Ave Maria!

Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner continues his series The Golden Thread on the theology of John Duns Scotus. Here he gives a broad introductory view of the difference between religion and secularity. He explains how Scotus affirms the capacity to perform secular acts, which are morally neutral, and thus simple pleasures are not a sin. Most people would then say, “let’s live our whole life this way.” But Scotus also says such a life cannot lead to happiness. He then discusses why God enables us to do secular acts and how this sheds new light on the famous moral tests in the Bible, Adam and Eve in the Garden and The Rich Young Man in the New Testament. He addresses, concupiscence, original sin, the difference between the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil vs. the Tree of Life, between contentment and happiness, between living to do God’s will vs. striving for new experiences and between human autonomy vs. obligation and so the true meaning of freedom.

Ave Maria!

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Homily #080317 ( 07min) Play – We can reflect as we begin Holy Week that the sins of weekness can lead us very far astray. We can fall into sin,?then justify ourselves, and then blame everyone else. We want to accompany Our Lord with Our Lady and St Mary Magdalen this week and to be His friend and companion.
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Homily #080522 ( 00min) Play – In today’s Gospel Our Lord talks about the four last things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and? Hell. Here Jesus clearly tells us about the existence of Hell, a place of everlasting corporal punishment and so we have a strong admonition to avoid all occasions of sin.
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Homily #080609 ( 13min) Play – Fr. Ignatius outlines in detail, citing authoritative Church documents, how it is a sin to vote for a pro-abortion politician. He delves into the issue of proportionate evils, what they are and whether there can ever be an evil proportionate to abortion. He quotes Cardinal Ratzinger, Archbishop Meyers, and Bl. Mother Theresa
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ST. MARIA GORETTI (1890-1902) FEAST DAY IS JULY 6TH

At the tender age of 12 this pious and hardworking young girl was attacked by a 19 year old man who wished to rape her. She fought him off, telling him this was a sin and he could go to hell. He began to stab her, and would stab her 14 times. She would survive for 2 days in the hospital and died after having forgiven him and asking God to forgive him. Holding a Crucifix and a medal of Our Lady, the holy young girl gave her soul to God.

The man was convicted of this terrible crime and spent years in prison. For many years unrepentant, he later saw a vision of Maria that led to his conversion. He would be there in person when she was canonized in Rome in 1950. The girl’s mother was also there and following Maria’s example, she also forgave her killer.

Maria was not quite 12 when she died to preserve her purity. How we need her prayers for our young people today!

St. Maria Goretti Novena Prayer

Intercede and pray for us to the Father,
so that we may consent to his holy will for us.

You who are God?s friend and see him face to face obtain the grace we are seeking from you?

We thank you Marietta, for the love of God and neighbor that you have sown in our hearts.

Amen.

The post No Age Requirements for Holiness: St. Maria Goretti first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Said Judas to Mary, “Now what will you do With your ointment so rich and so rare?”

“I’ll pour it all over the feet of the Lord, And I’ll wipe it away with my hair;’

she said, “I’ll wipe it away with my hair.”

“0 Mary, 0 Mary, 0 think of the poor. This ointment, it could have been sold;

And think of the blankets and think of the bread You could buy with the silver and gold;’

he said, “You could buy with the silver and gold.”

“Tomorrow, tomorrow, I’ll think of the poor; Tomorrow;’ she said, “not today;

For dearer than all of the poor in the world is my Love who is going away;’

she said, “My Love who is going away?’

Said Jesus to Mary, “Your love is so deep. Today, you may do as you will.

Tomorrow, you say, I am going away, But my body I leave with you still;’

He said, My body I leave with you still.”

We should reflect on Mary’s attitude and the great love she felt for Christ; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found, and while she sought she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for him who she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed, as the voice of truth tell us: “Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.”

from a homily by Pope St. Gregory the Great

Collect for St Mary Magdalene’s day:
Almighty God, whose Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of mind and body and called her to be a witness to his resurrection: forgive us our sins, we beseech thee, and heal us by thy grace, that we may serve thee in the power of his risen life; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen

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The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships.

The fulfillment of this duty has always posed problems to the conscience of married people, but the recent course of human society and the concomitant changes have provoked new questions. The Church cannot ignore these questions, for they concern matters intimately connected with the life and happiness of human beings.

Faithfulness to God’s Design

13. Men rightly observe that a conjugal act imposed on one’s partner without regard to his or her condition or personal and reasonable wishes in the matter, is no true act of love, and therefore offends the moral order in its particular application to the intimate relationship of husband and wife. If they further reflect, they must also recognize that an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator, through specific laws, has built into it, frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage, and contradicts the will of the Author of life. Hence to use this divine gift while depriving it, even if only partially, of its meaning and purpose, is equally repugnant to the nature of man and of woman, and is consequently in opposition to the plan of God and His holy will. But to experience the gift of married love while respecting the laws of conception is to acknowledge that one is not the master of the sources of life but rather the minister of the design established by the Creator. Just as man does not have unlimited dominion over his body in general, so also, and with more particular reason, he has no such dominion over his specifically sexual faculties, for these are concerned by their very nature with the generation of life, of which God is the source. “Human life is sacred?all men must recognize that fact,” Our predecessor Pope John XXIII recalled. “From its very inception it reveals the creating hand of God.”

Consequences of Artificial Methods

17. Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings?and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation?need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.

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Homily #090126 ( 07min) Play – To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin because it hardens the heart of the sinner to such an extent that it takes a very extraordinary moral miracle to overcome. Listen to Father Angelo as he relates this to our modern times.
Ave Maria! Mass readings

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Homily #090524 ( 22min) Play –  On this Seventh Sunday of Easter, which is the final Mass of the Knights of Lepanto Encampment, Fr. Angelo preaches on how the Apostles are not of this world and so too we should be in the world but not of it and we should be patient with those who sin and even those who sin against us just as Jesus was with Judas.

We celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord at its traditional time last Thursday.

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Homily #090828 ( 05min) Play – St Augustine was restless in his heart until he found his rest in God and became a great pastor and defender of the faith.
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