All Saints Day, Nov 1st

 

Who are your heroes? Who are the people who inspire you, and who you want to be like? Young people often times put up posters of their heroes. Many of them are athletes such as football or basket ball stars. Yet, there can be no better hero, than the saints. To have the pictures of the saints on our walls reminds us of those who lived out the beatitudes and made it to heaven. They ran the race and received the crown of glory when they entered heaven. They remind us of what’s most important in life and that we too can become heroes.

This why the Church gives us a feast to honor all saints, known and unknown. Perhaps you have known ordinary people, who did the best they could to get to heaven. Someone who never complained when they were sick; Or a person who lived a life of charity and thought nothing of themselves.: Or someone who never said an unkind word about anyone. It’s easy in the all busyness and cares of life to forget about them and so, one day a year, we pause to remember all those holy people. Without them, the faith would not have been kept alive for us. “We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” They physically parted from us, but are spiritually near to us, praying for us and encouraging us by their example.

We are all called to be saints. The Beatitudes give us the pattern of Christian way of life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices.  It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else.  It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love" (CCC # 1723).

The Beatitudes turn worldly values upside down. The world pursues happiness in wealth, power and fame, but the Gospel demands of us values that are essentially different. Do you want to give in to the demands of a worldly way of life, or have you decided to live true and authentic Christianity? The choice to live the Gospel changes our entire life, tells us how to act, how we are to dress, how we are to speak and how we are to interact with others. 

On this Solemnity of All Saints, may once again pray to the saints and look to their example, in helping us to strive to be saints, that one day, we too will join the whole company of heaven. And we pray to Mary, the Queen of All Saints, may She obtain for us the grace to live the life of a saint, in imitation of Her, the greatest of All Saints.

30th Sunday - Love God with All Our Heart, Love Neighbor as Our Self (Peace)

  

In the Gospel today, the Pharisees were happy to hear that Jesus had just silenced the Sadducees, because the Pharisees and Saduccees did not see eye to eye on many things, and even had different theologies. The Saduccees didn’t believe in angels and also didn’t believe in the resurrection, but the Pharisees did.

One the scholars of the law, a Pharisee, tried to test Jesus, asking Him, “Which commandment of the law is the greatest?” Jesus responded, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

I am so excited to get back from Medjugorje and to tell you about my trip. Over the next few weeks, I hope to give you some gems that came from Medjugorje. Whenever I mention Medjugorje in a homily, I always need to preface it with the Church’s teaching on the alleged apparitions. The Church has investigated it with a commission. The commission found the first week of the apparitions were worthy of belief, as all voted but 1 in favor of it. The commission was evenly divided on whether the apparitions after the first week were authentic. But, the pope has the final say on the commissions results and as of today, he hasn’t made a declaration. Therefore, we may continue to believe, if we so choose. It’s private revelation, so no one has to believe it, even if it were given positive affirmation.

Pilgrims who went on the trip, paid about $2500. But, I only paid $250, to be the chaplain of the group.

In the Gospel today, Jesus said, we are to love our neighbor as our self. So to put in a little different way, we can ask, do we really love our self as we ought? If we fail to love our self, then we will not love our neighbor as we ought either.

Some pamper themselves, while others fail to take care of themselves. I had six sisters and with my mother, there were 7 women in the house with three of us men, my brother, my father, and I. In the morning the girls put on their makeup that included eye shadow, mascara, rouge, eyeliner, lipstick, finger nail polish, ear rings, necklaces, they used blow dryers and curling irons. Today some girls also use false eyelashes. Us men, we had cologne, under arm deodorant, we shaved and combed our hair, which all took less than 5 min. The girls took about an hour to get ready for school.

By taking care of our appearance, it shows we love ourself. But if we go overboard with our appearance, maybe we don’t have peace with our self and love our self as well as what we think we do.

