THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals The Feast of All Saints 1 November 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Dear Friends,

Today we honor all the saints together, because we are unable to honor them all appropriately throughout the year due to the sheer number of them and because of our own frailty. As well as honoring them we are also called upon to imitate and follow them. In the Eight Beatitudes Our Lord reveals to us the manner and means that we may use to accomplish this.

The manner in which God has given us this law is very different from the manner in which He gave us the Ten Commandments through Moses. With Moses we see God writing upon stone tablets with frightening sights and sounds. With this New Law we see Jesus writing upon the hearts and souls of men with kindness and gentleness. The frightening aspects of God have passed away for those who Love Him.

The blessings that Jesus promises us are all conditional. There is something to be done on our part before we may attain the promised blessedness. Many humanists and modernists today tell us that these Beatitudes only apply to our relationship with our fellow men. In this they present a dangerous falsehood. The first and greatest commandment is the love of God, the second is the love of ourselves and our fellow men.

When our Lord calls the peacemakers blessed, He speaks primarily of those who make peace with God. There is truly no real peace with our fellow men unless we are first at peace with God. The sinner must first repent, amend his life, and do penance before he can establish peace with himself and God. Once this is accomplished (and only after this is accomplished), is he then able to establish peace with his fellow men. What we say of the peace between individual men must also follow for the peace of nations. Nations are made up of families, which are made up of individual men. As each one of us are, so are our families, and as our families are, so is our nation. It is therefore tragically sad that nations speak so much of peace and exert so much time and energy in pursuit of this ever elusive goal of peace. It seems the more that we hear them talk of peace so much less of peace is present.

There is no real peace in this world because the world is at odds with God. The saints found peace in this world because their hearts were constantly lifted up to God. Our nations will never find peace among themselves unless they first establish peace within themselves. And the peace within themselves cannot be established until her members are at peace with God.

There is a semblance of worldly peace because the world recognizes superior force. The maxim of the world is"might makes right." The nation with the greatest power and force can impose its will upon others and does so. Because these other nations agree and follow the rules imposed upon them through coercion and force, we are told that we have “peace.” There could be nothing further from the truth. Those who are kept down are not at peace and are impatiently awaiting the day when the tables will turn and they will rise up above their present day oppressors.

As there can be no peace with our fellow men unless we are first at peace with God, it stands to reason that we will never find peace with pagan or anti-Christian nations. Likewise as our nation rejects God through secularism and materialism, we are not at peace with God and therefore, from our own starting point, we can never find peace with other nations.

Everyone must suffer much in this world, but it is not the suffering that will bless us. The blessing comes from suffering for God (Justice). The one who suffers patiently for the love of God and of Justice will be blessed, but the man who causes the suffering and who is undermining God's plan will suffer even more so in eternity.

As we honor all the Saints in Heaven, and are soon to remember all the Souls in Purgatory, let us think of ourselves also. We have been given the beatitudes to establish a correct relationship with ourselves and God. After this we can work to establish blessedness in our relationships with one another. We will never completely remove the evils of this world but we can mitigate them within our own lives. Evil can be made into spiritual medicines and cures for our souls if we receive them well. "All things work for the good of those who love God." And we can eagerly look forward to the day when all evil will be removed from the earth and Christ will return and all will be made good.

 

I have made a contract with my body: It has promised to accept harsh treatment from me on earth, and I have promised that it shall receive eternal rest in heaven. also One should never deny the body what is due to it, so that the body itself may not hinder what is due to the soul.

St. Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562AD) on the Body

  

Feast of Christ the King - Bishop Giles, OFM

Christ seeks peacefully and quietly our submission to His reign in our hearts and lives now while we are still on this side of eternity. When He returns He will call His faithful to Him for a reward and will cast into Hell all who have refused Him in this life. His Kingship must begin with each of us and then enter our families, friends, towns, cities, states, nations and the world. 

Feast of Christ the King - Fr. Joseph, OFM

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Fr. Bernard, OFM  

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals The Feast of Jesus Christ The King 27 October 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

Jesus Christ is King not only of hearts and souls, but of families, societies, peoples and nations; and of all things. The social reign of Jesus Christ is opposed to the error of secularism. Secularism would have us live and act as if there were no God. It attempts to see everything in a natural light and to give a natural interpretation to everything. 

Once we deny God (or ignore Him) we find that we can no longer act in a natural manner. Our nature is made in the image and likeness of God, our natural destiny is to be with God in Heaven. Granted we need supernatural grace to reach and obtain these things, but they are an ingrained part of our very nature. We are creatures of both body and soul. We, therefore, cannot truly reach a state of “natural” happiness unless we pursue a supernatural happiness. 

