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Third Sunday of Lent

3/23/2014

At that time: Jesus was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spoke; and the people wondered.

Sermon by St. Venerable Bede the Priest

Matthew saith that the devil, by which this poor creature was possessed, was not only dumb, but also blind; and that, when the possessed was healed by the Lord, he both saw and spoke. Three miracles, therefore, were performed on this one man; the blind saw, the dumb spoke, and the possessed was freed from the devil. This mighty work was then done in the flesh, but is now fulfilled spiritually every time men are converted and become believers. For from them the devil is cast out, and their eyes are given to see the light of the Faith, and their lips, which before were dumb, are opened that their mouth may show forth the praise of God. But some of them said: He casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. It was not some of the multitude that uttered this slander, but Pharisees and scribes, as we are told by the other Evangelists.

The multitude, which was made up of such as had little instruction, was filled with wonder at the works of the Lord. But the Pharisees and scribes, on the other hand, denied the facts when they could; and when they could not, they twisted them by an evil interpretation, and asserted that the works of God were the works of an unclean spirit. And Matthew saith: Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. It would seem that they desired him to do some such thing as Elias did, who called down fire from heaven; or like as Samuel, who caused thunder to roll, and lightning to flash, and rain to fall at midsummer: as though they could not have explained away these signs also, as being the natural result of some unusual, albeit hitherto unremarked, state of the atmosphere. O thou who stubbornly deniest that which thine eye seeth, thine hand holdeth, and thy sense perceiveth, what wilt thou say to a sign from heaven? Verily, thou wilt say that divers signs from heaven were once also wrought even by the sorcerers in Egypt.

But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and an house divided against an house falleth. Thus did he make answer, not to their words, but to their thoughts, in hopes that they might at least believe in the power of him who seeth the secrets of the heart. But if every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, it followeth that the kingdom of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, which same is to abide in everlasting stedfastness, is not a divided kingdom. Wherefore we hold, without fear of contradiction, that it never can be brought to desolation by any shock whatsoever. But, saith the Lord, if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils by Beelzebub. In saying this, he sought to draw from their own mouth a confession that they had chosen for themselves to be part of that devil's kingdom which, if it be divided against itself, cannot stand.

Thoughts for the Third Sunday of Lent

3/22/2014

Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children: And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us and hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness. For you were theretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and justice and truth:

Third Sunday of Lent - Also called the Sunday of scrutinies – We have the examination of the neophytes on this coming Wednesday - Station at St. Laurence outside the walls - thus there are references to calls in distress as at Introit and even the Collect.

We must benefit from these dispositions that are put forward - Examine how we have been keeping Lent, are we followers of God as St. Paul commands us to be in the Epistle - or are of the children of unbelief.

These questions are raised by the liturgy for the benefit of those about to examined prior to baptism at Easter. Do they conform to Christ or not? Also for our benefit, for the liturgy is the preparation for the new life with the saints in heaven where we shall partake of the eternal Liturgy of Praise and Thanksgiving.

St. Laurence fought the good fight, he finished his course he kept the Faith. Shall we too be Faithful to the end?

Are we with Christ of Against him? He who gathereth not with me scattereth, as we see today in the Gospel. Are we really all for God? Does God have a place in our lives? We read in the Psalms, “God looked down from heaven on the children of men to see if there were ant that sought him, and there were none.”

St. Laurence loved God even to the loss of his life, he saw what the true treasures of the Church were, not the precious vessels nor the beautiful vestments, but the poor to whom Our Lord Jesus Christ came to preach the Gospel.

So now that Lent is almost half way complete let us examine how well we conform to Christ, let us scrutinize our resolutions, and see how faithful we have been to our resolve.

But beware if we think we do well, because we have the Faith and are by all appearance a follower of Our Lord. For the disciples were followers of Our Lord, and they wanted people to know it, as we see in the corresponding chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel

“ As he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold his mother and his brethren stood without, seeking to speak to him. And one said unto him: Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, seeking thee. But he answering him that told him, said: Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And stretching forth his hand towards his disciples, he said: Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

No, let us be humble, and imitate the most Blessed Virgin, who was not blessed merely by the fact of being Our Lord’s Mother but for the fact of being faithful to the end, “If you love me keep my Commandments” Love is shown not only in word but in deeds, as St. James tells us. “ But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves”

Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of Martyrs for the strength to be faithful in our small resolutions, that we may be found faithful, if God should he ask of us of great things.

