Homily #080406 ( 10min) Play – In this special Traditional Latin Mass the reading for the day is Jesus the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sake of his sheep. We, the sheep, are in great need of a shepherd to?be gathered into one fold,?and to be fed with the truth, who is Jesus himself, the bread of life. Fr compares this with the order of the Mass and to the work of the Holy Father, Christ’s Vicar.
Ave Maria! Readings from I Peter, Gospel of John
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Homily #080711 ( 06min) Play – Christ described his followers as sheep and their only protection from danger and evil is the shepherd. Let us not stray from the Good Shephard, and stay under the protection of His care. Ave Maria! Mass readings +++

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Ave Maria Meditations

I set off in search of the source of my vocation. It is beating there … in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. I thank God that during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 I was able to pray precisely there-in the Upper Room (Mark 14:15), where the Last Supper took place.

THE SOURCE OF MY VOCATION

by The Servant of God, Pope John Paul II

I transport myse1f in thought to that memorable Thursday when Christ, having loved his own to the end (Jn.13:1), instituted the Apostles as priests of the New Covenant. I see Him bending down before each of us, succesors of the Apostles, to wash our feet. I hear Him, as if He were speaking to me-to us-these words: “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one anothers feet. I have given you an example to follow, so that as I have done for you, you also should do” (John 13:12-16).

Together with Peter, Andrew, James, and John … let us continue to listen: “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down ones life for ones friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you” (Jn 15:9-14).

Is not the mysterium caritatis of our vocation contained in these sayings? These words of Christ, spo­ken at the hour for which He had come (Jn.12:27), are at the root of every vocation in the Church. From them flows the life-giving sap that nourishes every vocation: those of the Apostles and their suc­cessors, but also every other vocation, because the Son wishes to be a friend to everyone: because He gave His life for all. Here we find what is most important, most valuable, and most sacred: the love of the Father and the love of Christ for us, His and our joy, and also our friendship and fidelity, which ex­press themselves in the fulfillment of the commandments.

These words also contain the goal and the meaning of our vocation: to “go and bear fruit that will last” (Jn 15:16). The bond of love unites all things; substantially it unites the Divine Persons, but on a different level it also unites human beings and their different vocations. We have entrusted our life to Christ, who loved us first and, as the Good Shepherd, offered His life for us.

The Apostles heard Christ’s words and applied them to themselves as their personal vocation. So too we, their successors, shepherds of Christ’s Church, cannot but feel impelled to be the first to respond to this love, faithfully fulfilling the commandments and offering our life every day for the friends of our Lord. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

In the homily I preached in Saint Peter’s Square on October 16, 2003, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of my pontificate, I said: “While Jesus was saying these words, the Apostles did not realize that He was referring to Him­self. Not even His beloved Apostle John knew it. He understood on Calvary, at the foot of the Cross, when he saw Jesus silently giving up His life for ‘His sheep.’

When the time came for John and the oth­er Apostles to assume this same mission they then remembered His words. They realized that they would be able to fulfill their mission only because he had assured them that He Himself would be work­ing among them. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last” (Jn.15:16). Not you, but I!-says Christ. This is the foundation of the efficacy of a bishop’s pastoral mission.

“Always be faithful to an intense interior life, nourished above all by the celebration of the Holy Mass, Eucharistic devotion and daily meditation.  Only through the Eucharist is it possible to maintain the innocence of children, the purity of the young, matrimonial chastity and fidelity, priestly and religious consecration”

(Pope John Paul II, Servant of God).

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Homily #090621 ( 14min) Play – Using the analogy used by St. Augustine  of the two cities, the City of God and the City of the Devil, Fr. Ignatius explains the reading of today’s Epistle from I Peter 5:6-11 where the Devil prowl’s around like a roaring lion seeking the ruin of souls, trying to lure souls from the City of God using worldly pleasures and vanity and that we need virtues like faith and humility to fight against him. But further if we find ourselves lost in the wilderness of vice then the we can ask the Good Shepherd for help to get back to the fold, the Church, as in today’s Gospel.
Ave Maria! Old Rite Readings

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #111114 ( 08min) Play – Fr. Dominic preaches on the parable of the Good Shepherd and relates it to current pastoral and doctrinal concerns.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr – 3rd Cl – Form: EF, Gaudeamus
Readings:
1st: heb 5:1-6
Gsp: joh 10:11-16

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #120429 ( 12min) Play – Today is Good Shepherd Sunday where Our Lord leads His sheep from the barren land of sin and death to the green pastures of eternal life. He does this by laying down His life for His sheep, placing Himself between the wolf and the sheep, but then rises again.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Sunday 4th Week of Easter – Sunday – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: act 4:8-12
Resp: psa 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 21, 29
2nd: 1jo 3:1-2
Gsp: joh 10:11-18

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #121207b ( 13min) Play–

Cardinal Raymond Burke gives the homily for the fifth and final Mass for the retreat for priest at the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center. St. Ambrose took the bishopric of Milan on the insistence of the people to combat the errors of the time in an environment of established paganism and the growing heresy of Arianism. He himself being unbaptized first had to be baptized and then ordained a bishop. He then humbly began to be catechized by St. Simplician, adding sound Church teaching to his profound secular learning. By his thorough learning of the faith he became a great evangelizer, Christianizing the pagan city of Milan and cleansing it of Arianism, even when the emperor tried to reinstate it by force. He was instrumental in converting St Augustine and teaching him the faith. Let us pray to St. Ambrose and follow his example in order to combat the errors and paganism of our day.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Ambrose – Mem – Form: OF

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #130126b ( 07min) Play – Fr. Joachim on the lives of Sts. Timothy and Titus and how we can learn from them to be good shepherds in our times.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Sts. Timothy and Titus – Mem – Form: OF
Readings: Saturday 2nd Week of Ordinary Time
1st: heb 9:2-3, 11-14
Resp: psa 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
Gsp: mar 3:20-21

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #130422b ( 12min) Play – Fr. Elias explains how the Gospel theme  of Jesus being the Good Shepherd and the Gate is connected to the Year of Faith which was proclaimed by Pope Benedict in the encyclical Porta Fidei, the Gate of Faith.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Monday 4th Week of Easter – Wkdy – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: act 11:1-18
Resp: psa 42:2-3, 43:3, 4
Gsp: joh 10:11-18

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #131207 ( 03min) Play – Jesus goes to all the towns to preach. He felt pity for the people who were like sheep without a shepherd. Our Lord desires to send laborers to harvest in the field of souls, so he sent his apostles out to evangelize the world. We all share in this mission of spreading the faith as an act of love the way our Lord and the apostles did.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Ambrose – Mem – Form: OF
Readings: Saturday in the 1st Week in Advent
1st: isa 30:19-21, 23-26
Resp: psa 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Gsp: mat 9:35-10:1, 6-8

Audio (MP3)

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