Author Archives: Father L
Conquering our Anger
Latin Mass: 5th Sunday after Pentecost
Beloved in Jesus Christ, St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, there are two different kinds of passions: the concupiscible passions, and the irascible passions. Within the irascible passions is that of anger. This is why we might say that someone is ‘irascible,’ meaning that he is easily angered.
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Anger is a passion with which many people wrestle in their lives, especially if they have a hot, choleric temperament. Our Lord warns us in the gospel today: ‘I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.’ St. John Vianney says,[i] that person who is full of anger, what terrible company he is. ‘Look at the poor wife who has a husband like this. If she wishes to prevent her husband from offending God or treating her badly, she can’t say even a single word. She must content herself with weeping in secret.
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Anger can poison families and take us from God. In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul warns that anger is one of the sins that can keep us out of heaven: ‘I warn you as I have warned you before, they who do such things will not attain the kingdom of heaven.’ Gal 5;19
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Now as a mere emotion, anger is not a sin; when we see something that is wrong, or unjust – if someone is harmed, or we are insulted – anytime there is some injustice, we feel the impulse of anger: the desire to fight against what is wrong. So as an emotion, anger rouses us to oppose injustice. But now comes the moral choice: will this passion be used in an appropriate way or will it unleash hatred in our heart or inordinate words or actions?
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A strong and powerful horse is a great asset to a rider, but if it is not controlled with a bit and a harness, it can be destructive, and how often does this wild horse of anger get the best of us. The worst thing about anger is that it can cause us to, in a way, ‘lose our mind.’ If you’ve ever dealt with someone who is boiling with rage, you have surely noticed that they are not reasonable at all. The person makes wild accusations, demands excessive retaliation, and will not listen to anything you say. It is as if he has lost his use of reason.
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St. Paul says to the Philipians: ‘Watch out for the dogs.’ (Phil 3:2) Commenting on this passage, St. Thomas says, ‘it is the nature of a dog to bark from anger, not from reason.’ So unleashed anger makes us lose our good sense. As we have said, it is normal for a feeling of anger to arise in the face of injustice. If an employee sees the boss ridicule and degrade a co-worker, he should feel anger. But his reason tells him to act with prudence; glancing to God, he speaks up, in the defense of his co-worker: ‘Now Ed, John has done some very good work on this project, isn’t this a little unfair what you say?’ He uses reason to address the situation calmly. But another person, losing control, might pull out a pistol and shoot the boss! Holy Scripture says: ‘A fool gives vent to his anger, but a wise man quietly holds it back.’ (Prov 29:11)
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It is easy to see anger in the choleric person. He even looks as if he is boiling over. But other people’s anger comes out in other ways. For some, it is in the silent treatment, which can go on for days. I knew a young man who hadn’t spoken to his sister in 10 years – he was ‘teaching her a lesson.’ some lesson. There are others whose anger emerges in a passive-aggressive way. A woman is angry at her husband, and so she just happens to run the vacuum cleaner at kick off time for the game.
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St. John Vianney says, anger never travels alone.[ii] ‘It is always accompanied by plenty of other sins. He goes on: You have heard an angry father using bad language, cursing and yelling hateful things. Very well. Listen to his children; the same vile words come out of their mouths.
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‘I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be liable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be liable to the fire of hell.’
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Our Lord gives the stages of anger here. First, the passion stirs in our heart; it is not a sin yet, it is a feeling, but we must exercise good judgment, or our passion will control us.
If we give in to anger by cruel words or actions, then we certainly sin.
But the worst is when out-of-control-anger leads to contempt: ‘You fool,’ we might say. Contempt for another is to write that person off as useless. As Our Lord says, this is how anger can lead us to hell.
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Explosions in angry passion can make us regret many things. The answer really, is to calm our passions before they explode. In today’s Epistle, St. Peter says: ‘Let him refrain his tongue from evil. Let him seek after peace.’
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It is widely known that when you face a person who is angry, the worst thing you can do is respond back with anger. The Book of Proverbs says, ‘A soft answer calms wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.’ Prov 15:1 St. Monica had a husband always full of wrath, but her response was to be patient and calm, and pray for him.
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So if calm words by another person helps simmer down an angry person, this is what needs to happen inside of us as well. If passion begins boiling in us, we should speak to ourselves calmly, patiently: Make an aspiration to God: ‘Lord, grant me peace. Then think it through: ‘this thing that is provoking me, what is the response I wish to make, what does God want of me?’ As with all the passions, we must nip anger in the bud before it takes root. This wild horse must be kept under control from the start, and then our passions will be used effectively, for God’s glory.