Inside we are wanting others to love us, and pay attention to us. And some feel like they need to draw attention to one self. But the love we are seeking isn’t found in others being attracted to our appearance. The beauty of the soul is found in the personality of the person, their virtues, their way of loving.

The alleged apparitions of Our Lady Queen of Peace have a constant message of calling the world to peace and conversion. Peace in our hearts, in our homes and in our families.

Some today treat their appearance as though they want to look like someone their not. Others treat their body like it's not worth much. Some write on their hands when they have no paper. Some don’t take showers like they should. Others eat too much. Some diet too much. Some get drunk. Others smoke or chew tobacco. My father, my uncle, and a brother-in-law all died from lung cancer due to cigarette smoke. Some men make their body out to be their god, by spending 2 or 3 hours a day in the gym, and they are proud of their physic and try to show it off. Others don’t take care of their body and eat and drink foods that harm it.

God wants us to love our self, to take care of our self, to not harm our bodies. After all St. Paul said, “...do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price? So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 16:19-20)

All that time in the gym or all that time in the restroom trying to make oneself more beautiful, could be time spent in prayer to God and to pray for others and in doing good things for others. There must be a way we can take care of our self and yet not go too far one way or the other.

During lunch, at the hotel, one of the elderly ladies asked me a question. She said, “Is it true, it's a sin to get a tattoo?” I said, “Yes, it's in the book of Leviticus.” It states, “Do not... put on tattoos or marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.” She said, “I just tattooed my makeup.” I said, “What! What do you mean you tattooed your makeup.” She said, “Its permanent. We can tattoo eyebrows, eyeliner, mascara, rouge, etc..” I said, “I don’t think the Blessed Virgin Mary wore make up.” She said, “But don’t you think we women should look pretty?” I was going to say, “But you look pretty without it.” But chose to not say anything.

An amazing event happened the same day with regard to beauty. Later, all of us were present for an alleged apparition that Maria had with the Virgin Mary. During the apparition, I prayed for all of you and for many other intentions. After the apparition, Maria gave us a talk about living a life of peace. Maria had no idea we had that conversation about what was said earlier in the day at the table. But after the apparition, she said, “As you can tell, I don’t wear makeup because makeup is a worldly thing”. She then said, “Someone once asked the Virgin Mary, why She is so beautiful, and the Virgin Mary replied, “I am beautiful because I love.”

The Virgin Mary loved God with all Her Heart, mind, and soul, and She loved Her neighbor as her self. We can turn to Our Lady and ask Her to help us to love our self, to love our neighbor and to love God. Obviously, the Virgin Mary didn’t wear makeup, but that which makes her beautiful is Her love.

Pilgrims who come to Medjugorje to try to find the most beautiful statues, which they think resemble the Virgin Mary. The visionaries have said that there is no statue or painting that adequately looks anything near to the Virgin Mary. The visionaries describe Mary as having black hair, blue eyes. She wears a white veil and a grayish blue dress.

But, Mary’s love for God and love for neighbor is what makes Her so beautiful. The visionary Maria had no idea the women in our group and I had just been talking about make up and tattooing. It seemed to me like the Lord was using Maria to help the women to understand, that they don’t need to wear make up to be beautiful. Their beauty comes from love that flows from their hearts.

Today’s Gospel is the recipe for peace. To love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as our self. The apparitions of Mary in Medjugorje are about peace. Peace in our heart, our family, and the world.

We need to not just take care of our self physically, we also need to take care of our self spiritually, through daily prayer, Confession, Rosary, the Holy Mass, reading the Bible and by doing good deeds and practicing virtue.

The Lord wants all of us to love, and by loving, we are beautiful. Everyone knows Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s face had many wrinkles. But the smile on her face revealed the love within her heart, and that is what made her beautiful. She was beautiful because she loved God with all her heart and loved the poorest of the poor, loving her neighbor as her self, by taking care of them. She treated others as she would have wanted others to treat her.

