Fr. Pablo: Vote Pro-Life #16 ( 02min) Play – Even if your children have left the Sacraments, you should still tell them the truth about the culture of death, and tell them they need to vote Pro-life.
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The post Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament speaks to a Soul first appeared on AirMaria.com.

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The Mystery of Faith: TRANSUBSTANTIATION

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The words of Our Lord cannot be watered down: the ­bread which I

shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.

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This is the mystery of Faith, we proclaim immediately after the

Consecration at Mass. It has been and is the touchstone of the Catholic

faith. By transubstantiation, the species of bread and wine are no

longer common bread and common drink, but rather the sign of

something sacred and the sign of spiritual food. But they take on a

new expressive­ness and a new purpose for the very reason that they

contain a new reality: which we are right to call ‘ontological’. For

beneath these appearances there is no longer what was there before

but something quitedifferent, since on the conver­sion of the bread and

wine’s substance, or nature, into the Body and Blood of Christ,

nothing is left of the bread and wine but the appearances alone.

Beneath these appearances Christ is present whole and entire, bodily

present too, in his physical reality although not in the manner in

which bodies are present in a place.

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We look at Jesus present in the Tabernacle, perhaps just a few yards

away, and we tell him that we know, through faith, that he is present.

In Holy Communion Christ himself, perfect God and perfect man,

gives himself to us; he is mysteriously hidden, but wishes to

communicate divine life to us. When we receive him in this sacrament,

his Divinity acts on our soul by means of his glorious Humanity, with a

far greater intensity than when he was here on earth. None of the

people who were cured – Bartimaeus or the paralyzed man of

Capharnaum or the lepers -were as close to Christ as we are every time

we go to Holy Communion.

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The effects produced by that Living Bread, Jesus, in our soul

are immeasurable and of an infinite richness. The Church expresses it

clearly in the following words: All the effect which material food and

drink have with regan1 to the life of the body, sustaining, res­toring and

delighting it, is carried out by this sacrament with regan1 to the

spiritual life.

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Hidden under the sacramental species, Jesus waits for us. He has

remained there so that we can receive him and be strengthened in his

love. We must examine our faith today; let us ask ourselves what our

love is like, how do we prepare ourselves for Communion, when so

many people neglect Our Lord entirely. We must say with Peter: we

have known and believed that you are the Christ. You are our

Redeemer, our raison d’etre.

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The effects of Communion on the soul: it sus­tains, restores,

delights. Communion sustains the life of the soul in away similar to that in

which food sustains the body. The reception of the Blessed Eucharist

keeps Catholics in God’s grace, since the soul recovers its energies from

the continual wear and tear it suffers through the wounds of original

sin and of personal sins. It maintains the life of God in the soul, freeing

it from lukewarmness; and it helps us to avoid mortal sin and

struggle effectively against venial sins. The Blessed Eucharist increases

supernatural life also: it makes it grow and develop. And while it fills

the soul spiritually, it gives it an increasing desire for eternal goods.

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Finally, the grace we receive in each Communion delights the person

who receives with good dispositions. Nothing can be compared to the

joy of the Holy Eucharist, to the friendship and nearness of Jesus,

present within us. Jesus Christ, during his life on earth, never passed by

any­where without pouring out his abundant blessings, from which we

can deduce how great and precious must be the gifts which those who

have the happiness of receiving Him in Holy Communion must share;

or rather, that all the hap­piness we can have in this life consists in

receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion.

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Communion is the remedy for our daily needs, the medicine of

immortality, the antidote against death, and food by which to live

forever in Jesus Christ. It grants to the soul the peace and joy of Christ

which is truly a foretaste of eter­nal happiness. Among all the practices of piety there is none whose sanctifying effectiveness can be compared to the worthy reception of this sacrament. In it, not only do we receive grace, but the Source and Fountainhead from which all

grace flows.

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All the sacraments are ordained towards the Blessed Eucharist: it is the pivotal sacrament. Hidden under the accidents of bread, Jesus wants us to come and receive him frequently. The banquet, he tells us, is ready. Many indeed are those who are absent, and Jesus waits for us to tell all those others that he is also waiting for them in the Tabernacle.

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We must ask Our Lady to help us go to Communion every day with better dispositions.

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The post Mysterium Fidei first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #090704 ( 07min) Play – Fr. Bonaventure explains today’s Gospel that the fasting of the new testament will be done in the name of Christ and in conjunction with the sacraments and so be new wine.
Ave Maria! Mass readings

Audio (MP3)

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The post Jul 04 – Homily – Fr Bonaventure: New Wine first appeared on AirMaria.com.