March 22nd - St Nicholas of Flue

3/22/2014

Nicholas was born on March 21, 1417, in Switzerland. He was the eldest son of peasant parents who were very devout Catholics. Nicholas later took his name, Flue, from the name of the Flueli River, which flowed near his birthplace.

As a young man, Nicholas was very fond of praying and also practiced mortification. When he was twenty-one years old, he joined the army and was involved in the battle of Ragaz in 1446. He also engaged in the so-called Thurgau war against Archduke Sigismund of Austria. Because of his intercession, Swiss confederates did not destroy the convent of St. Katharinental.

When Nicholas was twenty-five he married a woman named Dorothea Wissling who bore him ten children, five sons and five daughters. The youngest son became a priest and doctor of theology. Nicholas became magistrate and was a highly respected counselor. He turned down the office of governor several times and had no interest in pursuing a political career.

In 1467, with the consent of his wife and family, Nicholas embraced the life of a hermit and built a small hut made out of branches and leaves. His austerity was extreme. Even in the winter he didn’t wear either a cap or shoes. For the rest of his life he lived entirely without food, except for the Holy Eucharist. Because he became well-known for his piety and wisdom, many visited him, including civic leaders. In fact, dignitaries from all over Europe came to this humble man for counsel. In 1469, the civil authorities built a cell and a chapel for him where he resided for the remainder of his life.

In 1480 delegates of the Swiss confederates met at Stans to try to settle their differences; however, civil war seemed inevitable. The pastor of Huns, Henry Imgrund, went to Nicholas and pleaded with him to intervene and prevent war. Nicholas agreed to go to the delegates with his counsels and proposals and the civil war was indeed averted.

Nicholas died on his seventieth birthday on March 21, 1487. He was canonized in 1947.

Eleison Comments - CCCXIL (349)

3/21/2014

ARK’S REALITY
If anybody doubts that a worldwide chastisement is possible, such as Our Lady of Akita warned us of, let them remember it happened once 5,000 years ago, so it can happen again. And if they doubt that the worldwide Flood of Noah’s time actually happened, let them watch on YouTube the fascinating 53-minute film entitled “L’Arche de Noé et le Déluge: Preuves Historiques et Scientifiques”. Alas. in English YouTube seems to have no equivalent film on Noah’s Ark, but rather a good deal of disinformation. God’s enemies work hard to keep away from us such a sensational proof of the truth of the Bible as is the real existence of the Ark of Noah.

It nestles some 4,600 meters high up in a canyon on the snowline of Mount Ararat on the Turko-Armenian border. It is difficult of access because for most of the year it is covered in ice, and from above avalanches threaten at all times of year, while below there is danger from robbers and local civil wars. But after referring to the identical account of the Flood in multiple ancient languages, always with the same name of Noah, the French film continues with a long list of known visitors to the Ark down the ages, 34 of whose descriptions of what they saw are remarkably similar, according to the film.

The list begins with a Chaldean priest about half a millennium before Christ. It includes a Christian bishop in 360 AD and the famous Italian explorer, Marco Polo, in 1269. In 1840 a huge earthquake carved the canyon out of the side of the mountain where the Ark now rests and broke it into two pieces, now 30 yards apart. In the 19th and 20th centuries there followed numerous visitors to the Ark, and during and after World War II several American pilots flying over the mountain clearly recognized a huge man-made boat, dark in colour, shaped like a barge. They had no doubt they were seeing Noah’s Ark. Finally in our own time, in 2007, a team of Turkish explorers penetrated inside the Ark and took film footage which can also be found on YouTube, independently of the French film.

The film concludes with fascinating speculation of modern scientists and geologists on the mass of water which Scripture says drowned the highest (then) mountains to a depth of 7 meters (Gen. VII, 20). Especially worthy of note in Scripture is how it says that the water not only rained from on high but also burst up from below (Gen. VII, 11: VIII, 2). A persuasive explanation is offered on the film by an American engineer, Dr Walter Brown, who posits that before the Flood there were huge subterranean caverns of water, interconnected, some 800 meters deep, fiercely compressed beneath the earth’s surface crust of rock, 10 miles thick. It was enough for a split in that crust to run around the earth in two hours, and a mass of that water would explode upwards from below, changing the face of the earth, and explaining many features, Dr Brown argues, of the earth’s geology as we know it today. Altogether fascinating.

But how many people today want to know that God exists, that sin matters, and that the wrecking of environments is one way in which sin is punished ? The film says that in the late 19th century, despite the number of visitors to the Ark, people were more interested in Evolution getting rid of God than in the Ark clearly pointing to him. True, God promised Noah that he would never again punish by a flood of water (Gen. IX, 15), but that does not exclude a worldwide rain of fire. Our Lady of Akita spoke in 1973 of the latter hanging over our heads. Certainly sin is today careering out of control, worldwide.

