"Catechism on Hope" by St. John Vianney

My children, we are going to speak of hope: that is what makes the happiness of man on earth. Some people in this world hope too much, and others do not hope enough. Some say, "I am going to commit this sin again. It will not cost me more to confess four than three. " It is like a child saying to his father, "I am going to give you four blows; it will cost me no more than to give you one: I shall only have to ask your pardon. "

That is the way men behave towards the good God. They say, "This year I shall amuse myself again; I shall go to dances and to the alehouse, and next year I will be converted. The good God will be sure to receive me, when I choose to return to Him. He is not so cruel as the priests tell us. " No, the good God is not cruel, but He is just. Do you think He will adapt Himself in everything to your will? Do you think that He will embrace you, after you have despised Him all your life? Oh no, indeed! There is a certain measure of grace and of sin after which God withdraws Himself. What would you say of a father who should treat a good child, and one not so good the same. Would you not say that the father is not just. Well! God would not be just if He made no difference between those who serve Him and those who offend Him.

My children, there is so little faith now in the world that people either hope too much, or they despair. Some say, "I have done too much evil; the good God cannot pardon me:' My children, this is a great blasphemy; it is putting a limit to the mercy of God, which has no limit -- it is infinite. You may have done evil enough to lose the souls of a whole parish, and if you confess, if you are sorry for having done this evil, and resolve not to do it again, the good God will have pardoned you.

A priest was once preaching on hope, and on ; the mercy of the good God. He reassured others, but he himself despaired. After the sermon, a young man presented himself, saying, "Father, I am come to confess to you:' The priest answered, "I am willing to hear your confession:' The other recounted his sins, after which he added, "Father, I have done much evil; I am lost!" "What do you say, my friend! We must never despair:' The young man rose, saying, "Father, you wish me not to despair, and what do you do?" This was a ray of light; the priest, all astonishment, drove away that thought of despair, became a religious and a great saint. . . . The good God had sent him an angel under the form of a young man, to show him that we must never despair. The good God is as prompt to grant us pardon when we ask it of Him as a mother is to snatch her child out of the fire.

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Advice from St. Padre Pio

Always be faithful to God in observing the promises you made Him, and pay no attention to the mocking of the foolish. Know that the Saints were always mocked by the world and the worldly, but even so they placed the world and its maxims under their feet.

The field of battle between God and Satan is the human soul. This is where it takes place every moment of our lives. The soul must give free access to our Lord and be completely fortified by Him with every kind of weapon; His light must illuminate it to fight the darkness of error; he must put on Jesus Christ, His truth and justice, the shield of faith, the word of God to overcome such powerful enemies. To put on Jesus Christ we must die to ourselves.

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Assumption Novena: Day Seven

Mary, Queen of every heart, accept all that we are and bind us to you with the bonds of love, that we may be yours forever and may be able to say in all truth: “I belong to Jesus through Mary”. Our Mother, Assumed into Heaven and Queen of the Universe, ever-Virgin Mother of God, obtain for us what we ask for if it be for the glory of God and the good of our souls (mention your request). Our Mother, assumed into Heaven, we love you. Give us a greater love for Jesus and for you. Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us.

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Pope St. Telesphorus

1954 Calendar (Commemoration): January 5

Pope St. Telephrous was pope from c. 127 - c. 137 AD. His feastday is commemorated on January 5th, the Vigil of the Epiphany. 

According to Tradition, Pope St. Telephorus established the 7-week lenten season that precedes the celebration of Easter. He also was the first pope to establish the Christmas midnight Mass. He made the Gloria part of the liturgy; however, the Gloria was only to be sung on Christmas.

Pope St. Telephorus is probably best known, though, for stating that Easter should always be celebrated on a Sunday. Before this point, Easter was celebrated three days after Passover and did not necessarily fall on a Sunday. However, since Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, he decreed that Easter should always be celebrated on a Sunday.

He was martyred for the faith in 136, possibly for the many conversions attributed to his preaching.

Collect:

Sanctify, O Lord, the offerings consecrated to thee: and being appeased thereby, mercifully look upon us, by the intercession of blessed Telesphorus, thy Martyr and Bishop.

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"On Anger" by St. John Vianney

Anger is an emotion of the soul, which leads us violently to repel whatever hurts or displeases us.

This emotion, my children, comes from the devil: it shows that we are in his hands; that he is the master of our heart; that he holds all the strings of it, and makes us dance as he pleases. See, a person who puts himself in a passion is like a puppet; he knows neither what he says, nor what he does; the devil guides him entirely. He strikes right and left; his hair stands up like the bristles of a hedgehog; his eyes start out of his head--he is a scorpion, a furious lion. . . . Why do we, my children, put ourselves into such a state? Is it not pitiable? It is, mind, because we do not love the good God. Our heart is given up to the demon of pride, who is angry when he thinks himself despised; to the demon of avarice, who is irritated when he suffers any loss; I to the demon of luxury, who is indignant when his pleasures are interfered with. . . . How unhappy we are, my children, thus to be the sport of demons? They do whatever they please with us; they suggest to us evil-speaking, calumny, hatred, vengeance: they even drive us so far as to put our neighbour to death. See, Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy; Saul wished to take away the life of David; Theodosius caused the massacre of the inhabitants of Thessalonica, to revenge a personal affront. . . . If we do not put our neighbour to death, we are angry with him, we curse him, we give him to the devil, we wish for his death, we wish for our own.

