The Epiphany of our Lord.
by VP
Posted on Monday January 06, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sermons
The Adoration of the Magi (L'adoration des mages) - James Tissot
"GIVE thanks this day to Christ our Redeemer, who was pleased to manifest himself to the Gentiles, and thus open the way to salvation. Pray for those Gentiles, who as yet in great numbers sit in darkness, and know not God, that God would please to call them to his faith.
Pray that you may ever imitate the zeal and diligence of the three kings, who were no sooner called but they obeyed; who were not discouraged by the difficulties of the journey, but without delay set forward to find him who called them.
How happy would it be for you, could you thus readily follow where your obligation calls, and not let every pretended difficulty be sufficient to justify you in the frequent omission of duty.
Fall down in spirit, and adore Christ; and with the three kings acknowledge him for your God and Redeemer. Fail not to make your offerings with them. Offer your heart to him, if it be your own, or his. But if it be otherwise engaged, either in riches, pleasures, or excessive troubles, pray for its deliverance. Lay your gold, your frankincense, and myrrh all at his feet; let neither the sweet nor bitter keep you from him; offer all to him, who is Lord of all.
The zeal and courage of the three kings was very wonderful. Being informed of the birth of Christ, by the appearance of an unusual star, they forthwith undertook their journey; neither regarding the discourses of the world, which would charge them with folly and rashness, nor considering the dangers of going to proclaim a new-born king, at the court of a jealous prince; nor apprehensive of those many difficulties, the usual consequences of an uncertain journey, not knowing how far they were to go, nor whether they were ever to return. Whenever a soul comes up to this degree of resolution, there is reason enough to hope that it has overcome the world; since in this very point consists its victory, that it admits of nothing to take place of duty. And this is the test, by which every Christian may make a true judgment of himself. For, whatever his condition be, there is no proposal can be made of seeking Christ, and making any advance to him, but he must be exposed to some of these trials. The world will ever do like itself; it will certainly meddle with what belongs not to it; it will curiously examine, discourse, and its censures. It will condemn whatever departs out of the common road of its loose maxims, as singularity, folly, and vanity; and declare its resentment against every one, who disapproves of its ways by forsaking them. So that whoever pass has not gained this point, to be unconcerned at what the world says, is not yet in a possibility of finding Christ; since there is not one step which he can take, whether in prayer, recollection, fasting, penance, or frequenting the sacraments, but the world by its insults and mockeries will be ever discouraging him from all his pious designs, and will by this means bring him to the trial, whether his concern for what this world says, be not greater than his zeal for duty and justice.
Another difficulty he must meet with in respect to himself. No one can think of going towards Christ, but he will presently discover the way to be long, through the variety of interior contradictions, the apprehension of losing his own ease and convenience, and the obligation of making war against his own inclinations. This war is absolutely necessary, because his nature being corrupt, and strongly inclining him to selflove and the love of the world, he can no other way make approaches to Christ, than by resisting all such interior motions, and obliging them, by a sort of violence to yield, in obedience to the law of God. Now this cannot be effected, but by many uneasy conflicts. Nature itself must be overcome, passions must be mastered, what is pleasing must be renounced, and that made choice of, to which sense and inclination are wholly averse. And this must go on, till by this exercise the soul becomes wholly changed, not desiring now to follow the corrupt principles of the first Adam, but to live by the better maxims of the gospel, even the life of Christ. For he knows that there is no finding Christ, till he finds him abiding within his own heart, and there commanding as his Lord and Sovereign.
This is the way, and these are the difficulties, by which every one is to go to Christ. And there are few, though at the greatest distance from him, through the unhappy state of error or vice, but who are informed, like these three kings, by some providential light, where Christ is to be found: and had they a zeal and resolution like theirs to undertake the journey, would as certainly find him, to receive their offerings, and reward their labours. But here is the greatest instance of human weakness: few follow this light. Only three of all that nation in the East, to which the star appeared, followed it; and, it is to be feared, as few in other nations, in proportion to the great numbers who now see enough of it, to direct them to the truth of Christ. They have light shining upon them in their darkness, enough to awaken them; but, like men oppressed with sleep, they shut their eyes against it, and sleep on. The thoughts of what the world will say, the many inconveniences, as to their business and interest, the displeasure of friends, the difficulties of a change, with a thousand other discouragements, immediately present themselves; and prevail so far on minds unwilling to be disturbed, that on such motives of self-love, they desist from farther enquiry; and contenting themselves with some general principles of education, and the company of others, like themselves, they stifle the light and choose darkness.
