Ave Maria!

Update: Notes and Explanations have been added. See the viewing page.

Using Christmas and the adoration of the magi and shepherds as a starting point, Fr. Peter outlines the key to Christian thinking according to John Duns Scotus, that is, contemplation of Truth. This is opposed to the modern mentality that says ‘I can’t believe unless I can analyze it.’ It is Mary who makes it possible for finite creatures like us to see the infinite God, for in the person of Jesus, Truth is made flesh. And in adoring our Lord, Mary and St. Joseph teach us to think like Christians and so enable us to be happy.

Ave Maria!

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Homily #091006 ( 06min) Play – Mary chooses the better part as compared to Martha but Martha’s activity can be rendered virtuous if she unites it with Mary’s contemplation and so works solely out of love for Our Lord and not for human respect.
Ave Maria! Mass readings

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Faith, Hope, and Charity

“And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Cor. 13: 13).

For St. Paul life was Christ, a life of faith in the Son of God. Death was gain, a passing in joyful hope from this earthly habitation to the blessedness of Heaven. Both in life and death he belonged to God and was motivated solely by love of God and neighbor. Faith, hope and charity were the source of his unparalleled zeal for souls. These theological virtues, poured into the soul by the Holy Spirit, practiced heroically by ones generous response, and ordered to union with God, are the foundation for any authentic and fruitful missionary zeal.

In the first instance, it is the primary duty of the apostle, prophet, teacher, miracle worker, healer, etc., to evangelize by his life. How accurate and sobering it is to say, ‘My life is the word I preach’. If Christ is our life, if we are in Christ Jesus, then our word is the Word who dwells in our hearts through faith (cf. Eph. 3: 17). If not, then “I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal … I am nothing … “ and my words and actions “profiteth me nothing” (cf. I Cor. 13:1-3); my ministry is void. Men such as this are “lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, dis­obedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, with­out kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God: having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof … Ever learn­ing, and never attaining to the knowledge of truth” (II Tim. 3:2-7). Our Saint exhorts Timothy, and in him all mission­aries, to be “vigilant, labor in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Be sober” (II TIm. 4:5).

The invitation to lead lives of prayer, silence, and suf­fering comes directly from the Heart of our Blessed Savior. It is He who earnestly desires us to be vigilant in practicing and proclaiming the life of virtue. Thus, when our intellect encounters suffering, it is stu­pefied by the mystery. It must exercise the virtue of super­natural faith in accepting and offering the variety of sacri­fices so necessary for the vitality of the Church’s mission to save souls from eternal damnation. Without faith in Jesus Crucified we become “enemies of the Cross of Christ” (Phil. 3:18). Without faith we cannot accept the joy of sacrifice to which Christ deigns to calls us. Without faith we become overwhelmed by the suffering which is sent to us and instead of rejoicing always with gratitude at our little portion of the Cross, we become grumblers, irritated ourselves and irritable to others. Without faith we lack that ongoing generosity and spirit of self-denial which ought to charac­terize a follower of the Crucified Lord.

However, with faith we live in profound communion with the Suffering Savior and rejoice to endure all things out of love for God and neighbor. With faith a life pen­ance and mortification is freely embraced as a gift from God and, in turn, frees us to embrace a sinful world with the infinite love of God. With divine faith our thoughts, our words, our actions become fountains of divine grace in an arid world of sin and death. Ultimately our faith, our assent to revealed truth, will give way to the Beatific Vision of Truth Himself. “But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved.” (Mt. 10:22).

In our soul there is also the faculty of memory- cogni­zant of the past, pressing towards the future, and living in the present moment. When the memory is confronted with the sins, failings, and difficulties of the past, the uncertainty of the future, and the responsibility of the present, there is a need for theological hope. Sacred silence is a supreme act of hope which transends this passing world and looks to the Creator of heaven and earth to be ones help now and ones possession in eternal bliss. How frequently the idle word hinders us from our everlasting goal “of the heavenly voca­tion of[God in Christ Jesus” (Ph. 3:13-14).  In a culture saturated with diversion and distraction, it has become more important than ever that we still our tongues, our minds, our bodies, and our hearts in the presence of God.  The practice of prolonged moments of recollection, of trustful surrender to divine providence, of curbing out tongues from vain and unnecessary speech, these are efficacious ways to exercise and strengthen our virtue of hope.

Without hope we become addicted to noise and dis­tractions of every kind. Why is this? No one who fails to hope in God can stand silence. In the quiet he is confronted with his need for God, his sinfulness, his emptiness,  his boredom.  So his soul runs from reality, hoping to hide from the despair and discouragement that so characterize one without hope. This in part explains the diabolical obsession of our modern culture for endless anxiety and non­stop, even deafening, noise.

With hope there is contentment in God alone. With hope there is powerful awareness that we shall literally rise victorious in Christ. With hope one lives, even now, as a citizen of Heaven. The man of hope is serene in simplicity, in silence. He seeks only to be in Christ and to do “the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God” (Rm. 12:2). Ultimately our hope will pass into the permanent possession of God Himself in Heaven.

The highest faculty of the soul is the will. Herein lies our ability to love, and what practice of charity can com­pare with prayer? Prayer is the supreme act of charity-­loving God in pure adoration, acknowledging and repenting of offenses committed against the Creator in contrition, being soliticous for the eternal destiny of others by supplications, and offering everything with gratitude to the Giver of all good things. It is in prayer that we converse with God as our Friend, as our Beloved. It is in prayer that we enter more and more into a communion of life and love with Him. Abiding in Him, we become fruitful and capable of doing all things in Christ who strengthens us (cf. Ph. 4: 13).

