Steadfastness
by VP
Posted on Sunday April 12, 2026 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
The Disbelief of Saint Thomas (Incredulité de Saint Thomas) - James Tissot
"Jesus saith to him: because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen and have believed."-St. John xx. 29.
"When Our Lord appeared to the disciples and gave them the commission to forgive sins, and thus instituted the holy Sacrament of Penance, St. Thomas was not present; and when the other disciples told him what had happened, and that He had shown them the wounds in His hands and in His feet, he refused to believe them; he declared he would not believe unless he himself should see them also. He said: "Unless I shall see the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
This disposition of St. Thomas was very wrong. He ought to have believed without hesitation. He had seen our Lord work miracles without number; he had seen Him give sight to the blind, even those blind from birth; make the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak; he had seen Him raise the dead to life, raise Lazarus after being dead and buried already four days. He knew that our Lord had predicted His resurrection. He ought to have believed, and he sinned in not believing. He was obstinate in unbelief, refusing to credit the testimony of his companions, whom he knew to be honest and trustworthy.
Our Lord in the kindness of His heart forgave him, and made him put his finger into the print of the nails and into the wound in His side to convince him, and also to convince us by His testimony of the reality of His resurrection. But at the same time He rebuked him, and taught us all a grand lesson. He said: "Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.”
We have the faith on the testimony of the apostles and disciples who recorded it in the Gospels, and who sealed their testimony in their own blood.
We have the testimony of all the disciples who repeatedly saw our Lord after His resurrection, sometimes a great number of them, over five hundred at once.
We have the testimony of the Catholic Church; of all those millions on millions who have lived from that day to this; of the wonderful providence of God and His care of His Church until now.
This ought to be enough. This ought to be enough to make us say our act of faith, "O my God, I believe whatever Thy Holy Church proposes to my belief, because Thou hast revealed it to her. Thou who canst neither deceive nor be deceived."
This is the age of unbelief. Very great numbers of men are occupied in trying to undermine the faith. The newspapers are full of infidel objections. The press is teeming with works written expressly to destroy the faith. The flimsiest reasons are brought forward with a bold face as if they were unanswerable. The very fact that the things of God and religion are so high and incomprehensible is brought forward as the principal reason why they are not to be believed.
We have believed once for all, on the truest and most solid evidence. Our business now is to "live by faith." To put in practice the precepts of our faith, and to follow the example of the Author and Finisher of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are not of those who are to be "beat about by every wind of doctrine.” We are not to be moved by the vain babblings of men, who are wise in their own conceit and think they know everything, though they know very little after all. We will not imitate St. Thomas in his unbelief, and refuse to believe the wonderful things of God because they are so high and wonderful, but imitate him when in wonder and admiration he cried, "My Lord and my God." Believing in the testimony of God and His Church, and putting away all sceptical and imaginative doubts, we shall receive the blessing pronounced by our Lord: "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." (Low Sunday - Five minute Sermons by the Paulist Fathers)
Low Sunday: GOD OR THE WORLD?
by VP
Posted on Sunday April 12, 2026 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
The Disbelief of Saint Thomas (Incredulité de Saint Thomas) - James Tissot
“The friendship of this world is an enemy of God.” — JAS. lv. 4.
1. The love of God and of the world.2. What is meant by the world.
3. We have to be in the world; the evil and the dangers of it.
4. How to overcome the world: Its twofold attack: adversity, pleasure. The victory won by faith.
"1. St. Augustine tells us that there are two loves, which make two different cities or kingdoms: the love of God, spiritual and infused, which makes the city of God, the Church of the elect; the love of the world and of self, so centered as to exclude God, that makes the city of the wicked, which is the kingdom of the devil, by whom it is possessed and ruled. "Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God ? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God." (James iv. 4.) This is the friendship that makes men insubordinate, disobedient, and displeasing to God. "Love not the world," says St. John, "nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him.” (I John ii. 15.) But let us beware of unreality and exaggeration; instead of doing good they do harm. So let us see plainly and exactly what is meant by the world and the friendship of the world.
2. By the world here is meant vain and vicious men, who love carnal, transitory, and earthly things inordinately — that is, to the exclusion of God —and these very things themselves, which such men seek and desire, grasp and cling to, that they may be enriched, praised, and exalted in this short life. Here is the evil and danger of it all.
