The Church is Now Popeless but Never Hopeless

You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Listen to my homily at a Mass in Thanksgiving for the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."  Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.  And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Here is the text of Pope Benedict XVI's last Wednesday audience as Pope:

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood!

Distinguished Authorities!Dear brothers and sisters!

Thank you for coming in such large numbers to this last General Audience of my pontificate.

Like the Apostle Paul in the biblical text that we have heard, I feel in my heart the paramount duty to thank God, who guides the Church and makes her grow: who sows His Word and thus nourishes the faith in His people. At this moment my spirit reaches out to embrace the whole Church throughout the world, and I thank God for the “news” that in these years of Petrine ministry I have been able to receive regarding the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity that circulates in the body of the Church – charity that makes the Church to live in love – and of the hope that opens for us the way towards the fullness of life, and directs us towards the heavenly homeland.

I feel I [ought to] carry everyone in prayer, in a present that is God’s, where I recall every meeting, every voyage, every pastoral visit. I gather everyone and every thing in prayerful recollection, in order to entrust them to the Lord: in order that we might have full knowledge of His will, with every wisdom and spiritual understanding, and in order that we might comport ourselves in a manner that is worthy of Him, of His, bearing fruit in every good work (cf. Col 1:9-10).

At this time, I have within myself a great trust [in God], because I know – all of us know – that the Gospel’s word of truth is the strength of the Church: it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews: it bears fruit wherever the community of believers hears and welcomes the grace of God in truth and lives in charity. This is my faith, this is my joy.

When, almost eight years ago, on April 19^th, [2005], I agreed to take on the Petrine ministry, I held steadfast in this certainty, which has always accompanied me. In that moment, as I have already stated several times, the words that resounded in my heart were: “Lord, what do you ask of me? It a great weight that You place on my shoulders, but, if You ask me, at your word I will throw out the nets, sure that you will guide me” – and the Lord really has guided me. He has been close to me: daily could I feel His presence. [These years] have been a stretch of the Church’s pilgrim way, which has seen moments joy and light, but also difficult moments. I have felt like St. Peter with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of ​​Galilee: the Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant; [then] there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the Church it has ever been - and the Lord seemed to sleep. Nevertheless, I always knew that the Lord is in the barque, that the barque of the Church is not mine, not ours, but His - and He shall not let her sink. It is He, who steers her: to be sure, he does so also through men of His choosing, for He desired that it be so. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. It is for this reason, that today my heart is filled with gratitude to God, for never did He leave me or the Church without His consolation, His light, His love.

We are in the Year of Faith, which I desired in order to strengthen our own faith in God in a context that seems to push faith more and more toward the margins of life. I would like to invite everyone to renew firm trust in the Lord. I would like that we all, entrust ourselves as children to the arms of God, and rest assured that those arms support us and us to walk every day, even in times of struggle. I would like everyone to feel loved by the God who gave His Son for us and showed us His boundless love. I want everyone to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer to be recited daily in the morning says, “I adore you, my God, I love you with all my heart. I thank You for having created me, for having made me a Christian.” Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith: it is the most precious good, that no one can take from us! Let us thank God for this every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but He also expects that we love Him!

At this time, however, it is not only God, whom I desire to thank. A Pope is not alone in guiding St. Peter’s barque, even if it is his first responsibility – and I have not ever felt myself alone in bearing either the joys or the weight of the Petrine ministry. The Lord has placed next to me many people, who, with generosity and love for God and the Church, have helped me and been close to me. First of all you, dear Brother Cardinals: your wisdom, your counsels, your friendship, were all precious to me. My collaborators, starting with my Secretary of State, who accompanied me faithfully over the years, the Secretariat of State and the whole Roman Curia, as well as all those who, in various areas, give their service to the Holy See: the many faces which never emerge, but remain in the background, in silence, in their daily commitment, with a spirit of faith and humility. They have been for me a sure and reliable support. A special thought [goes] to the Church of Rome, my diocese! I can not forget the Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood, the consecrated persons and the entire People of God: in pastoral visits, in public encounters, at Audiences, in traveling, I have always received great care and deep affection; I also loved each and every one, without exception, with that pastoral charity which is the heart of every shepherd, especially the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of the Apostle Peter. Every day I carried each of you in my prayers, with the father's heart.