Today, let us resolve to take care of our self, to love our self, in such a way, that we will the see beauty of loving others and loving our self, and especially loving God with all our heart. Let’s try to not be someone we are not, and to accept the appearance God gave us.

As 1 Samuel 16:7 states, “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

If we want to have peace, let us look no further than to have peace with our self, and to treat our self as God would want us, so that we will treat others with that same love.

27th Sunday The Power & Beauty of the Rosary

 

In the second reading today, St. Paul said, "Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, making your requests known to God.”

The Rosary is a very efficacious way that we can make our petitions known to God, through Mary.

The month of October is dedicated the Holy Rosary and Oct. 7^th is the feast of the Holy Rosary. What I would like to do today is give you a better awareness of the power of beauty of the Rosary.

In the year 1170, Dominic Guzman was born who later founded the Order of Preachers, called the Dominicans.

During his time, there was a heresy called the Albigensian heresy, which falsely believed the body was bad and human beings were spirits trapped in physical bodies. They also saw the material world as evil and believed husbands and wives should not have marital relations. Women were placed in the dominant position. Sort of like feminists today. They were permitted to touch a man, but a man was not permitted to touch a woman. The Albigensian women despised pregnancy.

Due to the Albigensian heresy, which spread across Europe, Dominic and his friars fearlessly preached against the heresy, but didn’t convert any heretics.

Not knowing what to do, he prayed to the Virgin Mary asking Her how to overcome the heresy. And it was then Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic and gave him the mysteries of the Rosary and told him to preach the Rosary and its mysteries which she gave them.

The Rosary had existed for centuries before Mary appeared to St. Dominc, but now for the first time, Our Lady gave Dominic and the world meditations to pray with the Hail Marys. She gave him the joyful, sorrowful and glories events in the life of Jesus. Pope John Paul eventually gave us the luminous mysteries.

When the Dominic preached the mysteries of the Rosary, it revealed the goodness of Our Lord’s body as seen through the mysteries of His life, His birth, His sufferings, and His resurrection. It helped all who mediated on the mysteries of His life to know the body is good, and therefore the Rosary and the preaching of St. Dominic on the Rosary, the people turned away from the false views of the Albigensian heresy and ended it.

When we pray the Rosary, we are to meditate upon the specific event in the life of Jesus from the Gospel, while at the same time pray Our Fathers and Hail Marys. It’s a double prayer. We pray audibly with words and also meditate in our mind on the mysteries in the life of Jesus.

For example, in the joyful mysteries we think about the annunciation when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and Jesus was conceived in Her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we meditate, we picture this event happening before our eyes.

The second mystery during the visitation when Mary traveled to visit Her cousin Elizabeth by way of donkey and when She arrived She greeted Her cousin Elizabeth and the unborn John the Baptist leapt for joy.

The third mystery is the birth of Jesus. We watch the miraculous birth of Jesus and Mary wrapping the Divine Child in swaddling clothes and placing Him in the manger while Joseph looks on.

The fourth mystery is the presentation of Jesus in the temple when the elderly Simon, takes the Child Jesus into his arms and blesses Him. The 80-year-old woman, Anna, who fasted and prayed for the coming of the Child is overjoyed to finally gaze upon the baby Jesus.

In the 5^th mystery Joseph and Mary search with tears for the 12-year-old Jesus for 3 days because they lost Him. But now, see the joy in their faces when they finally find Him in the temple speaking the doctors and scribes.

When we meditate on these mysteries we receive graces because every event in the life of Jesus, can help bring us to salvation.

When you pray the Rosary, allow the event to come alive in your mind. Even though we were not there when Jesus lived and walked the face of the earth, through these meditations, we can be there spiritually and these events touch our hearts and our minds to a greater love of Him and knowledge of His love for us.

The rosary is not only a powerful means to crush heresy, but also to crush the enemies of the Christianity. Not long after St. Dominic and his friars preached the rosary, the rosary was attributed to the winning the battle of Muret in the 1200’s. Likewise, Pope St. Pius V beseeched all Catholics to pray the Rosary, to win the battle of Lepanto, in which Muslims were attempting to invade Europe in the 1500’s. Because Christians won the battle, the pope established the feast of the Holy Rosary on Oct. 7^th, the day the battle was won.