3. We are in the world, and have to be in the world and mix with the world; where is the evil, then, in loving the things of the world ? God’s love has to be first and foremost in our hearts, and wherever and whenever things of the world seek to take this first place, there is the evil and the danger. Therefore duty to God constantly calls upon us to despise, break with, and even to hate the things and friendships of this world, inasmuch as they hinder us, or actually pervert us, from seeking and loving God. "For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but of the world." (1 John ii.16.) We must, then, thus far overcome the world that we shall not allow it or any creature friend of it so to entice us that, for the desire or love of it, we shall transgress the law of God.
As "the friendship of this world is an enemy of God," as the text tells us, we see plainly that we cannot be friends with both. God and the world have nothing in common; their ends are diametrically opposed to each other. The world bows down to wealth, influence, success; Christ blesses poverty, meekness, persecution. The world makes the most of the present and the things of life, for it knows in its heart that it passeth away. Christ bids us remember that we are pilgrims and wayfarers here, to rejoice if the world hates us, for our true home is heaven, whither we are tending. "Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you." (1 John iii. 13.)
4. A twofold attack does the world advance against the servants of Christ. Adversity threatens that we may lose courage, and through fear be induced to sin. The world tried this for three hundred years of persecution in the early ages; it has tried it again in later times in many countries, and especially in England and in Ireland. And the glorious martyrs gave a triumphant answer, and gladly laid down their lives for the love of God. And the martyrs of more recent times vied in courage and alacrity with the martyrs of the olden days. The children of the Church had not changed with the lapse of centuries. In the same blessed choir of martyrs we behold Ignatius of Antioch and Fisher of Rochester, Cyprian and Thomas More, Lawrence and Campion the Jesuit! And the second mode of attack is an insidious one— the seductions of pleasure and prosperity, amusements and love, to entice and attract, to deceive and ensnare the hearts of the unwary and imprudent. This is the attack to which, in our days, so many, especially the young and impulsive, fall victims. Too self-willed to heed warnings, resenting interference, they are swept on with the crowds of pleasure-seekers, forgetful of God and their souls; the love of the world slowly but surely possessing itself of their heart and ruling it. He alone can withstand this attack who, with the eye of faith, looks up to God, and for His love and honor despises and rejects the blandishments of all created things.
St. John tells us what power it is that overcomes the world - our faith: "This is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith” (1 John v. 4) - the faith that tells us Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Judge, and therefore that our lives and hearts should be all for Him. A lively, strenuous faith pleases God so much! It is above all riches and honors and the substance of this world. It is the gift of God, but we can pray for it, and pray for more and more of it. The Gospels bid us do it. "And Jesus saith, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And immediately crying out, with tears, he said, I do believe, Lord: help my unbelief." (Mark ix. 22, 23.) "And Jesus saith, Have the faith of God. . . . Whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive; and they shall come unto you." (Mark xi. 22, 24.)
Let us pray for the love of God and the contempt of the world, with faith such as this. Then victory would be ours. May that faith be ours which, as St. Augustine says, "saves sinners, opens the eyes of the blind, cures the sick, baptizes, justifies, restores poor penitents to God’s favor, increases the merits of the just, crowns martyrs, preserves all in a sinless life, and places the elect with the angels in their eternal inheritance.” May the great and Blessed God deign to bestow this faith upon us all!"
Source: Short sermons, by Rev. Fr. Hickey 1913, Low Sunday
Keep a constant eye on the needs of your flock...
by VP
Posted on Sunday April 12, 2026 at 12:00AM in Books
Be mindful that the slightest negligence on your part renders you culpable in the eyes of God for He will demand a rigorous account of all the souls committed to your care. I will require his blood at thy hand, says Sacred Scripture in Ezechiel (3,18)."