I wish my greetings and my thanks to reach everyone: the heart of a Pope expands to [embrace] the whole world. I would like to express my gratitude to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which makes present the great family of nations. Here I also think of all those who work for good communication, whom I thank for their important service.

At this point I would like to offer heartfelt thanks to all the many people throughout the whole world, who, in recent weeks have sent me moving tokens of concern, friendship and prayer. Yes, the Pope is never alone: now I experience this [truth] again in a way so great as to touch my very heart. The Pope belongs to everyone, and so many people feel very close to him. It’s true that I receive letters from the world's greatest figures - from the Heads of State, religious leaders, representatives of the world of culture and so on. I also receive many letters from ordinary people who write to me simply from their heart and let me feel their affection, which is born of our being together in Christ Jesus, in the Church. These people do not write me as one might write, for example, to a prince or a great figure one does not know. They write as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, with the sense of very affectionate family ties. Here, one can touch what the Church is – not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian purposes, but a living body, a community of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ, who unites us all. To experience the Church in this way and almost be able to touch with one’s hands the power of His truth and His love, is a source of joy, in a time in which many speak of its decline.

In recent months, I felt that my strength had decreased, and I asked God with insistence in prayer to enlighten me with His light to make me take the right decision – not for my sake, but for the good of the Church. I have taken this step in full awareness of its severity and also its novelty, but with a deep peace of mind. Loving the Church also means having the courage to make difficult, trying choices, having ever before oneself the good of the Church and not one’s own.

Here allow me to return once again to April 19, 2005. The gravity of the decision was precisely in the fact that from that moment on I was committed always and forever by the Lord. Always – he, who assumes the Petrine ministry no longer has any privacy. He belongs always and totally to everyone, to the whole Church. His life is, so to speak, totally deprived of the private sphere. I have felt, and I feel even in this very moment, that one receives one’s life precisely when he offers it as a gift. I said before that many people who love the Lord also love the Successor of Saint Peter and are fond of him, that the Pope has truly brothers and sisters, sons and daughters all over the world, and that he feels safe in the embrace of their communion, because he no longer belongs to himself, but he belongs to all and all are truly his own.

The “always” is also a “forever” - there is no returning to private life. My decision to forgo the exercise of active ministry, does not revoke this. I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences and so on. I do not abandon the cross, but remain in a new way near to the Crucified Lord. I no longer wield the power of the office for the government of the Church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, within St. Peter’s bounds. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, shall be a great example in this for me. He showed us the way to a life which, active or passive, belongs wholly to the work of God.

I thank each and every one of you for the respect and understanding with which you have welcomed this important decision. I continue to accompany the Church on her way through prayer and reflection, with the dedication to the Lord and to His Bride, which I have hitherto tried to live daily and that I would live forever. I ask you to remember me before God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals, who are called to so important a task, and for the new Successor of Peter, that the Lord might accompany him with the light and the power of His Spirit.

Let us invoke the maternal intercession of Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, that she might accompany each of us and the whole ecclesial community: to her we entrust ourselves, with deep trust.

Dear friends! God guides His Church, maintains her always, and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the way of the Church and the world. In our heart, in the heart of each of you, let there be always the joyous certainty that the Lord is near, that He does not abandon us, that He is near to us and that He surrounds us with His love. Thank you!

God Illumines the Church of Her Sinfulness During Lent to Wash Her in the Blood of the Lamb

Wash yourselves clean!
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.

Listen to my homily:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Readings for the day

Glory and Sorrow, Success and Failure, Consolation and Affliction, Tabor and Calvary - All Can Lead to the Father

While he was praying his face changed in appearance 
and his clothing became dazzling white.

