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“Thy faith hath made thee whole.”—Luke Chapt 18. verse 12.

"Which of us, dear brethren, has such perfect spiritual health that he does not need to call upon Christ, our all-merciful physician? We are all crippled, blind, and sick. The great remedy by which we must be healed is faith. We see how the blind man in to-day's Gospel was made whole by faith. In another place we read of the woman with an issue of blood made well by faith. And in many other parts of Scripture faith is put down as our great healing remedy.

Thank God, we have received the great blessing of the Catholic faith! But is our faith what it ought to be ? Is it a living faith? If we have a living faith it will show itself by our deeds. Let us examine ourselves today as to our intentions for the coming Lent. How much practical faith shall we find in ourselves? “ Faith without good works is dead.” How can we expect that such faith will make us whole? Are you dreading the approach of this season of penance? Are you calculating the easiest terms upon which you can get through it? Do you look upon it as an evil time, which must be borne with, but out of which you expect to get nothing but discomfort?

If you look upon Lent in this spirit, you are no true follower of Christ and the Cross—your faith is not a living faith. And a dead faith is worse than useless, for such a faith can abide only in the lukewarm, of whom the Holy Ghost speaks thus : “Would thou wert cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." Beware lest your present lack of the Christian spirit of penance be the beginning of your casting forth !

But do not misunderstand and think that we must relish this coming season of penance, in our lower natures, just as a hungry man relishes his dinner. That is not the kind of relish we are bound to have. Although we may have an involuntary horror of penance, if we, nevertheless, appreciate our need of mortification, and are determined to make the most of this opportunity, all the more because we instinctively dread it, we show that God has at least a large part of our hearts.

He wants the whole of them, saying : “My son, give Me thy heart." But if we keep a part for our miserable selves, in His mercy, though grieved, He will not condemn us.

But if any one has not at least a determination to try, he may well tremble at his condition. If he thinks he can safely put off his repentance to his death-bed, he deceives himself. The odds against such a man's being saved are tremendous. Does it not stand to reason that an ordinary man who has spent his life in sin cannot, unless by a miracle of grace, accomplish in a short hour, or perhaps less time, what it has taken good men a lifetime to do? The dying sinner may persuade the priest that he has repented, but is it not because he has deceived himself in his fear of death? If we could test his repentance by offering him ten years more of life, would he persevere in his good intentions? If he has resolved not to sin any more for the sole reason that he has no chance left him for doing so, his repentance is a sham, and all the absolutions of all the priests that have ever lived cannot save his soul. " As a man lives, so shall he die." Is it not easier to repent now, while you are able, than upon your death-bed, when disease and sin have almost robbed you of reason ?

Have a living faith which will show itself by deeds! And let the prayer of the blind man be the prayer of each of us, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me.” And let us not cease until Jesus answers us, “Thy faith hath made thee whole."

Source: Five minutes sermons for Low Masses for every Sundays of the Year by the Priests of the Congregation of Saint Paul 1893

*' That the Child should be circumcised. "St. Luke it 21.

I. As a Master Of Truth.
II. As the Expiator of our Sins.
III. As the Sanctifier of Souls.

1. Jesus Christ was born, and appeared in the world, as He said of Himself, to "give testimony to the truth" (St. John xviii. 37); and in causing Himself to be circumcised, He began to give this testimony in the clearest manner, by manifesting Himself as the Supreme Truth. He showed that He had true human flesh, in order to confound the heretics of future ages, particularly the Manichean, who attributed to Him a spectral body; the Apollinarians, who imagined His Body to be con-substantial with His Divinity; and the Valentinians, who believed it to be a body brought down from heaven. Moreover, it certified Him to be a true son of Abraham, who received the precept of circumcision as a sign of his faith in the future Messiah. Thus, as St. Thomas says, did He confirm the promises made to the Holy Fathers. Finally He declared another most important truth, to wit, that we must observe the law, for this is the one way of salvation; therefore, as Venerable Bede observes, He would be circumcised precisely on the eighth day, as the law prescribed. In this manner did it become our High Priest to appear as a Master of truth, and it becomes us, His Ministers, to be likewise masters of truth. For this end He has given us in our ordination the Paraclete, who is "the Spirit of Truth," and who " teaches all truth" (St. John xvi. 13). Let us then guard against lying, for lies in a priest's mouth would be shameful. How well did the Apostle fulfill his ministry, from whose lips issued the words: "I say the truth, I lie not" (1 Tim. ii. 7). Moreover, let us teach the truth to the faithful, for it will deliver them from all evil: "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (St. John viii. 32). Let us endeavor to make them walk in the way of truth, that is, in the way of justice, for with St. John, we can "have no greater grace than this," to hear that our " children walk in truth" (3 St. John v. 4), and so shall we and they behold and enjoy the Eternal Truth in Heaven.