Source: The Priest His Dignity and Obligations by St. John Eudes
Litany to Obtain Holy Priests
Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy
Christ, hear us
Christ, Graciously hear us
God, Our Heavenly Father, have mercy on us
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us
God, The Holy Ghost, have mercy on us
Holy Trinity, Three Persons in one God, have mercy on us
Lord, obtain for us priests
Lord, obtain for us holy priests and make us docile to their teachings
Holy Mary, Queen of the Clergy, obtain for us holy priests
Saint Joseph, Patron of the Church, obtain for us holy priests
Saint Michael, splendor and protector of the Church militant, obtain for us holy priests
All you holy Saints and Archangels, obtain for us holy priests
All you holy Patriarchs and Prophets, obtain for us holy priests
All you holy Martyrs and Virgins, obtain for us holy priests
All you holy Bishops and Confessors, obtain for us holy priests
All you holy Priests and Doctors, obtain for us holy priests
All you holy Founders of religious orders, obtain for us holy priests
St. Anthony of Padua, defender of the Holy Eucharist, obtain for us holy priests
St. John-Mary Vianney, model of sacerdotal holiness, obtain for us holy priests
St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionary priests, obtain for us holy priests
St. Therese of the Child-Jesus and of the Holy Face, victim offered for
the sanctification of priests, obtain for us holy priests
Saints and Servants of God, obtain for us holy priests.
To celebrate with reverence the Holy Mysteries, obtain for us holy priests
To offer every day the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, obtain for us holy priests
To feed the people of God with the Bread of life, obtain for us holy priests
To promote the splendors of the Divine Worship, obtain for us holy priests
To regenerate souls through baptism, obtain for us holy priests
To instruct the faithful in the Holy Faith, obtain for us holy priests
To keep the faithful in the fear of the Lord, obtain for us holy priests
To announce to all the Word of God, obtain for us holy priests
To unmask and combat false doctrines, obtain for us holy priests
To fortify the Faith of those who doubt, obtain for us holy priests
To support and encourage those who fail, obtain for us holy priests
To raise up those who fall and to reconcile them to God, obtain for us holy priests
To bring back to God those who rejected Him, obtain for us holy priests
To protect christian morality, obtain for us holy priests
To fight with zeal the corruption of morality, obtain for us holy priests
To bless holy unions, obtain for us holy priests
To defend the honor and sanctity of marriage, obtain for us holy priests
To strengthen the happiness of our christian families, obtain for us holy priests
To fortify and console our sicks and those who suffer, obtain for us holy priests
To assist our dying ones, obtain for us holy priests
To lead our dead to eternal happiness, obtain for us holy priests
To pray and offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for our dead, obtain for us holy priests
To give glory to God, and to give grace and peace to souls of good will, obtain for us holy priests.
Lamb of God, Who take away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who take away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
The Lord chose for Himself priests so that they will offer Him a worthy thanksgiving.
Let us pray: God Almighty and merciful, favorably grant the prayers of
Your faithful and grant to those whom You have given the immense
generosity of your clemency, to be elevated to the service of the
heavenly mysteries, to become worthy ministers at Your sacred altars, so
that their teachings be confirmed by your sanctification, through Our
Lord Jesus-Christ, Amen.
St. Sabbas, Martyr, A.D. 372.
by VP
Posted on Sunday April 12, 2026 at 12:00AM in Saints
"He was by birth a Goth, converted to the faith in his youth, and a faithful imitator of the obedience, mildness, humility, and other virtues of the apostles. He was affable to all men, yet with dignity; a lover of truth, an enemy to all dissimulation or disguise, intrepid, modest, of few words, and a lover of peace; yet zealous and active. To sing the divine praises in the Church, and to adorn the altars, were his great delight. He was so scrupulously chaste, that he shunned all conversation with women, except what was indispensable. He often spent whole days and nights in prayer, and devoted his whole life to the exercises of penance. By his charity he kept peace with all. He was humble amidst a world of admirers; and ever ready to serve and help all. He esteemed silver as contemptible earth, never providing beyond absolute necessity. He avoided all visits and entertainments, and whatever could serve only as a dissipation; that so his prayers might have less interruption.
Being apprehended for his
faith, he was dragged over thorns and briars, and forced along with
whips and staves. His hands and feet were afterwards stretched and
bound; and in this situation he was tormented for a considerable part of the night. Being violently struck with a javelin, so that all thought he was killed, the saint declared that he felt no more pain than if the javelin had been a lock of wool. He was at length thrown into a river, praising God to the last, and beseeching him to have mercy on his
judge, that he might not be lost eternally, who had put him in so
compendious a way to heaven. He blessed God, and surprised at his
goodness, admired that he should be called to this glory, who was so
unworthy.
