned Parenthood of all its funding. This would not have happened had it not been for our efforts at the federal level.

The fight to defund Planned Parenthood is far from over, and your SBA List will be leading the way.

But…

In order to continue our work, we can’t let a disgruntled, defeated politician shut us down.

That’s his goal. He wants to shut us down by burying us in court filings and suffocating us with hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills.

We refuse to be bullied. We must continue to be voices for those voiceless unborn babies who will never experience the joys of Life because of politicians like Rep. Driehaus who turned his back on them.

Please help us fight back, Pro-Life Advocate.

I do strongly believe that we will win this case. Even the liberal ACLU has backed up our right to free speech, writing in an Amicus Brief in our support,

“The statute fails for the same reasons that the Sedition Act has been condemned by history. The people have an absolute right to criticize their public officials, the government should not be the arbiter of true or false speech and, in any event, the best answer for bad speech is more speech.”

Even the ACLU – a strong supporter of abortion – knows that Rep. Steve Driehaus has gone too far.

And I believe that the court will rule this way. But we must get to the finish line.

We’ve been blessed with a generous group of donors who have covered $164,000 of the legal fees we’ve accumulated.

But as I said earlier, I just received a bill totaling $76,000 that covers the last two months which have been especially intense for our legal team.

Please make an emergency contribution right now to your SBA List to help ensure we are victorious.

I look forward to putting this behind us so we can continue to do what we do best: work to elect authentic pro-life Representatives in Washington and pass laws that save lives.

I know that with your support, Rep. Steve Driehaus cannot stop us from doing so.

Thank you for your generosity during this most stressful hour.

For Life,

Marjorie Dannenfelser
President, Susan B. Anthony List
www.sba-list.org

PS: Concerned Pro-Life Advocate, Your SBA List is in the middle of fighting a major lawsuit against former Congressman Steve Driehaus, who has charged us with “depriving a person of their livelihood” after he was defeated this past November. The SBA List worked around the clock to ensure his constituents knew that he betrayed them when he voted for taxpayer funding of abortion in Obamacare. Our legal bills are stacking up and we need to raise $76,000 immediately. We need all hands on deck to ensure Rep. Driehuas does not meet his ultimate goal: to shut us down. Please make a generous donation today. I can’t thank you enough for standing with us in this fight.

Contributions or gifts to Susan B. Anthony List, Inc., a 501(c)(4) organization, are not tax-deductible for Federal income tax purposes. Donations may be used for political purposes such as supporting or opposing candidates. All donations are made to the general treasury of the Susan B. Anthony List, Inc., and are not designated for any particular purpose. Donation will be used in the sole discretion of the Officers and/or Board of Directors in accordance with the mission and purposes of the SBA List.

Fr. Robert Altier ~ Homily ~ Epiphany ~ Jesus is the Light of the World!

2010-12-31T09:35:00.005-06:00

Darkness Covers the Earth

Epiphany
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Sunday ~ 2 January 2005

Reading I (Isaiah 60:1-6)
Reading II (Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6)
Gospel (St. Matthew 2:1-12)

Today we celebrate a feast that has lost much of its meaning for people in the modern day. In the ancient world, the Feast of the Epiphany was one of the most important of all the feast days in the Church year. The word epiphany, recall, means “manifestation”, so it is the manifestation of the divinity of Christ, that God has become man and He dwelt among us. What was so important about this feast to the early Christians was not only that Our Lord was made manifest, but particularly that He was made manifest to the Gentiles. It is precisely the mystery of which Saint Paul speaks, the mystery that was foretold by the prophets but not understood, and now the mystery that has been brought to its completion in Christ, the mystery that the Gentiles are now coheirs with the Jews, that they are members of the same body, that they are children of God and heirs of heaven. It is a mystery that points to the fact that all of us, being made in the image and likeness of God, now have the opportunity to live according to the fullness of our human dignity. In fact, in Christ, we have the opportunity to live with a divine dignity. This is something that the Jewish people of old were able to do, and now the Gentiles have been united with them so there is no longer this separation but all are one in Christ.

Now we look at this in our own day and we ask ourselves, “What is so important about this?” This feast is critically important because the mystery we celebrate today is so important for us. If we look in the first reading today from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, he talks about how darkness covers the earth and the thick clouds the people. Look around and ask yourself if it is not true that our world is in darkness and if most of the people we know are not walking around in something of a fog. Thick clouds seem to cover the minds and the hearts of the people. They cannot see clearly. They do not understand. They have given themselves over to sin.

What happens when someone gives themselves over to sin is the same basic problem that happened in Jerusalem when the three Magi came to the palace in Jerusalem to ask Herod where they would find the newborn King of the Jews. One of the most tragic lines of all Scripture tells us what we would expect to hear and what we would not expect to hear: Herod was troubled (who would be surprised?) and all Jerusalem with him. The people of Israel were awaiting the Messiah. They knew the time, and now that the newborn King of the Jews was born, they were troubled, they did not want Him. Some of the people were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem, but the vast majority wanted to live in darkness because their sins had clouded their minds, just like today. When God makes Himself manifest, people do not want to believe. They do not want to see. They have chosen darkness instead of light.

But the beauty of what we celebrate today is that a star, which would be seen only in the darkness, is shining brilliantly so that anyone with the eyes of faith can see it. God made Himself manifest in this way to some pagans who were looking at the stars to try to discern what was going on in the world. Obviously, that is not the way Christian people are going to be operating. But it is not a question of a star up in the sky that we are looking for; rather, inside of each one of us God has placed a light. It is a light of faith that illumines the night of this world, that brings light into the darkness that surrounds us. It is, once again, exactly what Isaiah says: Upon you a light shall shine, and the glory of the Lord will appear above you.

We could ask ourselves in general, “How is it possible, on a natural level, that there would be darkness in some places while right next to that darkness is light?” It is not what is on the natural level; it is what is on the spiritual level. If you are in the state of grace, this light burns within you and it shines brightly in the darkness so that if you are surrounded by people who have rejected the truth, they have chosen darkness while the light shines in you. This is the way that prophecy can be fulfilled, that darkness covers the earth and the thick clouds the peoples; but upon you a light shall dawn, and above you the glory of the Lord will be revealed. That is happening inside of you.

If we consider what it is that the three Magi were seeking, it was not the star, but it was the Person represented by the star. It is precisely the fulfillment of what we hear way back in the Book of Numbers when the pagan prophet Balaam was hired to curse the Hebrew people. He climbed up the mountain, and instead God required that he bless the chosen people. In one of those occasions, the oracle of Balaam says something to the effect of I see him, thought not near; I behold him, yet far away. A star shall rise in Jacob and a staff in Judah. The star is a king – it is the newborn King of the Jews – a newborn king not only for the Jewish people, but for the Gentiles as well so that all of us will be one in Christ. This being the case, what the Magi sought was a Person, and that Person is the Light, as Saint John makes very clear: He is the Light of the world. The Light came into this world and the darkness could not overcome it. Like that star the Magi saw, He shines brilliantly in the darkness of this world. And it is He Himself Whom we must seek.

We have been given knowledge of the truth. For whatever reason, in God’s mysterious ways He has chosen each one of us. He has given to us this gift of faith, and He has given us knowledge of Himself. It is purely a gift on God’s part; it is not something we have earned or deserved, but it is a gift. Now the question is, just like the gift the Magi were given, what are we going to do with this gift that has been given to us? The three Wise Men were willing to leave everything behind and travel a long and arduous journey across the desert to come to find this Child and bow down and worship Him. If this light of faith truly burns within our hearts, then it is that light of faith that allows the eyes of our hearts to see. Just as the Magi would not be able to see with their bodily eyes the fact that this little baby is God, yet with the eyes of their hearts they were able to recognize Him and they worshiped Him. They would not worship Him if He were just a human king; they will worship Him only because He is God. And they left behind all of their paganism. They left behind the darkness from which they had come because they found the light.

Now that we live in this neopagan society of ours, we too must reject the worldly ways, the pagan ways, because we have seen the light. We know Who He is. The eyes of our faith allow us to recognize that what appears to be a piece of bread is truly God. The eyes of faith allow us to be able to enter into our hearts and have knowledge of the One Who dwells there. In the darkness that surrounds most people because they have rejected Christ, when they enter into their hearts all they find there is themselves. Their little world revolves around themselves, and everything is about themselves. For one who has seen the light of Christ and that light shines within their hearts, their lives then revolve around Him. And when they go inside of themselves, they do not find just themselves but they find Jesus Christ, indeed, they find the Holy Trinity Who dwells within. It is that which helps us in the midst of the darkness to continue to move toward our goal, toward the goal which is union with this One Who is the light. Just as the Magi followed the star and the star led them directly to the place where they found Our Lord and Our Lady, so too this light of faith shining within us is going to lead us directly to the place where we too will find Our Lord and Our Lady – and that is heaven.

In the meantime, we learn from the Magi what we are to do. We are to come before Him, to recognize Him for Who He is through the eyes of faith and open up our coffers. Not gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but a heart that is filled with love. That is all Our Lord wants. He wants us to give Him the greatest gift of all, and that is love – a life that is completely devoted to Him, a heart that is filled with love for Him, a mind that accepts the truth and lives it. Those are the treasures we can give to Him now. They are not too difficult for us, but it is just like the Magi: We will have to make a journey and we will have to give Him something which is very, very precious to us. But in return for their gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the Magi walked away with the greatest treasure of all. They held God within their hearts, and so can we. If we are willing to open our hearts and allow that light to shine in the darkness that is there to fill us with love, then we can give Him back that love. And the greatest treasure is ours because the light, Who is Jesus Christ Himself, will shine within us and the darkness will be dispelled. In this world that is filled with darkness, we will be able to see clearly as the light of faith guides us to the fulfillment of all our desires: union with Jesus Christ forever in heaven.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ A Voice in the Desert

It has been a year since I began this journey, answering our Papa's call to use technology to Spread the Gospel Message! I hope that even one person has benefited from the beautiful and powerful homilies of Father Altier and the various Holy Priests of AirMaria - as well as the pro-life messages and saint stories, the various prayers and beautiful paintings, the pro-life songs... I will leave up this site: We Need Faith, Hope & Charity, but will not be going forward with updates. Blessings to all who found this little site... if any!

Peace & Prayers to each of you,
Friend of Filumena

Ephiphany ~ Message from Human Life International ~ Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carambula

2010-12-31T09:27:00.004-06:00

Human Life International e-Column
Volume 05, Number 48 Friday, December 31, 2010

Epiphany

Christmastide is completed by the feast of the Epiphany, which is the manifestation of the Lord to the whole world. Following an ancient tradition that originated in the Eastern Church, in this feast we celebrate not only the adoration of the child Jesus by the three wise kings, but also the baptism of Christ in the Jordan and the first miracle of Christ, the transformation of water into wine at the wedding of Cana. In this feast we see Christ as the Light of World, the only light that can illuminate the way for those who are walking in darkness and in the shadow of death, as Saint Gregory Nazianzeno reminds us. For the Greek Fathers of the Church, the worse tragedy of man is the ignorance of Christ. This ancient and valuable insight, which is part of the traditional wisdom of the Church, is confirmed by the darkness that we experience in the contemporary world. Sadly, many in the world today do not really know about Christ and His saving power, or have only a sad caricature of who Christ really is.

At Christmas, the child Jesus was adored by a small group of shepherds, but at the Epiphany he is adored by the three wise kings who represent the whole of humanity. This is why we believe that with this feast we celebrate the manifestation of the saving grace of the Lord to the whole world. The three kings are depicted in Catholic tradition as being Caucasian, African and Asian, so in them we have represented the main ethnic groups of the world. Also, another tradition sees the kinds at varying ages, one being very young, another being a mature man and the third being a man of senior years. So in them the three ages of mankind are reflected.

In the gifts of the wise kings we have a very important insight into the nature of the Divine Child; an insight based on a message they received before they saw Christ, before they started their voyage, when they were guided by God to select their gifts. So before adoring the visible Lord, they started to adore Him in their minds and hearts with the hope of seeing him in person, and their three gifts have great significance for the faithful even today.

Incense proclaims the divinity of the child Jesus, as incense is traditionally offered primarily to God. Remember how many Christians in the early Roman persecutions suffered martyrdom because they refused to offer a pinch of incense to the infamous idols that St. Augustine describes so well in The City of God. This is also reminder to us that the increasingly tyrannical world in which we live is ready to persecute us because we refuse to pander to what is politically correct. Myrrh was offered to Him signifying His human nature: it is a prophetic reminder of the mix of herbs that would be prepared to preserve the body of Christ by the women who loved Him. Gold represents the regality of Christ, as it is clearly proclaimed in the liturgy of this feast and has been taught by many Popes. It comes from the tributes that are due to earthly kings or to other civil authorities. Also it makes a reference to the obligation that Christians have to support in a material way the Church and other Christian works of charity in proportion to their economics means and the duties they have towards their families.

These symbolic gifts lead us to meditate on the gifts that we Christians ought to offer to Christ, as Saint Leo the Great reminds us in his Second Homily on the Epiphany. The Lord wants our serious commitment and our work, because the Kingdom of God is not given to the ones who sleep, but instead to the persons that make a serious and constant effort to practice the Commandments. In our particular case, besides practicing the Commandments, the Lord has given us the particular vocation to proclaim the Gospel of Life, so in this Epiphany our gift to the newly born King is to strengthen our efforts to proclaim the integral truth of the Church, especially those teachings on life and family.

The Lord manifested Himself to the world, but after two thousand years this presence seems to have been muted. The Lord established His Church to carry on His manifestation until the end of the world, so the Church, and ourselves as members of the Church, have to find ways to continue to present Christ's saving message in all possible ways. We have to present this message in such a way that it will create the same admiration and marvel that it caused in its first listeners. At the same time, this message should be accompanied by the liturgical beauty that led the delegates of Kiev to convert after experiencing the Divine Liturgy at Santa Sofia in Constantinople. The grace of the Lord in the same way that converted the hearts of the wise men before they saw the child Jesus, also works in the hearts and minds of many men today. Still, in same way that those wise men were confirmed in their interior faith by seeing the Child, the men of our days need to see our convincing testimony so that the interior movement of the soul might be confirmed.

On behalf of everyone at HLI, I wish you a happy and prosperous new year. 2011 will be happy and prosperous, we can be sure, if we follow the ways of the Lord. So what I sincerely wish to all you is that you truly accept the Reign of our Lord in your hearts and minds, then all the rest that you need will be granted to you, because no one defeats the generosity of the Lord!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula
Interim President, Human Life International

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A Blessed New Year to All ~ Fr. Robert Altier ~ Homily ~ Mary the Mother of God!

2010-12-31T08:58:00.009-06:00

Prayer for the New Year
O God of new beginnings and wonderful surprises,
thank you for the gift of a new year.
May it be a time of grace for me,

a time to grow in faith and love,
a time to renew my commitment

to following Your Son, Jesus.
May it be a year of blessing for me,

a time to cherish my family and friends,
a time to renew my efforts at work,

a time to embrace my faith more fully.
Walk with me, please,

in every day and every hour of this new year,
that the light of Christ might shine through me,
in spite of my weaknesses and failings.
Above all, may I remember this year that I am a pilgrim
on the sacred path to You. Amen.