Besides defeating heresies and winning battles, the rosary increases virtue in the interior life of the soul. Our Lady told St. Bridget, “Whenever I mediated on the beauty, modesty, and wisdom of my Son, my heart was filled with joy. Whenever I thought of His hands and feet which would be pierced with cruel nails, I wept bitterly, and my heart was rent with sorrow and pain.”

Pope St. John Paul II, in his encyclical Virginum Rosarium, said that when we pray the Rosary, we contemplate the face of Christ. We come in contact with Christ through the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, which is the Gospel in miniature, he said.

St. Louis de Montfort said, through the rosary, hardened sinners are converted, great battles have been won, pestilences have ended, people find courage to flee temptations, vocations have been wrought, and faith has been re-enkindled. And through the Rosary we grow in holiness and virtue by leaps and bounds.

Our Lady told Blessed Alan de la Roche, “When you say the Rosary angels rejoice, the Blessed Trinity delights in it, my Son finds joy in it too, and I myself am happier than you can possibly imagine”. Our Lady said, “After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, there is nothing in the Church that I love as much as the Rosary.”

Sister Lucia said, “The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary.”

Do you know why the rosary is called a rosary? St. Louis De Montfort, said that the word “rosary” means “crown of roses”. If we pray the entire rosary: the joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries, with attention and love, we would place a crown of 203 white roses, and 21 red roses on the head of Mary in heaven. The white rose represents “Hail Marys”, the red Rose represents “Our Fathers”. Every time we pray a Hail Mary, we are giving a beautiful rose to the Mother of Jesus. The rose is the queen of all flowers. A complete rosary makes up an entire crown of roses.

St. Louis De Montfort also tells us a story about another holy man, who was a follower of St. Francis of Assisi. One day, when the bell rang for him to eat dinner, he didn’t show up. So one of the brothers went to see what had happened to him. He was found in his room. The room was bathed in a heavenly light. He was facing the Blessed Virgin Mary, who had two angels with Her. When he would say the Hail Mary, beautiful roses kept coming out of his mouth. The angels took each rose, one by one, placing them on Our Lady’s head, and She smilingly accepted them. Since no one had returned, two more went to find out what happened. These two Franciscan brothers found them with Our Lady, who still had not left, and she remained until the whole rosary was completed. All of these Franciscans brothers were witnesses to this miraculous appearance of Mary.

From now on, whenever we pray the Rosary, let us recall that we can end wars, convert hardened sinners, eliminate heresies, solve any problem either temporal or spiritual and that we spiritually place a heavenly crown of roses on the heads of Jesus and Mary.

Today, let us begin to offer Jesus and Mary a crown of roses, by praying the rosary. Not only will we please Our Lord and His Mother Mary greatly, but we will help many to go to heaven, and we will grow in great holiness too.

It is of great importance with regard to what is going on in the Church and the world, to turn to Mary as our refuge and sure support. Don’t just pray one Rosary a day, pray as many Rosaries as you are able every day.

O Lady, most beautiful queen,

I offer you a rose, not to be seen.

I pray an angel from heaven may place it,

above your head for all to see.

As I pray, the rosary to you,

I offer a spiritual rose that is new.

May I crown your head,

before I go to bed,

sweetly praying your rosary,

O Lady, most beautiful queen.

I love you. Amen.

Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us, who have recourse to thee.

27th Sunday - Tenants Must Bear Fruit

 

In the first reading God speaks of his love for his vineyard which is Israel. Through Isaiah God described his chosen people, Israel, as a vineyard and declared how disappointed He was that instead of yielding grapes they produce sour grapes. The sour grapes were the result of not attending to the vineyard as they ought. Since through the prophet Isaiah God had already described His chosen people as a vineyard, we can easily understand why Jesus told a parable in the Gospel today where he describes the Church as a vineyard.