Kyrie eleison.

A recent French film, accessible on YouTube, presents historical and factual evidence for Noah’s Ark still today existing, high up on Mount Ararat..

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Saint for Today - St Benedict

3/21/2014

Benedict was born of a noble family at Norcia, and studied letters at Rome. Desiring to give himself to Christ Jesus, he betook himself to a very deep cave at the place now called Subiaco. In this place he lay hid for three years, unknown to all except the monk Romanus, by means of whom he received the necessaries of life. While he was in the cave at Subiaco, the devil one day assailed him with an extraordinary storm of impure temptation, and to get it under, he rolled himself in brambles till his whole body was lacerated, and the sting of pain drove out the sallies of lust. At last the fame of his holiness spread itself abroad from the desert, and some monks came to him for guidance, but the looseness of their lives was such that they could not bear his exhortations, and they plotted together to poison him in his drink. When they gave him the cup, he made the sign of the Cross over it, whereupon it immediately broke, and Benedict left that monastery, and retired to a desert place alone.

Nevertheless his disciples followed him daily, and for them he built twelve monasteries, and set holy laws to govern them. Afterwards he went to Cassino, and broke the image of Apollo which was still worshipped there, overturned the altar, and burnt the groves. There, he built the Church of St. Martin and the little chapel of St. John; and instilled Christianity into the townspeople and inhabitants. He grew in the grace of God day by day, so that being endowed with the spirit of prophecy he foretold things to come. When Totila, King of the Goths, heard of it, and would see whether it really were so, he sent his spatharius before him, with the kingly ensigns and attendance, and feigning himself to be Totila. But as soon as Benedict saw him he said: My son, put off that which thou wearest, for it is not thine. To Totila himself he foretold that he would go to Rome, would cross the sea, and would die after nine years.

Some months before he departed this life, Benedict forewarned his disciples on what day he was to die; and he ordered his grave to be opened six days before he was carried to it. On the sixth day, he would be carried into the Church, where he received the Eucharist, and then, in the arms of his disciples, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, and wrapt in prayer, he gave up the ghost. Two monks saw his soul rising to heaven, clothed in a most precious garment and surrounded with lights, and One of a most glorious and awful aspect standing above, whom they heard saying: This is the way whereby Benedict, the beloved of the Lord, goeth up to heaven.

Power and uses of the St Benedict Medal

March 20th - St Photina

3/20/2014

St. Photina was that Samaritan woman whom our Lord met at Jacob’s Well. When He disclosed the secret of her profligate life, she believed in Him at once as that Messiah which was to come, and began spreading the Gospel among the Samaritans, converting many. Later, she and her son Josiah and her five sisters went to Carthage to preach and then to Rome. Another son, Victor, was a soldier and had already come to Emperor Nero’s attention as being a Christian. The Emperor summoned the whole family and with threats and tortures tried to force them to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, when Nero’s daughter Domnina came in contact with Photina (the Lord Himself had given her the name, meaning “resplendent” or “shining with light”), she, too, was converted. The enraged emperor had the heads of the sons and sisters cut off; Photina was held in prison for a few more weeks before being thrown into a well, where she joyously gave her soul to the Lord.

She, with her Christian sisters, Anatola, Phota, Photis, Parasceva, and Cyriaca; and her sons Photinus and Joses; and Sebastian the Duke, Victor, and Christodulus, all met martyrdom under the persecutions of Nero.

Saint for Today - St Joseph

3/19/2014

Sermon by St. Bernard the Abbot

Who and what manner of man this blessed Joseph was, we may conjecture from that title which the providential ordering of God bestowed upon him. He was chosen to the honour of being called, and of being supposed to be, the father of God. What he was we may also conjecture from the very name Joseph, which is to be interpreted as Increase. Wherefore let us liken him to that great man after whom he was named, the Patriarch Joseph. This latter sojourned in Egypt, even as he did. From this latter he not only inherited a name, but an example of chastity which he more than equalled, so that he was like unto the Patriarch Joseph in grace and innocence.