Mary, Mother of God
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Saturday ~ 1 January 2005

Reading I (Numbers 6:22-27)
Reading II (Galatians 4:4-7)
Gospel (St. Luke 2:16-21)

As we celebrate this great solemnity of our Blessed Mother, we stop to reflect upon a couple of different things. It is today, of course, the octave day of Christmas, and therefore the purpose for celebrating this feast is the Divine Maternity, or Mary as the Mother of God. It is also the day that Our Lord was circumcised, on the eighth day after His birth. It is the day that His name was formally given to Him, just as it is today that a child actually does not have a name until the child is baptized. Parents, of course, choose a name sometimes long before the baby is even born, but the child receives a name as a Christian person at the moment of Baptism. So too, Our Lord received His name in His human reality on the eighth day when He was circumcised. All of these events would be taking place over these eight days. We think about Our Lady coming down from Galilee and going to the area outside of Jerusalem, to Bethlehem, and giving birth to her Son, laying Him in a manger, all of the different things that certainly would have been going on around her and within her during those days, with prayer, gazing upon her Son Who is God and reflecting upon the mystery that was conceived within her and born through her, bringing the Child in now for circumcision, and having everything fulfilled exactly as it had been proclaimed by the angel.

We are told that Our Lady held all of these things in her heart and she pondered them. Our Lady continues to ponder things within her heart as she gazes now, not upon the infant face of her Son, but upon the face of her Son in glory, united perfectly with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But as Our Lady looks at the Holy Trinity, she sees within God every single person, every single action, and she recognizes each of these people as her own children because they are made in the image and likeness of God; and Jesus Christ, Who was born of Mary, is, as Saint Paul says, the image of the invisible God. The great mystery is that Mary is made in the image and likeness of Jesus, and Jesus is made in the image and likeness of Mary. So as she looks upon God and sees all of these people created in the image and likeness of the One Who was created in her image and likeness, she reflects upon all these things. She holds them in her heart.

And what she is holding in her heart is exactly what Saint Paul told us in the second reading, that not only in the fullness of time was the Son of God born for us, born under the law, born of a woman; but that in Him we have all become members of Jesus Christ, we have all become children of God, and we have all become heirs of heaven. Just as every child is made not only in the image and likeness of God but also in the image and likeness of his parents, Our Lord was no different. Each one of us, as a member of Jesus Christ through Baptism, has been remade into the very likeness of Jesus Christ Himself. As a member of Jesus Christ, we are able then to call God our Father. And if we can call God our Father because He is the Father of Jesus Christ, then we also call His Mother our Mother because spiritually we are born from the same virginal womb, we are brought forth into the same divine life, we are made members of the same Person to Whom she gave birth.

So as we celebrate today her divine maternity, that is, the fact that she is the Mother of God, we celebrate also her spiritual maternity, that is, that she is the Mother of each and every one of us in the spiritual realm, that we are her children, that we have become heirs of heaven through her Son. Our Lady is our Mother. Every good mother, of course, wants only what is best for her children. Every mother feels very acutely all the things that happen with her children, and, like Our Lady, every other mother holds all these things in her heart and she ponders them. She rejoices when her children rejoice; she suffers when her children suffer.

We need then to look at ourselves and ask, “What are we doing to our Mother’s heart?” Are we giving her cause for rejoicing? What have we given to Our Lady to ponder? Are we giving her holiness, goodness, virtue, and all the things that would resemble her Son so she can look upon us and see her Son within us, and see us within her Son, and continue to ponder the mystery of God become man so that man could become as God? Or are we giving to our Mother the problems that mothers of lots of young people have to deal with now, wondering what happened, wondering why, wondering about this child and all of the errant ways, having to ponder things that are more like the devil than they are like Christ? We want to give to our Mother only the best. We want to give to her the greatest gift that we can, and the greatest gift that we can give to our Blessed Mother is to be more like her Son, to be holy, to be virtuous, to be prayerful, to have our sights set on heaven.

For ourselves, we need also to look at what happened with the shepherds. When they saw this Child, they returned, glorifying God, and telling everyone all about what had happened. We do not just look upon this Child – we receive the fullness of His being in Holy Communion. Do we return praising and glorifying God? Do we return out into the world by living the life of Christ and bringing Him to others? These are the examples we need to look at and from which we need to learn so that we will truly rejoice the heart of our Mother, so that the things she can ponder in each one of us are things that will bring her great joy, so that she will see in us the continuation of the mystery that took place within her, the mystery of the Incarnation, of the unity of the divinity and the humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ. As she looks at us, the mystery continues that we who are incorporated into Christ have become her children, who share in the divine nature of her Son, so that the humanity and the divinity continue to operate in each one of us and we continue to live, not according to our fallen human nature, but according to the elevated divine nature that God has given to us, so that in all that we do we give praise and glory to God and give to our Mother a great reason to rejoice as she holds us in her heart and ponders the mystery and the reality of each and every one of us.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ A Voice in the Desert

Fr. Robert Altier ~ Homily ~ Feast of the Holy Family! ~ Let Us Imitate the Holy Family in All Ways!

2010-12-26T08:03:00.006-06:00

Prayer in Honor of the Holy Family

Lord Jesus Christ,
who, being made subject to Mary and Joseph,
didst consecrate domestic life
by Thine ineffable virtues;
grant that we,
with the assistance of both,
may be taught by the example
of Thy Holy Family
and may attain to its everlasting fellowship.
Who livest and reignest forever. Amen.

God’s Plan for the Survival of the Family

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
Feast of the Holy Family
From: 26 December 2004

Reading I (Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14)
Reading II (Colossians 3:12-21)
Gospel (St. Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23)

Today we celebrate a feast that in our society has become really one of the most important of the liturgical events of the year, that is, the Feast of the Holy Family. This is something that just a couple of generations ago nobody would have believed would have had the kind of importance that it does today, because everybody understood that the family is the foundation of the Church and of society, and everything within the Church and within society was at the support of the family. But that has changed. Everything within the Church certainly (at least in Her official teachings) is still at the support of the family, but society has changed very drastically in the last couple of generations. It has turned against its own self because it is attacking its own foundation.

Consequently, what is happening in our society is that we are trying to redefine what a family is. It has become anything that anyone wants it to be. If two people live together outside of marriage, that has become a family. If two people of the same sex want to say that they are “in love” with one another, that is a family. If you have all sorts of bizarre arrangements of differing groups of people – as it has become now, they switch off and do various things – they call that a family. And the ones who are paying a price for this are the innocent: the children. So today we have young people who have no conscience. We have young people who do not know who they are as human beings, as male or female. They do not know how to be in a relationship because the very relationship that is supposed to model for them what a family is, and what a male-female relationship is to be, has been completely destroyed or has been altered to such a degree that one can hardly recognize it anymore. Consequently we have very, very confused young people.

The tragedy of this is that in the next generation we have all kinds of young people who are going to try to get married, but they do not know what marriage even is because they have not seen it and they have not experienced it. Because they are human, their hearts, like all of ours, long to be loved and long to give love, but they do not even know what it is because they have not experienced that either. In all too many situations in our society, two very selfish people beget children; and rather than loving them, these two individuals who begot the child continue to be totally selfish. We stick children in front of the TV now for hours to baby-sit them. We give them violent videogames so they learn from an early age that killing is not a problem. We present them with all sorts of immoral things. We have children now who can run around the Internet far better than most adults can. And I suspect that most of us have probably heard that the vast majority of the queries on the Internet are all about sex. Considering the age of the people who are often on the Internet, that should tell us exactly what is happening to these precious young minds. So we see that in this redefinition of the family that is being attempted in our society, not only is the family being destroyed, but the most precious commodity that any society has is being destroyed – and that is our beautiful children. Because of this, the society itself is being destroyed.

The answer to all of these problems is a very simple one, but it requires that we are going to have to go against the grain of society. The answer is the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony and the family, not the way that society has defined the family to be, but the way that God has defined the family to be. So we need to look at the factors that are present that are destroying the fibers of the family.

We have to begin with the very dignity of the human person. Even before we look at the dignity of the human person in general, we need to recognize first and foremost the dignity of the one who is the foundation of the family, that is, the woman. In our society, women have been relegated to objects. They are not only just mere objects, but they are disposable objects in this disposable society. Little girls are being taught from all of the filth they see all over the place that they are created to be ogled. Little boys are being taught that it is perfectly acceptable to look at little girls in a way that is completely inappropriate. We now have young women running around wearing hardly anything because they believe that is what they are supposed to be doing. Everybody else, of course, is doing it, so that supposedly makes it okay.

We have young men who are addicted to pornography. The addiction to pornography is extremely serious, not merely that it is an epidemic, but it is more difficult to overcome an addiction to pornography than it is to overcome an addiction to drugs. And do not think this is some merely harmless thing, because, as I continually point out in the confessional, if you look at one woman as an object and you make her into a thing and violate her dignity, you cannot go home and treat your wife with the dignity of a person and love her. If one woman is an object, so is the next. Gentlemen, all you need to do is take the logic and run it out. If one woman who is allowing her own self to be violated by removing her clothing and allowing her pictures to be portrayed all over the place, that does not give any of us a right, just because she is presenting herself in an undignified way, to violate her dignity as well. She is still a human person made in the image and likeness of God, and she still has the full dignity that God has given to her, even if she herself is not upholding it. We do not have a right to fail to uphold it. But if that young woman is just a thing for us to be lusting after, then not only is your wife in that same position, but so is your daughter, and so is your mother, and so is every other woman.

It does not just stop with the idea that women are objects to be ogled because now they can be objects to be used. If a woman can be looked at in an impure way, she can also be approached and violated in an impure way. And our society is more than happy to present the opportunity to do so. Contraception is the single largest reason for the breakdown of marriage, and it is completely destructive of human dignity. What happens automatically when two people introduce contraception into their relationship is that the marital union becomes selfish, which is exactly the opposite of what God intended it to be. It becomes two people using one another for their own selfish pleasure, having no responsibility, and giving no gift.

In marriage, the way that God has given it to us, when two people are married their souls are united. There is a spiritual union of a husband and a wife, and the two become one. The marital embrace is the very sign of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. If that sign is undermined and destroyed, the marriage is going to be undermined and destroyed. Put it into a different context for a moment. The Mass is the greatest expression of the priesthood. What would you think if a priest were at the altar being completely irreverent, not properly vested, not using the proper matter and form for the sacraments, doing all kinds of foolish and unfortunate things at the altar of God? I would hope that you would be duly outraged by the sacrilege that is happening. If the union of husband and wife in their physical embrace is the very sign of their marriage, what does it say about how much they think of their marriage if they are going to destroy the very sign of that marriage?

On the day that a couple gets married, they vow to one another and to God that they will love each other every day for the rest of their lives. As soon as they contracept, it is no longer an act of love – it is an act of using one another – and it violates not only the dignity of the person, but it violates the marriage vows and it violates the very purpose of human sexuality as God has created it. It undermines everything in the marriage. If it is okay to use one another in that perspective, then it is perfectly acceptable to use one another in any other form. This is exactly what our children are seeing: two parents who have no respect for one another, two parents who do not love one another, because we have two parents who are being selfish toward one another.

What we need to do is get back to the very basics of what God Himself has given to us in marriage. We hear it at the end of the second reading today. After Saint Paul tells us that we are to practice patience, meekness, humility, and so on, he tells us then that we have to put all of this together and bind it up with love. And then he tells us what people in our society do not understand and do not want to hear: Wives, be subordinate to your husbands; and husbands, love your wives. This does not mean, “Women, you are now the slave of the household; and husbands, you can just snap your finger and think your wife should do anything you want.” But rather, the word subordinate means “to be under the order of”. That does not mean to be “under order to”, but rather “under the order of”. So what is the order that is given to the husband? To love his wife. That means to seek her good, to always serve her, to do what is the best for her. And so to be under the order of means “to be beneath the order of your husband”; in other words, to allow yourself to be loved and to love in return. It is a very different perspective than what most people think when they read these readings, but it is absolutely essential. If the two people love one another and allow themselves to be loved by one another, they build one another up and they help one another to grow in holiness.

The marital union of husband and wife must be a prayer. It is holy. It is the sign of your sacrament. Again, what would you say about a priest at the altar who is not praying? I would say the exact same thing about a married couple who is using one another, where their embrace is not something that is holy but just the opposite. Because the marriage is a spiritual union first and foremost, it must be built up spiritually. A couple has to pray together, and then that spiritual union is going to have a spiritual expression in the physical realm when the two are united in marriage. When the couple is accepting their own dignity – first of all, as male and female, when they accept and uphold the dignity of the other as male and female, when they are building up their marriage through spirituality and prayer, and when the expression of their marriage becomes something which is truly holy – there is going to be an unbreakable foundation and the children that issue forth from that union are going to see the example of two people who truly love one another, and they are going to understand who they are.

A child is the living, tangible, and fleshed sign of the love of a husband and a wife. When you look at your children as a married person, you should be able to see in that beautiful little face the love you have for your spouse and the love your spouse has for you in a living human form. That is why children are to be conceived in love, raised in love, and filled with love. They are to understand and experience love, not only by what their parents shower upon them, but especially by the example that they see in the marriage union in the relationship of their parents. That is the call that is given to married couples. That is the call that is given to the Christian family: to be holy, to help one another to become saints, and to raise up new saints for God. There is only one way that we can become saints, and that is to love, to become who God created us to be, and to raise up children to be the persons God created them to be.

So this Feast of the Holy Family is a time, once again, for married couples to renew their commitment, to look at the love of Our Lady and Saint Joseph, to model themselves after such perfect love, to accept their own dignity, the dignity of their spouse and the dignity that God has given to the two of them in re-creating them to become one on the day that they got married, to build up that unity through prayer and through true love, so that the end result will be two saints who are parents and a multitude of new saints who are their children.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Fr. Robert Altier's ~ Christmas Homily ~ Behold the Christ Child ~ Savior of All!

2010-12-24T09:34:00.006-06:00

Christmas Day
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Saturday ~ 25 December 2004

Reading I (Isaiah 9:1-6)
Reading II (Titus 2:11-14)
Gospel (St. Luke 2:1-14)

Like so many things in God’s Providence, today is a feast of irony. Today, however, is a day upon which the most extraordinary things are celebrated. Not merely the most obvious, for instance, the fact that the Creator became a creature, that God Who sustains all things became dependent on a human woman to sustain Him, that God Who has no beginning in time suddenly in His human nature has a beginning in time, and all of these sorts of things that we can see, but there is even more.

Saint Paul, in the second reading today that we heard from his Letter to Titus, says something that is really extraordinary. He says, The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways. The grace of God has appeared… When you just ponder that for a moment, you begin to see the extraordinary nature of what he is saying. The grace of God is His life. The grace of God is what is given to each one of us when we are not in the state of mortal sin. It is given initially at Baptism, and if all of our mortal sins have been forgiven then the grace of God dwells within our souls. And along with that grace, because it is the very life of God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit dwell within our souls. They are able to do that because they have no body. Therefore, because they can be in all places at all times it is not anything that is difficult for them.