2. Jesus Christ was to save His people by the remission of their sins: "For He shall save His people from their sins" (St. Matt. i. 21); but there could never have been such remission without shedding of blood: "without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb. ix. 22). Therefore in His Circumcision Jesus Christ shed His first blood, which was as it were the prelude and earnest of the rest, which was shed even to the last drop in His Passion. A holy writer calls it "the Prelude of His future Passion and Death," and St. Bernard says He showed therein His great haste to take our sorrows; He showed Himself ready to shed His Blood for us. This first blood-shedding was exceedingly painful, humiliating, and grievous to Him. It was exceedingly painful, because, unlike other children, He had the full use of reason, and He did not distract Himself from feeling the pain, but, on the contrary, engrossed Himself with it, in order to suffer all its bitterness. Moreover, as St . Thomas says, His Body, being the perfect work of the Holy Ghost, was especially sensitive and delicate. Then, again, it was exceedingly humiliating because, as St. Thomas again says, circumcision was the remedy for original sin, and therefore it was a mark of shame, indicating the appearance of sinful flesh in the Holy of Holies. Finally, it was most grievous to Him, because it bound Him to the observance of the whole Law of Moses, which was a heavy yoke: "I testify again to every man circumcising himself, that he is a debtor to do the whole law" (Gal. v. 3). He observed this Law exactly, and bore its yoke even to His Last Supper, in order to relieve His followers from it: "made under the law, that He might redeem them who were under the law" (Gal. iv. 5). Thus has He taught His Ministers to shrink from no sufferings, humiliations, or burdens whatsoever when the welfare, of the Church is in question. Many, on this account, have offered themselves to God as victims for the people, and "in the time of wrath have made themselves means of reconciliation" (Eccles. xliv. 17). They have been severe to themselves, but to their people full of that charity which is "patient, is kind," which "beareth all things . . . endureth all things" (1 Cor. xiii. 4, 7). Are we ^like these? Do we desire to imitate Jesus Christ? Let us love the little Child of Bethlehem circumcised for us, and so shall we feel ourselves moved to imitate Him.

3. The Holy Child was circumcised in order to operate in us a spiritual circumcision; that is, as St . Thomas says, He took upon Himself the figure in order to accomplish the reality in us. Further, Origen observes, that Christ being our Head, even as we died in His Death, and rose again in His Resurrection, so were we spiritually circumcised when the flesh of our Head was circumcised. Therefore the Apostle tells us: "In Him you are circumcised, with circumcision not made with hand in despoiling of the body of the flesh," but, by the mystery of the Circumcision operating spiritually in you, "in the Circumcision of Christ" (Col. ii. 11). A sign in the flesh was given to the Jews, who were a carnal people, but they often remained " uncircumcised in heart and ears" (Acts vii. 51). Christians, on the contrary, ought to experience a circumcision in the heart, in the putting off of the old generation, of the old man and his deeds, that is to say, of all that belongs to our sinful origin; and in this putting off, as St. Thomas says, sanctity consists. Let us then meditate how Jesus Christ by that painful wound, by the Blood which He then shed, wrought the salvation of souls. Let us carefully examine our hearts that we may see whether they are circumcised, or whether passions are still alive in them impelling us to evil. Let us remember that the priests of Christ are the ministers of spiritual circumcision, as the priests of the line of Aaron were the ministers of carnal circumcision. Christ was circumcised by one of them, or by some Levite in the stable. Let us therefore endeavor to minister it to others, not only by word but by example, and let us pray to our Divine Lord, that, by the virtue of this His Most Precious Blood He would despoil us of the desires of the flesh, and make us live according to the Spirit.