The same weakness is, in many others, the occasion of continuing in the practice of very dangerous liberties, and walking on in a way very unjustifiable and unchristian. For though Almighty God often touches their hearts with a sense of their failings, and by an interior light from the gospel, good men or books, lets them see the danger of their state, and the necessity of reforming; yet being unwilling to forsake what pleases, and foreseeing the difficulties of a true conversion, they run for shelter to the example and authority of others,
whose learning, position, reputation, and character seem to qualify
them for being a rule. They plead that such a one does this, such
another does that; if this were not allowable and safe, certainly such
as they are, would not permit or practise it; and the like. Thus the example of religious, of priests and prelates, is brought forward; and there is scarcely any kind of vanity, pride, covetousness, levity or excess, but what is warranted and justified under this cover. And what is the ground of all this, but deceit and delusion? What is this, but a vicious partiality of insincere souls, who study how to delude the designs of infinite goodness, and by the treacherous authority of weakness itself, shut out the light of heaven,
and harden themselves against all its impressions? It is plain that
these are nothing but little subtilties, to put a fair gloss upon an ill
cause. Were there any sincerity in them, and zeal for truth and
justice, they would carefully attend to that light from heaven, which
glancing upon them at all times, puts them upon seeking farther than
they yet have done. They would join these sages in finding Christ; and
let no human respect, or the example of the errors and infirmities of others,
stop them in their way. Such courage would ensure blessing and success
to their endeavours; and they would certainly find Christ. Let this thy
light, O God of mercy, touch the hearts of all those, who by vice or error, are at a great distance from thee. Give them strength of mind
to follow it with constancy and perseverance, that they may never stop
till they find their Redeemer, and offer themselves at his sacred feet." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother
Feast of The Holy Name
by VP
Posted on Sunday January 05, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sermons
"When We say the Lord's Prayer, my dear brethren, we pray that God's Name may be hallowed on earth as it is in heaven. So great is God and so worthy of our reverence that everything that belongs to Him or that has been devoted to His service partakes of this reverence. A church dedicated to His service is a holy place; the sacred vessels used in the sacrifice of the Mass are holy things, are set apart, and none but those who are ordained can touch them. Anything that came in contact with our Blessed Lord had a certain participation in His sanctity. At one time it was the mere touch of the hem of His garment that cured a woman of a lingering disease; at another it was His spittle that gave hearing to the deaf. As it is with these things, so it is with His holy Name indeed, much more so.
For His Name to us is representative of all that He has done for us. It is significant of His divinity and of His office as the Redeemer. It was given to Him by the Eternal Father. By the ministry of an angel it was declared that He should be called Jesus, "for He shall save His people from their sins." "For there is no other name under heaven given to men," says St. Peter in today's Epistle, "whereby we must be saved." the same measure as His elevated above all creatures, so is His sacred Name above all other names, "that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow." "From the rising of the sun," says the Psalmist, "until the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is worthy of praise.”
Worthy of praise, my brethren; and yet what is our every-day experience? In all ranks of society, on the street, in the shop, in the home, in the presence of Christ's little ones, men swear, women swear; and little children ere they can use their tongues properly learn to lisp curses and blasphemies. Parents who are God's representatives, and who should love our Lord Jesus Christ and reverence His Name, instead of having a little patience, of acquiring some little control of their temper when anything goes wrong, give loose rein to their tongues and insult our Blessed Lord by their profane use of that Name which is the symbol of His love and mercy. How many there are who bow their head in reverence to that sacred Name in the house of God, and who go to their home or their occupation and use it only to add sin to their soul and give scandal to their neighbors! How often, alas! is that Holy Name dragged through the mire and filth of low, vulgar, and often obscene language.What a detestable vice this is! How worthy of the demon in its rebellion to God's express command, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who taketh His name in vain." Let this feast of the Holy Name serve as an occasion for a renewal of our love and reverence for the Name of Jesus. Let us today make some special acts of reparation to Him for the insults He receives in the profanation of that Holy Name. If we are unfortunate enough to be the slave of this dreadful habit, whether through bad example or carelessness, let the gracious promise of our Lord, "If you ask the Father anything in my Name, amen, I say, He will give it you," be an incentive to hope, be a stimulus to pray for the grace of freedom from that slavery. Habit is strong, but God's grace is stronger; His promise of help is never void. Blessed be the Name of Jesus!"
Source: Five-minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year by the Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul, 1893
The Golden Arrow Prayer:
May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.
Source: Sister Saint-Pierre and the Work of Reparation. Manual of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face
The Divine Praises in Reparation for Blasphemies
Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His Most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother,
Blessed be St. Joseph, her most chaste Spouse.
Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints.