But now the grace of God has appeared. So as Saint Paul says in his Letter to the Philippians, Jesus is the image of the invisible God. God, by His very nature, has no body. There is nothing visible that we can look at; there is no appearance for us to be able to grasp. Yet, this day two thousand years ago, our Blessed Lord was born as a human baby. He did this for us because He created us as sensible people. “Sensible” meaning that what we receive is received through the senses: we see, we taste, we smell, we touch, we hear. When sinful humanity refused to believe in the love of God and to trust in His mercy and His promises, God did something that was truly extraordinary by its nature and purely love in its essence: He became one of us so we could see Him, so we could touch Him, so we could hear Him.

If we even just think about our own selves and how we would deal with something, if somebody whom we loved were in trouble, if there was an emergency of some sort that occurred, we would say to the person, “I will be right there.” You do not merely call the person on the phone at that point and talk to them. When someone is truly in need, we still recognize the necessity of being there in person, of being able to be present to the person so they can see us, they can touch us, they can hear us. On the telephone, certainly, they can hear, but there is something much more to actually being present in person. God, of course, is always present to us but our senses cannot perceive Him. And because we cannot perceive Him, all too often humanity chose not to believe. So God in His mercy recognized, in essence, the “emergency situation” and He came to us. He did not just stay up in heaven and say, “Look, I am real. Believe. I have told you all about Myself; just read the Scriptures and trust and believe.” He could have done that, but instead He said to us, “I will be right there. I will come to you. I will show you.”

We do the exact same thing (again, in our humanness) when somebody tells us that they love us. While we do not say this in words, in the depths of our beings we say to ourselves, “Prove it. How do I know that they are not just words? How do I know that you’re not just saying that to manipulate me, to try to get something for yourself? How do I know that you really, truly love me?” Well, Saint Paul, in this same Letter to Titus, goes on to say, The kindness and the generous love of God our Savior have appeared. Again, think about that. The love of God has appeared. Jesus is the grace of God, and God is love (as Saint John tells us); therefore, when Jesus came to us in human form, the love of God appeared to us in human form because Jesus is a divine Person from all eternity. When Jesus Christ took on human flesh, He did not cease to be the very Person that He had been from all eternity because God cannot change. Remember always that Jesus did not become a human person. Jesus became a human being but His person remains divine. It always was and it always will be; He cannot be anything different. And since God is love, the very Person of Jesus Christ, Who is the Second Person of the Trinity, is love by His very nature. So when He came down to us as a divine Person Who took on human nature, the love of God appeared in human form.

And how can anyone deny the love of a baby? Any parent knows fully well the love of a child. All that you do with a baby is love them. They are the most vulnerable of creatures and they are the most lovable of creatures. Only the most hardened of heart cannot love a baby. So if the love of God is going to appear, how is He going to do it? Love by its very nature is something which is vulnerable. In order to love, it requires a risk. And so He made Himself to be as vulnerable as a human being can be, completely dependent upon His mother and presented to each and every one of us as Love in a way that we will not be afraid. No one is afraid of a baby. There are people who are afraid to hold a baby because they think the baby is going to break or that they are going to drop the child. But no one is afraid of the baby because they know the baby is not going to hurt them. How many people in this world who have suffered abuse, who have been rejected and down-trodden by so many people, take those experiences and place them on God and think He is going to do the exact same thing that others have done to them? And so the Lord comes to us in a form that we can recognize we will not be rejected, we will not be hurt, and we will not be violated. We do not have to be afraid. We do not have to fear to come to Him because He Himself is vulnerable. We only have to fear when we are afraid of what the other person is going to do to us. The only thing He is going to ask of us is that we too would be vulnerable with Him. But you notice that He does not ask anything of us that He was not willing to do Himself.

Once again, it is what Saint Paul told us in his Letter to Titus, that we await the glorious appearance of our great God. He will return in His glory, but for now what we are celebrating is the glory of God in human form. When you look at the very reason why Jesus came into this world, it was to save us. And so if you look thirty-three years later to a Man upon a Cross, once again you see complete and total vulnerability. The word vulnerable comes from the Latin word that means “wound”. Look at the Cross and look at the wounds of Our Lord. There is nothing there on the Cross to push us away. His arms are wide open. His heart is wide open as it is pierced. There is nothing there that says, “I do not want you; I do not welcome you,” or even, “I do not love you,” but just the opposite. It is the invitation to us to come to Him.

Thirty-three years after His birth, Our Lord was laid in a stone tomb and He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. On the day of His birth, He was laid in a stone manger. The manger is not the barn; the manger is the feeding trough. In ancient Israel, the feeding trough was always made out of stone, not out of wood. It would stand about four feet high and it would look sort of like a rectangular basin. They carved out of the stone the basin where they would put the food for the animals, or the water. And so here is a Baby who is wrapped in swaddling clothes, the clothes of the dead, and He is placed in a stone manger which would be very similar to the tomb He would be placed in thirty-three years later. He came into this world for one purpose, and that was to die for us.

In so doing, Saint Paul tells us that He came to save us and train us to reject godless ways. We live in a godless society, but God is with us. Emmanuel, He is with us. He has come to us in a way that we can understand and accept, and He remains in us; not only dwelling within us when we are in the state of grace, but present among us in the Blessed Sacrament, where still He makes Himself completely vulnerable. There are no defenses that are up in the Blessed Sacrament. We either can receive Him with the greatest tenderness and care as we would a little baby, or we can reject Him and try to destroy Him, as evil people did on Calvary, and He will not put up a defense. You see the vulnerability of our God made flesh for us, the Eternal Word spoken by God Who took on our human nature so that we could have life, divine life, eternal life. That is what we celebrate today.

If there is any fear in your heart, if there is any doubt in your mind, stop over at the crèche after Mass and look at the Baby. Look at His vulnerability, look at His humility, look at the love of God in human form and believe. Let your guard down, put the defenses down, and open your heart to receive on this beautiful feast the love of God made visible so that we could receive Him and so that we would doubt no longer but believe.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice
~ ~ ~

What Child is This ~ Mercy Me
~ ~ ~

Luke 2:6 -14
And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"

Homilies ~ Frs. Robert Altier & Dominic Murphy ~ A Mighty Savior ~ Raised Up for Us! God is Faithful! Trust in the Lord God Almighty!

2010-12-24T07:34:00.007-06:00

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Friday ~ 24 December 2004

Reading (2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16)
Gospel (St. Luke 1:67-79)

In the first reading today, we hear the promise God made to David that one of his sons would sit upon his throne forever and that his throne would remain firm before God forever. Now if we look at things from a perspective of history, we know that after fifty kings there no longer was a king in Israel; and for a couple of hundred years before Our Lord was born, there was not a king who was from the house of David. So it appears on the natural level that God’s promise was not fulfilled. The people of Israel who would be faithful to the Lord would have to continue to trust; they would have to continue to have faith that God’s promise is fulfilled even though it appears that it has not been – in fact, it appears that just the opposite has occurred.

Well, when we look at what Zechariah says at the time that his son is born (his son being, of course, Saint John the Baptist), he proclaims this canticle that we just heard in the Gospel and he talks about how God has raised up for us a mighty savior born of the house of His servant David. For the faithful Israelites, they did not know how God was going to fulfill this promise. They knew that He would. They knew that there was the promise of a Messiah. They knew He would fulfill the promises made to Abraham, and so we have that promise right in the canticle as well. This was the oath He swore to our father Abraham, he says. We hear about the promise to David, the promise to Abraham, the promise that God would raise up a Messiah after the house of David. It was to be understood in a spiritual way, not in a physical way, but that is not the way most people would think of it.

This is the way that God requires faith of us, because He will fulfill all of His promises and He will fulfill them perfectly. But He will not fulfill most of them, at least, in the way that on the natural level one would think they ought to be fulfilled. We would naturally look at something and say, “This is what He promised and this is what it means.” Well, that is not necessarily what it means, because we know when Our Lord was conceived that Our Lady was told by the angel that her Son would sit upon the throne of David forever and of His kingdom there would be no end. So the fulfillment of God’s promise was far greater than what anybody in ancient Israel could ever have imagined.

What we tend to do is to hold God to a very low standard. God, on the other hand, is trying to hold us to a much higher standard. We keep trying to bring God down to our level, and it is not ever going to work because the only way we are ever going to be able to go to heaven is if we go to God’s level. He has already done His part in coming to us. Now He has given us a share in His divine nature, so we have the capacity to go to Him, to rise up to a divine level. God is not going to ask small things of us, He is not going to ask that we would have just a little bit of faith in some natural-level promises, but rather what He is going to ask is that we would practice extraordinary faith in supernatural promises, in promises that are going to be fulfilled spiritually, in promises that when you look at the letter of the promise you are going to be able to say (as you chuckle to yourself), “He fulfilled it exactly the way that He said He was going to, but not in the way that I ever would have thought,” which is why when God makes certain promises we need to be very careful not to try to assume that we know what they mean because that is what is going to get us into trouble. What we need simply to do is have faith that since God is the One Who made the promise – and God is faithful – He will fulfill the promise, but not necessarily the way we think it ought to be fulfilled. The part that is so important is not to try to put our preconceived ideas onto God, but rather through prayer to allow God to show us what His intention is, what He meant when He made the various promises.

What He is going to require of us is exactly what He required of Israel, that we will walk in the darkness, that it will appear that God’s promises have not been fulfilled – in fact, it would appear that just the opposite has occurred – because then and only then are we operating solely by faith to be able to say, “I know what God promised and it looks like it has gone completely astray, but I believe that God is going to fulfill His promise in a way that I could never imagine. Who in ancient Israel would ever have imagined the way that God’s promise was fulfilled? Even though we know how the promise is fulfilled of the coming of the Messiah, of His being seated upon the throne of David, of the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and so on, if we really stopped to pray about it, not just to say, “Oh yeah, I know what happened,” but to really, really pray about it, it would still boggle our minds, it would still be beyond what we could ever ask for or imagine, and it would still require absolute and total faith because there is no way you can ever prove that Jesus Christ is God. There is no way you can prove that Jesus is seated upon the throne of David forever. You cannot prove that Jesus is in heaven and seated at the right hand of His Father. These things still require faith. We know they are true. We cannot see them, we cannot prove them, and so it is still a walk in the darkness of faith that we believe because God has promised. And the Lord has made many promises, a number of which have not yet been fulfilled, but every last one of them will be. They will be fulfilled completely and perfectly, not according to our standards but according to God’s.

So we need to learn from this, as well as so many of the other promises that God fulfilled already, not to bring God down to our level, but to allow Him to raise us up to His level so we can understand His promises according to His terms and we will then be able in faith to accept them and to know that they will be fulfilled perfectly and completely.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

~ ~ ~

Fr. Dominic Murphy
The Dawn from on High
AirMaria ~Breath Freely

Fourth Sunday of Advent ~ Fr. Robert Altier ~ Wonderful Homily ~ True God & True Man ~ Our Lord & Savior!

2010-12-18T17:56:00.007-06:00

Catholic Collect for the
Fourth Sunday of Advent

Pour forth thy power, O Lord, and come:
Assist us by that mighty power,
so that by thy grace and merciful kindness
we may swiftly receive the salvation that our sins impede:
Who livest and reignest with thee
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
ever one God, world without end. Amen.

~ ~ ~

Fourth Sunday of Advent
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Sunday ~ 19 December 2004

Reading I (Isaiah 7:10-14)
Reading II (Romans 1:1-7)
Gospel (St. Matthew 1:18-24)

In the first reading today from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we hear one of the most well known passages in all of Scripture and yet one of the most extraordinary. Here we have the prophet Isaiah being sent by God to King Ahaz, who was a pretty unfortunate soul to say the least. He was the king in Israel who had done many, many, many, bad things and led the Israelite people into all kinds of sin. Suddenly, this man who had done so much against God is doubting, and God sends the prophet to be able to say to him, “Ask for any sign, whatever it is that you want, as high as the sky, as deep as the netherworld; make it as ridiculous as you want to make it, make it as extraordinary as you want, just go ahead and ask for anything and I will prove to you that I am real.” Suddenly, this horrendously sinful man becomes real pious: “I will not tempt the Lord – I’ll sin against Him all day long, but I’m not going to tempt Him.” And so the Lord Himself gives a sign, a sign that is so extraordinary it could not be missed by anyone, that a virgin shall be with child and will bear a son and they will name him Emmanuel.

Now this prophecy is really just a repeat of the very first prophecy in the very first promise that is contained in Scripture. If you go all the way back to Genesis 3:15, to the passage that is called the Protoevangelium (that means “The First Gospel”) where we are told that there will be enmity between the serpent and the woman, between her seed and his, and that she would crush his vile head, in this prophecy we hear that there is one woman who is going to give birth to one son. But the extraordinary nature of this prophecy is we are told that the seed of the woman is going to be at enmity in this way with the seed of Satan. What is so extraordinary about this is that if you really look at it carefully you recognize it is telling us that it has to be without a male; once again, it is a virgin who is to give birth. What is particularly extraordinary about this is that medicine up until very recently did not even realize the woman had an egg because they could not see it. We are told “the seed of the woman” – but a woman does not have seed, and yet this is exactly what God tells us is going to happen. This would be completely mind-boggling for people especially of the Old Testament times because they would not be able to understand how this could be possible. And so we see God presenting to us the truth of things, even though it was beyond human reason to be able to understand until fairly recently. The fact that a virgin would give birth is still beyond anyone’s understanding because it is completely contrary to nature, but this is exactly what God told us was going to be.

We see further what this son who is the offspring of the woman is going to be like. Saint Paul, in the second reading, tells us that he is descended from the flesh according to David. God had also made promises to David that one of his sons would sit upon the throne, so this is the exact same person who is being spoken of. When we look in the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, we see the genealogy of Jesus and it comes down to Saint Joseph. And we see in the Gospel reading today the story that we all know so well of the conception of our Blessed Lord and how it was through the power of the Holy Spirit that Our Lady conceived, in fulfillment (as Saint Matthew makes very clear) of the prophecy of Isaiah.

Yet we see something else that is happening: The angel tells Saint Joseph not to fear to take Mary as his wife. Just ponder that for a moment. It would be pretty evident to anyone why he would be a little afraid. Not for one split-second did Saint Joseph think that Our Lady had been unfaithful to him. He knew her holiness; they had already agreed that theirs would be a virginal marriage. It was the realization that what was happening inside of this extraordinary woman was so holy that Saint Joseph recognized his own unworthiness to be involved in this mystery. But Saint Joseph’s involvement was absolutely essential because according to Jewish law the moment that a man would accept a woman as his wife and she would step over the threshold of his home the child within her would by law be adopted by that man. So at the moment Saint Joseph received our Blessed Lady into his home, the Child within her womb legally became his child. Biologically, of course, Our Lord was not the child of Saint Joseph; but legally He became the child of Joseph, so He could truly be legally called “the son of the carpenter.” He was indeed, then, a son of David. He was also a son of David through Our Lady. Today, Judaism is what is known as a matriarchal society; if your mother is Jewish then you are Jewish, but if your mother is not then you are not. But in the ancient world it was still a patriarchal society, and therefore the fact of having to have a father who was descended from David was essential for Our Lord.