"Turn away my reproach which I have apprehended, for Thy judgments are delightful."—Ps. cxviii. 39.
"Thou hast redeemed us to God in Thy Blood."—Apoc. v. 9.

Source: Meditations for the use of the clergy, for every day in the year ..., Volume 1 By Angelo Agostino Scotti (abp. of Thessalonica.)

"Thus was the Earth in desolation when the Messiah came to deliver and save it. So diminished, so decayed, were truths among the children of men (Psalm xi. 2) that the human race was bordering on its ruin. The knowledge of the true God was becoming rarer as the world got older. Idolatry had made everything in creation an object of its adulterous worship. The practical result of a religion which was but gross materialism, was frightful immorality. Man was for ever at war with man, and the only safeguards of what social order still existed in the world were the execrable laws of slavery and extermination. Among the countless inhabitants of the globe, a mere handful could be found who were seeking God. They were as rare as the olives that remain on the tree after a careful plucking, or as grape-bunches after the vintage is ended. Of this happy few were among the Jewish people those true Israelites whom our Saviour chose for His disciples and, among the Gentiles, the Magi that came from the East, asking for the new-born King, and later on, Cornelius the Centurion, whom the Angel of the Lord directed to Saint Peter.

But, with what faith and joy did they not acknowledge the Incarnate God! And what their hymns of glad gratitude when they found that they had been privileged above others, to see, with their own eyes, the promised Saviour! Now, all this will again happen when the time draws near of the second Coming of the Messiah. The Earth will once more be filled with desolation and mankind will be again a slave of its self-degradation. The ways of men will again grow corrupt and this time the malice of their evil will be the greater because they will have received Him who is the Light of the world, the Word of Life. A profound sadness will sit heavy on all nations, and every effort for their well-being will seem paralysed. They and the Earth they live on will be conscious of decrepitude, and yet it will never once strike them that the world is drawing to an end. There will be great scandals. There will fall stars from Heaven, that is, many of those who had been masters in Israel will apostatise and their light will be changed into darkness. There will be days of temptation and faith will grow slack, so that when the Son of Man will appear, faith will scarce be found on the Earth.

Let it not be, O Lord, that we live to see those days of temptation. Or, if it be your will that they overtake us, make our hearts firm in their allegiance to your holy Church, which will be the only beacon left to your faithful children in that fierce storm. Grant, O Lord, that we may be of the number of those chosen olives, of those elect bunches of grapes, with which you will complete the rich harvest which you will garner forever into your house. Preserve intact within us the deposit of faith which you have entrusted to us. Let our eye be fixed on that Orient of which the Church speaks to us, and where you are suddenly to appear in thy majesty. When that day of yours comes and we behold your triumph, we will shout our glad delight and then, like eagles which cluster round the body, we will be taken up to meet you in the air, as your Apostle speaks, and thus will we forever be with you (1 Thessalonians iv. 16). Then we will hear the praises and glory of the Just One, from the ends of this Earth, which it is your good will to preserve until the decrees of your mercy and justice will have been fully executed. Jesus! We are the work of your hands: save us and be merciful to us on that great day." Dom Gueranger, December 15

"Jesus, making answer, said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen."-St. Matt. xi. 4.

"You will find indeed many an unworthy priest who will assure you that he gives no scandal; but he is greatly mistaken. “Murder will out,” and the sins of the priest cannot long remain hidden.

Does the unworthy priest love solitude? Does he love study? Do you find him often in church praying before the Blessed Sacrament? Do you find him often in the confessional? Why is he so often absent when the messenger comes for a sick call? Why does he come home so late at night? Why does he visit that house so often? Why does that light burn so late in his room? Is he praying, or perhaps card-playing? Why does he sleep so long in the morning instead of being in the confessional? Why does he omit Mass so often on week days? Why is he so often nervous and ill-humored? Is he not a little too free and confidential towards certain persons?

Look at the church, look at the altar, look at the vestments, look at the sacred vessels – the chalice and ciborium – is everything clean, decent and orderly? Why does he not begin Mass punctually on Sundays and holy days of obligation? Why does he so often fail to keep his promises and thereby disappoint the people? See how he hurries through Mass.

