Audio sermon for Easter Sunday. The Resurrection is a reminder to us that each day we are given another chance to start anew. We must pick ourselves up from our sins, faults, and failings with a renewed vigor and strive to increase the love of God in our hearts. Charity is not something that just happens, it is something that we must consciously cultivate and develop. Let us put off the old man as St. Paul tells us and put on the new man in Christ Jesus today and every day forward so that we may not be found lacking on that Last Day.

  
 


The greater part of men will set no value on the blood of Christ, and will go on offending Him.

St. Isidore of Seville:

April 13 – Born blind, lame, deformed, hunchbacked and dwarfed

Blessed Margaret of Castello (1287–1320) is the patroness of the poor, crippled, and the unwanted. She was born blind, lame, deformed, hunchbacked and a dwarf, into a family of nobles in the castle of Metola, in southeast of Florence. As a child, her parents Parisio and Emilia imprisoned her for 14 years so no one would see her, though she could attend Mass and receive the sacraments.  Her parents took her to the tomb in Citta di Castello of a holy man named Fra Giacomo, where miracles were reportedly being wrought, to pray for a cure for her birth defects. When no miracle happened, they abandoned her. She lived in prayer and charity, helping the poor. When she died at the age of 33, crowds at her funeral demanded she be buried inside the church. After a crippled girl was miraculously cured at the funeral, the priest allowed Margaret’s burial inside.

In 1558, Margaret’s remains were transferred because her coffin was rotten. Her clothes were also rotten, but her body was preserved. She was beatified on October 19, 1609 by Pope Paul V.

He excommunicated the king, who murdered him as he celebrated Mass

Saint Stanislaus of Cracow

Martyrdom of St. Stanislaus of Cracow from Anjou legendarium of the Kings of Hungary (XIV century)

In pictures he is given the episcopal insignia and the sword. Larger paintings represent him in a court or kneeling before the altar and receiving the fatal blow. His parents, Belislaus and Bogna, pious and noble Catholics, gave him a religious education. After the death of his parents he distributed his ample inheritance among the poor. Lambert Zula, Bishop of Cracow, ordained him priest and made him pastor of Czembocz near Cracow, canon and preacher at the cathedral, and later, vicar-general. After the death of Lambert he was elected bishop, but accepted only on explicit command of Pope Alexander II.

Miniature painted by Stanisław Samostrzelnik of Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów as the patron saint of Poland, venerated by King Sigismund I and Tomicki himself together with church and secular dignitaries.

He worked with his wonted energy for his diocese, and inveighed against vices among high and low, regardless of consequences. Boleslaw II had become King of Poland. the renown he had gained by his successful wars he now sullied by atrocious cruelty and unbridled lust. Moreover the bishop had several serious disputes with the king about a piece of land belonging to the Church which was unjustly claimed by Boleslaw, and about some nobles, who had left their homes to ward off various evils threatening their families and who were in consequence cruelly treated by the king.

Stanislaus spared neither tears nor prayers and admonitions to bring the king to lead a more Christian life. All being in vain, Boleslaw was excommunicated and the canons of the cathedral were instructed to discontinue the Divine Offices in case the king should attempt to enter. Stanislaus retired to the Chapel of St. Michael in a suburb of Cracow. The king was furious and followed the bishop with his guards, some of whom he sent to kill the saint. These dared not obey, so Boleslaw slew him during the Holy Sacrifice. The body was at first buried in the chapel, but in 1088 it was transferred to the cathedral by Bishop Lambert II. St. Stanislaus was canonized 1253 by Innocent IV at Assisi.

Tomb of St. Stanislaus in the Wawel Cathedral, photo by Bogitor.

(cfr. FRANCIS MERSHMAN, Catholic Encyclopedia)

 WISE FRANCISCAN ADVISE:


 “The sin of detraction is the impediment to the very source of piety and grace; it is abominable in the sight of God, because the detractor feeds on the blood of the souls which he has murdered with the sword of his tongue.”

The malice of the detractor is far greater than that of the thief, because the law of Christ, which is fulfilled by showing mercy, commands us to desire more ardently the salvation of the soul than the safety of the body.”