Why is this so important? What the Church is giving us these readings for today is to demonstrate the truth of the humanity of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God from all eternity. He is a divine person from all eternity Who took to Himself our human nature. There are some who would like to say, “Because He is God, being human is beneath His dignity, so He didn’t really become a human being.” If Jesus did not become fully human, then we are not redeemed. There are some who would like to say, “He did not take on a human soul, just a human body.” If that is the case, then our souls have not been saved. There are some who would say, “He took on a human soul, but certainly not a human body. He just made it look like He had a body, but He really didn’t.” That means our bodies have no part of redemption. The reality is that He became fully human. He is not a human person – He is a divine person – and because He is a divine person that cannot change. The Second Person of the Trinity took to Himself a human nature, a human soul and a human body with human blood flowing through His veins. That is why in the Eucharist we talk about the Body, the Blood, the Soul, and the Divinity of Christ, because it is the fullness of the person of Jesus Christ.

Now as we look at this extraordinary mystery of the Incarnation of Our Lord, we recognize also that as God He has no beginning and He will have no end. Yet, because He took a human nature to Himself, in His humanity He has a beginning. He became flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He created her so that He could become created in her. As God, of course, He is uncreated; but, in His humanity, He has a created nature. He did not need to have a mother (and as God He does not have a mother), but because God decreed from all eternity that His Son would become man and would be born of a woman, it became necessary because it was the Will of God. Our Lord humbled Himself to share in our humanity in every way, to begin as the tiniest little baby in His mother’s womb and to be born of a woman. In this way, it helps each one of us to be able to see that we have been incorporated into the mystery of the Incarnation, because in Baptism we become members of Jesus Christ. Jesus, Who is God from all eternity, takes on our human nature; in Baptism, we, who are human by nature, take on the divine nature. As the saints have told us: God became man so that man could become God. Not that we become God per se, but rather we become partakes, as Saint Peter tells us, of the divine nature. We share in His nature as He has humbled Himself to share in ours; the difference being that His is a substantial union and ours is not. Nonetheless, it is a real participation in the divinity of Christ.

Our Lord, in taking on our humanity, has come into this world to save us from our sins; but, in His mercy and generosity, that was not enough for Him. He did not just take away our sins, but He elevated us to a divine level, which means we have the capacity to act as divine beings, that is, to act in a divine manner. Not that we are ever going to be God (again, we cannot), but because we share in His divinity we can act the way Jesus did, we can continue to live the life of Jesus even now. And so the Church gives us these readings right before Christmas so as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Birth of Our Lord into this world that we will meditate deeply and profoundly upon this mystery of the Incarnation, that we will consider the reality of Who Jesus Christ is, not only in His divinity but particularly in His humanity, and that we will recognize the miracle of Who He is in His birth, the miracle beyond the normal miracle of every child who is conceived and born, the absolute and extraordinary miracle of God becoming man, of a virgin being a mother, of a woman having seed, of Him being of the flesh according to David because of a father who was not part of His conception.

As you meditate upon these things in this upcoming week, ponder also the reality that is you, that is, the reality that you are part of this mystery, that you have been incorporated into the Incarnation, and that you are invited by Our Lord to share in this glorious mystery. That is your dignity. As He humbled Himself to become one of us, He has exalted us to become part of Himself. This mystery of the Incarnation and of the Birth of Our Lord is not something that we merely look at from a distance of two thousand years and hold at an arm’s length, but rather it is something into which each one of us is fully incorporated. It is something of which we are a part, and it tells us the very essence of the dignity and reality of who we are. So use this last week to prepare your hearts, your souls, for the birth of our Savior. But recognize the reality, not only of Who He is, but of who you are and of your invitation to enter into and to be part of the very mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

~ ~ ~
Veni Veni Emmanuel
Wyoming Catholic College

Fr. Frank Pavone ~ No Room in the Inn ~ Will You Welcome Him?!

2010-12-16T10:25:00.008-06:00

A Deeper Understanding of the Incarnation

Christmas is Not Merely an Event of the Past

No Room in the Inn

~ From Fr. Frank Pavone's Blog

“She wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).

The fact that there was no room for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in the inn at Bethlehem on the first Christmas should make us wonder, because the birth of Christ was foreseen and planned by God from all eternity. Hundreds of years before it happened, the prophets announced he would be born of a virgin (Is. 7:14) and that Bethlehem would be his birthplace (Micah 5:2). Many other details of his life and death were also foretold. Did God, then, forget to make room for his only Son? How is it possible that there was no room, when the child born at Christmas owns the inn, and Bethlehem, and the world, and every inch of room in the whole universe?

Obviously, God did this on purpose. There was no room in the inn, because this demonstrates that the world has rejected God. The world makes no room for the God who created it. There was no room in the inn because God wanted to show that His Son comes as a Savior, to reconcile a world that is at enmity with God. Being turned away from the inn foreshadows the fact that the Savior himself will be rejected, despised, and ultimately crucified, and that all this was part of God’s plan from all eternity. Ultimately, the lack of room in the inn symbolizes the lack of room we make for him in our hearts. When our hearts are filled with all kinds of other desires than God, we gradually crowd him out altogether.

No room at the inn also means that we fail to make room for our brothers and sisters. The first great commandment is to love God, and the second is like it: Love your neighbor. Christ willed to be left out, because he is always in solidarity with those who are left out, shut out, and crowded out. That is the position of the unborn children today. They are crowded out of the busy schedules of so many people doing so many good and important things, but who don’t have a finger to lift to protect the lives of these children from abortion. They are crowded out of legislative agendas, preaching schedules, career plans, and volunteer activities. There’s just too much going on already; there’s no room in the inn.

Christ comes at Christmas to change all that. Today, he does not seek an inn; he seeks room in our own hearts and lives. And he asks that as we welcome him, we welcome everyone whom he welcomes, including the children most defenseless and forgotten. We welcome the Divine Child, and in doing so, we welcome every child. As we celebrate Christmas, we sing in “O Holy Night” the words, “Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease.” Amen! Let oppression cease and let Christmas come for the unborn!

~ ~ ~

O Holy Night

sung by Adrian Alcantar

Matthew 22: 36-40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

Fr. Robert Altier ~Homily ~ Third Sunday of Advent ~ Rejoice!

2010-12-11T17:12:00.005-06:00

Catholic Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent

Pour forth thy power, O Lord, and come:
Assist us by that mighty power,
so that by thy grace and merciful kindness
we may swiftly receive the salvation that our sins impede:
Who livest and reignest with thee
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
ever one God, world without end. Amen.

~ ~ ~

Third Sunday of Advent
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Sunday ~ 12 December 2004

Reading I (Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10)
Reading II (James 5:7-10)
Gospel (St. Matthew 11:2-11)

Today the Church celebrates what is called “Gaudete Sunday.” The word gaudete means “rejoice.” If we look at the entrance antiphon from this morning’s Mass, the first word is “rejoice,” and that is where the name for this week comes from, the very first word that would be spoken at the beginning of the Mass. Now one would ask why it is that we would be rejoicing if it is a season of penance. It is precisely because we have made our way more than halfway through this season and the day of the celebration of Christmas is drawing near. So on this day, as well as on the fourth Sunday of Lent, the Church prescribes that rose-colored vestments be worn, rose being the halfway mark between the purple of the penance and the white of the celebration of the feast of Christmas. It is a sign of hope that is in the midst of our penance to encourage us to keep going and remind us that we have made it more than halfway there and we just have a little way to go.

And there is great reason for rejoicing as we look at the readings that the Church has given us for today. We hear in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah that the desert and the parched land will exalt, the steppe is going to bloom. We think about what this really means. Certainly, on the natural level, it implies that those areas that are barren, that are dry, where there is nothing growing, are suddenly going to burst forth with new life; and not just any variety, but we are told that the glory and the splendor of Carmel and Sharon are going to be given to them. Carmel and Sharon are two mountains in the Holy Land that are particularly lush and green with beautiful evergreens and flowers and springs around the mountains, and so the glory of these mountains is what is going to be given even to these barren places.

Now if apply these things to ourselves, we might be very quick to point out that our souls sometimes are very much like a desert, like the wilderness. They are barren, they are dry, and they are dark. There are various reasons for that. Anyone who has been serious about the prayer life knows very well that the majority of time in prayer is spent in darkness and dryness. Sometimes it seems that God is a million miles away and we cannot find Him. People think they are doing something wrong when that happens in prayer, and they say things like “God is nowhere around,” “I’m not getting anything out of it,” “I shouldn’t be wasting my time trying to do this because I can’t do it well.” The saints, on the other hand, tell us that when things are dry and difficult in prayer is actually when we are getting the most out of prayer, just the opposite of what it feels like. They would encourage us, of course, to persevere, to keep going and to wait (as Saint James tells us) in patience as we await the precious yield that is going to burst forth in the darkness and the dryness of the desert of our souls.

But there are other ways that our souls can be a desert. Anyone who is in the state of mortal sin is deprived of divine life. The grace of God is not there, and therefore the dew which brings forth the vegetation, the rain which is going to provide for the growth and for the glory and the bursting forth of these flowers that are foretold is not present in a soul that is in the state of mortal sin. If that is the case, if you look within your own heart and you recognize that there is mortal sin there that has not been confessed, then that is the first thing you have to do. You need to get very quickly to confession. You need to confess your sins and be forgiven so the divine life once again is there, and you will indeed experience the beauty and the glory that God is going to bestow upon your soul because in that case – literally, in an instant – you go from being a barren wasteland to being filled with the glory of God. Indeed, your soul will be bursting forth with new life and the glory of God’s holy mountains will be given to you.

But all of us, in the readings today, are called to holiness. If we listen to what Our Lord speaks about in the Gospel reading today, He talks about Saint John the Baptist and calls him the greatest man born of woman. With that in mind, we can look at that and say, “If this is the case, why?” It is because Saint John the Baptist was born without Original Sin. He was conceived with Original Sin, but at the Visitation when Our Lady went to visit Saint Elizabeth, when Our Lady’s greeting entered the ears of Saint Elizabeth, Saint John the Baptist, in her womb, leapt for joy. At that moment Original Sin was removed from his soul so that he was born without Original Sin. And yet Our Lord speaks to us and says that the least born into the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist. That is you. You have been born into the kingdom of heaven because you are baptized into Jesus Christ. And if you are greater than John the Baptist because of the grace of God which is in your soul, look at the holiness that incredible man achieved and now ask yourself, “If that’s the case, what is God asking of me?” If by grace we are higher than John the Baptist was by nature – and that is the case – then God is calling each one of us to profound holiness.

So we can begin, as we already have, with those who are in the state of sin. We need to begin by getting rid of the sin, because if we are in the state of mortal sin we have cut ourselves off from Christ. If that is the case, we are a living contradiction because on one hand, being baptized into Christ, we say we are members of Christ, but because of our sin we have removed ourselves from Him. It is a schizophrenic existence that we live because at the same time we are saying we are members of Jesus but we are not. We want to be one with Him but we do not want Him. We desire the divine life in heaven but we have chosen the opposite. So we need to repent, we need to confess our sins, and be forgiven.

There is only one place in this world where mortal sins will be forgiven, and that is in the confessional. If it has been a long time since you have been to confession, if you have not heard those beautiful words, “I absolve you of your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” then come to Jesus. The devil is a liar and he is the one telling you that you should not go. He is the one telling you that you need to be afraid. There is nothing at all to fear in the confessional – it is the tribunal of mercy, it is the place where Jesus extends to you His mercy and His forgiveness. You are not there to be yelled at; you are not there to be ridiculed; you are there to be forgiven. All that is asked is to make the act of the will, to humble yourself, to come before the mercy of God, and to open your soul to receive His forgiveness. Remember the consequences on either side. If we die in the state of mortal sin, we cannot go to heaven. There is no forgiveness on the other side. So for anybody who has bought into the devil’s lie that after your die you can stand before God and He will forgive you, that is wrong. That is the devil tricking you so you can spend eternity with Him. There is only forgiveness in this life, not in the next. And if we come before the Lord and confess our sins humbly and honestly, our sins will be destroyed. He will literally remove your sins from your soul and they will never be heard of again, ever. Even on the day when you stand before Christ for judgment, you will not hear about the sins that you have confessed and that have been forgiven in the confessional. All that is asked is one small act of humility, and the mercy of God is yours. Your soul will burst forth with new life, a new life that you perhaps have not known for a long time if you have fallen headlong into sin that has not yet been forgiven.

But we are not called merely to overcome mortal sin in our lives; we are called to be saints. If you have been able to overcome mortal sin, you need to praise God; but you need then to work on your venial sins and get rid of them. They are actually much more difficult to get rid of than the mortal sins because they are much more entrenched, they are much more a part of our personality, and they take a lot more effort to get rid of. If you have overcome venial sin in your life, then it is time to work on the imperfections, starting with the voluntary imperfections and then moving to the involuntary imperfections. Regardless, we are called to holiness. If we look at what Saint James tells us we are to be about, he says that we are to be patient; he says also that we are not to complain and that we are not to judge. The only ones who will not be complaining and will not be judging are very saintly people. For the rest of us, complaining and judging come pretty quickly and pretty easily, sadly. If we are called to the kind of holiness that is to overcome even complaining, judging, and impatience, that is a very, very great level of holiness because the last thing to go before perfection is our desire to judge.

So that is what we are being called to, and this will only happen through prayer, through effort on our part. We have to really want it, to desire it. But if we enter into prayer and into the darkness and the dryness, out into the desert (which is the norm for the prayer life), it is through that that we will be purified, we will be strengthened, and all of the things spoken of by the prophet Isaiah will be ours. The spiritual blindness will suddenly be removed and we will be able to see the glory of God. The spiritual deafness will be gone and we will be able to follow the voice of our Good Shepherd. Our spiritual paralysis will be removed and we will be able to leap like a stag. All of the things that seem to be so contrary will be healed within us, and truly then our souls will be bursting forth with new life.

It is in this way that we also demonstrate ourselves to be united with Christ. Last week in the readings we heard about the shoot that will sprout from the stump of Jesse, a bud that is going to blossom from the roots. Well, that is what we have the opportunity to do, to enter into the desert of our souls and to watch them be transformed so that from this seemingly dead stump new life will burst forth; and the bud that is going to blossom within each one of us is none other than Jesus Christ. That is the glory being offered to each of us. It is the glory of our call, of our dignity as members of Jesus Christ, to reflect upon that reality that Our Lord speaks of in the Gospel, and to recognize that by grace through Baptism we are higher than what Saint John the Baptist was by birth. And when we look at the greatness of that man whom God chose to be His forerunner, then we recognize also the greatness to which He is calling each of us, not merely to overcome mortal sin, but to strive for great holiness, to overcome every imperfection, to get rid of everything which is not of Christ, so that in the desert of our souls new life is going to burst forth. As on Christmas in the darkness of the year, the Light of the world will enter, so that in the darkness and the dryness of our prayer life, of our hearts, the light of Christ will shine forth and the glory of God will be given to us.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe ~ Homily by Fr. Robert Altier ~ Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of the Americas, Patroness of the Unborn, Pray for Us!