In the parable in the Gospel the landowner sent servants many times to collect the produce of the vineyard. But each time the servants were killed. The servants represent the prophets of the Old Testament who suffered for preaching the Word of God by being killed violently. Then the landowner sent his son, Jesus, who was also killed. The landowner took the vineyard from those tenants and gave it to other tenants. The vineyard in the parable is the Church, and so when the vineyard is taken from those tenants (Jewish leaders) and given to others (the apostles, disciples and the Church) it is a symbolic way of saying that the Church would consist not only of the chosen people, the Jews, but all.

From time to time God continues to send us good tenants (saints, martyrs and holy men and women) to encourage us to be good tenants of the Lord’s vineyard (the Church) and to bear fruit. Who are some of the very good tenants of the Lord’s vineyard today?

Pope St. John Paul II gave the world hope and courage and clear Church teachings.

St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta showed us the importance of the corporal works of mercy by helping the world to see Jesus in the poorest of the poor.

Mother Angelica, who someday may become a saint, gave us the spiritual works of mercy by way of the Eternal Word Television Network, providing the Mass, the Rosary and Spiritual programming throughout world day and night.

St. Faustina revealed the Divine Mercy of Jesus in order to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus.

Fr. Emil Kapaun was an ordinary farm boy from Pilsen, Kansas, who died in the Korean War for his fellow soldiers. As a priest chaplain, he anointed dying soldiers on the battlefield and allowed himself to be captured by the enemy to give soldiers spiritual help and encouragement.

In 2020, a 15 yr. old boy, Carlo Acutis, was declared “blessed” in Milan, Italy. In 2018, he was declared “venerable” meaning he practiced heroic virtue. The miracle approved for his beatification was approved by the pope. It involved the healing of a young Brazilian boy afflicted with a rare congenital disease of the pancreas. For three days, the child’s family prayed a novena with a priest who was devoted to Carlo. On the third day, the child said he wanted to eat after days of not being able to eat solid foods, she said. The doctors later discovered he was completely healed.

Blessed Carlo received his First Communion at the age of 7. Since his First Communion, he received the Eucharist every day by devoutly attending daily Mass and would pause for hours in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. He placed the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the center of his life and he called it “my highway to Heaven”.

He wanted everyone to know and love Jesus in the Eucharist, so much so, he developed what later become known as the International Miracles of the Eucharist display. He sought out all the known approved 187 Eucharistic miracles and made a display that has been traveling all over the world.

Our Lady was his great confidant and he never failed to honor Her by reciting the Holy Rosary every day.

Carlo was very gifted with everything related to the world of computers so that both his friends and adults with computer engineering degrees considered him a genius. Everyone was amazed at his ability to understand the secrets of computers normally only accessible to those with specialized university degrees.

When I was hospitalized in Tulsa, Carlo worked, what I call a little miracle with a computer. In every patient room is a computer that the nurses use to document patient records and medications, etc… When the nurse came to my room to give me medicine, she attempted to turn on the computer, but it wouldn’t come on. She tried multiple times to start it, but it wouldn’t. I even got out of bed and tried to start it, but nothing happened. She then went to get a portable computer so she could administer my medication. When she came back, she looked at me and said, “Oh, you got the computer started.” I said, “No, I haven’t touched it since you left. But I prayed to Blessed Carlo Acuti to start the computer and apparently, he started it.” The non-Catholic nurse was shocked and didn’t know what to think.

Carlo’s interests involved computer programming, film editing, website creation, editing and laying out small publications, to helping those most in need especially children and the elderly.

His modern and up-to-date ways combined perfectly with his profound Eucharistic life and Marian devotion, which helped to make him that very special boy everyone admired and loved.

He offered his suffering up for the Pope and the Church.