How does he observe the rubrics? Is he attentive and devout? Why is he so eager for money, and so indifferent when there is question of saving a soul? (...)

Why does he speak against the Pope, the bishop, and religious? Why does he jest about holy things? Why does he not show more reverence in church, and when he carries the Blessed Sacrament to the sick?

Why does he not show more self respect, more priestly dignity and decorum in society, at fairs, excursions, picnics, and so on? Why does he make use of words of double meaning, unbecoming hints and jests? Why does he allow young persons to read dangerous story papers, magazines, and novels? (…)

These are some of the questions that the people ask; these are some of the thoughts that flit through their minds. The unworthy priest may try his best to hid his crimes; but the cloak of hypocrisy cannot hide them forever. The inner corruption of his heart betrays itself at least at times. But how terrible is the scandal when the sins of the priest are no longer a matter of doubt or uncertainty, but a sad and shameful reality. Who can sum up all the harm that is done by even one bad priest? (…)

How often must a good priest suffer for the misdeeds of his predecessors! He may be as generous and disinterested as St. Paul; still some will accuse him of avarice, of doing everything for money. (…) He may be reserved and dignified and pure as an angel, yet wicked tongues will not be wanting to whisper unjust suspicions. (…)

The higher the source of the torrent is, the more rapidly does it rush into the valley, and the more wide spread is the destruction which it causes. O God! Who can calculate all the harm that is done, all the sins that are committed, all the souls that are ruined on account of the scandalous life of one unworthy priest! Like a mountain torrent, the scandal rushes on, spreading death and desolation on every side. It rushes on like a poison flood, bearing death to generations yet unborn; aye, it goes on in its work of destruction even till the day of doom; its evil consequences go even beyond the tomb; they live on forever in hell.

O God! How many yet unborn will rise up on the judgment day against the bad priest and curse him! If a petty shrub is uprooted and falls, it harms only itself; but if a might cedar falls, it drags down in its deadly embrace whatever stands within its reach!

Woe to the world, when the “Salt of the earth” becomes the corrupter of innocence.
Woe to the world when the “Light of the world” becomes an "ignis fatuus",
a wandering light that leads unwary souls into the foul, noisome marsh of sin.
Woe to the world when the shepherd of the flock has become a ravenous wolf!

The unworthy priest loses the friendship of God; he loses the beauty of his soul; he loses the merit of all his good works. As long as he remains in sin, his arm is withered; he can merit nothing for heaven. The unworthy priest is the slave of sin, the slave of the devil; he heaps sin upon sin, sacrilege upon sacrilege. By his wicked life he gives scandal and ruins innocent souls.

 All this is sad and terrible enough; but the most terrible of all the consequences of sin is that the unworthy priest becomes hardened; he is at last struck with spiritual blindness; his conversion becomes almost an impossibility; and finally he gives way to despair, like another Judas."

Source: Rev. Fr. Michael Muller, C.SS.R. The Catholic Priesthood, 1885.

Catechism on the Holy Spirit (St. John Vianney, Cure d'Ars):

"O my children, how beautiful it is! The Father is our Creator, the Son is our Redeemer, and the Holy Ghost is our Guide. . .
Man by himself is nothing, but with the Holy Spirit he is very great. Man is all earthly, and all animal; nothing but the Holy Spirit can elevate his mind, and raise it on high. Why were the saints so detached from the earth? Because they let themselves he led by the Holy Spirit. Those who are led by the Holy Spirit have true ideas; that is the reason that so many ignorant people are wiser than the learned. When we are led by a God of strength and light, we cannot go astray.

The Holy Spirit is light and strength. He teaches us to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and between good and evil. Like glasses that magnify objects, the Holy Spirit shows us good and evil on a large scale. With the Holy Spirit we see every thing in its true proportions; we see the greatness of the least actions done for God, and the greatness of the least faults. As a watchmaker with his glasses distinguishes the most minute wheels of a watch, so we, with the light of the Holy Ghost, distinguish all the details of our poor life. Then the smallest imperfections appear very great, the least sins inspire us with horror. That is the reason why the most Holy Virgin never sinned. The Holy Ghost made her understand the hideousness of sin; she shuddered with terror at the least fault.