Listen to my homily for the Second Sunday of Lent:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Mass Readings for this Sunday

Latin Mass Homily: the Five Ways of Penance in Lent According to St John Chrysostom

Listen to my homily for the Feria Sexta Post Cineres:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Here are the Mass Propers for the day:

By fasting, the body is subjected to the soul. By prayer, the soul is united to God. By charity, man is united to man, and through man to God. "As long as you did it for one of these, the least of My brethren, you did it for Me" (Matt. 25:40). Without charity to our fellow men, neither fasting nor prayer is acceptable to God. Fasting and prayer must issue in a kindness and sympathy that reach not only to our closest associate but also to the most distant sufferer.

INTROIT Ps. 29:11

The Lord heard me and had pity on me; the Lord became my helper.

Ps. 29:2. I will extol You, O Lord, for You have upheld me, and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.

V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT

Watch over the fast we have undertaken, O Lord, and let this bodily penance also be a truly spiritual exercise to make us strong. Through Our Lord . . .

EPISTLE Isa. 58:1-9

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous ordinances, they delight to draw near unto God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and exact all your labours.

Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. For, I, the Lord your God, am merciful.

GRADUAL Ps. 26:4

One thing I have asked of the Lord; this will I seek after: to dwell in the house of the Lord.

V. That I may behold the joy of the Lord and be sheltered by His holy temple.

TRACT Ps. 102:10O Lord, repay us not according to the sins we have committed, nor according to our iniquities. V. O Lord, remember not our iniquities of the past; let Your mercy come quickly to us, for we are being brought very low.(All Kneel.) V. Help us, O God our Savior, and for the glory of Your name, O Lord, deliver us; and pardon us our sins for Your names sake.

GOSPEL Matt. 5:43-48; 6:1-4

At that time, Jesus said to his disciples, "Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same? Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. 

Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven. When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee." 

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Ps. 118:154, 125

O Lord, give me life according to Your promise, that I may know Your degrees.

SECRET

O Lord, may the offering of our lenten sacrifice make our souls more pleasing to You, and help us to be more prompt in self-denial. Through our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON Ps. 2:11-12

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling before Him. Embrace discipline that you perish not from the way of virtue.

POSTCOMMUNION

Fill our hearts with the spirit of Your love, O Lord. May we who have been nourished with the one bread of Heaven also be of one mind. Through our Lord . . .

Acknowledging One's Sins, Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving are All Necessary for Healing and True Worship

Listen to my homily for today, the Friday after Ash Wednesday:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Readings for the day

St Valentine - a Real Man

Listen to my homily for today:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

ASH WEDNESDAY HOMILY: I'm Giving Up My Beloved Pope For Lent, But God Will Give Me A New One

This homily appeared on Catholic Online today.

Return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.

Mass Readings for Ash Wednesday

Listen to my homily:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

One fine morning ten years ago in St Peter's square in the Vatican I saw a man in a black cassock walk across the square.  He had white hair and the build of a famous cardinal I knew.  "That can't be.  It is!"  I walked up to him and asked him, "Are you Cardinal Ratzinger?"  With a very warm smile he said, "Yes I am!" 

Any intelligent premeditated question I had prepared for that moment went out of my mind and I felt like a total idiot staring in face of one of the brightest theological minds of third millennium. 

He must have seen my awkwardness because he joked about how young I was when he visited my hometown of St Paul, Minnesota.

I like many have been touched by this gentle soul, this humble worker in the Lord's vineyard, this utterly amazing Pope.

For Lent, God is taking my Pope away.

In the middle of Lent I am getting a new Pope.

Believing in charity calls forth charity.

This is the Lenten message my Pope has asked me to think about, the Lenten interior and spiritual plan for the whole Church. 

I believe in God.  I believe God.  I believe God's plan is to bring about the maximum charity in my soul and the souls of all the faithful.  I believe God's plan for me to believe in charity and thus to bring it about is to not be shaken by receiving a new Pope in Lent.