Our nature seeks the Divine, it desires the perfect. It is an obvious part of our makeup that is truly undeniable. If we ignore and cut God out of our lives we necessarily must cut away our very souls. In ignoring and denying our souls we reduce our existence beneath the irrational beasts. What the irrational animals do because of a natural instinct (placed there by God) for survival and the propagation of their species, the secularist seeks to pervert and use in a manner that corrupts the very purpose of the instinct in animals. 

The irrational beasts seek food to sustain their lives, and in the wild will seldom over-indulge to the detriment of their health. Man, on the other hand, once he ignores the higher principles of his soul and of God will seek to eat only for the pleasure. He does not eat to sustain his life but rather to gratify his palate. The perversity of man has found all manner of ways to indulge this appetite, and when he is over-gorged he has developed means to alleviate this discomfort and make room for even more. His perversity makes him ill, and yet he continues in his perversity none-the-less. It is for this reason that we say the secularist has sunk lower than the brute beasts. 

The same can be said of the animal instinct for reproduction. Man has sought all manner of ways to satisfy his sexual pleasure while at the same time frustrating its natural purpose. And so it is also with every instinct we see God gave to the irrational animal; secular men pervert this appetite so that he may indulge inordinately in it and simultaneously frustrate its natural purpose for existing in the first place. 

This secularist attack has undermined us as individuals, and also our families, and society as a whole. With the fall of the individual man, the foundation of the family is undermined; with the fall of the family, the foundation of society itself is undermined. Little, by little we see the entire edifice of our very existence collapsing in front of our eyes.

We must work to put God back into society and into all our social realms, but the place to truly begin is with each of us as individuals. We must enthrone Jesus Christ in our hearts and souls first. We must begin by giving Him the first place. It is time that we actually begin to live what we learned as mere children from our Catechism. Our soul reason for being is a supernatural one: to be eternally happy with God in Heaven. God has created us to: 1) show forth His goodness and 2) to share with us His everlasting happiness in Heaven. To gain this everlasting happiness of Heaven, we must know, love, and serve God in this world. We must love Him with our entire being. He must be the center and pinnacle of all that we do. 

We must frequently remind ourselves that God has thought of us from all of eternity, He has brought us into existence, He gave His life to redeem us, and He gives us countless blessings every day. We are continually in the heart and mind of God, so it must be that He should always be in our hearts and minds. We must pray without ceasing by keeping God in mind in all that we say and do. 

If we can succeed in making Jesus Christ the true King of our lives as individuals, we will have a solid foundation upon which to build our families; once we have solid families we will be able to build solid societies (governments and nations). History has shown us what the saints have been able to do because they lived for God. Our world today has shown us what we can expect when we accept the demonic secularism and ignore or deny God. There is no fixing our nation, state, town, or even our family, until we first fix ourselves by placing ourselves willingly and humbly in the service of Jesus Christ our King. May we all this very moment renew our baptismal oath of fidelity and strive to serve our King better than we have in the past.

A reading from the letters of St Francis of Paola, Hermit (Letter AD 1486)

Turn to the Lord with a pure heart"May our Lord Jesus Christ, who repays most generously, reward your labour. You must flee from evil, and drive away dangers. We and all our brothers, although unworthy, pray constantly to God the Father and to his Son Jesus Christ, as well as to Mary the Virgin Mother, to be with you as you seek the salvation of your souls and your bodies.

Brothers, I most strongly urge you to work for the salvation of your souls with prudence and diligence. Death is certain, and life is short and vanishes like smoke. Therefore you must fix your minds on the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ who so burned with love for us that he came down from heaven to redeem us. For our sakes he suffered all the agonies of body and mind, and did not shrink from any torment. He gave us a perfect example of patience and love. For our part, we too must be patient when things go against us.

Put aside hatred and hostility. See to it that you refrain from harsh words. But if you do speak them, do not be ashamed to apply the remedy from the same lips that inflicted the wounds. In this way you will show each other mercy and not keep alive the memories of past wrongs. Remembering grievances works great damage. It is accompanied by anger, fosters sin, and brings a hatred for justice. It is a rusty arrow spreading poison in the soul. It destroys virtue and is a cancer in the mind. It thwarts prayer and mangles the petitions we make to God. It drives out love and is a nail driven into the soul, an evil that never sleeps, a sin that never fades away, a kind of daily death.