I salute, adore, and love Thee, O Jesus, my Savior, covered anew with outrages by blasphemers, and I offer Thee, through the heart of Thy blessed Mother, the worship of all the Angels and Saints, as an incense and a perfume of sweet odor, most humbly beseeching Thee, by the virtue of Thy Sacred Face, to repair and renew in me and in all men Thy image disfigured by sin. Amen
Source: Veronica, or the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1871The Acceptable Time
by VP
Posted on Sunday January 05, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sermons
Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish (Springboro, Ohio)
"THE time to serve God is now, and the place to serve God is right here. Such, brethren, is the lesson of New Year's Day. This day is the starting point of the whole year, and we should appreciate that the day itself, the present time, is of greater value than the past and the future. We should start right. We should get our minds in a proper condition for the labor and suffering, the joy and sorrow, of the coming year; and that means that we should use the present moment for all that it is worth. Of course, brethren, this is the day of big wishes: "I wish you a happy New Year," we all have heard and said many times to-day; and that is a good thing. But good wishes don't put money in the bank, or pay off the mortgage on your home, or even put a fat turkey on the table. They are pleasant and charitable, and, we repeat, they are good things-all the better if, as a matter of fact, they are likely to be fulfilled.
Now, many a one says: "I cannot be as good a Christian as I should wish because I am too busy just now." So you see he takes it out in good wishes by saying, "I wish I could be a good Christian." He is one of those mentioned by our Saviour: "Not every one who says, Lord! Lord! shall enter into the kingdom of heaven"; and He adds, "but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Thus our Saviour shows the difference between the one who says and the one who does the good-wisher and the well-doer. Don't you see that by simply wishing you are putting your business above God? Can't you understand that you think more highly of the guest you entertain to-day than you do of the one whom you. put off till to-morrow? First come, first served : and who comes before God? God the Father created you. God the Son redeemed you. God the Holy Ghost sanctified you. Is any business equal to creation, redemption, and sanctification? But somebody might insist: Father, that is all true, and yet what I say is true. I am too busy to attend to my religious duties, and I cannot help it. My occupations force themselves upon me. must work as I do, or I and my family will suffer. I answer: There must be something wrong about this. Is it really possible that you are compelled to work in such a way that you positively cannot receive Communion a few times a year; cannot say your night and morning prayers; cannot attend at Mass-is this really the case? If so, then you are a slave. There have been classes of men among us so situated, but they are not so now, because they rebelled against it, took effective measures to remedy the evil and succeeded in doing so. Have you tried? Have you asked leave to get off work to attend to your religious duties? Are you willing to lose a day's wages once in a while for the love of God? Think over these questions. Be honest with yourself. Do not blame your employer or excuse yourself until you have made your request and been refused.
The time to serve God is now, and the place is right here. That is the principle upon which our Sunday-school teachers act. They are busy, industrious young men and women. They find time, however, not only to take care of their own souls, but to help parents and priests to save the children of the parish. Much the same may be said of the members of the choir, the gentlemen of the St. Vincent de Paul Conference, the Altar Society, and all others who unite themselves with us in the good works of religion and charity in this parish. To such souls, active and practical, every day is New Year's Day. They are always beginning or carrying on some good work for God, their neighbor, and their own souls, and doing it right here and just now.
It is in this spirit, brethren, that I hope all the good wishes of a Happy New Year may be received by you to-day, and that you may be truly happy in body and soul, in your families, and among your friends. Amen." Five-minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year, Congregation of St. Paul 1893
The Circumcision of Our Lord
by VP
Posted on Wednesday January 01, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sermons
"THIS being the first day of the new year, consecrate it all to God. Offer to him your thoughts, words, and actions : beg grace for the exact performance of all your obligations, to be supported in dangers, and preserved from sin.
On this day, Christ our Lord subjected himself to the law of Circumcision. Give him thanks; pray for grace, for the ready compliance with all the laws of God, and resolve to comply, even at the expense of your blood. On this day of his humiliation, was given to him the holy name of Jesus; offer yourself to Jesus; beseech him to make you a true follower of him, in all humility, that you may be of the number of those who are saved by him. Beg pardon for the many times you have abused or profaned his sacred name, and be careful to do it no more.
It being on the day of Christ's circumcision that he received the adorable name of Jesus, or Saviour, we have in this a great instruction given us, of the necessity of a Christian or spiritual circumcision, and that he will be a Saviour to none in whom this is not found. This is the condition of the salvation which he offers. He begins the work by a legal circumcision, and we are to partake of his redemption by circumcision of the heart.
