Homily #080520 ( 10min) Play – St. Bernadine was a Franciscan who sang the praises of Mary in the 15th Century and advocated a strict observance of poverty.? Listen as Fr. Angelo explains how powerful a reformer this saint was for the Franciscans and for the Church.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
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Homily #080613 ( 00min) Play – On the Feast of St Anthony of Padua, Fr. Ignatius preaches on the life of this great saint focusing on the unique gifts God gave him of preaching and working miracles which he used for the building up the Body of Christ.
Ave Maria!
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Our Lady is Queen of the Seraphic (Franciscan) Order

Feast Day is December 15th

Saint Francis’ Greetings to the Blessed Virgin:

Hail, Lady and Queen, holy Mary, Mother of God,
Virgin who became the Church,
chosen by the Father in heaven,
consecrated by His beloved Son
and His Spirit, the Comforter:
in you was and remains,
the whole fullness of grace
and everything that is good.

Hail, His palace,
Hail, His tabernacle,
Hail, His dwelling,
Hail, His robe,
Hail, His handmaid,
Hail, His mother!

O holy Mother,
sweet and fair to see,
for us beseech the King,
your dearest Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
to death for us delivered:
that in His pitying clemency,
and by virtue of His most holy incarnation
and bitter death,
He may pardon our sins.

Holy Virgin Mary,
among all the women of the world,
there is none like you.
You are the daughter and handmaid of the most high King,
Father of heaven.
You are the Mother of our most holy Lord Jesus Christ.
You are the bride of the Holy Spirit.
Pray for us, with St. Michael the archangel,
and all the powers of heaven
and all the saints,
to your most holy and beloved Son,
our Lord and Master, Amen.

Saint Anthony’s Prayer to Our Lady:

We ask you, Our Lady, you who are called the Morning Star,
dispel with your light the thick fog
of allurements to evil which fill our souls.
Like the light of the moon, replenish our emptiness,
and dissipate the darkness of our sins,
so that we may attain the fullness of eternal life
and the light of never diminishing glory.?
?With His help, who made you our light,
and although born from you, gave you life.
To Him be honor and glory from age to age.

Amen.

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun. (Rev. 12:1)

Mary appearing with the lights of the universe is a great sign indeed. How noble did Mary appear in the heaven of the Divine Plan! No more brilliant or splendid figure can be created by the mind of mortal man. Mary was not merely predestined for grace and glory with the holy angels and the elect of God and chosen for the greatest measure of grace and glory after Christ. She was also selected to fill the role of Mother of God, for she indeed is the Godbearer, the truly natural Mother of the Only-Begotten Son of God. She was the predestined Mother of Christ, having been predestined before all creatures,together with Christ, the firstborn of every creature. For Christ had been predestined to be the Son of Mary, just as Mary had been predestined to be the Mother of Christ.

The light of the sun reflects the dignity of motherhood, which God had ordained for her. With a radiance surpassing that of the moon, her position above the moon signifies the excellence of her grace. The crown of stars bespeaks the dignity of her special glory. For to these three things had Mary been predestined: motherhood, grace, and glory. What a truly noble act of predestination, a selection so unique and ineffable that words cannot express it aptly!

Mary was seen clothed with the sun that we may know that she is like the sun which, although one, illumines and warms each man as if it had been created by God for him alone. So the Virgin Mother of God is both the mother of all men and the mother of each individual man. To all she is a common mother; to each his own personal mother. As the one sun can be seen in its entirety by each and every man (for every man at the same time sees a complete outline of the sun), so every one of the faithful, who from his heart devotes himself entirely to the Virgin, may enjoy her complete love as if he were her only son. For this reason Christ spoke to Mary in the singular when He said: Woman, behold thy son.