As I am grateful for the gifts and blessings of Pope Benedict XVI, the awesome spiritual bombs the B16 has dropped and the explosive ripples of grace have blessed this generation, I am also truly grateful, sincerely and totally thankful IN ADVANCE for the next Pope. 

I don't know who it will be, but I know that God is good and that he is leading the Church.  He is the unseen head of the Church and that his goodness will demand an amazing Pope for our times.

Of course, the traditional practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that we hear about in the Gospel today, Ash Wednesday, are very important to help us all believe in charity so to call it forth.  

These are not just traditional forms of Lenten penance, but three gifts which so coherently and perfectly respond to the three wounds that we have. 

Sin has caused a treble wound of a break in the relationship between God, others, and ourselves.  Prayer mends the relationship with God; almsgiving the relationship with others; fasting with our own being, especially our flesh.

In this sense the Gospel for Ash Wednesday is perfect for every year because it is the unchanging spiritual program for every Lent. 

We won't ever change out of the ways  that we are broken or the ways in which we personally and collectively need to repent.  However, every year the Holy Spirit asks of us something new.  The Lenten message of the Holy Father is always the place to look for what is unique to this year's Lent.  So - the Holy Father has given us a spiritual program of papal transition.

I suggest we follow it.  

These are the two things that will bring us through Lent this year from the Holy Father's message: faith and charity.  This Pope has been the Pontiff of faith, hope, and charity, as he has written a major encyclical about each of the theological virtues.

Here are the Holy Father's words for us this Lent about faith and charity:

"The relationship between these two virtues resembles that between the two fundamental sacraments of the Church: Baptism and Eucharist. Baptism (sacramentum fidei) precedes the Eucharist (sacramentum caritatis), but is ordered to it, the Eucharist being the fullness of the Christian journey. In a similar way, faith precedes charity, but faith is genuine only if crowned by charity. Everything begins from the humble acceptance of faith ("knowing that one is loved by God"), but has to arrive at the truth of charity ("knowing how to love God and neighbor"), which remains for ever, as the fulfillment of all the virtues (cf. 1 Cor 13:13).

"Dear brothers and sisters, in this season of Lent, as we prepare to celebrate the event of the Cross and Resurrection - in which the love of God redeemed the world and shone its light upon history - I express my wish that all of you may spend this precious time rekindling your faith in Jesus Christ, so as to enter with him into the dynamic of love for the Father and for every brother and sister that we encounter in our lives. For this intention, I raise my prayer to God, and I invoke the Lord's blessing upon each individual and upon every community!"

Consecration to Jesus through Mary: Making the Act of Consecration (the Big Day)

Congratulations!
You made it.

How to Make Your Consecration

At the end of three weeks, we should go to Confession and Holy Communion with the intention of giving ourselves to Jesus Christ in the quality of slaves of love, by the hands of Mary. After Communion, we should recite the consecration prayer, we ought to write it, or have it written and sign it the same day the consecration is made. It would be well that on this day, we should pay some tribute to Jesus Christ and our Blessed Lady, either as a penance for our past unfaithfulness to the vows of Baptism, or as a testimony of dependence on the dominion of Jesus and Mary. This tribute should be one in accordance with your fervor, such as a fast, a mortification or an alms, or a candle. If but a pin is given in homage, and given with a good heart, it will be enough for Jesus Who loves only the good will.

Once a year at least, and on the same day we should renew this consecration, observing the same practices during the three weeks. 

The Godless Culture of Desacralization Needs Saints - Prophets of Holiness

“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

Listen to my homily for the 5th Sunday in the Church's Year:

Mass Readings

If you have trouble listening click here.

Here is the excerpt of the pastoral letter of Archbishop Peter Smith that I read in my homily.  Read the full text.

