Tuesday Election Day in the USA, Nov 5th

Today is election day for our country. Many will go to the polls to vote for candidates that can shape our country. Our nation needs repentance and conversion and we have a duty to first do that ourselves, to turn away from sins and be sorry for them.

May this day be a day of penance, fasting, sacrifice and prayer. Rather than watching television programs, may we pray additional Rosaries. Rather than eating our favorite meal, may we fast. Rather than doing things for our self, may we sacrifice our time for others. May we come to the church to adore Jesus in the tabernacle and offer our Holy Hour for our country. And may every American citizen vote for candidates who will defend life, the most important issue in any election.

May Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of our country intercede for us.

31st Sunday, Love Your Neighbor (the unborn), as Yourself

 

A scribe came to Jesus, and asked Him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Our Blessed Lord replied, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

To love God with all our heart, all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength is to put God first in everything. We must place God above our job, our family, our home, our health, and our very own lives. The early Christians lost their jobs, their family, their home, they suffered physically, and gave up their lives to follow Christ.

Those of us, who live the stewardship way of life have discovered, that when we put God first, He will take care of all our needs. A life of stewardship is a life lived trusting God and being a steward to our neighbor.

To live the stewardship way of life-- is a call to discipleship, to truly love God with all our heart, all our mind and all our strength-- and to love our neighbor as our self.

I would like to tell you of some specific neighbors, who need our help. These neighbors have no home, no job, no healthcare, no family, and their lives are in immediate danger. Who are these people desperately need our help? The unborn.

Since Roe vs Wade was overturned and since the loss of the Value Them Both Amendment, abortions increased in Kansas by 154%, due to majority coming from out of state. In 2022, there were 12,318 abortions in Kansas, but most are from out of state.

In August, a new abortion clinic opened in Pittsburgh, Kansas. They have sidewalk counselors who stand outside and they take down the car tags to find out where the people come from. Over the past few months, only two were from Kansas, all others were from out of state.

Those who go to abortion clinics are often times confused, pressured and hurting. They need our prayers and support. God is infinitely merciful and will always forgive those who ask Him. God’s mercy is for everyone. Sometimes, we can make choices and not fully understand what we are doing or the consequences to our choices. But, God can work through our mistakes and He can overcome our sins. He loves us even when we sin. But, He hates sin because sin hurts Him and hurts us and hurts others.

All of us have a right to work, a right to our family, a right to healthcare, a right to education, and right to live a peaceful and long life. Except of course, our unborn neighbors.

Pope John Paul II, said, “The common outcry, which is just made on behalf of human rights—for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.”

Today, many are more concerned about the environment and the economy. But what good is a home, a job, a family, healthcare, the environment and the economy, if millions are never be able to enjoy these basic goods of life, because they will never even be able to live, due to abortion?

Some may say, “The Church has no right to push her views in social and political matters”. However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The Church intervenes by making moral judgment about economic and social matters when the fundamental rights of the person, the common good, or the salvation of souls requires it.”

Some also argue--politicians have no right to persuade others with regard to morality. However, people we put into office, vote for abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, cloning, transgender policies, euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, religious freedom, which are all moral choices.

Our country desperately needs political leaders who will defend life and outlaw abortion. Politicians should defend the Constitution and help fellow Americans to live by the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;

In the Declaration of Independence it states, “All men are created equal.” Where are we created equal? We are all created equal in our mother’s womb.

And it states we have and inalienable right to life from God, our creator.

Catholics have an obligation to vote in order to improve society and prevent it from harming innocent people. Catholics are disciples of Christ, called to evangelize the world. We have a duty to defend the weak, the poor, the elderly—and the unborn.

Since abortion became legal, we can no longer vote straight across the board for our own political party. To vote, without paying attention to the issue of life, is to put one’s party over one’s faith. It places our allegiance to our political party, over our love for God, and our love of neighbor. Can we say, we really love God--- if we fail to love and protect our neighbor-- unborn children?

My friends, there is absolutely no other issue-- as important in any election than the issue of life. To consciously vote for a pro-abortion candidate, who is running against a pro-life candidate is a serious sin requiring confession.

If both are in favor of abortion, then we should vote for the one who will cause less abortions.

To not pay any attention, as to how the candidate would vote on the issue of life, is irresponsible. It’s not putting God first. It’s not loving God with all one’s heart, all one’s mind, and all one’s soul, and it is not loving one’s neighbor as one’s self.