2010-12-10T16:10:00.009-06:00

The Miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Friday ~ 12 December 2003
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Reading (Zechariah 2:14-17)
Gospel (St. Luke 1:39-47)

Today we celebrate the feast of the Queen of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Today we celebrate the day that Our Lady, 472 years ago, presented herself in a most marvelous fashion. We all know the story of how she appeared to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac. The bishop would not listen, as one could understand. If somebody showed up at your house and said, “Guess what! The Blessed Mother just appeared to me this morning and said she wants a temple built in her honor,” what would you do? You are probably not going to jump up and down for joy and immediately go and start building a temple, because you need some kind of evidence that in fact the person whom you have never met before is not insane or not seeing things or whatever. And so after several days, Our Lady tells Juan Diego to climb to the top of the hill and there he will find some roses; he is to bring those to the bishop and that will be proof to him.

Well, Juan Diego did not know, but the bishop had actually asked Our Lady for a sign because things were not going well in the missions in Mexico. They could not get the people away from their native religion, which included massive human sacrifice – over 50,000 human beings every year being sacrificed by the Aztecs in their various temples. The people were so into the worship of Satan in this way that they were not able to get the people away. Finally, Juan Diego goes to the bishop because the bishop had asked Our Lady for a sign, a sign that would be absolutely unmistakable, that is, that somehow she would give him a Castilian rose. Castilian roses did not grow in Mexico; the only place they grew was in Spain. And it is pretty obvious, with travel the way it was back then, that there was not going to be a rose coming from Spain that would still be alive by the time it got there. But there, at the top of the hill, were a bunch of Castilian roses. So he picked those and put them in his tilma, in his poncho, and brought them to the bishop. When he finally was admitted to the bishop’s presence, he dropped them on the floor. The bishop, seeing the roses, recognized immediately that this was the sign for which he had been seeking to let him know that Our Lady was indeed with him in this mission in Mexico.

But then, as he looked at Juan Diego’s tilma, like a modern-day Polaroid picture Our Lady’s image began to appear. This tilma should have rotted out within 20 to 30 years because it is made out of Maguey cactus fibers. It has been there now for 472 years. It hung outside for quite a while in the weather, and then it hung without any protection and people coming to touch it and venerate the picture in a variety of ways. Now it is behind bulletproof glass, but that is because the Masons tried to blow it up back in 1920. They brought in a vase of roses with a large bomb inside the vase and blew the sanctuary to pieces. Not even the glass in front of Our Lady’s picture, which was just a regular ordinary pane of glass, was even cracked, but the marble in the sanctuary was blown to pieces. They finally put her behind bulletproof glass now so that she cannot be destroyed.

The colors are unknown to humanity, that is, they are unknown to earth; they do not know what they are made out of. Scientists have done tests on them and they cannot find what they are made out of. They have had ophthalmologists come and look into the eyes with their instruments, and they are not painted eyes. When they were done with their tests, the ophthalmologist, three of them together, had to admit that they were looking into real human eyes, just as if they looked into your eyes or mine with their instruments. It is not an ordinary picture. And the most extraordinary thing about this picture, in my opinion, is that it is the only picture that we actually have of Our Blessed Lady. Every other painting or statue of Our Lady is a model that some artist takes and thinks that this woman would be beautiful enough to be thought to be a model for Our Lady. None of them ever work. But this one is the actual picture of Our Lady from heaven. So this is the one, of all the images of Our Lady throughout the world, that is the most perfect and the most extraordinary of all.

Our Lady appeared in a place where they were killing human beings left and right. Sadly, now in our land we are doing the exact same thing. But Our Lady remains with us. A picture that should have disintegrated (at least the tilma that it was on should have disintegrated 450 years ago) is still in perfect condition. There is no change in this beautiful image of Our Lady; she remains with us. And the place where she chose to appear is in the geographic center of the Americas. From east to west and north to south in the Americas – North, Central, and South America – she chose to appear in dead center to be able to show that she is not merely the Queen for the Mexican people but she is the Queen for all of the Americas. She came into a land that was filled with darkness and sin, and she came to bring it light.

So too now, for us, it is the same. There are many people, sadly, who do not even know much about Our Lady of Guadalupe; yet this is the largest pilgrimage shrine in the world. There are more people that go to Guadalupe than Lourdes, Fatima, or anyplace else in the world just to see this extraordinary image and to praise God for sending His mother to save so many. Our Lady appeared almost simultaneously with the time that Martin Luther broke from the Catholic Church. Nine million people in Europe were lost to the Church at the time of the Protestant Revolt. When Our Lady appeared in Mexico, this image was responsible for the single greatest mass conversion in human history: Nine million people joined the Church. And so when we look at what happened in the Church – we lost 9 million in Europe and gained 9 million in the New World – we see how God was going to protect His Church. Now, as far as Catholicism goes, Central and South America are the strongest place in the world.

It is interesting that in Mexico the Masons have run the country since 1920. They forbid religious education; they forbid the priests from wearing clerical garb; they forbid them from being able to go out and bring the Faith to the people. So most of the people of Mexico have a very, very simple faith. They know a little of what it is that their Faith teaches, but the Masons never succeeded in the least in being able to break the people of their faith because they all know Our Lady of Guadalupe, and they all know that she appeared for them and that she appeared to bring them to her Son. That is all they needed to know. Obviously, it would be important for them to learn their faith, but to have that confidence in the Mother of God – it was an unshakeable confidence – that they could rely on God Who was in their midst, as we heard in the reading.

So when we look at that beautiful image of Our Lady, we need to say with Elizabeth, “Who am I that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” She has come to us and she remains with us. She remains there for a reason, that is, to continue to call us to a deeper conversion and to know that God Himself, through the ministry of His own mother, remains present in our midst.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

Molly Chesna Sings

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe,

Pray for Us!

Fr. Bonaventure ~ Beautiful Homily ~ Saint Juan Diego ~ Pray for Us!

2010-12-09T07:40:00.009-06:00

Below is a presentation I gave for my Spanish Class ~ we each had to present someone that is an important person in the Latin Cultures, as well as an important person in our own eyes ~ it was a Great Opportunity for me to share the Faith with my class!

Saint Juan Diego

The man called, the talking Eagle, was born in 1474. He lived in the small town of Tlayacac. It was fifteen miles north of Tenochitlan, which is now known as Mexico City. He was a farmer, a laborer and a weaver. In 1524 he and his wife converted to the Catholic faith. A Franciscan missionary priest baptized him with the Christian name of Juan Diego. His wife was baptized with the name of Maria Lucia. When his wife died two years later, Juan went to live with his uncle Juan Bernardino in the town of Tolpetlac.

Every Saturday and Sunday morning Juan would walk to Mass. He would walk for more than three hours through small towns and mountains. Juan never wore sandals, but he wore a tilma to keep warm. The tilma was made of cactus fibers.

When Juan was fifty seven years old, he woke early on a Saturday morning, to attend mass. It was December ninth, in 1531. It was a special feast day honoring the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Mother of God.

When he approached Tepeyac Hill Juan heard lovely music. Tepeyac Hill was the site of a former pagan temple called Tonantzin. Then he heard the voice of a young woman calling him. At the top of the hill Juan saw the most beautiful Aztec maiden. She was dressed like a princess with colorful clothing. Also, there was a light surrounding her. She said to Juan, “I am the ever virgin Mary, holy Mother of the true God.” She told him, “go and see the Bishop. Tell him that I desire a chapel to be built here. I am your mother, and here I will show my compassion to your people. To all who ask for my help with their work and with their sorrow, I will console them.”

Juan did speak with the Bishop that day, but the Bishop did not believe that Juan had heard the words of the Queen of Heaven. Later that evening Juan told the lady what happened. She asked Juan to return the next day to again speak with the Bishop, to request that a chapel be built. Again Juan spoke with the Bishop. But the Bishop still did not believe him. Bishop Fray Juan de Zummarraga asked that the lady give him a sign, so that he would know the truth.

Before Juan could talk with the lovely lady, his uncle became very sick. Bernardino asked Juan to find a priest to come and hear his last confession, before he died. While on his way, the beautiful lady appeared to him. She told him that his uncle was cured. This was Monday morning, on December twelfth. She then told him to go to the top of the hill and cut the flowers growing there. She told Juan to bring her the flowers. Juan climbed the hill, knowing there could be no flowers growing in the frozen ground, during winter. However, when he reached the top of the hill, there were beautiful roses growing among the cactus and rocks.

The young woman carefully arranged the flowers in Juan’s tilma and instructed him to show them only to the Bishop. She told Juan, “this time he will believe you.”

Juan opened his Tilma in front of bishop Zummarraga, and the roses fell to the ground. Miraculously on the Tilma was the image of the Blessed Virgin Mother, the apparition from Tepeyac Hill. The bishop fell to his knees in prayer. The roses were Castilian roses, which were not grown in Mexico. These roses grew in Spain, where the Bishop was from. The miraculous image remains today, for all to see in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It has been scientifically examined and proved that the image could not have been made by man.

Juan was a man of great faith. He lived the end of his days in a small hut beside the new chapel. Juan would help the people that came seeking the Virgin Mary’s intercession. Juan died at the age of seventy four, in 1548. Juan is a true example to us all today, to live a life of virtue. Juan is a man for all people, especially the people of Latin America.

In 2002, Juan Diego was proclaimed a saint by Pope John Paul II. The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Saint Juan Diego every year on the ninth of December.

~ ~ ~

El hombre llamado, el águila que hablaba, nació en un mil cuatrocientos setenta y cuatro. Vivió en el pequeño de Tlayacac. Fue a quince millas al norte de Tenochitlan, que ahora se conoce como Ciudad de México. Él era granjero, trabajador y tejedor. En un mil quinientos veinticuatro él y su esposa convirtieron a la fe católica. Un sacerdote misionero de la orden franciscano lo bautizó con el nombre cristiano de Juan Diego. Su esposa fue bautizada con el nombre de Maria Lucia. Cuando su esposa se murió dos años más tarde, Juan fue a vivir con su tío Juan Bernardino en el pueblo de Tolpetlac.

Todos los sábados y domingos por la mañana Juan caminaba a misa. Él caminaba por más de tres horas, a través de pequeños pueblos y montañas. Juan nunca llevó sandalias, pero llevó un tilma para el calor. El tilma fue hecho de fibras del cacto.

Cuando Juan tenía cincuenta y siete años, él despertó temprano en una mañana de sábado, para asistir a la misa. Fue el nueve de diciembre de un mil quinientos treinta y uno. Esto fue una fiesta especial que honora a La Inmaculada Concepción La Madre de Dios.

Cuando se acercó La Colina de Tepeyac, Juan escuchó la música encantadora. La Colina de Tepeyac fue el sitio de un templo pagano anterior llamó Tonantzin. Entonces oyó la voz de una mujer joven que lo llamaba. En la parte superior de la colina, Juan vio a la doncella más hermosa azteca. Iba vestida como una princesa con ropa colorida. También, había una luz que rodeala. Ella le dijo a Juan: “Yo soy la siempre Virgen María, Santa Madre del verdadero Dios.” Ella le dijo, “ir a ver al Obispo. Dígale que deseo una capilla que se construirá aquí. Soy su madre, y aquí voy a mostrar mi compasión de tu gente. A todos que pidan mi ayuda con su trabajo y su dolor, yo los consolaré.”

Juan habló con el Obispo que el día, pero el Obispo no creyó que Juan había oído las palabras de la Reina del Cielo. Más tarde esa noche Juan dijo a la señora lo que sucedió. Ella le pidió a Juan para regresar al día siguiente para a hablar con el Obispo. Para pedir que una capilla esté construida. Una vez más Juan habló con el obispo. Pero el obispo todavía no le creyó. Obispo Fray Juan de Zummarraga preguntó que la señora le diera una señal, así que él sabría la verdad.

Antes de que Juan podría hablar con la señora encantadora, su tío hizo muy enfermo. Bernardino pidió que Juan encontrara a un sacerdote para su última confesión, antes de morir. Mientras en su manera, la hermosa señora pareció a él. Ella dijo que su tío fue curado. Esta fue la mañana del lunes, el doce de diciembre. Ella entonces lo dijo ir a la parte superior de la colina y cortar las flores que crecen allí. Ella dijo a Juan traerle las flores. Juan subió la colina, sabiendo que no podría haber crecimiento de flores en el invierno. Sin embargo, cuando llegó a la parte superior de la colina, había hermosas rosas creciendo entre el cactus y piedras.

La mujer joven arregló cuidadosamente las flores en la tilma de Juan y lo dio instrucciones para demostrarlas solamente al obispo. Ella dijo a Juan, este vez que él creerá.

Juan abrió su tilma frente al obispo Zummarraga, y las rosas cayeron al suelo. Milagrosamente en la tilma era la imagen del Bendecida a Madre Virgen. La aparición de La Colina de Tepeyac. El obispo se cayó a sus rodillas en rezo. Las rosas fue rosas de Castilla, que no fueron cultivadas en México. Estas rosas crecieron en España, donde el obispo había venido de. La imagen milagrosa se queda hoy, para todo ver en la Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe en la ciudad de México. Ha sido examinado científicamente y ha sido demostrado que la imagen no pudiera haber sido hecha por hombre.

Juan era un hombre de gran fe. Vivió el final de sus días en una pequeña choza al lado de la nueva capilla. Juan ayudaría a la gente que vino buscando la intercesión de la Virgen María. Juan se murió a los setenta y cuatro, en un mil quinientos cuarenta y ocho. Juan es un ejemplo verdadero para nosotros todo el hoy, para vivir una vida de virtud. Juan es un hombre para todas las personas, especialmente las personas de América latina.

En dos mil y dos, Juan Diego fue proclamado a un santo por Pope John Paul el Segundo. La Iglesia Católica celebra la fiesta de San Juan Diego todos los años en el noveno de diciembre.

~ ~ ~

St. Juan Diego
Fr. Bonaventure
Franciscan Friars of Our Lady of Guadalupe
AirMaria.com~Breath Freely

Saint Juan Diego, Pray for Us!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us!

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier ~ Feast of the Immaculate Conception ~ Our Blessed Mother, Most Pure & Most Holy! + Fr. James Kubicki, S.J.

2010-12-06T21:06:00.009-06:00

In Praise of Mary Immaculate

You are all fair, O Mary;
the original stain is not in you.
You are the glory of Jerusalem,
the joy of Israel,
the honor of our people,
and the great advocate of sinners.
O Mary, Virgin most prudent,
Mother most merciful, pray for us;
intercede for us with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.

~ ~ ~

Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Wednesday ~ 8 December 2004

Reading I (Genesis 3:9-15, 20)
Reading II (Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12)
Gospel (St. Luke 1:26-38)

Today we have the great joy of celebrating the feast of our Blessed Lady’s Immaculate Conception. And on top of the normal joy that we would have in celebrating this solemnity, today is the 150th anniversary of the official dogmatic definition that Our Lady was in fact immaculately conceived.