So as we begin Lent, we should all be asking the question, “What shall we do?” Lent is a time when we are called to repentance, and to put God more consciously at the very centre of our lives once again. The traditional ways of repentance are prayer, fasting and almsgiving...In order to do as the Lord asks of us, our hearts must be united with his heart; we must come to know him, and abide with him ever more deeply and with ever greater commitment, day by day. Lent is a “favourable time” for me to ask myself some pertinent questions about where I stand with God, and how I am responding to the commission he has given us. I cannot do that fruitfully unless I become more attentive to the word of God in the scriptures and through spending some time each day in quiet prayer. I cannot, from my own resources, produce the fruit that will last, unless I allow the living word of God to nurture my faith and trust in God who loves me unconditionally and with a steadfast love, and who looks on me in my weakness with great mercy and compassion. That living word of God not only informs my mind and heart, so that I come to know him, but is also able to transform my life so that I can indeed become “the light of the world”, “salt of the earth.”

The Gospel of Failure

This appeared as an article on Catholic Online

"I tell you plainly: there is no way to be saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves" -St Paul Miki

St Francis converted Assissi.  St Francis de Sales converted Geneva.  St Jean Vianney - Ars.  Jesus?  He did not convert Nazareth.  And as for St Paul Miki?  He did not convert Osaka, Japan.

Today, again in the readings we hear the Gospel of failure.  In the Gospel for today we hear that Jesus went to Nazareth and he was obstructed.  We read later that they even chased him out and threatened to throw him off the cliff.  He did not sway those that he lived with for 30 years that he was the promised One, the Messiah, the Lord.

We are in particular need of knowing that Jesus failed and that he sanctified failure. 

Did he say, blessed are the rich?  Blessed are the successful?  Blessed are those with no opposition?

Exactly the opposite.

Why?

We find ourselves today surrounded by the powerful regime of the totalitarian, relativistic, successful mignons of this world.  It is scary.  It is enough to take the heart out of you sometimes. 

But Jesus was an underdog.  He died as a failure - abandoned by his closest followers, denied by the one he set as visible head of his Church, misunderstood by the religious leaders of the time, seen as a threat by the political leaders of the time.

Don't get me wrong.  Jesus was not afraid of success or power, and neither should we be.  He was not afraid of glory, but just knew that glory in this world most of the time appears very differently.

Faith does not depend on success.  It is not based on worldly power or odds in our favor.  Faith is the conviction of one's inmost heart set like flint on the face of God - God who is eternal, immutable, unchanging, impassible, and undeniably attentive to the cry of the poor.

In this year of faith, expect failure according to the world's standards.  Why?  So that the power of God may be revealed in our weakness, our powerlessness, our littleness.  For God is glorified in the humble, the contrite of heart, the little ones who depend upon him.  This is sometimes the only way that faith may increase and that the Church grow.

St Paul Miki, whose feast day we celebrate today, had his greatest moment, according to the eyes of the world, during the moment of failure.  He gave his greatest witness and preached his greatest homily from the pulpit of his dying moments on the Cross, embracing crucifixion like Jesus.

He said, "As I come to this supreme moment of my life, I am sure none of you would suppose I want to deceive you. And so I tell you plainly: there is no way to be saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves."

He spoke clearly and plainly.  This was exactly why he was dying upon the cross, because he was not afraid of the consequences of his actions.  He was not afraid of failure in the eyes of the world.  He had within him, the fear of the Lord, which is the perfect Christ-centered love that casts out every other fear.

Where are those who are not afraid to look bad in the eyes of this world?  Where are the heroes?  Where are the saints of our times that are not afraid of human respect?

May the prayers of Our Lady, who was considered at one moment, the mother of a failure, pray for us and obtain for us true faith in the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our victorious and glorious Lord, who often hides his action in the failures of this life.

Christ Speaks to the Little Girl in Each Woman, "I Say to You, Arise!"

Listen to my homily for the Feast of St Agatha:

(readings for the day)

If you have trouble listening, click here.

St John Bosco Teaches Us How to Shepherd Wolves to Become Lambs

Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?