If the Patriarch Joseph (sold by his brethren through envy, and forced into servitude in Egypt) was a type of Christ sold by his brethren and handed over to the Gentiles, the other Joseph (forced through the envy of Herod to flee into Egypt) did in actual fact bring Christ amongst the Egyptian Gentiles. The first Joseph (keeping faith with his lord) would not carnally know his lord's lady. The second Joseph (spiritually knowing the Lady who was the Mother of his Lord to be virgin) kept faithfully virgin toward her. To the first Joseph was given to know dark things in the interpretation of dreams. To the second Joseph was given in sleep to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

The first Joseph laid by bread, not for himself only, but for all the people. The second Joseph received into his keeping the Living Bread which came down from heaven, and he kept the same, not for himself only, but for all the world. Without doubt, good and faithful was this Joseph who espoused the Mother of the Saviour. Yea, I say unto you, he is that faithful and wise servant whom the Lord hath made ruler over his Household. For the Lord appointed him to be the comfort of his Mother, the keeper of his own body, and, in a word, the chief and most trusty helper on earth in carrying out the eternal counsels.

When as his Mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost.

Sermon by St. Jerome the Priest

Why was the Lord conceived of a virgin already espoused, rather than of one as yet unpledged to a man? For one thing, because from the genealogy of Joseph, the lineage of Mary as a descendant of David, and thus of her Child, could be the more easily established. For another, because by this betrothal Mary would be saved from being stoned by the Jews as an adulteress. Again, because thereby Mary was given a guardian during the flight into Egypt. To these reasons the Martyr Ignatius added another, namely; that the virgin birth might take place unknown to the devil, who would naturally suppose that Mary had conceived by Joseph.

Before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost. That is, she was found so to be by Joseph, not by any one else, for he already had almost an husband's privilege to know all that concerned her. But when it is said: Before they came together: it doth not follow that they ever did come together carnally. The Scripture is to be understood merely in the sense that up to this time they had not done so.

Saint for Today - St Cyril of Jerusalem

3/18/2014

Cyril of Jerusalem was given to the study of the Sacred Scriptures from childhood, and made such progress that he became an eminent champion of the true faith. He embraced the monastic state, and bound himself to perpetual chastity and austerity of life. He was ordained priest by St. Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem, and undertook the work of preaching the divine word to the faithful and instructing the catechumens, in which he won the highest praise. He was the author of those truly wonderful Catechetical Instructions which embrace clearly and fully all the teaching of the Church, and contain an excellent defence of the dogmas of religion against the enemies of the Faith. His treatment of these subjects is so distinct and clear that he refutes not only the heresies of his own time, but also, by a kind of foreknowledge, as it were, those which were to arise later. And so he plainly teaches the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the wonderful Sacrament of the Eucharist. On the death of St. Maximus, the bishops of the province chose Cyril in his place.

As bishop he endured, like blessed Athanasius, his contemporary, many wrongs and sufferings for the sake of the faith at the hands of the Arians. They could not bear his strenuous opposition to their heresy, and thus assailed him with calumnies, deposed him in a pseudo-council, and drove him from his see. To escape their rage he fled to Tarsus in Cilicia and, as long as Constantius lived, he bore the hardships of exile. On his death, and at the ascension of Julian the Apostate to the empire, Cyril was able to return to Jerusalem, where he set himself, with burning zeal, to deliver his flock from errors and vices. He was driven into exile a second time, under the emperor Valens, but when peace was restored to the Church by Theodosius the Great, and the cruelty and insolence of the Arians were restrained, he was received with honour by the emperor as a most valiant soldier of Christ, and restored to his see. With what earnestness and holiness he fulfilled the duties of his exalted office was proved by the flourishing state of the church at Jerusalem at that time, as described by St. Basil who spent some time there on a pilgrimage to the holy places.

Tradition states that God made the holiness of this venerable prelate illustrious by signs from heaven. Among these is numbered the apparition of a shining cross, brighter than the rays of the sun, which was seen at the beginning of his episcopate. Not only Cyril himself, but pagans and Christians alike were witnesses of this miracle which Cyril, after having given thanks unto God in church, announced by letter to Constantius. A thing no less wonderful came to pass when the Jews were commanded by the impious emperor Julian to restore the Temple which had been destroyed by Titus. A violent earthquake occurred, and great balls of fire burst out of the earth, and consumed all the works, so that Julian and the Jews were struck with terror and gave up their plan; all of which had been clearly foretold by Cyril. A little while before his death, he was present at the ecumenical Council of Constantinople, where the heresies of Macedonius, and, once more, that of Arius were condemned. After his return to Jerusalem, being nearly seventy years old, he died a holy death in the thirty-fifth year of his episcopate. Pope Leo XIII ordered that his Office and Mass should be said throughout the Universal Church.