He once said, “To be always united with Jesus, this is my plan of life”. These few words Carlo Acutis, said outline the distinctive feature of his short life: living with Jesus, for Jesus, in Jesus. (…) “I am happy to die because I lived my life without wasting even a minute of it on anything unpleasing to God”.

He died of galloping leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15 and when his coffin was opened this year, he was found totally incorrupt. He looks as though he is sleeping.

That my friends, is how we can become good tenants in the Lord’s vineyard. To always be united to Jesus, never doing anything to displease the Lord and to do the best we can to be holy by living life of virtue.

As Jesus said, “I chose you from the world to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”

Let us strive to love and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, pray Her Rosary daily and grow in love with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, which, as Carlo said, “is the highway to heaven”.

Saint Faustina - Oct 5th

 

Today, is the feast of St. Faustina. She was born on August 25, 1905 in Gogowiec in Poland of a poor and religious family of peasants, the third of ten children. She was baptized with the name Helena in the parish Church of Ðwinice Warckie. From a very tender age she stood out because of her love of prayer, work, obedience, and also her sensitivity to the poor. At the age of nine she made her first Holy Communion living this moment very profoundly in her awareness of the presence of the Divine Guest within her soul. She attended school for three years. At the age of sixteen she left home and went to work as a housekeeper in Aleksandrów and Ostrówek in order to find the means of supporting herself and of helping her parents. At the age of seven she had already felt the first stirrings of a religious vocation.

After finishing school, she wanted to enter the convent but her parents would not give her permission. Called during a vision of the Suffering Christ, on August 1, 1925 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and took the name Sister Mary Faustina. She lived in the Congregation for thirteen years and lived in several religious houses. She spent time at Kraków, and Vilnius, where she worked as a cook, gardener and porter. Externally nothing revealed her rich mystical interior life. She zealously performed her tasks and faithfully observed the rule of religious life. She was recollected and at the same time very natural, serene and full of kindness and disinterested love for her neighbor. Although her life was apparently insignificant, monotonous and dull, she hid within herself an extraordinary union with God.

The years she had spent at the convent were filled with extraordinary gifts, such as: revelations, visions, hidden stigmata, participation in the Passion of the Lord, the gift of bilocation, the reading of human souls, the gift of prophecy, or the rare gift of mystical engagement and marriage. The living relationship with God, the Blessed Mother, the Angels, the Saints, the souls in Purgatory — with the entire supernatural world — was as equally real for her as was the world she perceived with her senses. In spite of being so richly endowed with extraordinary graces, Sr. Mary Faustina knew that they do not in fact constitute sanctity.

Jesus appeared to her asking to establish the Feast of Divine Mercy and asked that she have an image made of Himself revealing white and red rays from His chest and with the words “Jesus I trust in You” as its signature. Those who Confess their sins, receive Holy Communion on Divine Mercy Sunday will have all their sins forgiven and the punishment due to their sins, all washed away in the ocean of God’s mercy. Jesus wanted her to reveal His mercy to prepare for His Second Coming.

The Lord Jesus chose Sr. Mary Faustina as the Apostle and "Secretary" of His Mercy, so that she could tell the world about His great message. In the Old Covenant — He said to her —I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart.

Jesus told Sr. Faustina, “The greater the sinner, the greater right one has to my Divine Mercy”.

Sister Mary Faustina, consumed by tuberculosis and by innumerable sufferings which she accepted as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners, died in Krakow at the age of just thirty three on October 5, 1938 with a reputation for spiritual maturity and a mystical union with God. The reputation of the holiness of her life grew as did the cult to the Divine Mercy and the graces she obtained from God through her intercession. In the years 1965-67, the investigative Process into her life and heroic virtues was undertaken in Krakow and in the year 1968, the Beatification Process was initiated in Rome. The latter came to an end in December 1992. On April 18, 1993 our Holy Father John Paul II raised Sister Faustina to the glory of the altars. Sr. Mary Faustina's remains rest at the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Kraków.