He wished to make known and proclaim His Spouse through the visible coming of the Holy Spirit with the sound of a mighty wind and tongues of fire. For just as He Himself when He began to preach was made known by His Eternal Father through the Holy Spirit descending and remaining on Him in the form of a dove, so likewise, as the Apostles were about to enter upon their ministry of preaching, Christ our Lord sent the Holy Spirit down from Heaven, to touch them with tongues of fire and to point out, as by the finger of God, the supernatural mission and office of the Church.

The Rosary: The First Luminous Mystery

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

• John is baptizing in the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance.
• “I am the voice of one crying in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord.”
• “One mightier than I is coming after me.”
• “I have baptized you with water, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
• Seeing Jesus, John exclaims: “Behold the Lamb of God.”
• After Jesus’ baptism a voice from Heaven: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
• The Spirit descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove.
• In this heavenly manifestation is instituted the sacrament of baptism.
• The divine Trinity is manifested: the voice of the Father is heard as the Spirit descends upon the Son.
• Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert for 40 days.

Spiritual Fruit: Gratitude for the gift of Faith

The Voice is John, the Word is Christ

John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever. Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart.

However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine. In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find a place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.  When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: The word ought to grow, and I should diminish? The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word, and has gone away, as though it were saying: My joy is complete. Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.
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Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out. Because it is hard to distinguish word from voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word. But the voice acknowledged what is was, anxious not to give offense to the word. I am not the Christ, he said, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. And the question came: Who are you, then? He replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord.
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The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of one breaking the silence. Prepare the way for the Lord, he says, as though he were saying: “I speak out in order to lead him into your hearts, but he does not choose to come where I lead him unless you prepare the way for him.” To prepare the way means to pray well; it means thinking humbly of oneself. We should take our lesson from John the Baptist. He is thought to be the Christ; he declares he is not what they think. He does not take advantage of their mistake to further his own glory.
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If he had said, “I am the Christ,” you can imagine how readily he would have been believed, since they believed he was the Christ even before he spoke. But he did not say it; he acknowledged what he was. He pointed out clearly who he was; he humbled himself. He saw where his salvation lay. He understood that he was a lamp, and his fear was that it might be blown out by the wind of pride.

+St.Augustine

And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediate­ly from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and a voice from heaven saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Mt.3:16-17)

In today’s feast we celebrate the baptism of Jesus by John in the waters of the Jordan. Though he himself had no stain to be washed away, he wished to submit himself to this rite as he submitted himself to the other requirements of the Law. As a human being he submitted himself to the laws that ruled and governed the lives of the people of Israel who had been elected by God to prepare the way for the Redeemer. John the Baptist carried out energetically his mission to prophesy and arouse a great movement towards repentance as an immediate preparation for the coming of the Messianic Kingdom.

By his baptism Jesus left for us the Sacrament of Christian Baptism, directly instituted by Christ with what would be a further progressive determination of its elements, and be imposed as a universal law from the day of his Ascension. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, the Lord was to say on that day. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

In Baptism we receive faith and grace. The day we ,were baptized was the most important day of our lives. Just as the parched land does not yield its fruits if it does not get water, so also we who were like dried sticks can produce fruits of life only if we receive freely the gentle and abundant rainfall of grace from on high. Before we received baptism we were outside the locked gates of Paradise, unable to bring forth the slightest supernatural fruit.

Today our prayer enables us to thank God for this totally undeserved gift, and to rejoice in the countless good things He has so lavishly bestowed on us. Thanks giving is the very first emotion that should be born in us in response to our baptism: the second is joy. Never should we think of our baptism without deep feelings of interior gladness.

We must rejoice in the cleansing of our souls from the stain of original sin, and of any other sin we may have committed before our baptism. All men are members of the same human family which was originally damaged by the sin of our first parents. This original sin is transmitted as an inextricable part of our fallen human nature, by generation, not by imitation, and is to be found individually in each one of us. But Jesus gave us Baptism as a specific means of purifying our human nature and freeing it from the terrible affliction of this sin we were born with. The baptismal water operates in a real way, signifying what the use of natural water signifies – the cleansing and purification from every blemish or stain.

Thanks to the Sacrament of Baptism you have been turned into a temple of the Holy Spirit, says St Leo the Great. Don’t ever let it happen, he exhorts us, that you drive away so noble a guest by your evil deeds, or ever again submit to the power of the demon: for the price you were bought with is the blood of Christ.

The effects of baptism: cleansing from original sin, new life, divine filiation etc., and entry into the Body of the Church.

Almighty, eternal God, when the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan, you revealed him as your own beloved Son. Keep us, your children born of water and the Holy Spirit, faithful to our calling.