Those who have the Holy Spirit cannot endure themselves, so well do they know their poor misery. The proud are those who have not the Holy Spirit.
 Worldly people have not the Holy Spirit, or if they have, it is only for a moment. does not remain with them; the noise of the world drives Him away. A Christian who is led by the Holy Spirit has no difficulty in leaving the goods of this world, to run after those of heaven; he knows the difference between them. The eyes of the world see no farther than this life, as mine see no farther than this wall when the church-door is shut. The eyes of the Christian see deep into eternity. To the man who gives himself up to the guidance of the Holy Ghost, there seems to be no world; to the world there seems to be no God. . . . We must therefore find out by whom we are led. If it is not by the Holy Ghost, we labour in vain, there is no substance nor savour in any thing we do. If it is by the Holy Ghost, we taste a delicious sweetness;...is enough to make us die of pleasure!

 Those who are led by the Holy Spirit experience all sorts of happiness in themselves, while bad Christians roll themselves on thorns and flints.

A soul in which the Holy Spirit dwells is never weary in the presence of God; his heart gives forth a breath of love.

Without the Holy Ghost we are like the stones on the road. . . . Take in one hand a sponge full of water, and in the other a little pebble; press them equally. Nothing will come out of the pebble, but out of the sponge will come abundance of water. The sponge is the soul filled with the Holy Spirit, and the stone is the cold and hard heart which is not inhabited by the Holy Spirit.

A soul that possesses the Holy Spirit tastes such sweetness in prayer, that she finds the time always too short; she never loses the holy presence of God. Such a heart, before our good Saviour in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, is a bunch of grapes under the wine press.

The Holy Spirit forms thoughts and suggests words in the hearts of the just. . . . Those who have the Holy Spirit produce nothing bad: all the fruits of the Holy Spirit are good.

Without the Holy Spirit all is cold; therefore, when we feel we are losing our fervour, we must instantly make a novena to the Holy Spirit to ask for faith and love. . . . See, when we have made a retreat or a jubilee, we are full of good desires: these good desires are the breath of the Holy Ghost, which has passed over our souls, and has renewed every thing, like the warm wind which melts the ice and brings back the spring... You who are not great saints, you still have many moments when you taste the sweetness of prayer and of the presence of God: these are visits of the Holy Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit, the heart expands - bathes itself in divine love. A fish never complains of having too much water, neither does a good Christian ever complain of being too long with the good God. There are some people who find religion wearisome, and it is because they have not the Holy Spirit.

If the damned were asked, Why are you in hell? they would answer, For having resisted the Holy Spirit. And if the saints were asked, Why are you in heaven? they would answer, For having listened to the Holy Spirit. When good thoughts come into our minds, it is the Holy Spirit who is visiting us.

The Holy Spirit is a power. The Holy Spirit supported St. Simeon on his column; He sustained the martyrs. Without the Holy Spirit, the martyrs would have fallen like the leaves from the trees. When the fires were lighted under them, the Holy Spirit extinguished the heat of the fire by the heat of divine love.

The good God, in sending us the Holy Spirit, has treated us like a great king who should send his minister to guide one of his subjects, saying, "You will accompany this man every where, and you will bring him back to me safe and sound." How beautiful it is, my children, to be accompanied by the Holy Spirit! He is indeed a good Guide; and to think that there are some who will not follow Him!

The Holy Spirit is like a man with a carriage and horse, who should want to take us to Paris. We should only have to say 'yes,' and to get into it. It is indeed an easy matter to say yes! .. Well, the Holy Spirit wants to take us to heaven; we have only to say 'yes,' and to let Him take us there.

The Holy Spirit is like a gardener cultivating our souls. . . . The Holy Spirit is our servant.

There is a gun; well, you load it, but some one must fire it and make it go off... In the same way, we have in ourselves the power of doing good; . . . when the Holy Spirit gives the impulse, good works are produced.

The Holy Spirit reposes in just souls like the dove in her nest. He brings out good desires in a pure soul, as the dove hatches her young ones.   

The Holy Spirit leads us as a mother leads by the hand her child of two years old, . . as a person who can see leads one who is blind.