Now we need to be very clear about a couple of things. Number one, what we are talking about with regard to this feast is the conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne. It is not the conception of Jesus. That is what is known as the Virginal Conception, and that took place at the time of the Annunciation; we celebrate that on the 25th of March. But the feast we celebrate today is the day our Blessed Lady was conceived without sin. That is what the word immaculate means – “without stain”, quite literally, is what the word means. So Immaculate Conception means that our Blessed Mother is the only person in human history to be conceived without sin. Obviously, Adam and Eve were created without sin, but they were not conceived. Jesus is not a human person; He is a divine person. He was conceived without Original Sin, but He is God. And so Our Lady is the only one in all of humanity for whom this miracle has been reserved. And that is precisely what it is; it is a miracle. She was conceived through the normal relations of her parents, Saints Anne and Joachim, and by a miracle of God (beyond just the miracle of conception) she was kept free of sin from the very first instant of her existence.

This was to be able to fulfill exactly what was prophesied regarding her, something that in our first reading today was translated in a way that does not make clear that that is what we are talking about. Traditionally, the way that first reading was worded, it said: You will nip at his heel and she will crush your head. That is what Our Lord told the serpent, and it would be the woman who would have the authority over the serpent to crush his vile head. That is precisely what we celebrate today. Satan has no authority over Our Lady. Not even for one instant of her existence was there ever anything sinful on her soul; and, because of this, she was always in perfect conformity with the Will of God. At every instant of her life, she was doing the Will of God and growing more and more in love for God. That means from the very first instant of her life there was more love and more grace in her soul than there is in all of our souls combined right now. She grew at every instant of her life in love to the point where she loves more than all of heaven and earth combined. If you think about all the angels and the incredible love they have – the seraphim, who are the fiery ones because they are on fire with love for God, and all the cherubim and all the other angels and all of the saints who have ever lived who loved God so much – all of their love combined pales in comparison to the love Our Lady has for God. That is the extraordinary nature of what God Himself has created in His mother.

Now we can look at her and say to ourselves that she does not really stand as much of a model for us because we cannot relate. Quite the contrary. She is the only human person who lived life the way that God intended it to be lived. What we see in her is exactly what God’s original intention was for each and every one of us. But we also see in her the way we are to live our lives. We will never be free of sin in the sense that we never had it, but we can strive to live always in the presence of God, always seeking to do His Will, and always in union with Him. That is the way Our Lady lived her life, a life of prayer, a life of love, love of God and love of neighbor. That is something that is not beyond any one of us here. Affected by sin as all of us are, we can still strive for that holiness of life. So it is not beyond us to be able to model ourselves after the way that she lived her life, and that is what we need to strive for.

She is our mother. She will teach us how to do that if we ask, if we really desire it. There is nothing that she would want more than for us to be able to be totally in love with her Son and to serve Him with our whole heart and soul and strength. What mother would not want that for her child? And here, the greatest of all mothers will be able to help us to live even in this world without sin, that is, without committing any more sins. Now we might scoff at that and think, “It’s not possible for me to stop sinning.” Yes, it is. It is completely possible for all of us to stop sinning. Not by ourselves, not by our own power, we are not just going to make the decision today: “Okay, I’m not going to sin anymore.” That is not going to work. But by the grace and the power of God, we can stop sinning and we can live lives of true holiness. That is exactly what God wants for us, that is the way Our Lady lived her life, and it is the way she will help us to live ours. And that is exactly what Saint Paul told us in the second reading, that the very purpose of our existence is for the glory of God.

So as we look at our Blessed Lady and this glorious feast we celebrate today, we rejoice that God has made one human person for his own self, and made her perfect so she would stand truly as a model for all of us, but also as a mother for all of us to teach us, to guide us, and to help us grow in holiness and to serve her Son sinlessly and in holiness of life.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

~ ~ ~

The Immaculate Conception
Fr. James Kubicki, S. J.
Apostleship of Prayer

~ ~ ~

O Most Blessed and Sweet Virgin Mary
~by Saint Thomas Aquinas

O most blessed and most sweet virgin Mary, mother of God, filled with devotion, daughter of the most high King, mistress of Angels, mother of all believers, today I commend to thy tender heart all my deeds, my thoughts, my wishes, my desires, my speech, my activities, my whole life, and my final end. That through thy prayers they may be disposed towards good, according to the will of thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; that thou may be to me, O my most holy lady, helper and consoler against the wickedness and snares of the ancient enemy and against all my enemies.

From thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, graciously obtain for me the grace with which I will be able to resist the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to always have a firm intention to sin no more. And I beg thee, my most holy Lady, to obtain for me true obedience and true humility of heart, that I may truly acknowledge that I am a wretched and frail sinner and powerless not only to do anything good, but also to resist the continual battles without the grace and help of my Creator and thy holy prayers. Obtain for me also, o my sweetest Lady, perpetual purity of mind and body so that I may serve thee and thy beloved Son in thy order1 with a pure heart and a chaste body. Obtain for me from Him a willing poverty with patience and tranquility of mind, so that I may sustain the labors of this same order2 and that I may work for the salvation of myself and others.

Obtain for me also, O sweetest of Ladies, true charity, with which I may love thy most holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, with all my heart: and after Him, thee, above all things; and my neighbor in God and on account of God. And so I may rejoice in my neighbor’s good and sorrow in his evil, and hold no one in contempt, nor judge rashly, nor exalt myself in my heart over anyone. Make me, o Queen of Heaven, to fear thy Son and to equally love Him always in my heart; and of such benefits granted to me, not by my merits, but by those granted by His kindness, may I always give thanks. And of my sins, may I make a pure and sincere confession with true repentance that I may gain His mercy and grace. I pray, also, that at the end of my life, O gate of heaven, and advocate of sinners, that thou permitteth not thy unworthy servant to deviate from the holy Catholic faith; but by thy great devotion and mercy come to my aid and defend me from the evil spirits: and by the blessed and glorious passion of thy Son and through thy own intercession, received in hope, obtain through Him pardon from my sins. And as I die in His and thy love, guide me in the way of safety and salvation. Amen.

Fr. Robert Altier ~ Homily ~ Second Sunday of Advent ~ We Are Called to Repentance!

2010-12-04T08:56:00.010-06:00

Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent

Stir up our hearts, O Lord,
to prepare the paths of thine Only-begotten Son:
that we may worthily serve thee
with hearts purified by His coming:
Who livest and reignest with God the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
ever one God, world without end. Amen.

~ ~ ~

Second Sunday of Advent
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Sunday ~ 5 December 2004

Reading I (Isaiah 11:1-10)
Reading II (Romans 15:4-9)
Gospel (St. Matthew 3:1-12)

In the first reading today from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we hear about this shoot that is going to sprout from the stump of Jesse. Now we have to realize what this means. Jesse, of course, is the father of King David, and we have the promises that were made to King David that a son was going to sit upon his throne perpetually. Yet, at the same time, we are told that the shoot is going to sprout from the stump of Jesse, which means that the house of David is going to be cut down, and then from what looks like nothing remaining, suddenly this righteous shoot is going to come forth. That is precisely what happened. By the time Saint Joseph lived, the house of David was something of a laughingstock. There was not much left regarding the house of David, and suddenly from the stump came this new shoot, the one righteous Shoot from the stump of Jesse. And we hear at the end of the first reading that He is going to be set up as a signal for the Gentiles.

In between the beginning and the end of today’s reading, we hear about the various things that are going to happen because of this individual. One of the interesting things that one can see are all of the apparent contradictions, that is, we hear about things like the bear and the lamb will be together, and the lion and the ox will be eating hay, and the child will be playing with the snake, and things like this, things that on the natural level make no sense. If we look at this from the point of view of a Jewish person a couple of thousand years ago, to hear the words that the Gentiles are going to seek out this Shoot from the stump of Jesse, that He would be set up as a signal to the nations, to the Gentiles, well, first of all, they could grasp the concept that the Gentiles would want to become Jewish because the Jewish people had the fullness of God’s truth as it had been revealed at that time. But what they could not grasp is that they themselves would have to change, that there was more truth to be revealed that had not yet been revealed, and that they would have to find the fullness of the faith they had already believed and there would be more that would complete what they already had. And so this apparent contradiction in the mind of the Jewish people, that Jews and Gentiles would be one, made no sense to them. Yet that is exactly what we hear Saint Paul talking about as he writes to the Romans, which was a community that was a mixture of both Jews and Gentile converts. We hear about how the Gentiles are going to give praise to God, and he tells us that is the very reason why Jesus came. It was to fulfill everything that had been promised to the patriarchs, but also to call the Gentiles to Himself. So we see the fulfillment of all these things.

Now as we look at it up to the point of Jesus’ time, suddenly John the Baptist is there on the scene, proclaiming repentance and baptizing the people when they would show their repentance. It is interesting to note that when some of the leaders among the Jewish people came (those who would be the Pharisees and the Sadducees), John the Baptist chastised them and he told them that they had to show some sign of their repentance, that they had to bear fruit of repentance. It was not just enough to go through the motion of having this baptism done. Because they were among the leaders, he recognized that they did not really want to repent; they did not want to change. The reality of the matter is when it came to the Jewish leadership they did not want the Messiah. John the Baptist was preaching that there was One coming after him, the One who would be the Messiah, and that these people needed to show some kind of sign that they were truly repentant before they would be able to accept the Messiah. They did not want Him (not in the theoretical sense, but in the practical sense) because it would mean (in their fear of what it might mean) that they would lose their jobs, they would lose their livelihood, they would have to change. They would have to accept, not only that the Gentiles would become one with them, but that they themselves would have to change to become one with the Gentiles. This made no sense to them. And Saint John the Baptist chastised them also because they would look at him and say, “But we have Abraham as our father,” and he said to them, “God can raise up children of Abraham from these very stones.”

If we bring this forward two thousand years and look at our own selves, we see some of the same problems. That is, for those of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ from our infancy, it is all too easy to take Him for granted and to be able to sit back and say, “Well, I’m a Catholic.” I think if Saint John the Baptist were here today he would say to us, “Show some sign, show the fruit of what it means to be a Catholic, of your repentance. It is not enough to be able to sit back and say, ‘I’m a Catholic,’ because God can raise up Catholics from the very stones.” We are being called to repentance, to true repentance, but we are all too much just like the Jewish leadership: We really do not want Jesus because it means we would have to change.

What is happening right now in our own midst is that there are many people who had never heard of Jesus Christ before and there are many people who had heard of Him but had rejected Him and had gone off and lived some pretty incredibly sinful lives, and these people are turning their lives around. They are coming to the Lord and they are putting their faith into practice. They are bearing the fruit of repentance while the rest of us sit around and say, “But I’m already a Catholic.” Saint John the Baptist would look at us and chastise us and say, “Show the good works, the fruit of your repentance. Show what it means to be a Catholic. Just don’t sit there and say, ‘Well, I’m a Catholic,’ and then be a hypocrite and live an entirely pagan life; it does not work that way.”

If we are called to repentance, it means to change our hearts, it means to live in a different way than we had before. That may be easier for someone who as an adult recognizes they are on the wrong path and that they need to change and they have turned to the Lord and have given Him their lives. It is much more difficult for those of us who have become complacent, who just kind of take our faith for granted and therefore we do not live it because we will sit back and say, “Well, I can do it anytime,” and therefore we do not do it at all. So today we are being called to what would seem an apparent contradiction. We are being called to seek out the Root of Jesse. If the Gentiles were to seek Him out, it is important to note from Our Lord’s own words that He came to call the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Part of His purpose was to bring the Gentiles into the fold, but He never went out to the Gentiles – He went only to the people of Israel – the Gentiles had to come to Him. So for those of us who have already been incorporated into Him, we now need to come to Him. We need to seek Him out. It is not enough to say, “But He is right there. He’s there in the Blessed Sacrament 24 hours a day. I know where He is, why do I need to seek Him out?” We need to seek Him out because we have to change, because we have to show the fruit of our repentance.

During this holy season, all of us then are called to take inventory of our souls, to look into our hearts, and to find the areas where we are not prepared for the coming of Christ, to look at the areas of our lives where we have become complacent, or even worse, to find the areas where we really do not want Jesus to be because we like our sins, because we do not want to change, because the worldliness is too enticing and we do not want to give it up, because Jesus has no place in our hearts and we really do not want Him there. That is the contradiction, that a Catholic would be a pagan. It does not work. The pagans are becoming Catholic and they are living their faith. They are showing the good fruit of their repentance while the rest of us sit back smugly and think it is no big deal for us. God can raise up Catholics from the very stones, and if we do not want to live it we are going to be lost.

So in this time we have an opportunity to prepare our hearts, to rid ourselves of all the areas where we have locked Our Lord out of our lives, to look at the areas where we are living sinful and pagan lives – worldly lives, selfish lives – and to make some changes. The word repentance implies turning around, making a change. The Jewish leadership did not want to change, and tragically neither do most Catholics want to change. In this case, I am not saying changing from being Catholic to being something else; I am saying changing from being a “Cafeteria Catholic” or a mediocre Catholic or a nominal Catholic to being a real one, to accepting the fullness of the truth and allowing it to penetrate the depths of our hearts, and to truly live the faith that we profess. Each one of us needs to look very seriously at our own lives and ask ourselves, “If we today had come to Saint John the Baptist, what would he say to us?” Would he tell us that we are a brood of vipers? Would he tell us that we need to show some good fruit, some true signs of our repentance? Or would he recognize in us one who is truly living the faith that we profess?

It is necessary now for us who have been Catholic our whole life, or for those who may have converted a long time ago and have fallen into the typical Catholic mediocrity and complacency, to turn once again, to realize that the fallen house of David has a righteous Shoot coming forth from it and that He is set up as a signal to the nations. He is established as a signal to each one of us, and it is time now that we seek Him out, that we truly repent, that we change our lives and show the true fruit of that repentance by lives of good works, by lives of following the Commandments, by lives that are lived in accordance with the faith that we preach. That is what we are being asked to do. So take time this day to look at your life, to look at your soul. Take stock of your sins and get to Confession. But do not just go through the motions like the Pharisees and the Sadducees were doing with John the Baptist. Show the true signs of your repentance and live the faith that you profess.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

~ ~ ~

Saint John the Baptist

Apostleship of Prayer ~ Fr. James Kubicki

Saint John the Baptist,

Pray for Us!

Cardinal Burke ~ Homily ~ His Mass of Thanksgiving ~ Saint Cecilia, Pray for Us!

2010-12-03T07:41:00.010-06:00

Prayer to St. Cecilia

O glorious saint, who chose to die
Instead of denying your King.
We pray you please to help us
As His fair praise we sing!

We lift our hearts in joyous song
To honor Him this way,
And while we sing, remembering,
To sing is to doubly pray.

At once in our hearts and in our tongues
We offer double prayer
Sent heavenward on winged notes
To praise God dwelling there.

While in our hearts and tongues we try
With song to praise God twice,
We ask dear saint, to help us be
United closed to Christ!

Amen.

