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.
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Homily #080524 ( 15min) Play – Celebrating the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Francis on the morning of our Knights of Lepanto Men’s and Boy’s Encampment, Fr. Angelo relates the story of how St. Francis’ body was transfered to the Basilica in great honor and then relates his life focusing on how as a young knight he was called to a more spiritual form of warfare and so turned chivalry on its head.
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” The Portiuncula was an old church dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God which was abandoned . Francis had great devotion to the Queen of the world and when he saw that the church was deserted, he began to live there constantly in order to repair it. He heard that the Angels often visited it, so that it was called Saint Mary of the Angels, and he decided to stay there permanently out of reverence for the angels and love for the Mother of Christ.

He loved this spot more than any other in the world. It was here he began his religious life in a very small way; it is here he came to a happy end. When he was dying, he commended this spot above all others to the friars, because it was most dear to the Blessed Virgin.

This was the place where Saint Francis founded his Order by divine inspiration and it was divine providence which led him to repair three churches before he founded the Order and began to preach the Gospel.

This meant that he progressed from material things to more spiritual achievements, from lesser to greater, in due order, and it gave a prophetic indication of what he would accomplish later.

As he was living there by the church of Our Lady, Francis prayed to her who had conceived the Word, full of grace and truth, begging her insistently and with tears to become his advocate. Then he was granted the true spirit of the Gospel by the intercession of the Mother of mercy and he brought it to fruition.

He embraced the Mother of Our Lord Jesus with indescribable love because, as he said, it was she who made the Lord of majesty our brother, and through her we found mercy. After Christ, he put all his trust in her and took her as his patroness for himself and his friars.”

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Homily #080808 ( 07min) Play – The Franciscans celebrate St. Dominic as a Feast, not just a Memorial. St. Dominic is honored among the Franciscans as a Chord Bearer and so we honor him by the celebration of his day as a Feast.
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Homily #080811 ( 19min) Play – On this feast of St. Clare, celebrated as a Solemnity at our Franciscan Friary, Fr. Angelo Geiger preaches on the Gospel passage “I am the vine and you are the branches” to explain to us how St. Francis and St. Clare and their two orders relate to each other, the importance of poverty and, finally, how Our Lady fits in. And, of course, St Clare is our Patron Saint for AirMaria so it is doubly a time for celebration.
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Homily #080917 ( 22min) Play – Today we celebrate that extraordinary event when St. Francis received the Sacred Stigmata – the imprint of the wounds of Christ on his own body.
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Blessing

May the Lord bless you
and keep you;
may the Lord show his face to you
and have compassion on you!
May he turn his face to you
and give you peace!

Amen.

St. Francis’ Prayer in Praise of God Given to Brother Leo

You are holy, Lord, the only God, and Your deeds are wonderful.
You are strong.
You are great.
You are the Most High.
You are Almighty.
You, Holy Father are King of heaven and earth.
You are Three and One, Lord God, all Good.
You are Good, all Good, supreme Good, Lord God, living and true.
You are love.
You are wisdom.
You are humility.
You are endurance.
You are rest.
You are peace.
You are joy and gladness.
You are justice and moderation.
You are all our riches, and You suffice for us.
You are beauty.
You are gentleness.
You are our protector.
You are our guardian and defender.
You are our courage.
You are our haven and our hope.
You are our faith, our great consolation.
You are our eternal life, Great and Wonderful Lord, God Almighty, Merciful Savior.

Prayer of St. Francis
Before the Blessed Sacrament

We adore You,
O Lord Jesus Christ,
in this Church and all the Churches of the world,
and we bless You,
because,
by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world

At first?glance, the San Damiano crucifix gives the impression that Christ is merely standing before the cross, not hanging from it in agony. After all, Roman crucifixion was an ugly form of torture that left the condemned hanging from their arms by their own weight to die a slow death of suffocation. Some of the condemned were tied to the cross with ropes, and, in certain cases, as with our Lord, nails were driven through wrists and ankles to grind against raw bone, setting nerves afire with searing pain.

