Sunday Sermon

Our Lord instructs all those who would follow Him, and He does so in diverse ways. When we hear the Gospel proclaimed, we hear instruction. When we pray in the silence of our hearts, there, too, is instruction. In the Gospel of Saint Luke, we hear about a miraculous draught of fishes and we learn the importance of the blessing and command of God in the work which we do. We can also learn the relation of private instruction and revelation to that which is public by what the Evangelist was inspired not to say. Come along and let us all follow the Lord!

“He blasphemeth.” St. Matthew 9: 3 On other occasions, influenced by hatred and envy, the Jews had called him a disturber of the people, a drunkard, a sorcerer who drove out devils in the name of the devil, but all these accusations were as nothing compared to that of being a blasphemer—that is, one who assails the Almighty, who is worthy of infinite honor and glory, with curses and injurious expressions. I will take occasion from the Gospel of today to speak of this fearful sin, which is so common unfortunately, in order to inspire you with such a horror of this crime that you will be shocked at the very name of it.

Are we wasting our Lord's goods? We come to an attitude that this is my money, because I work so hard for it. But is it our money, or does it truly belong to another?

Our God is not some distant far-off, uncaring God Who could care less about how we feel . . . what we are going through . . . what we are enduring. Our God is a God full of compassion.

Our Lord tells us: "Behold! I stand at the door and knock!" Likewise, we are to be like our Lord, for He tells us: "Knock and it shall be opened unto you." In seeking after the things of our Lord, we must never allow ourselves to become the victims of despondency, impatience, or even of injuries to our own pride. Rather, we must be ever more faithful and - above all - persistent in seeking those things which are good. Let us take the Gospel's example of the Canaanite woman whose love for her daughter and whose faith in the Lord leads her to a holy persistence, even in the face of resistance and humiliation. Let us make her prayer our own: "Lord, help me!"

Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” So let me ask you this morning — are you a good neighbor? — What if he meant for us to love the actual neighbors that live 30 to 40 feet from us?

This is the great law of Charity: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor;” these words teach us whom we are to love. “As thyself;” how and in what manner we are to love. This law, though well known by all, is understood by very few; for most people show by their conduct that they know little of what is meant by that law. There are many nowadays who ask with the lawyer: “And who is my neighbor?” So rare is the true love of one’s neighbor that people neither know nor care to know who their neighbor is; still less do they know what it means to love him as themselves. Since so much depends on the fulfillment of this law that without it it is impossible to love God, I shall endeavor to explain it today:

The most frequently used image of God and his people in the New Testament is the family relationship. Sometimes we are pictured as being “born again” into this family. Other times, we are pictured as being adopted into God’s family. And this image of the family is used to stress the close relationship we have with God, who is our Father, with the blessed Virgin Mary our mother and our close relationship with one another, as brothers and sisters in this family

We have heard about the Four H's of the spiritual life: Honesty, Humility, Help, and Hope. Today we begin to learn about a "Fifth H": Heart. A sure way to learn how to cultivate this "Fifth H" is to have recourse to the Blessed Theotokos, who so loved her Divine Son and who has been given to us by Him as a mother in grace. Let us hasten to have our hard hearts softened that they may be refashioned in the grace of God!

Dear Lord, I desire perfect charity. Please help me to fulfill my desire by the help of Thy grace, which I stand in need of. Remove from me all the obstacles I have placed between Thee and me. Help me to acquire all of the holy dispositions I need to come into complete union with Thy most holy will. 

Why did Christ give back the young man to his mother, after having restored him to life? Did he still belong to his mother? No; once death has intervened, although one is restored to life by a miracle, all the bonds are loosed which during life connect men with each other, whether they arise from natural ties, or from mutual agreement. Thus, if today a husband dies, and tomorrow is restored to life again, his former marriage is annulled, and both husband and wife are freed from all obligations toward each other. Still, if a child restored to life should belong to any one, there is no doubt that it is to his mother. Therefore: “He gave him to his mother.” After this digression I return to the matter I have already spoken of. I have said and proved that it is indispensably necessary to make restitution in order to avoid eternal damnation, so that inability alone can excuse one from making it. But there is still one point, and that is the manner and circumstances of restitution.

Do we ever fail to thank God for all His blessings which He provides us? Do we only go to God when we need something but forget about Him when we get what we want?

I found that Thomas Aquinas and Saint Gregory the great make a distinction between pride and vainglory, with pride being the cause of vainglory. So what’s the difference between Pride and Vainglory?

"Many are called, but few are chosen." With these words our Lord charges us to rise to the challenge of His divine invitation. Just as in the parable of the wedding feast, today the King sends invitations with his servants to all the world. Do we make excuses so as not to respond? Or if we do respond, do we show disrespect to the good King by removing the wedding garment which He has provided us? Hear today of the great choice we have - the choice to be chosen!

Have you ever had the experience to look for for your glasses and you look and look and look and you can not find them anywhere? And then at some point you find them and it was on your head the whole time. I am sure that each of us have had that experience at one point or another.

“No man can serve two masters;” no one can serve God, and at the same time the devil, the flesh, or the world. This sermon will be profitable not only for sinners, to arouse them to repentance and amendment, but also for those who have already repented of and amended their wicked lives, to keep them from relapsing into sin, and also for the just and the innocent, to give them a greater knowledge of the malice of sin, and thus inspire them with a greater horror of it.

There’s no child of God that does not feel that conflict in his soul – the spirit against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit, but the Spirit always has its witness and always has its fruit.

St. Paul wanted to remind the Church at Corinth that if we have riches, it is because God provided those riches; if we have abilities or strengths or skills, it is only because God has provided each one of us with what we are good at; if we have a roof over our head and food on our table every day, it is because God provides.

Our Lord relates the parable of the vineyard put into the care of unjust husbandmen. These treat the servants and even the son of the master with contempt and put them to death. Don't we do same when we disdain the messengers of the Lord and even the Lord Himself, thinking ourselves masters when we are rather to be loyal stewards of the goods placed in our care?

Pius 12th instituted today's feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the whole Church, so as to obtain by her intercession, in his words, "peace among nations, freedom for the Church, the conversion of sinners, the love of purity and the practice of virtue"