Baptism initiates us into the Christian life. It is a true birth into supernatural life. It is the new life preached by the Apostles and spoken of by Jesus to Nicodemus: Truly I say to you that he who is not born again from on high cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: what is born of the flesh is flesh but what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

The result of this new life is a true divinization of man that gives him the power to bring forth supernatural fruit. Often the dignity of the baptized person is veiled, unfortunately, by the ordinary circumstances of his life so, like the saints, we must strive hard to live in accordance with that dignity at all costs.

Our highest dignity that of being children of God is conferred on us by baptism, is the consequence of our re-birth. If human birth gives as its result ‘fatherhood’ and ‘sonship’, in a similar way those engendered by God are really his children. See what Love of God the Father has for us that He has called us children of God! We really are! Beloved, now we are children of God and it is not yet shown what we shall be.

The miracle of a new birth is achieved at the moment of Baptism by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The baptismal water is blessed on Easter night and in the prayers we ask: just as the Spirit came upon Mary and produced in her the birth of Christ, so may it descend on the Church and produce in her maternal womb (the baptismal rite) the rebirth of the children of God.

The profound reality corresponding to this graphic expression is that the newly baptised person is born again to a new life, the life of God and thus is His ‘son’: And so we are sons, and heirs too, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Let us give thanks to our Father God for bestowing such gifts, gifts beyond all measure, upon us, upon each one of us. What great joy it is to think often about those realities!

In the Church nobody is an isolated Christian. From the time of baptism each person is a part of a people, and the Church presents itself to the world as the true family of the children of God. It was the will of God to sanctify and save mankind, not in isolation, separated from one another or without forming a people that would acknow­ledge it in truth and serve it in holiness. And Baptism is the door through which we enter the Church.

And in the Church, precisely through Baptism, we are all called to holiness, each one in his own state of life and condition, and to the exercise of the apostolate. The call to holiness and the consequent need for personal sanctification, is universal. Everyone – priests and laity – is called to holiness; and we have all received in Baptism the first fruits of a spiritual life which by its very nature will tend to maturity.

Another truth intimately connected to the condition of being a member of the Church is the sacramental character a sure and indelible spiritual sign imprinted on the soul. It is like Christ’s seal of possession on the soul of the baptized. Christ took possession of our souls at the moment we were baptized. He rescued us from sin by His Passion and Death. With these thoughts in mind we appreciate the Church’s desire that children should receive early these gifts of God. It has always urged parents to have their children baptized as soon as possible. It is a practical demonstration of faith. Neglect to do so is not caring for their freedom, just as if one were to cause them hurt in their natural life, to neglect to feed, clothe, clean or care for them when they were unable to ask for those things for themselves. On the contrary, they have a right to receive this grace. What a wonderful apostolate there is for us to exercise in many cases – among friends, companions, acquaintances…

Baptism brings into action something greater than any other good: grace and faith; perhaps, eternal salvation. It can only be by ignorance and a distorted faith that many children are deprived, even by their own Christian parents, of the greatest gift of their lives. Our prayer goes up to God this day asking that He may never allow this to happen. We have to thank our parents who brought us, perhaps just a few days after we were born, to receive this holy sacrament.

Fr. Francis Fernandez (In Conversation with God)

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Homily #100506 ( 04min) Play – The sacraments are the primary means by which God grants grace to the soul.
Ave Maria! From the Fourth Sunday after Easter – Mass: EF, Cantate Domino – Readings: 1st: jam 1:17-21 – Gsp: joh 16:5-14

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #100516t ( 09min) Play – Here Fr Tito briefly goes over the “Seven Deadly Sins” in there nature, and points out that it’s in the Church’s sacraments that our brokenness is healed.
Ave Maria! Mass readings

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #100607 ( 13min) Play – The Lord invites His chosen people (The Jewish People), but His chosen decline, and the poor, feeble, blind, and the lame (Gentiles) take their place. The Sacraments are infinity fruitful, but it is according to our disposition what will come about from these great gifts.
Ave Maria! Second Sunday after Pentecost – Mass: EF, Factus Est Dominus – Readings: 1st: 1jo 3:13-18 – Gsp: luk 14:16-24

Audio (MP3)

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The post Jun 07 – Homily – Fr Angelo: Cooperation With Grace first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #101027 ( 08min) Play – In today’s Gospel Our Lord talks about the number of the elect, of those who will be saved. Fr. Bonaventure explains that we have much to worry about in this regard since he says the number will be few. This is confirmed by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. He stresses the need to have recourse to the mercy of God through the sacraments of the Church and  lead others to Holy Mother Church to devotion to Christ and His Mother.
Ave Maria! Wednesday in the 30th Week in Ordinary Time – Mass: OF, – Readings:
1st: eph 6:1-9
Resp: psa 145:10-11, 12-13, 13-14
Gsp: luk 13:22-30

Audio (MP3)

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