And yet here, in this image, Christ seems to be almost serene. What, then, could be the reason for such an odd depiction of the central mystery of Christian faith?

Well, look a bit closer and notice the background scenes that actually define the shape of the cross.

First, behind the center of Christ?s body, you can see the figures described in John 19:25?27: on the left, his mother Mary along with John himself, and, on the right, first his mother?s sister Mary the wife of Clopas, then Mary of Magdala, and then the centurion who proclaimed, ?Truly this man was the Son of God!? (Mark 15:39). The smaller figures depict the soldier Longinus on the left with his spear, and on the right the man who put the sponge soaked in wine to Christ?s mouth. This central part of the image therefore depicts the mystery of the Crucifixion.

But now look at the arms of Christ. What do you see behind them? That long, dark, rectangular area is Christ?s tomb. But not just the tomb?the empty tomb. Notice the four angels along the bottom and the figures of Peter and John, as described in John 20:2?10, peering into the emptiness with amazement. This part of the background, then, represents the mystery of the Resurrection.

Finally, look at the T-shaped area above Christ?s head. There you can see Christ rising up into heaven; above his head the hand of the Father gives his blessing. For here, at last, is the culmination of his earthly mission and his return to his place at the right hand of the Father: the mystery of the Ascension.

So the entire San Damiano crucifix depicts not just the fact of the crucifixion, but it depicts the three mysteries that reside behind the crucifixion. To the world, the cross is a stumbling block and foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:23); but to the eyes of faith the cross is the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension, in their full simultaneous reality.

This image, of course, is the image that converted Saint Francis from a life of self-indulgence to a life of total obedience to God?s will.

Francis learned to rejoice in the overwhelming beauty of God?s creation?a beauty signfying God?s love?yet he did not desire anything of the material world for his own fulfillment. Instead, he desired nothing but to receive our Lord with a pure heart and chaste body.

And, as he showed through the rest of his life, Francis fully understood the reason for the odd depiction of Christ?s serenity upon the San Damiano crucifix. For when someone accepts injustice, cruelty, and contempt with patience, without being ruffled and without murmuring, and endures it all with charity and total faith, what else can we call it but perfect joy? And so, right from the beginning, Francis understood that the ?background? to all human suffering must be total faith in the ultimate triumph of the Cross.

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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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For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Several years ago a priest friend of mine wrote the following mediation while setting up his manger scene and I would like to share it with you:

I think you should consider the words: “For unto you ….. ” in Luke 2:11. As I was putting up my nativity set these three words sprung out at me “For unto you … ” Yes Lord how I need your holy nativity. The visitation of Elizabeth and Mother Mary confirms life is precious in God’s eyes. You and I take our assigned places in God’s providence; mine to stand and offer the sacrifice of Christ’s blood and body for the remission of our sins.

Yet look how low the Son of God stooped to make our salvation possible.  A cave and a manger for the Lord of Glory to visit this sin cursed world!  A cave that only allows me to bow before his presence to enter in. I held the twig twisted manger that was to be the Lord’s bed. Even poor me, divested of all this world holds dear, is welcome to kneel and adore Jesus!           

The two little lambs pointed their faces at the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Our Jesus offers us the sacrifice of the Mass so we will never forget the high cost of our redemption.

The donkey in the corner of the manger gladly bore the weight of the blessed Mother to carry her to Bethlehem meaning the “house of bread”.  Yes, Jesus is our living bread that came down from heaven to heal our sinful souls and prepare us to enter heaven.

There is Joseph who suffered much to see God’s holy will fulfilled in the birth of God’s Son. Our life, like Joseph’s, is mixed with buffeting and blessings. God gave Joseph great graces to carry lives challenges and that grace and mercy is renewed to us each day.

There is the blessed Mother dressed in blue; God graced her to be the door that will open God’s heaven to those that love her Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I prayed the joyful mysteries before the manger and I felt my sorrows flyaway like little birds.