~ ~ ~

Cardinal Burke's homily at Solemn Mass of thanksgiving on the occasion of the Ordinary Public Consistory

By Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke

Saint Cecilia whose memory we celebrate today was a wise virgin who carefully provided oil for her lamp, so that when her Lord came, He found her waiting and ready to meet Him with her lamp burning brightly. We know little about her life, but, from tradition, we know the essence of her heroic holiness. She was a young Roman maiden, who was raised in the Christian faith.

She, in fact, developed so strongly in her love of our Lord, through prayer and penance, that she resolved to offer her virginity tour Lord as a perpetual gift, that is, to espouse our Lord alone as her Bridegroom for ever. Contrary to her resolve, her father insisted that she marry a certain pagan by the name of Valerian, but, on the day of her wedding, we are told that "amid the music and rejoicing of the guests, Cecilia sat apart, singing to God in her heart and praying for help in her predicament."

One imagines that she was praying the words of the Psalms according to the ancient chant of the Church, which developed organically from the chant used in Jewish worship and continues today to be singularly suited to the raising of our minds and hearts to the Lord.

The Lord heard her prayer, made even more pure and beautiful because it was offered to Him in sacred song. Through the help of an angel, her new husband was converted to the faith and received Baptism at the hands of the Bishop of Rome, Pope Urban. Having come to life in Christ through Baptism, Valerian fully respected Cecilia's virginal consecration. With Saint Cecilia, he rapidly grew in pure and selfless love, and soon gave, with her, the supreme witness of total and faithful love of our Lord by accepting a cruel martyrdom for the faith.

In the life of Saint Cecilia, we see fulfilled, in a most striking manner, the promise of our Lord's immeasurable and ceaseless love of all men, without exception, the divine love which we celebrate most fully and perfectly in this Eucharistic Sacrifice. Our Lord promises His holy people: "I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord."

Our Lord called Saint Cecilia to espouse Him in love, to offer to Him her virginity, her whole being. Saint Cecilia responded with all her heart, placing her heart completely into the glorious pierced Heart of our Lord. In the Sacred Heart of Jesus, her love was purified and strengthened, so that the witness of her virginal love reached its fullness with the crown of martyrdom. The pure white of her love as a virgin found its consummation in the courageous scarlet of her love as a martyr for the faith.

The life and martyrdom of Saint Cecilia, in the few details which have come to us, like the life of every consecrated virgin, teaches each of us the reality of Christ's love in our lives, a love which invites us to espouse Him, to be one in heart with Him in loving one another as He loves us, purely and selflessly.

Saint Cecilia, by her virginal consecration, teaches all of us the way in which Our Lord is calling us to give ourselves to Him and to His Mystical Body, the Church, and to all men, in love, whether we are called to lifelong, faithful and fruitful love in the married life, in the dedicated single life, in the consecrated life or in the priesthood. On her feast day, we ask Saint Cecilia to pray for us, so that each of us will remain steadfast in responding to our vocation in life, so that we will never fail to provide oil for our lamps, so that, each and every day, Our Lord will find us waiting and ready to welcome Him, with our lamps burning brightly. We pray, through the intercession of Saint Cecilia, that Our Lord will find us always ready to give our hearts completely to Him.

Providentially, our celebration of the memory of Saint Cecilia coincides with the day on which we offer to our Lord the Holy Mass in thanksgiving for the Ordinary Public Consistory, held on this past Saturday, during which our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI created new Cardinals to assist him in his shepherd's care of the universal Church. The distinctive vesture of the Cardinal, the scarlet biretta and cassock, uncover the meaning of the position to which he is elevated. The purity and selflessness of the Cardinal’s love of the Church, to whom he, as a priest, is espoused in a way analogous to the consecrated virgin, must be further purified and strengthened, in order that, in the words of the Successor of Saint Peter at the imposition of the cardinalitial biretta, the Cardinal may show himself to be "intrepid, even to the shedding of his blood for the building up of the Christian faith, the peace and harmony of the People of God, and the freedom and the extension of the Holy Roman Church."

The Cardinal has a particular bond with the virgin martyrs. They are a sterling example to him of how he is to love Christ and the Church, while, at the same time, they intercede powerfully for him, so that he may be a sign to the faithful of our Lord's ceaseless and immeasurable love,” to the end," to the very outpouring of His life for us, on Calvary, His Sacrifice made ever present for us in the Holy Eucharist.

The cassock, the traditional and venerable vesture of the priest, Bishop and Cardinal, in carrying out the office of pastoral charity, above all in the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, is a sign of his belonging totally to Christ through priestly consecration. When the priest puts on the cassock, he is reminded in a visible way that he has been configured to Christ, Head and Shepherd of the flock in every time and place, and that it is Christ Who is acting in Him, most especially in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament of Penance, for the salvation of all men and of the whole world. The cassock also helps him to avoid the temptation to see himself, instead of Christ, as the protagonist in the works of pastoral charity, and, thereby, it is a practical help in the daily conversion of life, in the day by day emptying of himself, so that his priestly being may be filled with the grace of Christ the High Priest.

The change of the color of the cassock for the Bishop expresses the gift of the fullness of the priesthood, and for the Cardinal a particular service given to the Shepherd of the universal Church, in his office of "perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity of the faith and of communion."[6] For my own part, I can testify that with the changing of the color of the cassock there comes an increase of responsibility, in Christ, for the life of the Church, which is daunting, but there is likewise a wonderful outpouring of grace for the bearing of the burden. The courageous bearing of the burden for love of Christ and His flock brings deep and abiding joy and peace. In this light, we understand the importance of our daily prayers for our priests, Bishops, Cardinals and the Holy Father. In this light, you will understand that I, as a Cardinal, need your prayers now more than ever.

In striving to understand the service of the Cardinal in the Church, one naturally turns to the lives of Cardinals who have been heroically virtuous in fulfilling the responsibilities of their office. I think, for example, of Saint John Fisher who received the Cardinal's hat, when he was already in prison for his refusal to sign the Act of Supremacy of King Henry VIII, by which he would have betrayed Christ, denying that Christ alone is Head and Shepherd of the Church through His Vicar on earth, the Roman Pontiff, Successor of Saint Peter. When the Cardinal's hat reached Calais in France on its way from Rome to London, the King was informed and immediately sent his secretary, Thomas Cromwell, to speak with Bishop Fisher in prison. When Cromwell asked the good Bishop whether he would accept the Cardinal's hat from the Holy Father, Pope Paul III, should it be sent to him, Saint John Fisher responded:

"I know myself far unworthy of any such dignity, that I think of nothing less than such matters; but if he do send it to me, assure yourself I will work with it by all means I can to benefit the church of Christ, and in that respect I will receive it on my knees."

The King, whose heart had once been belonged to the Lord but had then turned against the Lord, understood the meaning of Saint John Fisher's words and, in his angry rebellion against the law of Our Lord, written on his very heart, declared:

"Well, let the pope send him a hat, when he will. But I will so provide that, when so ever it cometh, he shall wear it on his shoulders, for head shall he have no more to see it on."

On June 22, 1535, Saint John Fisher was beheaded, intrepid in giving himself totally to Our Lord and His Church, to the very outpouring of his blood.

Although not every Cardinal will be called to give his life in red martyrdom for the sake of the Church and, above all, for the sake of the exercise of the ministry of the Vicar of Christ on earth, he is called daily to be intrepid, to give his life in white martyrdom, steadfastly and courageously defending the Catholic Church and her holy faith in the care of Saint Peter and his successors. How steadfast and courageous a Cardinal must be, today, in assisting Pope Benedict XVI in his pastoral ministry, announcing the truth of the faith, caring for the worthy celebration of the Sacraments as the privileged actions of Christ for our eternal salvation and for the life of prayer, devotion and penance, and governing lovingly and firmly the members of the Body of Christ, so that they may be one in Christ Who alone is "the way, and the truth, and the life!"

I think, for instance, of the Holy Father's tireless teaching of the moral law to a world which, like King Henry VIII, is in rebellion against the law of God, written upon every human heart, above all in its violations of the dignity of human life and the integrity of the family as the first cell of society. In his address to representatives of British society, on this past September 17th, Pope Benedict lovingly and firmly taught the truth that our religious faith must inform our life in society, purifying and strengthening political action so that it may be coherent with right reason, with the law of God written upon every human heart. He declared:

"Religion, in other words, is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation. In this light, I cannot but voice my concern at the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance. There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere. There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. And there are those who argue – paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination – that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience. These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square."

How pernicious it is that, in society which, for the pursuit of the common good, depends upon citizens acting in obedience to their conscience, her government attempts to compel her citizens to violate their conscience in its most fundamental tenets pertaining to the dignity of all human life and the integrity of the family!

The Church's teaching on the service of the Church to society, also in the political realm, as the Holy Father himself noted, is not always welcome, even as the Church's teaching on the Petrine office was not welcomed by King Henry VIII, but the Church, the Virgin Mother of all the faithful, must keep her lamp trimmed and burning brightly, waiting always forth coming of Our Lord and welcoming Him each day, at every hour, as He offers us the grace of eternal salvation.

The Cardinal today is called, in a special way, to assist the Roman Pontiff in announcing all of the truths of the faith, but, in a particular way, the truth regarding the natural moral law to be observed for the good of all in society.

There are so many other aspects of the Petrine ministry of Pope Benedict XVI, to which a Cardinal must attend and be ready to offer his assistance to the Vicar of Christ on earth.

I think also of the tireless work of our Holy Father to carry out a reform of the post-Conciliar liturgical reform[11], conforming the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy to the perennial teaching of the Church as it was presented anew at the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, so that in every liturgical action we may see more clearly the action of Christ Himself who unites heaven and earth, even now, in preparation for His Final Coming, when He will inaugurate "news heaven and a new earth," when we will all celebrate the fullness of life and love in the liturgy in the heavenly Jerusalem. The Cardinal today is called, in a special way, to assist the Successor of Saint Peter, in handing on, in an unbroken organic line, what Christ Himself has given us in the Church, His Eucharistic Sacrifice, "the font and highest expression of the whole Christian life." The right order of Sacred Worship in the Church is the condition of the possibility of the right order of her teaching and the right order of her conduct.

May our celebration of the Holy Eucharist on the Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr, unite our hearts more totally to the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, ever open to receive us, especially in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Lifting up our hearts, with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glorious Sacred Heart of Jesus, our lives will be purified and strengthened for a more pure and selfless love of God and of one another.

Lifting up our hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we lift up to Him, in a special way, the newly created Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, thanking Him for them and praying that every Cardinal will always find in His glorious pierced Heart the purification and the strength to fulfill the particular responsibilities of service to His Vicar on earth, "intrepid, even to the shedding of his blood for the building up of the Christian faith, the peace and harmony of the People of God, and the freedom and the extension of the Holy Roman Church."

In the Heart of Jesus, may we all find the wisdom by which we will keep our lamps trimmed, provided with the unfailing oil of His grace, so that at every moment of our lives, we, with Saint Cecilia, will be waiting and ready to meet Him with our lamps burning brightly.

Heart of Jesus, King and Center of all Hearts, have mercy on us.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr, pray for us.

Saint John Fisher, Bishop, Cardinal and Martyr, pray for us.

— Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke

Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis (USA)

Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

Father Frank's Alerts ~ Stop Vending Machine Abortions! ~ Please, Stand Up for Life! ~ Please, Stand Up for the Voiceless Unborn!

2010-12-02T16:41:00.005-06:00

Stop Vending Machine Abortions! (The “Telemed” Outrage That Must Be Stopped!)

You’ve heard of RU-486. It’s the abortion drug that kills the baby without the need for surgery.

Planned Parenthood – the world’s largest abortion “provider” – has developed a way to dispense RU-486 without a doctor being present with the patient or even examining the patient before giving her this dangerous drug.

And to make matters worse, they do it through “closed-circuit” TV – essentially a two-way “video conference” over the Internet. That’s why it’s called a “telemed” abortion – where they carry out a medical procedure over a television connection.

The abortionist – at a remote location – asks the girl a few questions about her pregnancy… explains how to take the lethal drug (lethal for the baby, of course)… and then pushes a button on his/her computer keyboard. Instantly, by remote control, a little drawer opens where the girl is sitting, and out pops the RU-486 pills.

She takes the pills, and her baby dies a few days later.

Done deal.

A major problem with this is that there can be serious complications with RU-486. After taking this lethal drug, the girl is not under a doctor’s supervision. She is totally on her own. Many women have died from RU-486 because it’s a highly dangerous drug. Not just for the baby, but for the mother as well.

But Planned Parenthood doesn’t care. They get their money – and they get it more easily – because they get to kill a baby by remote control.

Why are they doing this?

Frankly, they are running out of abortionists.

There are fewer and fewer abortionists in this country because of the tireless work and God-graced effectiveness of the pro-life movement.

You see, most of the abortionists working today are close to retirement, and the abortion industry is well aware of this fact. Therefore, they’re searching for alternative solutions so that they can stay in business… because abortion really is just a money-making business to them.

As a matter of fact, one of the world’s richest men – Warren Buffet, who is openly pro-abortion – has begun financing a major campaign to train and recruit new abortionists because he realizes that the abortion cartel is running out of abortionists. He even enlisted the help of his daughter, Susie, to run the entire program.

Now, because Planned Parenthood has started these “telemed” abortions – which are medically dangerous and probably unethical – they are now under investigation by the authorities, and we need to put the pressure on them so that we can stop the telemed abortion movement. That’s because Planned Parenthood intends to franchise the telemed abortion procedure all across the country. And if we can stop it in Iowa, we’ll stop it completely.

Even the newly elected Governor of Iowa – Terry Branstad – is on record opposing telemed abortions. He said "I think it’s a violation of the law. I think it’s wrong and I think a lot of Iowans feel it’s wrong and I don’t think it should continue."

However, the Attorney General of Iowa – Tom Miller – is in league with Planned Parenthood, and is protecting their telemed abortion scheme. So is the Iowa Board of Medicine. And that's why Planned Parenthood is getting away with this. But with the new Governor on our side – and many Iowa legislators on our side – we can stop telemed abortions if we have your help.

So… here’s what to do now:

Click here to send an email to the Iowa state authorities . They need to hear from the people all across the country. Only with strong opposition can this horrendous abortion process be stopped. Otherwise, abortions will spread even into areas where there are no abortion clinics – perhaps your own community.

Therefore, we need to get this message out to as many people as possible.

Even people who wouldn’t consider themselves to be pro-life activists are appalled by these “vending-machine” abortions.

And that’s why I urge you to forward this message to everyone on your email list right now. It only takes a couple of seconds, and this message can be spread all around the country.

And the more people who contact the authorities in Iowa, the more impact we will have – and greater chance of success we will gain in shutting down Planned Parenthood’s despicable telemed scheme.

If you do that – and simultaneously say a prayer for the success of this project – then I believe God will bless our efforts to stop this insidious threat to millions of babies who just want to live… but Planned Parenthood wants to kill.

At the same time, please say a prayer for Priests for Life and all the work that we do on a daily basis to save babies lives… because without your help and God’s grace, we can do nothing.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Father Frank

Priests For Life
PO Box 141172
Staten Island, NY 10314
Phone: 888-PFL-3448
718-980-4400
Fax: 718-980-6515
Email: mail@priestsforlife.org
http://www.priestsforlife.org/

Join Fr. Frank Pavone & Priests for Life ~ Advent for Life Prayer Campaign!