In our fury, we blaspheme the holy Name of God, we accuse His Providence. . . . What fury, what impiety! And what is still more deplorable, my children, we are carried to these excesses for a trifle, for a word, for the least injustice! Where is our faith! Where is our reason? We say in excuse that it is anger that makes us swear; but one sin cannot excuse another sin. The good God equally condemns anger, and the excesses that are its consequences. . . . How we sadden our guardian angel! He is always there at our side to send us good thoughts, and he sees us do nothing but evil. . . . If we did like Saint Remigius, we should never be angry. See, this saint, being questioned by a Father of the desert how he managed to be always in an even temper, replied, "I often consider that my guardian angel is always by my side, who assists me in all my needs, who tells me what I ought to do and what I ought to say, and who writes down, after each of my actions, the way in which I have done it. "

Philip II, King of Spain, having passed several hours of the night in writing a long letter to the Pope, gave it to his secretary to fold up and seal. He, being half asleep, made a mistake; when he meant to put sand on the letter, he took the ink bottle and covered all the paper with ink. While he was ashamed and inconsolable, the king said, quite calmly, "No very great harm is done; there is another sheet of paper"; and he took it, and employed the rest of the night in writing a second letter, without showing the least displeasure with his secretary.

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Pope St. Sixtus I

Pope St. Sixtus (also spelled Xystus) I was the seventh pope of the Holy Catholic Church from c. 119 - c. 127 AD. He was born in Rome. According to the Liber Pontificalis , he passed the following three ordinances:

1. No one except the sacred ministers are allowed to touch the sacred vessels (chalice, paten, etc)
2. Bishops who have been summoned to the Holy See shall, upon their return, not be received by their diocese except on presenting Apostolic letters;
3. After the Preface in the Mass the priest shall recite the Sanctus with the people.

He is said to have been a martyr, and his feastday is April 6th. He was buried beside the tomb of St. Peter; however, his relics were apparently transferred to Alatri in 1132. He is not the Sixtus mentioned in the Canon of the Mass (Eucharistic Prayer) - that is Pope St. Sixtus II.

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Announcement on my Blog

During the past few weeks I have been praying the Divine Office at Lauds, Vespers, and usually Compline. It has been such a wonderful experience. If you do not pray the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) I highly suggest you purchase a prayer book. It will reward your prayer life immensely.

At the end of this month I will have to blog less as I will be given a lot more work to do. So, for the following months I will not be posting anywhere nearly as much as I currently do. I hope to post once a day starting at the end of this month. During this month and last I was able not only to post a lot but to edit many of my older posts. Under Apologetics and Prayer, I added and edited many of the links. Just today I added beautiful images to my posts on All Saints Day and All Souls Day. So, I've been very busy editing.

I wanted to point out several recent blogs added to my sidebar. Please check them out. The most recent addition is This Catholic Journey, by someone that is starting RCIA very shortly.

• This Catholic Journey
• Kyrie Eleison
• Letters from a Young Catholic
• Epiphany of Faith
• Christ the Center of Your Life
  

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Galileo and the Catholic Church

St. Robert Bellarmine as well as Pope Urban VIII, welcomed Galileo’s research and even presented him with medals and gifts. They wholeheartedly welcomed his hypothesis; however, when Galileo began to promote it as truth without providing concrete evidence, trouble arose with the Catholic Church. The notion that the Church censured Galileo because he taught heliocentricism (the revolution of the earth around the sun) is false. He was censured because he advanced a theory as fact without providing scientific proof. It was not until later that sufficient proof was provided in order to justify his theory.

Even if the Church did make a mistake with science, it does not alter any part of our Faith. The Pope is only infallible in matters of morals and ethics, not science or math as the First Vatican Council explicitly declared. The Catholic Church is never opposed to science. Science can help us understand better both God the Creator and the created world, a world our God created out of nothingness.

There are many who likewise fail to understand what the Church truly teaches about evolution.

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Diocese of Amarillo teaches NFP

Bishop Yanta of the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas writes the following:

As announced in my pastoral letter January 28, 2006: “The Diocese of Amarillo will be a natural family planning diocese: henceforth, all marriages (except for couples past the child bearing age) will be required to attend and complete an approved Natural Family Planning course in conjunction with an approved marriage preparation program. Effective date: July 25, 2006.

“July 25th is the date selected for implementation: July 25th is four (4) months after the Annunciation (March 25th) and five (5) months before the Nativity of Jesus. July 25th is also the feast of St. James, first bishop of Jerusalem.

“July 25th is also the 38th anniversary of Humanae Vitae (on artificial contraception) by Pope Paul VI. Copies of a simplified version by Msgr. Vincent Walsh are available from Key of David Publications, 204 Haverford Road, Wynnewood, PA 19006, 610-896-1970.

“Omnia parata” (All is ready) as Jesus said in the parable of the wedding feast. In all parts of the diocese we have teachers trained to give the Natural Family Planning instruction in both English and Spanish.

“I ask Almighty God to forgive me for waiting so long to implement Natural Family Planning as normative and as a requirement for a marriage to be witnessed by our priests and deacons in the Diocese of Amarillo.

“Every married couple has the right from the Church to continue on the road to sainthood begun in baptism by living as one joined to Christ: Natural Family Planning is God’s way to live responsible parenthood. Marriage and family are the pillars of the Church and society”.

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Pray for the Repose of the Soul of Fr. Brand

I received this prayer request for a deceased priest:

Please pray for the repose of Father Edmund Brand, OSCO, 92 Monk of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them. May he rest in peace.
Amen.

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