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In this way we will not respond too quickly when provoked, we will know how to wait for the right moment to speak in a calm and reasoned way. This gets results that an angry response could never achieve.
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But if we wish to please Jesus in how we handle our passions, let’s see that Mary can help us. St. Alphonsus[iii] says ‘it is well, at the beginning and end of every action to say a Hail Mary; Happy are those actions that are enclosed between two Hail Marys; Then he says: ‘and in every burst of anger, always say, ‘Hail Mary. May the Blessed Virgin help us to use our passions, always for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ.
Entrust to the prayers of Mother Maria Kaupas
[i] Sermons of the Cure of Ars, p. 49
[ii] Sermons of the Cure of Ars, p. 49
[iii] The saint gives this suggestion at the end of one version of Glories of Mary under ‘Various practices of devotion to the divine Mother.
Mother of Mercy
Friends in Christ. today is Saturday, Our Lady’s Day, and so let’s take for our reflection this morning, the first words we say in the Hail Holy Queen. We say: ‘Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, ‘Our life, our sweetness, and our hope …
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Here we address Mary as our ‘Mother of Mercy.’ Now the Blessed Virgin has been given this office of mercy by her Son Jesus, to gather up the sinners and to bring them home. Our Lord revealed to St. Catherine of Sienna that he had created Mary to catch men and especially sinners.[i] It is only required that the sinner call on this Mother, and repent of his sins.
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When any mother sees her child crying before her because of his misdeeds, she does not consider his failures but rather the intentions with which he comes to her. In fact, Mary said to St. Bridget: ‘However much a man sins, I am ready immediately to receive him when he repents; nor do I pay attention to the number of his sins, but only to the intention with which he comes, for I am the Mother of Mercy.'[ii]
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St. Bernard says, if a mother knew that her two sons were at enmity with each other, that each plotted against the other’s life, would she not work as hard as possible to reconcile them? This would be the duty of a good mother. And thus he says, does Mary act. For she is the Mother of Jesus and the mother of us. When she sees a sinner at enmity with Jesus Christ, she cannot endure it, and so she does everything in her power to make peace between them.[iii] The Blessed Virgin will do anything she can to get us safely home.
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I recall in my own youth, returning home late, past curfew; quietly tip-toeing upstairs in the dark; only to hear mom call out: ‘Son, is that you, are you home?’ A mother cannot rest until her child is safely home. Mary awaits any sinner who wishes to come home, but he must repent and turn from his sin.
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St. Alphonsus says, ‘whoever aspires to be a child of this great mother, must first abandon sin.’ Richard of St. Lawrence says, ‘no one can be a child of Mary without first trying to rise from the fault into which he has fallen.’
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So on this Saturday let us find confidence in Mary. And if we fear to face our Heavenly Father for the dread of the sins of our life, let us first go to our Mother. St. Gregory says: ‘Resolve to sin no more, and I promise that undoubtedly you will find Mary more ready to love thee than any earthly mother.’
[i] Glories of Mary, p. 204
[ii] Glories of Mary, p. 72-74
[iii] Glories, p. 74
Summer Workshop
All Christians need on-going formation, in order to keep us close to the Fire. As they say, our spiritual life is like a plant: if it doesn’t grow, it will whither. Ideally, we do a half hour of mental prayer daily, a monthly recollection, an annual retreat, and also a time for intellectual growth.
This summer is our annual priest workshop for the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross; I attended one near Boston this year with about 30 other priests; a time for study and formation, but also a great time to renew fraternal friendships with priests from around the country…
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The classroom
The chapel here is perfect for prayer
… and fun too!
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First Martyrs of Rome
Friends in Christ, today we remember the many Christians who were brutally executed in the early days of the Church. From the year 64 until 313, persecution of the Church was horrific. To be a good Roman citizen in those days, one had to worship the roman gods; Christians refused. And they paid for it. The apostles Peter and Paul were both martyred at the beginning of this persecution in 64AD.
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The historian Tacitus tells us, Christians were even made sport of. Thrown to the beasts in the arena, dressed up in animal outfits and then hunted for sport; One of the worst emperors at this time was Nero. At his parties, Christians were put on high poles, covered with oil, and set afire as living torches.