Saint for Today - St Patrick

3/16/2014

Patrick, called the Apostle of Ireland, was born in Great Britain. The name of his father was Calphurnius, and that of his mother Conchessa. She is said to have been a relation of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours. When Patrick was a youth, he was several times taken prisoner by savages, and while being in their hands he was employed as a shepherd, he already shewed marks of his saintliness to come. His spirit was filled with faith, and love, and fear of God, so that he would rise before the light, in snow, and frost, and rain, to make his prayers to God, being accustomed to address God in prayer an hundred times every day, and an hundred times every night. After being rescued from his third captivity, he was placed among the clergy, and for a long time exercised himself in sacred learning. To this end, he travelled with much labour, through Gaul, Italy, and the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea, but at last being called of God to work for the salvation of the Irish, and having received from the Blessed Pope Celestine a commission to preach the Gospel, and likewise being consecrated a Bishop, he betook himself to Ireland.

In the discharge of his calling it is a marvel with how many evils, with how many sufferings and labours, and with how many adversaries the Apostolic Patrick had to bear. Nevertheless, by the goodness of God, that island, which had up to that time been given over to the serving of idols, was, through the preaching of Patrick, so wrought on that she soon brought the fruit which won her the name of the Island of Saints. Patrick caused many of her people to be born again by the washing of regeneration; he ordained many Bishops and clerks; he decreed rules for virgins and widows living in continency. By the authority of the Bishop of Rome he established the See of Armagh as the Primatial See of all Ireland, and enriched the Church with relicks of the Saints brought from Rome. Patrick, moreover, was so eminently adorned with heavenly visions, with the gift of prophecy, and with great signs and wonders from God, that the fame of him spread itself abroad more and more, day by day.

Besides that which came upon him daily, the care of all the Churches of Ireland, he never suffered his spirit to weary in constant prayer. They say that it was his custom to repeat every day the whole Book of Psalms, together with Songs and Hymns, and two hundred Prayers; that he bent his knees to God in worship three hundred times every day, and that he made on himself the sign of the Cross an hundred times at each of the Seven Hours of the Church Service. He divided the night into three portions; during the first he repeated the first hundred Psalms, and bent his knees two hundred times; during the second he remained plunged in cold water, with heart, eyes, and hands lifted up to heaven, and in that state repeated the remaining fifty Psalms; during the third he took his short rest, lying upon a bare stone. He was a great practiser of lowliness, and, after the pattern of the Apostle, he always continued to work with his own hands. At last he fell asleep in the Lord in extreme old age, refreshed with the Divine Mysteries, worn out with unceasing care for the Churches, and glorious both in word and work. His body is buried in Down in Ulster. He passed away in the fifth century after the giving of salvation by Christ.

2nd Sunday of Lent

3/16/2014

At that time: Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them.

Sermon by St. Leo the Pope

Jesus took Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brought them up into an exceeding high mountain apart, and manifested forth the brightness of his glory. Hitherto, though they understood that there was in him the Majesty of God, they knew not the power of that Body which veiled the Godhead. And therefore he had individually and markedly promised to some of the disciples that had stood by him that they should not taste of death till they had seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom, that is, in the kingly splendour, which is the right of the Manhood taken into God, and which he willed to make visible to those three men. This it was that they saw, for the unspeakable and unapproachable vision of the Godhead himself which will be the everlasting life of the pure in heart, can no man, who is still burdened with a dying body, see and live.

When the Father saith: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him―did they not plainly hear him say―This is my Son, whose it is to be of me and with me without all time? For neither is he that begetteth, before him that is begotten, neither he that is begotten, after him that begetteth him. This is my Son, between whom and me, to be God is not a point of difference; to be Almighty, a point of separation; not to be Eternal, a point of distinction. This is my Son―not by adoption, but my very own; not created from, or of another substance, or out of nothing, but begotten of me; not of another nature, and made like unto me, but of mine own Being, born of me, equal unto me.

This is my Son, by whom all things were made, and without whom was not anything made that was made, who maketh likewise all things whatsoeveer I make: and what things soever I do he doeth likewise, inseparably and indifferently. This is my Son, who thought it not robbery, nor hath taken it by violence, to be equal with me, but, abiding still in the form of my glory, that he may fulfil our common decree for the restoration of mankind, hath bowed the unchangeable Godhead even to the form of a servant. Him therefore in whom I am in all things well pleased, by whose preaching I am manifested, and by whose lowliness I am glorified, him instantly hear ye. For he is the Truth and the Life, my Power and my Wisdom.

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