Without prayer we will lose our soul – “for without Me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5). It is infallibly true that if our lives are not rooted in Christ we will live for ourselves. The charity of prayer infinitely surpasses the emptiness of ‘nice guy philanthropy’ divorced from God. When push comes to shove, the man of deep prayer will endure long-suffering and even lay down his life for the love of God and the salvation of souls. Whereas the politi­cally correct person, on the other hand, will scarcely be found if he must sacrifice all. He is like the rich young man in the Gospel who appears to be virtuous from youth, but when the moment comes to follow Christ at all costs his charity vanishes like morning mist in the heat of sun.

The  man of prayer and contemplation bears all things patiently, even joyfully. His is the life of the virtues and the beatitudes. He turns to Divine Love with all his being in an upward, inward surge of the mind and heart. He seeks constant prayer, uninterrupted dialogue, incessant union with the Almighty. His words and actions radiate Christ and set souls ablaze with the consuming fire of divine char­ity. The man of prayer emulates the great Saints, like St. Paul, in their efficacious zeal and labor for souls. In the end, charity is elevated, absorbed as it were in Him who is Charity.

If we love God and our neighbor for His sake, we shall be found worthy of eternal rewards be­yond measure. If, however, we lack this charity in our souls, that is, if we are in that most dreadful state of mortal sin, then the inextinguishable flames and the worm that dieth not shall be our endless punishment. “He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is Charity.” (I Jn. 4:8).

used with permission of Friar M.M. De Cruce, FI  (In Pursuit of Immortal Souls: Meditations on the Role of Redemptive Suffering, Silence, and Prayer in the Missions)

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Homily #100905 ( 35 min) Play – In today’s Gospel Our Lord tells us that we must love Him above all things and be well prepared in our engagement with the world. He tells us this in the form of two parables, the building of the tower and the king who contemplates going into battle. Fr. Bonaventure explains this in the context of Catholic action, where our preparation consists in building up our love of, and trust in, God who has forces vastly stronger than the enemy and that action starts with prayer and contemplation and only secondarily with physical action. Father also outlines the many ways that we are in true, open and explicit battle with the modern culture and philosophy, always relating it back to its spiritual nature.
Ave Maria! 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Mass: OF, – Readings:
1st: wis 9:13-18
Resp: psa 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14-17
2nd: phm 1:9-10, 12-17
Gsp: luk 14:25-33

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Homily #131008 ( 03min) Play – Martha chose activity and Mary chose contemplation, but we as Franciscans are given the best gift in imitation of Our Lord, a charism of both contemplation and activity.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Tuesday 27th Week of Ordinary Time – Wkdy – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: jon 3:1-10
Resp: psa 130:1-2, 3-4, 7-8
Gsp: luk 10:38-42

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Homily #131106 ( 05min) Play – When considering the way to salvation we need to contemplate our plan of action. We need to organize our priorities so that we put eternal things above all created things. The value of offering our wills and our lives to God is the highest of all values. Let us pray for the grace to do God’s will and orient ourselves toward that which is of the highest value, which is eternal union with God. Ave Maria! Mass: Wednesday 31st Week of Ordinary Time – Wkdy – Form: OF Readings:  1st: rom 13:8-10 Resp: psa 112:1-2, 4-5, 9 Gsp: luk 14:25-33 Audio (MP3) +++

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Homily #131230n ( 04min) Play – Fr. Maximilian warns us to beware of the influence of this passing world and to keep our eyes on Jesus, for He is the One who will save us. Finally, he exhorts families in particular to cultivate a spirit of prayer throughout the day to day activities.
Ave Maria!
Mass: 6th Day in Octave of Christmas – Wkdy – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: 1jo 2:12-17
Resp: psa 96:7-8a, 8b-9, 10
Gsp: luk 2:36-40

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Homily #140517 ( 07:18 min) Play St Paschal Baylon was born of poor but devout and virtuous parents. He worked as as a sheep herder and as such was given over to prayer and contemplation. After becoming a Franciscan he was known to be greatly devoted to the blessed sacrament. As a saint he became patron saint of eucharistic congresses. His example of Eucharistic devotion is one we should all follow.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Paschal Baylon – Mem – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: 1co 1:26-31
Resp: psa 34:2-7, 9, 10-11
Gsp: mat 11:25-30

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Homily #140715n ( 09min) Play – Today the Franciscans celebrate the Feast of St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor. To illumine today’s Gospel, Fr. Mattias quotes St. Bonaventure that the savor of the salt is contemplation and devotion. These the Seraphic Doctor calls the sixth and most important “Wing of the Seraph.” Father finishes by looking at more detail to St. Bonaventure’s teaching on this most important part of the spiritual life.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Bonaventure – Feast – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: wis 8:2-7, 16-18
Resp: psa 16:5-5, 7-8, 9, 11
2nd: 1co 2:6-13
Gsp: mat 5:13-19

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Homily #140729n ( 07min) Play – Father points out that today’s saint, Martha, is seen as an image of the active life, and as the Gospel shows us, the contemplative life, exemplified in her sister Mary, is higher than the active life, and even in the active life, contemplation is necessary. To conclude, Father reads a commentary on this verse (the Navarre Bible) which shows how we may infuse the spirit of prayer into all our daily actions, especially the most mundane.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Martha, 2nd Option – Mem – Form: OF
Readings: 
Gsp: luk 10:38-42

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