Listen to my homily on the Feast of St John Bosco:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Readings for the day

St. John Bosco (Italian: Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco; 16 August 1815^[3] – 31 January 1888^[4][5]), known as Don Bosco, was an Italian Roman Catholic priest, educator and writer of the 19th century, who put into practice the convictions of his religion, dedicating his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth and employing teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method known as the Salesian Preventive System.^[6] A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of Saint Francis de Sales, Bosco dedicated his works to him when he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco.^[7]Together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious congregation of nuns dedicated to the care and education of poor girls. In 1876 Bosco founded a movement of laity, the Association of Salesian Cooperators, with the same educational mission to the poor.^[8] In 1875 he published the Salesian Bulletin.^[9][10] The Bulletin has remained in continuous publication, and is currently published in 50 different editions and 30 languages.^[9]

Bosco established a network of organizations and centres to carry on his work. Following his beatification in 1929, he was canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI in 1934.

The Church Needs to Lead Man in a Rediscovery of the Law of God, Written on Each Heart

Listen to my homily for the 3rd Sunday of the Church's Year:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

The Israelites came back from Babylon, only to find that they had forsaken the Law of God.  When they rediscovered the book of Deuteronomy, there was great mourning that it had been forgotten and great rejoicing that it had been found.  All the people committed to living it by saying, "AMEN!" and prostrating themselves on the ground before the Lord.

We need this rediscovery of the Law of God that is written on each human heart.  We need this terribly and we need it now.  The governments of our time are purporting to redefine the natural law, something they have no right doing, but unless we all stand up for what is right, they will succeed in manipulating human life in a direction that could be ultimately very destructive.

Since the family is the basic unit of society, the cell of society's body, if it attacked, the foundations upon which society stands will be shaken.  Marriage can only be a one-man, one-woman union.  Any attempt to redefine it will ultimately cause our downfall.

We are politically responsible to defend marriage and defend family life.  If we do not, we may not be ready to face the dire consequences.  Let us pray that we may be given the moral courage to stand up for what is good, right, true, and just, and that righteousness may prevail.

Stretch Out Your Hands to What is Holy

This article appeared on Catholic Online

Listen to my homily for Wednesday of the 2nd Week of the Church's Year:

If you have trouble listening click here.

"Then the Priest, with hands extended, says the Collect prayer, at the end of which the people acclaim: Amen."

This is what the rubrics say about the priest at Mass, any time he prays the celebrant prayers like the opening collect, the preface, the closing collect, but most especially when he prays the Eucharistic prayer - he prays with hands extended.

He does so to call to mind the hands that Jesus extended on cross to brings us the gift of redemption.  This extending of hands is a sign of priestly prayer.

In the Gospel for today, when Jesus told the man with the withered hand, "Stretch out your hand," he was asking him more than just to follow his instructions for healing.  He was asking him before the educated and elite class of Jews, the Pharisees, who were commenting on the Sabbath.  The Sabbath for Jews was the day above all the other days of the week for a priestly prayer of the covenant.

Every time we celebrate Mass, the priest is extending his hands in the act of swearing a priestly covenant oath, or sacramentum, to invoke the covenant of God.  Jesus telling the man to stretch out his hand is in fact, telling him to live once again in the covenant of the Lord, to be reconciled to living as a member of the priestly people of Israel.

Today Jesus tells Catholics the same thing.

Many Catholics no longer attend Mass.  They are not living as the priestly, covenanted people that God has called them to be.  As a result, many live withered lives, with hands stretching out not to live the covenant of the Lord, but instead stretching out their hands to deeds of darkness.

We only need think of how many Catholics go along with the vile practices of our day of abortion, euthanasia, same-sex "marriages," and so on.  Why?

Where are the bishops and priests who ought to speak about these things, stretching out their episcopal and priestly hands to feed the people of God with the necessary courage and wisdom to live their faith as priestly people in a time when the world desperately needs their witness?  Jesus needs to heal his Church, all of it.  Don't get me wrong.  There are many who do speak out, but they are not the majority.  The Bishops and priests have a solemn duty to help the faithful stretch out their hands to what is good and holy.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in Paragraph #1785, "In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path,54 we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church."