This imports a duty, in the first place, of retrenching all habitual sin; because this is an engagement contrary to the law and will of God; and therefore living in any such engagement, is living in wilful disobedience and contempt of God, and rebellion against his law. Such a state can have no other fruit but destruction, in being eternally separated from God. Secondly, all who design to live as they profess, are obliged to renounce all the immediate occasions of these sins. Because these occasions have such a connexion with the sins themselves, that there can be no sincerity in pretending to admit the one, and avoid the other. It is impossible to conceive that a soul can be truly converted to God, and have a hearty detestation of sin, as the gospel requires, which is pleased with the familiarity of such dangers, as are a violence upon it, and almost inseparable from sin. All the thoughts then of such unhappy sinners, of repentance and returning to God, can be no other than treacherous delusions: whilst they pretend to be sorry for having offended, and yet think nothing of quitting that company, and those practices, which have been the continual occasions of all their past offences. Therefore, the omitting to retrench these, is what excludes them from any part in the mercies of a Redeemer.
Thirdly, they are obliged to free themselves from other more remote occasions of sin. But then, as there are different degrees in these, so there is likewise in the obligation of retrenching them; it being in some more absolute and pressing than in others, according to the connection they have with sin. As this differs according to tempers and circumstances, it must be determined in particular by conferring with spiritual directors. However, sine general rules may be proposed as the obligation which every one has of cutting off whatever helps considerably to heighten those inclinations and passions, which alienate the mind from the love of God, and lead to sin. Hence the good Christian is very careful in the choice of his company and conversation. For since the general discourse of the world is a communication of worldly principles, the effusion of error and pride, and other passions, a soul that indifferently exposes herself to company, is in danger of being infected with all this poison. The same caution the good Christian uses in reading books; because too many of these favour concupiscence and corruption so much, that frequent reading them must make impressions, and insensibly work upon the soul, to the great prejudice of all its spiritual concerns. It is the same, as to all manner of shows and diversions; because he sees the great danger and mischief of these things, inasmuch as they are the common ways by which the devil deludes souls into all kinds of sinful liberties and wickedness. Whatever therefore his affections or inclinations may be, he carefully removes so much of all that, to which these lead him, as he has reason to suspect dangerous to his eternal welfare.
This care of the good Christian extends likewise to whatever considerably disturbs that good order and discipline, which ought to be observed in his own person or family. For though these are not numbered among the virtues, yet they have place among the Christian duties; inasmuch as it is the obligation of every Christian to be watchful in that, which is the best security of a Christian life, and without which it must be exposed to be wholly overthrown. Indeed, it is as great an absurdity to think of maintaining a Christian life without order and discipline, as to support any civil or military government without it. Therefore, though it be often necessary to interrupt the order of praying, eating, working, sleeping, &c., yet whoever loses all regard to this order, and lets every humour and inclination take place of it, it is to be feared, that if he be not already lost, it cannot be very long before he will be so. For this going out of all method involves such variety of neglects, draws so many ill consequences after it, and betrays so great a stock of selflove, and desire of satisfying one's own inclinations, and preferring them to ordinary duties, that it cannot be long consistent with a Christian life.
For this reason, the good Christian, ever apprehensive of being insensibly carried out of the way, is not only careful to prevent it, by keeping up discipline, and observing good order in himself and family; but is likewise very watchful in retrenching whatever he perceives of this world apt to possess his heart and likely to turn it from God. And this, not only in respect of sinful objects, but also of all love of the world, love of temporal or secular things, in a word, of all love of creatures. This he undertook in baptism, when becoming the child of God, he promised to renounce all those inclinations, which he brought with him into the world, which naturally and violently carry him to sin, to earth, and to creatures; and solemnly engaged to follow those new impressions which he then received, which lead him to the love of God, to religion, and to the search of heavenly things, by a separation from creatures. Though, from that corruption which is in him, he cannot follow the new impressions, without violence to nature; yet having taken this obligation upon him, he considers it his duty ever to use this violence. This is his exercise, as long as he is in this life. He finds in it great difficulties; but he who undertook to be his Redeemer, has taught him that he is not to expect any part in this redemption without trouble and difficulties. Therefore, encouraged by his example, he resolutely offers himself to all these, and looks for them as part of his portion to which he is called. Though frail of himself, he yet hopes, through the grace of his Redeemer, and the assistance of his holy spirit, to hold out to the end, with cheerful submission, and untired patience, till that happy hour comes when he may say: All is finished. For this end, he puts himself this day under the covert of the sacred name of Jesus, hoping under that protection daily to receive a constant supply of courage and comfort; that he may go on in the practice of a spiritual circumcision, in the same spirit with him who taught it. Grant us, O Jesus, this thy holy spirit, that we may ever remember this lesson, and duly practise it. And whenever our corrupt nature is carrying us to sin, to the love of this world, or of creatures, powerfully check our inclinations, and say to our souls: I am thy salvation." The Catholic Year for Rev. Fr. John Gother