Mary as the Mother of Christ participates in His glory, hence she is clothed with the sun. Mary also possessed Christ most perfectly as her only and beloved Son. How was it possible for the Virgin not to shine with sunlike splendor when she carried Christ, the Sun of infinite light, in her virginal womb? If God enclosed the sun in an immense crystal vase, would not that vase seem to be clothed with the very sun? In this way the sun clothes and adorns with its brilliant rays the pure substance of heaven, which it surrounds and engulfs. Just as the sun, glowing within the crystal on every side with its light, so the heavenly Virgin is clothed with Christ, the Sun of justice and glory. This divine vision signifies that, as bride and mother, the most holy Virgin shares in the glory of Christ and God to a high degree, so that no greater sharing or participation can be thought of.

St. Lawrence of Brindisi

An Act of Consecration:

Padre Pio prayed this Act of Consecration on the first Saturday of every month.

O Mary, Virgin most powerful and Mother of mercy, Queen of heaven and Refuge of sinners, we consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart. We consecrate to you our very being and our whole life; all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. To you we give our bodies, our hearts and our souls; to you we give our homes, our families, our country. We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to you, and may share in the benefits of your motherly benediction.

And that this act of consecration may be truly efficacious and lasting, we renew this day at your feet the promises of our Baptism and our first Holy Communion. We pledge ourselves to profess courageously and at all times the truths, of our Holy Faith,and to live as Catholics who are duly submissive to all the directions of the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him. We pledge ourselves to keep the commandments of God and His Church, in particular to keep holy the Lord’s day. We likewise pledge ourselves to make the consoling practices of the Christian religion, and above all, Holy Communion, an integral part of our lives, in so far as we shall be able to do so.

Finally, we promise you, O glorious Mother of God and loving Mother of all, to devote ourselves whole-heartedly to your service, in order to hasten and assure, through the sovereignty of your Immaculate Heart, the coming of the kingdom of the Sacred Heart of your adorable Son, in our own hearts and in the hearts of all, in our country and in all the world, as in heaven, so on earth. Amen.

In a letter St. Pio gave vent to a delicate filial gentleness, writing: “Here we are at last in the month of our beautiful Mother once again…. This dear Mother continues to lavish her maternal care upon me, especially during the present month. She takes care of me to an exceeding degree…. I am all aflame although there is no fire. I feel myself held fast and bound to the Son by means of this Mother…. I’d like to fly off to invite all creatures to love Jesus and Mary.”

Ave Maria!

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Homily #090613 ( 11min) Play – The wise man sets aside everything to purchase wisdom. Listen as Father explains that true wisdom is to take up your cross and follow Christ as did the St. Anthony, Franciscan and Doctor of the Church.
Ave Maria! Mass readings

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Homily #090614t ( 10min) Play – Corpus Christi 2009 Let us be less consumed with ourselves and this material world, and more consumed with Him.

Ave Maria! Mass readings

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The post Jun 14 – Homily – Fr Tito: Donkey And Fishes Praise The Lord first appeared on AirMaria.com.

from the film about
St. Anthony of Padua.
‘Antonio guerriero di Dio'(2006)
Saint Anthony was canonized (declared a saint) less than one year after his death.
There is perhaps no more loved and admired saint in the Catholic Church than Saint Anthony of Padua, a Doctor of the Church. Though his work was in Italy, he was born in Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian Order and then left it and joined the Franciscan Order in 1221, when he was 26 years old. The reason he became a Franciscan was because of the death of the five Franciscan protomartyrs — St. Bernard, St. Peter, St. Otho, St. Accursius, and St. Adjutus — who shed their blood for the Catholic Faith in the year 1220, in Morocco, in North Africa, and whose headless and mutilated bodies had been brought to St. Anthony’s monastery on their way back for burial. St. Anthony became a Franciscan in the hope of shedding his own blood and becoming a martyr. He lived only ten years after joining the Franciscan Order.