Christ working through the Church is eager to help the faithful "stretch out their hands" to what is good, and to be "the light of the world and the salt of the earth" (Cf. Matthew 5:13-16).

May Our Lady intercede for the Church, that a priestly people may once again stretch out their hands to pray for the world, to oppose evil, to do good, and to be holy as God is holy.

God's Covenant Faithfulness Outweighs our Unfaithfulness

Listen to my homily for Tuesday of the 2nd Week of the Year:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

New Wine into Old Wineskins? No! Accept the Grace of Today and Don’t think of Yesterday or Tomorrow

Listen to my homily for Monday the 2nd Week of the Year:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Mary's Powerful Intercession Gives Glory to God and Brings Us Closer to Jesus

Listen to my homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

God Helps You Get a Hold of Yourself and Be at Peace

Listen to my homily for Friday, January 18th, 2013, given at St Anselm's Secondary School in Canterbury, UK.

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Do Whatever He Tells You: Mary's Powerful Intercession Brings Us to God

This was my homily for the Second Sunday in the Church's Year.

Jesus is Revealed as our Peace amidst Trials

This article appeared on Catholic Online.


On the way out the door of the House for Priests and International Seminary of John Paul II here in the village of St John Marie Vianney, there is a sign up sheet for those who are going to the "Manifestation in Paris," the demonstration at the nations capital to protest the government's passing of same-sex "marriage" legislation that will take place this Sunday, January 13, 2013.

The sign up sheet is full.

Most likely, even if good people stand up against the error of attempting to redefine the one-man, one-woman, covenanted union of marriage, those in power will proceed down this dark and twisted path.

It is terrifying. It is something that can rock your world.

To know that those in power have shifted from being amoral, that is, not having any morals, to aggressively and systematically attacking the divine institution of marriage that is inscribed on the human heart and felt as one of the demands of human love - this is something which is like a turbulent storm in human history.

What will happen next? Are they going to dust off the guillotine, and start beheading faithful and priests who oppose this? It may not be too terribly unlikely.

Like the disciples in the Gospel for today, in which the boat was rocked by the stormy sea, we wait for The Lord to show up.

"If you're out there God, show me! Can you just give me some sign that you're real, that you're listening to me?"

Who hasn't, at some point amidst the trials and sufferings of this life, spoken these words to God asking for some kind of Epiphany, or revelation, of the Lord's presence and power?

This week after the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord in the Church's year is a kind of revelation week, in which we contemplate the manifestations of God to us. Last week we were still basking in the glow of the newborn infant and this week it as if we are asking like the popular Christmas song, "What child is this?" Who is this little baby, before even the kings of the earth fall prostrate?

Every day in the mass readings there is a gift that shows who this Infant God is.

Today we discover him as our peace amidst trial. In the Gospel for today he comes walking toward us atop the stormy seas, defying nature and we hear his voice first reach out to us and calm us down and then quiet the storm.

Does his presence in our lives not defy our stormy human nature, giving us peace through trials that ought naturally obstruct calm? Yet not as the world gives does Emmanuel give peace.

He IS love itself, as first reading says. Can love himself stop loving us? It is not possible for him to cease loving us because he is pure love. The discovery of this kind of love that is not based on human nature, whether stormy or calm, but founded in the eternal and rock solid Being of almighty God, is what gives a Catholic true moral courage.

Divine love is the only real basis for this courage. It is what casts out all fear and gives a person the resolve to stand up for moral truth, "though an army encamp against me, I will not fear even the terror of death, for The Lord God is my rampart and shield"!

More and more, the Catholic faithful need this encounter with divine love. Where does it happen? In the Most Holy Eucharist, divine Love himself touches us - as if he grabs our hand, lets us feel his rock solid hand on our shoulder, or simply stands us with us through trial. We need his Eucharistic encouragement intensely and frequently.

Why then stay away from he who casts out all fear. Run to the Eucharistic Jesus! Permit him to strengthen and calm you.

May Our Lady, Queen of peace, whose lap was a gentle throne for the divine Infant who is our peace, obtain from him true and serene courage.