The Sacraments which our Lord instituted would not have saved us without the Holy Spirit. Even the Death of our Lord would have been useless to us without Him. Therefore our Lord said to His Apostles, "It is good for you that I should go away; for if I did not go, the Consoler would not come."...The descent of the Holy Ghost was required, to render fruitful that harvest of graces. It is like a grain of wheat - you cast it into the ground; yes, but it must have sun and rain to make it grow and come into ear.
We should say every morning, " O God, send me Thy Spirit, to teach me what I am and what Thou art."

Source: The Spirit of the Cure of Ars,  by Alfred Monnin 1865

“And other some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it choked it."-St. Luke viii. 7.

We, my dear brethren, have received the seed of the Divine word, and we have kept it: we have never fallen away from the true faith as it is in Christ and His Church, and with God's help we never shall. Our steadfastness in the faith is our greatest glory in the sight of heaven and of earth, and whatever our shortcomings may be, we are at least free from the awful crime of apostasy, and this worst of all reproaches can never be laid to our charge. The good soil that produces a hundred fold is ours; but alas! the thorny soil is ours also, and our faith though firmly rooted is often choked by the pernicious jungle growing up around us, in which we suffer ourselves to become entangled.

How many a glorious promise of supernatural faith and virtue in those around us becomes utterly blighted by the thorns of the world's ways and temptations, because no proper care is taken to resist them and stamp them out! The thorny growths that stifle our faith and render it worthless in the sight of God are many indeed, but there is one in particular that is more destructive than all the rest beside. I need hardly name it to you, for you know it but too well—the deadly Upas-tree of intemperance- that casts its withering shade over our hearts and homes and altars! Is there a single person here this morning that does not know of more than one generous soul in whom every fruitful germ of faith and hope and charity, and every sentiment of true Christian manhood and womanhood, have not been blighted by this prevalent passion ? Call the roll of your nearest friends and acquaintances, and how many will you not find absent from the ranks of Christian life, duty, and fidelity through this one vice? There is a skeleton in every closet, and the saloon-keepers have taken the flesh off its bones. This more than anything else chokes the divine seed of the word amongst us; this nullifies the power of our faith; this neutralizes the effects of the Sacraments; this scandalizes our holy religion and makes our consecrated ministry vain; for this is the evil root from whence springs the foul crop of lusts and blasphemies, and crimes and contentions, that stifle every virtue of the Christian life and weigh down the Church of the living God.

Could we but cast out this baneful blight of intemperance from amongst us, our glorious faith would appear in all its strength and beauty, and yield its hundred fold. If it were not for the gross and scandalous lives that so many so-called Catholics lead, nothing could stop the onward march of our faith. This is the one objection raised against us that we cannot satisfactorily meet.

We know very well that ours is the only true religion, and that it supplies every help that we need to enable us to overcome our passions and to lead upright lives. But the world at large knows little or nothing of our faith; it only looks at the dark side of our every-day conduct, and scornfully asks: "Where is the influence of the Catholic religion on the venal politician, the low liquor-seller, the drunken reveler, the meretricious streetwalker, the abominable fathers and mothers who make their homes a hell upon earth, and drive their unfortunate children to destruction ? And what reply can we make? We cannot deny that many who claim to profess our faith are an utter disgrace to it, and a rock of scandal to the world. They, of course, have shaken off all sense of obligation to their religion and its teachings, and have no more conception of religious duty than the cow or the horse. Theirs is a purely animal existence, they live only for the gratification of their lower nature, and we disclaim all responsibility for them. What responsibility has the Catholic Church for those who seldom or ever darken its doors, who never approach its Sacraments, who spend their Saturday nights in the saloons, and their Sunday mornings in drunken slumber? What responsibility has the Church for the recreant rowdies who hang around the corner grog-shops, and the fallen flirts who frequent the sidewalks? They may have Catholic names, but that is the only evidence of their Catholicity. The thorns of dissipation and sensuality and sin of every kind have choked the seed of truth in their hearts, and they are outside the soul of the Church, though they may still claim to belong to its visible pale. But take our consistent Catholics, men and women who are in touch with the spirit of their faith and honestly endeavor to live up to its teachings. Are they not in very truth the salt of the earth? and does not the divine seed planted in their souls produce a hundred fold?"

Source: Five minutes sermons for Low Masses for every Sundays of the Year by the Priests of the Congregation of Saint Paul 1893