So simple and …

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Homily #110613 ( 09min) Play – On this feast of St. Anthony, priest and doctor of the Church, Fr. Bonaventure preaches on the holy life and preaching of one of the forerunners who guarded the Church against modernism.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Anthony of Padua – Feast – Form: OF
Readings:
1st: wis 7:7-14
Resp: psa 40:3-4, 10-11, 17
2nd: eph 4:7, 11-15
Gsp: mar 16:15-20

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #120613 ( 05min) Play – Fr. John Lawrence preaches on the feast of St. Anthony, describing him as a great miracle worker and preacher, but his greatest miracle is his ongoing humility.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Anthony of Padua – Feast – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: wis 7:7-14
Resp: psa 40:3-4, 10-11, 17
2nd: eph 4:7, 11-15
Gsp: mar 16:15-20

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #120613s ( 09min) Play – Fr. Alfonso Bruno celebrates the Mass relating St. Anthony and the Eucharist to obedience as Fr. Ignatius replaces Fr. Angelo as Delegate for the FIs in North America and Australia.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Anthony of Padua – Feast – Form: OF
Readings:  1st: wis 7:7-14
Resp: psa 40:3-4, 10-11, 17
2nd: eph 4:7, 11-15
Gsp: mar 16:15-20
Audio (MP3) +++

The post Jun 13 – Homily – Fr. Alfonso Bruno: St. Anthony, the Eucharist and Obedience first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Prayer to St. Anthony: 

Teacher of the Gospel, light of holy Church, lover of souls, good St. Anthony of Padua help us to have a true and solid devotion to you, and to imitate your life and work for God and souls. Grant us a greater love for Holy Scripture, the source of your wisdom. Be to us a teacher of the ways of God and of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Light our hearts with the flame of love, the fire of divine charity, that we may love our merciful Father in heaven; that the King of kings, as you said, may reign in our hearts and purify them of all evil; that we may love our neighbor as you commanded. May the example of your chastity, your spirit of prayer, make us faithful to the vows of our baptism, to the vows of marriage or of religious life.

Guide us so that we may live with you the Gospel of Christ and grow with you in Him. Pray that the spirit of the Gospel may reach all men of all nations, beginning with ourselves. Pray that the spirit of Christian love and unity may fill the people of God, and bring all His children together again as one flock with one Shepherd. Amen.

The story of St. Anthony and the donkey that adored Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament:

A popular story springs up about St. Anthony, mention of it is made in the official Butler’s lives of the Saints. It is the story of St. Anthony’s encounter with an Jewish man. This man contested the “Real Presence of the Eucharist; so one day he approached St. Anthony publicly and after spelling out all of his reasons for not believing in such a “fable” as the Real Presence, he challenged Anthony to a contest. He bet that the Real Presence was a lie, and he proposed to “starve a donkey” for three days—no hay, and see if the donkey would choose to eat hay or preferred the Eucharist.

St. Anthony, being publicly “put on the spot” accepted the challenge. So the wealthy merchant brought out his donkey, publicly hitched him to a post where he could be observed by all; and proceeding to “starve the donkey” for three days. Simultaneously, St. Anthony went into the forest and “fasted” for three days—taking no food. When the day of trial came, Anthony emerged from the forest and sought out a local Church where he took the Eucharist and returned to the spot where the donkey was tied. Meanwhile, the challenger had placed a large pile of hay about 20 ft away from the donkey.

Anthony took out the Eucharist holding it in his hands; the merchant untied the donkey, who needless to say, made a “beeline” for the pile of hay. Just as the donkey was about to reach the hay, St. Anthony elevated the Eucharist and shouted in a loud voice: “Mule, in the Name of the Lord Our God, I command you to come here and adore your Creator ! ” The donkey “reared up” on his hind legs as if someone had pulled him by a bridle; he spun around, and ran to St. Anthony, dropping to his forelegs— hind legs still extended; and put his head down to the ground—in a “posture of adoration” before the Eucharist which St. Anthony continued to hold elevated. The Jewish merchant, stunned by what occurred begged St. Anthony’s forgiveness, converted on the spot, and donated the money to build a new Catholic Church, his newfound faith. On the cornerstone of the Church, he had engraved a picture of St. Anthony holding the Eucharist aloft and the donkey, “kneeling on his forepaws” in adoration of the Body of Christ.

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