Be lovers of peace, the most precious treasure that anyone can desire. You are already aware that our sins drive God to anger,"so you must repent of them, that God in his mercy may spare you. What men conceal is open to God. Turn to him with a sincere heart. Live in such a way that you bring upon yourselves the blessing of God, and that the peace of God our Father may be with you always."

Prayer

Lord God, by whom the holy are exalted, and Saint Francis was raised to share in the glory of the saints, let his prayer and example bring us the reward you have promised to the humble.

- See more at: http://wf-f.org/StFrancisPaola.html#sthash.LOBCqnPm.dpuf

 

Thanks to Sister Jane, TOSF for researching this and sharing it with us!

 

Behold! how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! V. It is like the precious ointment on the head, that ran down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron. (Ps 132:1)

Saturday October 19, 2013 Sermon: Bishop Giles, OFM
22nd Sunday after Pentecost: Bishop Giles, OFM

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - 22nd Sunday after Pentecost-Fr. Bernard, OFM

22nd Sunday after Pentecost - Bishop Bonaventure, OFM 

Saint Peter of Alcantara

Saint Peter of Alcantara
(Pierre d’Alcantara)

Feast Day – October 19

Peter was born at Alcantara in Spain in 1499. Already as a child he manifested a remarkable gift of prayer, so that at times, when he became absorbed in prayer, the servants were unable to get any response from him.
At the University of Salamanca Saint Peter of Alcantara resolved to join the Franciscan Order. The tempter left nothing undone to depict the comfortable life he could lead in the world and still have time for the practices of piety, but humble prayer overcame the seductions of the evil one.
Peter set out for the quiet convent of Monjarez. On the way our Lord gave him a signal assurance of his vocation.
Saint Peter of Alcantara came to a stream which, because of heavy rains, had overflowed its banks considerably. Seeing no means at hand with which to cross, he knelt down and asked God for help. Suddenly, without knowing how, he found himself on the other side.
Once received into the order, he gave himself up completely to union with God. He kept so strict a guard over his senses, that a year later he could not say whether the church in which he prayed each day had a vaulted roof or a flat one.
His body seemed to have given to him only to inflict pain upon it. The mortifications he practiced upon divine impulse were amazing. For more than 20 years he wore an iron belt studded with sharp points which pierced his flesh, and for more than 40 years he daily scourged himself till he bled. At first he was much troubled with sleepiness, but he so mortified himself that in time he got along with one and a half hours sleep in a day; and this rest he took while sitting on the floor.
According to St Teresa of Avila, it was a very common thing for him to take food only once in three days, and that sometimes he would go a week without eating.
God showed His approval of these mortifications by sustaining Peter's strength in a remarkable way. Saint Peter of Alcantara never tired of going from place to place to give missions, and his success was so astounding that St Francis Borgia once wrote to him: "Your remarkable success is a special comfort to me."
His various activities, however, in no way diminished his spirit of prayer. He lived and toiled in this spirit, and endeavored to impart it to others.
The sufferings of Christ were the special object of his devotion. As Christ sacrificed Himself for us, Peter found nothing too difficult in His service; and as Christ atoned so severely for our sins, Peter practiced the most rigorous penance. The custom of erecting a cross at the close of a mission had its origin with Saint Peter of Alcantara. Whenever feasible, he had the cross erected on an elevation, so that it could be seen all over the parish. On one occasion he was so literally carried away with devotion that he sped through the air to such a cross, where with arms outstretched he prayed a long time, while rays brighter than sunlight proceeded from his person.
Saint Peter of Alcantara wrote a little treatise on prayer and meditation which is celebrated the world over. Pope Gregory XV declared that it was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The great mistress of prayer, St Theresa, who lived at that time, wished to have the saint for her spiritual director; and he aided her in reforming the order of Carmel.
Saint Peter of Alcantara was a very humble man, and fled from honors. Emperor Charles V wanted him for his confessor, but Peter begged him not to press his request since he could easily secure more learned and eminent men.

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In the order itself he was obliged to accept the position of provincial, and due to his efforts his province rose to a flourishing state of religious discipline. Provincial though he was, he did not hesitate on occasion to perform the lowliest duties in the house.
Saint Peter of Alcantara was humble and charitable in his judgments. A nobleman was once decrying the various evils which were rampant. The saint said: "Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made."
On October 18, 1562, Saint Peter of Alcantara died peacefully in the Lord. St Theresa saw his soul take its flight to heaven. Later he appeared to her and said: "O happy penance that has merited for me such wondrous glory!"
Many miracles, including the raising of six dead persons to life, occurred in answer to prayers addressed to him. Pope Clement IX enrolled him among the saints.
from: The Franciscan Book Of Saints, ed. by Marion Habig, OFM

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