Who will be a steward to their neighbor? Who will come forward to vote for life--to stop the tragedy of abortion? Now is the time to put God first-- and love Him with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul, and to love your neighbor, who are helpless children.

If Jesus would speak to us, what do you think He would say? Perhaps, He would say, “Hear O America! The Lord our God-- is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is this: You shall love your neighbor (who are my unborn children) as yourself. I came that all may have life and have it abundantly. Please Vote—the life of your neighbor-- depends upon it!

All Souls Day, Nov 2nd

 

The Church teaches us that the souls of the just who have left this world soiled with the stain of venial sin remain for a time in a place of expiation, where they suffer such punishment as may be due to their offenses. It is a matter of faith that these suffering souls are relieved by the intercession of the Saints in heaven and by the prayers of the faithful upon earth. To pray for the dead is, then, both an act of charity and of piety. We read in Holy Scripture: "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."

And when Our Lord inspired St. Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, towards the close of the tenth century, to establish in his Order a general commemoration of all the faithful departed, it was soon adopted by the whole Western Church, and has been continued unceasingly to our day, as the Feast of All Souls Day.

There is the story about St. Malachy, whose sister who laughed at him when he was burying the dead. Later, when she died, he said many Masses for her. After some time, in a vision, he saw her, dressed in mourning, standing in a churchyard, and saying that she had not tasted food for thirty days. Remembering that it was just thirty days since he last offered the Adorable Sacrifice for her, he began again to do so, and was rewarded by other visions, in the last of which he saw her within the church, clothed in white, near the altar, and surrounded by bright spirits.

Let us, then, ever bear in mind the dead and offer up our prayers for them. By showing this mercy to the suffering souls in purgatory, we shall be particularly entitled to be treated with mercy at our departure from this world, and to share more abundantly in the general suffrages of the Church, continually offered for all who have slept in Christ.

All Saints Day, Nov 1st

 

“The glorious saints surround the Throne of the Lamb in Heaven!” Today is the Solemnity of All Saints. The Church celebrates all the known and unknown saints in heaven. There is a “great multitude, which no one can count, from every nation, race, people and tongue.” This multitude consists of the noble fellowship of prophets, ancient patriarchs, the glorious company of apostles, the white robed army of martyrs, the noble company of confessors, the choir of virgins, and the many saints, who lived ordinary yet, supernatural lives of holiness and virtue. Besides canonized saints, there are countless hidden saints, who are carpenters, housewives, plumbers, bankers, airplane workers, bricklayers, intellectuals, secretaries, computer workers, manual workers, priests, and religious.

The saints, struggled with temptations, sufferings of every kind, misunderstandings, trials of all sorts, yet by the grace of God, they persevered in their struggle by following the Lamb, who sits on the throne. All the saints in heaven acknowledge their Salvation came from God, who is seated on the throne and the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed on the altar of the Cross.

All of us are called to be saints. We are all called to holiness and to follow the beatitudes. We should strive to follow the multitude of saints, who have gone before us. By way of their powerful intercession, they will help us imitate their virtues. The saints were just like us. They struggled with the same kinds of sins we do.

Most of you have probably heard of Carlo Acutis, a fifteen year old boy from Italy who died from leukemia, which cancer that affects bone marrow and blood.

He is known for his International Miracles of the Eucharist display, that he created using his ingenuity on the computer. He was a computer expert at very young age.

When I had surgery last year at the Tulsa hospital, the computer in my patient room wouldn’t start-up. The nurse kept trying to turn it on, but to no avail.

After she left, I prayed to Carlo Acutis and asked him to start the computer. About 10 minutes later the nurse came back in my room and the computer started up on its own. She asked me if I did anything to start it, and I said, “Well, yes, I asked Carlo Acutis, a 15 year old boy, who died and is now in heaven, to start up the computer and he did.” The nurse wasn’t Catholic, but God used that event to show a non-Catholic, the power of praying to a future saint.

Carlo Acutis is expected to be canonized next year. Today, let us ask all canonized and unknown saints to pray for us, and help us to be virtuous and holy like them, so that we too will become saints, but we need to turn away from sin, stay close to Jesus in prayer. Attend Mass and receive Jesus in Communion as often as we can and to confess our sins regularly, so that at the end of our life we can join all the saints in heaven.