There is the little boy kneeling in awe before the baby Jesus and the wonder of the angel’s song still fills the air. The angel announces “Glory to God in the Highest” and indeed the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father shines brightly in the dark of night.

There is the cow providing much needed heat for the new born Christ Child. To the left are three camels and the three wise kings with their gifts, kneeling in worship before the Savior. To the right are the shepherds, the common working men who labor to provide for their family’s needs. They saw the heavens lit up with the angels from the throne room of God’s heaven and heard the Gospel proclaimed. God’s love was wrapped in the babe of Bethlehem for people of every kindred, tongue and nation of the world!

What place would we take in this manger scene? For me I am like the donkey bearing the many burdens of those in great need at Christmas. Yes the world may consider me an ass but that is only because they refuse to follow me to Bethlehem and see what has come to pass.

Yes, you must allow the light of the star to lead you to the Savior’s crib and adore and worship the King of Kings and Lord of lords.

Glory to God in the Highest! 

Fr. JFB

Of all the Christmas decorations we so lovingly place around our homes, the one that is indispensable as it is central to the meaning of Christmas, is the Creche or Nativity Scene.  The Christ Child in the manger and other pictures of the story of Bethlehem have been used in church services from the first centuries. But the crib in its present form and its use outside the church originated with St. Francis of Assisi. Through his famous celebration at Greccio, Italy, on Christmas Eve, 1223, with a Bethlehem scene including live animals, he made the crib popular. Since then it has been a familiar sight in Christian homes all over the world.

The Christmas Creche was the inspiration of St. Francis of Assisi. For the Saint, Christmas had always been the Feast of Feasts, yet he did not think it had been celebrated as it could have been, The poverty of Christ had become lost in the extravagance of the Christmas festivities An idea occurred to him and while on a visit to Rome, he received permission from the Pontiff to put his idea to work.

The story of how St. Francis of Assisi “invented” the crib is so delightful and inspiring that it might be told or read to the children every year. We give here the account in the very words of Brother Thomas de Celano, who was there when it happened and who wrote it down:

Blessed Francis called a friend about two weeks before Christmas and said to him: ‘If you desire that we should celebrate this year’s Christmas together at Greccio, go quickly and prepare what I tell you; for I want to enact the memory of the Infant Who was born at Bethlehem, and how He was deprived of all the comforts babies enjoy; how He was bedded in a manger on hay, between an ass and an ox. For once I want to see all this with my own eyes.’ When the good and faithful man had heard this, he departed quickly and prepared in the above-mentioned place everything that the Saint had told him.

The joyful day approached. The Franciscans were called from many communities. The men and women of the neighborhood, as best they could, prepared candles and torches to brighten the night. Finally the Saint of God arrived, found everything prepared, saw it and rejoiced. The crib was made ready, hay was brought, the ox and ass were led to the spot and Greccio became a new Bethlehem. The night was radiant with joy. The crowds drew near and rejoiced in the novelty of the celebration. Their voices resounded from the woods, and the rocky cliff echoed the jubilant outburst. As they sang in the praise of God, the whole night rang with exultation. The Saint of God stood before the crib, overcome with devotion and wondrous joy. A solemn Mass was sung at the crib.

The Saint was dressed in deacon’s vestments, for a deacon he was [out of humility, St. Francis never became a priest, remaining a deacon all his life]. He sang the Gospel. Then he preached a delightful sermon to the people who stood around him, speaking about the nativity of the poor King and the humble town of Bethlehem.

The parishioners and pilgrims who came to Greccio for Midnight Mass and witnessed the Christmas manger scene were much impressed with the simplicity of St. Francis’ creche and it was from there that the tradition took hold and spread around the Catholic world.

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Homily #090709 ( 06min) Play – St. Francis heard the Gospel of the Lord that the apostles should not carry anything extra for support on their journeys so he took this literally and started his order with no means of support. Father then relates this to today’s saints, St. Nicholas Pick and companions who were martyred in Holland.

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