 “The tongue is the instrument of life and death to man, not on account of the food it takes, but on account of the words it utters.”
St. Francis of Assisi

 “Detraction is the poison of conversation. Never let any one who is given to this fault meet with any applause or approbation from you. On the contrary, do what you can to justify your neighbor or else show your displeasure by a significant silence, or by turning the conversation, where this is practicable.”
St. Leonard of Port Maurice


 “Use your ears oftener than your tongue. One often repents of having spoken, and scarcely ever of having been silent.”  
 St. Anthony of Padua

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Passion Sunday 6 April 2014

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friend,

It has been said that each generation must save itself. The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ took place once and for all at a certain time and place in history. We, however, who live more than two-thousand years later must somehow connect and benefit from this infinite Sacrifice. 

It has also been shown that history repeats itself. We tragically see that the mistakes of previous generations continue to be repeated in our own. It is true that we don't keep re-inventing the wheel. We are assiduous to hold on to and advance our leisure and pleasure. The mistakes that are repeated specifically refer to moral sins. 

Each generation seems to think that it has a right to commit the same sins their parents did, and that they somehow have an obligation to go even further in sin than their parents have done. With this mentality our world has grown further away from Christ not only, in time but also spiritually. 

Our Holy Mother Church seeing this and seeking to halt and reverse this process (if it is at all possible) recalls to our mind the physical passion of Jesus. Today begins a heightened intensity in Her efforts to bring us to the spiritual state where the merits of the Passion may be applied to us. 

We see the blindness of the people in rejecting Jesus and even hating Him to the point of forcing His Sacrifice. Jesus is patient with them and hides His divinity from them and even the devils. God made use of these evil desires of creatures, to bring forth the greater good of His Sacrifice. Today we see something that appears even worse than this hatred of Jesus and a desire to drive Him out of the world and our lives. The sins of those who called out for His Blood, pale in significance to the coldness and indifferentism in the world today. Spiritual apathy seems to be the only way for us to sin more greatly than our ancestors have done. 

Those who hate Jesus and persecute Him and His Mystical Body (The Church), can be converted. Their evil can be turned into great good. It is for these that we see that Jesus prayed as He hung upon the cross: "Father, forgive them. For they know not what they are doing." We witness the conversion of Saul, as he persecuted the Church, transformed into St. Paul the Apostle. 

Jesus asks them why they hate Him. Is it because He does good? With the application of truth and reason these enemies of Jesus can be later converted as we see from the multitudes, who were later converted by the preaching of St. Peter. The apathetic reply that they don't hate Jesus. They imagine that they are good because they don't hate anyone or anything. They hate nothing but they similarly love nothing either. 

Our world today seems surfeited with souls who think all is well. There is no real concern for objective Truth. Truth to the world today appears to be focused upon subjective value rather than objective fact. In other words, truth becomes whatever is advantageous to the individual person at this particular moment in time. Our society does not seem to grasp the falsity of conflicting and changing "truth." It is this attitude that brings forth such a cliche' as: "We all believe in the same God." The so called "Christian" religions have degenerated not to the point of the open hatred of God, but rather to the creation of a subjective "god" that fits their needs or desires for the moment. It is common for us to hear the truths of Faith given to us by God Himself referred to as "myths." The "myths" of Christianity are then given "equal" recognition and acceptance as all other myths. The Greek and Roman mythology appears to the modern world as just as valid as the "myths" of the Church. 

Our children are fed a steady diet of mythology both ancient and new in their entertainments. There are put before them the wildest fictions created by the minds of men and demons; representing to them beings with supernatural powers. Then our children read the accounts of Jesus or the miracles of the saints and are left to conclude that they too are like the fictions that they have been feeding on. And with an indifferent shrug of the shoulder the truths of God are quickly dismissed. Not hated or despised; but neither are they believed, loved and cherished. 

Our modern "science" adds fuel to this fire constantly dismissing all that is above their own feeble reason and intellect as fiction. The only "truths" that they will admit of is what they can understand. They have made themselves the measure of truth: the measure of God. The atheistic attitude of "science" increases this spiritual apathy from one generation to the next. We are witnessing today the cumulative effect of several generations of atheistic "science" "education." It is now easier to doubt the Word of God than it is to doubt the "scientists" who have done their "studies" and experiments to "prove" their "theories." 

Today, we are called upon to set aside the apathy and indifferentism of the world; we are asked to avoid the open hatred we see in today's gospel. We are asked to open our minds to objective and real truth that is spoken to us by God and preserved and handed down to us through His Mystical Body the Church. In this manner, we can follow Jesus in His Suffering and Death; and then rise glorious with Him on the Last Day.

Vespers for Passion Sunday

Audio Sermons for the weekend: Passion Sunday First Saturday April 5 First Friday April 4