2010-11-29T08:39:00.007-06:00

November 28th - December 24th...
Please join the Advent for Life Prayer Campaign!

Priests for Life invites all believers to celebrate this Advent as an "Advent for Life."

Among other things, we invite you to say the following prayer each day. Please sign up to let us know that you are joining your brothers and sisters in this campaign!

Blessings,
Fr. Frank Pavone

Advent Prayer for Life

We rejoice in the promise of your coming.

You have sent your Son, born in Bethlehem.
He is the Prince of Peace, and
The one in whose name all oppression shall cease.

May we welcome his coming each day
And prepare for his coming at the end of time.
May we build a culture that welcomes him
By welcoming every child, born and unborn.

We pray through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

~ ~ ~

Advent Reconciles Mother and Preborn Child

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director of Priests for Life

The introduction to the lectionary, when speaking of the Sundays of Advent, says, "Each gospel reading has a specific theme: the Lord's coming in glory at the end of time (first Sunday), John the Baptist (second and third Sundays), and the events which immediately prepared for the Lord's birth (fourth Sunday)" (No.11).

We focus, in other words, on the first and second comings of the same Christ, and on the one who teaches us how to prepare for His arrival, namely, by repentance. "Reform your lives! The reign of God is at hand." The New Testament readings throughout Advent complement and expand on John the Baptist's exhortations of repentance.

The preparation for Christ's coming is reform, and the promise of His coming is reconciliation. The two, furthermore, are linked. If the Messiah comes to restore harmony between nations and people, then the people of the Messiah are to repent of whatever destroys that harmony. If the Messiah comes to bring justice ("He shall judge the poor with justice and decide aright for the land's afflicted"), then the people of the Messiah are to work to eliminate injustice. The "justice" referred to in Isaiah ll is an act of intervention to save the helpless.

Abortion is an injustice against the most helpless, and attacks the harmony of human relationships at their most fundamental and sensitive point, the relationship of mother and child. Preparing for the Lord's coming therefore requires a total rejection of abortion. The promise of His coming heralds a new harmony between mother and child.

The focus on the Virgin and Child at the end of Advent highlights this.

The Second Vatican Council reflects upon the relationship between the coming of Christ and our activity to prepare for it. In the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, we read, "Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come....When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise

-- human dignity, brotherly communion and freedom -- according to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again, cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom...." (#39). In other words, the spirit of Advent should naturally bolster our pro-life efforts, and the progress we make in promoting human dignity becomes the "building blocks" for the eternal kingdom.

Advent leads the Church to the Silent Night when God Himself is revealed as one of us. This season leads us to the joy of His birth. May that birth shed protection on all about to be born, and as we work to end abortion, may we "wait in joyful hope for the coming of Our Savior, Jesus Christ."

To Read this on the Priests for Life Website: Click Here!

With Your Prayers & Your Donations,
Please Support Priests for Life!

Priests for Life
PO Box 141172 • Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. 888-735-3448, (718) 980-4400 • Fax 718-980-6515
mail@priestsforlife.org

Fr. Robert Altier + Fr. Dominic Murphy ~ First Sunday in Advent Homilies! Prepare for the Coming of the Lord!

2010-11-27T17:36:00.008-06:00

Advent Prayer

Father, in the wilderness of the Jordan you sent a messenger to prepare people's hearts for the coming of your Son. Help me to hear his words and repent of my sins, so that I may clearly see the way to walk, the truth to speak, and the life to live for Him, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

~ ~ ~

First Sunday in Advent
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Sunday ~ 28 November 2004

Reading I (Isaiah 2:1-5)
Reading II (Romans 13:11-14)
Gospel (St. Matthew 24:37-44)

Today as we begin the holy season of Advent, we have to reflect upon the fact that Advent, for all practical purposes, is the forgotten season in the Church. It is rarely celebrated by anyone anymore because what happens is that people begin celebrating Christmas a month, a month and a half, even two months before Christmas begins. Advent is a season of penance, not a season of celebration. There is no place during Advent for Christmas parties. There is no place during Advent for all the festivities. That is to take place after Christmas Day – not beforehand. It would be like celebrating the birth of your baby a month before the baby is born; it does not make any sense. In that month prior to the birth of the child, the parents are preparing the home and getting themselves ready. They do not send out birth announcements and have parties a month beforehand, but rather it is a time when they draw into themselves and prepare themselves. That is what this season is about.

It is a time of penance, which is why we wear purple during Advent, but not a penance like the penance that is done in Lent. That is a penance which is done in reparation for our sins; this is a penance which is done in preparation for the coming of the Lord so that we will be spiritually prepared to be able to celebrate Christmas. Of course, as we look to the first coming of Christ two thousand years ago, we also look forward to the Second Coming of Christ. It is to prepare our hearts so we will be able to be ready when the Lord comes, because He tells us very clearly in the Gospel reading today that we do not know either the day or the hour and we have to be prepared. Most Americans, quite frankly, are not prepared.

Two thousand years ago, when Our Lord came into the world, the Jewish people knew the time of His coming. But at the time when Jesus came into this world there was chaos. A census had been called by Quirinius, the governor, and Mary and Joseph had to go down to Bethlehem. If we think of what would have been happening in Bethlehem at that time, it would have been a very busy place. All the shopkeepers would have been busy about selling their goods to all of the visitors who needed to eat and have provisions. They would have been doing quite well business-wise at that time. The inn was full and there was no room. There would have been hustle and bustle with people jockeying for position and trying to get ahead of somebody else and seeing what they could get away with. Sounds sort of like America, doesn’t it? Chaos, shopping, money, looking out for one’s self. Because of all the chaos and all the external things that were going on, the people totally missed the birth of Christ.

The angels did not come down, of course, to tell the shepherds about Our Lord’s birth until after He had been born. The star for the magi did not appear telling them to come to Bethlehem until after Our Lord had been born. This being the case, we need to consider our own situation. I am always saddened at this time of the year when I drive down the street to see houses lit up with lights already. And Americans, with their penchant for competition, have actually determined now to get into a competition to see who can have the largest electric bill and who can have the most lights in their front yard – by the thousands these days – trying to impress other people. When Christmas is over the show is gone, and what is there other than electric bills to pay? This is not the season for lights. The Light of the world has not come yet. We are preparing for His coming, not celebrating it as yet. And so in a Christian place there is no room at this time for all the lights and all the festivities and all the parties and all the chaos.

As the Church begins Her new year today, we can look at the secular practice and perhaps learn something from it. When we begin a new calendar year, people always make resolutions. Now that the Church is beginning a new year today, I would recommend that we too should make some resolutions. Saint Paul in the second reading today tells us that we need to put aside all the things that are of the flesh: the drunkenness, the lust, the promiscuity, the rivalry, the jealousy, all these things. He tells us we need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what this season is about: becoming more Christ-like, preparing ourselves like our Blessed Lady and Saint Joseph did for the coming of the Christ child into this world.

So if I might make a few suggestions on how to prepare yourselves, start with the secular and work to the spiritual. First of all, turn off the TV and turn off the radio. Allow some silence to enter into your homes and into your hearts. Do not put up any lights or any decorations for Christmas for at least three more weeks. This is not the Christmas season yet. Let Advent be Advent and celebrate Christmas during Christmas. Simplify the way you celebrate Christmas and prepare it that way so you do not have to spend days and weeks in malls and department stores in the midst of the chaos, but rather prepare spiritually for Christmas. Imagine the amount of time you would have to spend in prayer if you did not watch TV and listen to the radio and go shopping as much.

And so pray at least one half hour a day, preferably in front of the Blessed Sacrament. There are fifty adoration chapels in the Twin Cities where the Lord is exposed 24 hours a day on the altar for your adoration. There is a chapel somewhere near you. If you can get there, that is the best. Of course, a church with the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle works perfectly fine as well. If that does not work, at least have a place set aside in your home where it is designed for prayer. And I am talking about the silent prayer of the heart. This is not the time to pray your Rosary or read a spiritual book or do anything else, it is to talk to God in your heart in silence, a half hour at least. Then pray your Rosary and read the spiritual books. If you can make it to daily Mass, what a blessing that will be for you. What better way is there to be able to receive Jesus into your heart on Christmas than to prepare by receiving Him in the Eucharist everyday? It is the greatest way to be like Our Lady, who carried Jesus in her womb for those nine months. The closest we can come is to carry Him in our hearts for a half hour at a time when we receive Him in the Blessed Sacrament.

Get to Confession. If you have not been to Confession since last Easter, do not wait until two days before Christmas. Get there this week and then go again right before Christmas. If you can put aside the time to pray and you can get to Confession, you will be astounded at the changes that will happen in your life. If you set aside some place and time for silence, the things that you will recognize and see within yourself will be quite wonderful. In the midst of the chaos, we cannot think clearly, we cannot see clearly, we cannot hear. God, remember, speaks in the silence. If we fill our hearts and our minds and our lives with noise and chaos, there is no place for God; and it does not matter how loudly He speaks, we will not be able to hear.

In the first reading, we hear about the mountain of the Lord’s house and how instruction is going to come forth from there and people of every nation are going to stream toward it. The mountain of the Lord’s house is the Church; it is Jesus Christ. Instruction has come forth; the question is whether or not we want it. The instruction of the Church is to make this a holy season of penance and preparation. It is to have a subdued attitude during this time, because if Our Lord were to come into the world today with all of the chaos, the same thing that happened two thousand years ago would happen again. We would miss Him. We would not be prepared and we would not recognize Him. But if we are taking the time to pray, if we are frequenting the Sacraments, if we are trying to develop the spiritual life and grow in virtue, then our hearts are going to be focused on Christ – not on gifts, not on lights, not even on the electric bill that we have run up because of having ten thousand lights in our front yard. Our focus will be on Jesus, the real Light. And when Christmas comes and all of these other people who are celebrating Christmas for the wrong reason unplug their lights and put them away and the darkness fills their houses and their yards – and in so many cases, tragically, their hearts as well – it will be light that will fill your hearts because Jesus is the Light that came into the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome that Light. The Light of Jesus Christ and the true light and the true joy and the true spirit of Christmas will continue to shine in your hearts long after Christmas Day has come and gone because you will have prepared yourself to receive the Light and you will be able to shine with a light that is far brighter than ten thousand lights in your front yard because you will be radiant with the love of Jesus Christ. You will bring His light into the darkness of this pagan society, into the darkness of this secular world. The real Light will shine within you if you prepare yourself properly.

So as we begin this new year, climb that mountain of the Lord. Look for the instruction of Jesus and seek Him with your whole heart and soul and strength. Spend this time as a spiritual preparation for the coming of the Lord. Keep your heart fixed on Him so that when He speaks you will hear Him, when He appears you will recognize Him, and you will be prepared in the most perfect way by a heart filled with love to receive the true coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ Desert Voice

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Fr. Dominic Murphy

Advent ~ Season of Preparation

AirMaria

Papa Benny Calls Us to ~ Pray for Life!

2010-11-27T17:25:00.005-06:00

Human Life International e-Column
Volume 05, Number 42 Friday, November 12, 2010

Worldwide Prayer Vigil for the Unborn

On Saturday November 27th, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a solemn Prayer Vigil for All Nascent Human Life in St. Peter's Basilica, coinciding with the First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent. It is the wish of the Holy Father that similar vigils be celebrated in Cathedrals and parishes all over the world, which is expressed in a magnificent letter written by Cardinals Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, and Ennio Antonelli, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

The beautiful liturgical season of Advent is full of hope-as Christians we prayerfully anticipate the arrival of the Redeemer. Yet at the same time that we prepare ourselves to celebrate the incarnation of our Savior, we have to be ready to defend the unborn against all the anti-life ideologies that dominate contemporary society.

This vigil follows the path marked by the Venerable Pope John Paul II, who strongly recommended that to create a new culture of life, "a great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world." (E.V. 100) This prayer will encourage Christians to remember that they have a fundamental duty to proclaim that nascent life has to be defended always and everywhere. This prayer will give Christians the spirit of fortitude required to be coherent with the teachings of the Church, without making any compromises with the world.

Prayer should be the foundation of our active apostolate, because if what we do is not grounded in the elevation of our hearts and minds to God in a spirit of humble subjection, it can become mere activism. It is in this spirit that HLI sponsored the recent Fifth World Prayer Congress for Life in Rome in October.

Each newly-conceived human person is a sign of hope to world. In the moment of the creation of the immortal soul of a new person, the Lord gives him a mission to aid in His plans for the redemption of all mankind. He gives to this person unique talents for the benefit of society. So if the life of this extremely young person is destroyed, not only do we have abominable crime, but we are deprived of the talents that the Lord had given to this new person for the common good of the Church and society. Just imagine if St. Thomas of Aquinas would have been killed by abortion, the Church would have lost her greatest philosopher and theologian. If the parents of St. Theresa of Avila would have rejected her-our spiritual life would be very much impoverished and the Church would have been deprived of many Carmelite monasteries. And imagine also if Domenikos Theotokopoulos (Il Greco) would have suffered the same terrible fate, we would have been deprived of one of the greatest Christian artists of all times.

Clearly, contemporary society is spiritually, intellectually and artistically impoverished, as we have killed millions of little ones that had the potential to sanctify and enrich society with their God given talents.

In this Advent and in future Advents, we should foster and increase our devotion to Our Lady of Hope, as Cardinals Cañizares and Llovera recommend in their letter on celebrating this vigil. She is normally depicted as majestic, and is often carrying a baby in her womb. This avocation of Our Lady reminds us of the months that she was expecting the birth of the Christ Child that she was carrying in her womb. In particular this title of Our Lady is celebrated on the Third Sunday of Advent, as was earnestly recommended by the Tenth Council of Toledo in the year 656, which was presided over by St. Eugenio III. In the Catholic tradition, Our Lady of Hope is also called Our Lady of the "O" because her celebration coincides with the most beautiful "O" antiphons that mark the last Sunday of Advent: "O Sapientia," "O Adonai," "O Emmanuel," and others of great beauty.

Our Lady is our Hope not only because she brought the Savior to the World; she leads us to Him and is the channel of all His graces.The traditional image of Our Lady of Hope received a heavenly confirmation with the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the sixteenth century, where the image of her imprinted on the tilma of San Juan Diego is of a lady carrying a child.

Of course, we revere our Blessed Mother in all of her traditional, historical appearances. During Advent, however, we look to Our Lady of Hope in a special way. With this ancient title, she points us toward a theological virtue that is particularly necessary in our difficult times.

HLI Poland has sponsored a multilingual, international petition of solidarity with Pope Benedict XVI, who initiated the historic call to prayer for life. All who want to join the Holy Father and the universal Church in this special vigil are invited to sign the petition at http://yes-for-benedict.net/. The petition will be presented to the Holy Father after the date of the vigil.

For details on how to participate in the Prayer Vigil for All Nascent Human Life, HLI recommends the excellent resource of the US Catholic Bishops at http://www.usccb.org/prolife/papalvigil/.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula
Interim President, Human Life International

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