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In the Book of Revelation, it refers to the Roman Empire as the ‘Beast.’ St. John says (Rev 13) ‘whoever would not worship the beast was killed … and the beast waged war against the saints. Revelation describes the Beast (Rev 17) as having 7 heads. The seven heads are seven kings; As it is written: 5 have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come. These are the succession of Roman Emperors, Nero reigning when Revelation was written.[i] St. John gives a most curious phrase: “let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, its number is 666. This is where we get the number of evil, as 666. What does it mean?
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We know that Roman letters also stand for numbers, we call them Roman Numerals. So the letter X stands for 10, the letter V stands for five, and so on. Therefore, every word adds up to a number. The ancient people used such numerology all the time. This is called ‘gematria.’ and it is used often in scripture. For example, King David’s name in Hebrew is the number 14, and this is a symbolic number. Well, the Emperor’s name, Nero Caesar, when put into Hebrew, is the number 666. So most scholars are sure that this number refers at least in one sense to the Emperor Nero, who was responsible for the martyrs of Rome that we honor today.
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In every century, governments try to oppose the Church. It is happening here as well. By teaching the truth of right and wrong, we are at odds with present society. They are beginning to say that the church is intolerant; soon we may be considered an enemy of the State, just like the early Christians. But this is our glory: to witness to the truth.
St. Peter and St. Paul
Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of the two great pillars of the church: St. Peter and St. Paul. St. Peter, the first Pope, was given the keys of heaven by Jesus. St. Paul was the greatest missionary the Church has ever known. Both achieved the greatest honor a Christian can have: They gave their lives as martyrs for Jesus Christ.
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If you go to Rome someday, you should visit ‘The Church of St Paul at the 3 Fountains.’ It was on that spot that St. Paul was martyred. His head was cut off, and as legend says, when his head was severed, it bounced and struck the earth in three different places, from which fountains sprang up. These fountains still flow today.
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If you go over to the Roman Basilica of St. Peter, under the high altar is the crypt where lie the bones of St. Peter. Jesus had foretold that Peter would be crucified, and in fact he was. But when the time came, he felt so unworthy to die like Christ, that they crucified him upside down.
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But these saints suffered greatly even before they were martyred. St. Paul tells of how he was one time scourged, other times beaten with rods, even stoned – And Peter suffered too. For example, we read today of the persecution by King Herod. When they wanted to go after the Church, they struck at the head of the Church, and that was St. Peter. Of the first 30-some Popes, nearly all were martyred. So Peter was arrested and thrown in prison. The whole church then did what we would do if the Pope were in prison; they began praying. As it says: ‘Prayer to God was made without ceasing by the Church for him.’
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So, there he was, chained up in this dark and gloomy prison. ‘What am I going to do, he thought? In that jail there were four guards guarding him, it seemed hopeless. But in the middle of the night, a bright light flashed in the cell, and an angel appeared. ‘Peter, wake up, put on your sandals, and let’s go!’ The chains fell off of his hands. But what about the guards? Well, they walked right past the guards. It suppose the angel put them to sleep. Now Peter wondered if he was dreaming because it says: ‘He followed him out, not knowing that what was being done by the angel was real.’ They passed through the first guard and the 2nd until they came to the iron gates that protect the city. Now what? At nighttime, the gates are locked. But what is this? The gates opened by themselves! And after going down one street, the angel disappeared. Then Peter thought, its really true! An angel has freed me! All of this is explained in the Acts of the Apostles.
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So, on the run, Peter goes to the house where St. Mark lived, for a place to stay. Now the people in there were praying so hard for Peter to be released from jail: ‘Please Lord, let Peter be freed, please Lord let Peter be freed. And then? !KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK! A young girl named Rhoda[i] goes to the door. She looks through the peep-hole – its Peter! But she was so excited that she forgot to open the door! Rhoda then runs in to tell the others – its Peter outside! He’s here! You’re crazy! They said. It must be his angel! (This is, by the way, an example of belief in guardian angels so clearly shown in Sacred Scripture).
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So they kept praying – ‘please Lord, let Peter be freed from prison, please Lord let Peter be freed from prison.’ But Rhoda insisted that it is Peter knocking, and that they should let him in. !KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK! Disregarding what everyone says, Rhoda will not give up on Peter. She goes and opens the door and brings in Peter and they are amazed! So he waves his hand for them to be quiet, and tells them how the angel had freed him from prison.
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Friends, Peter went through a great deal of anguish in those years, and as we said, so did St. Paul. You can’t just be a martyr after an unvirtuous life of leisure! As the Apostles lived their Life in Christ, being faithful in numerous difficulties, they were really training for the greatest honor: martyrdom.
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You may have been following in the news that 27 year-old woman[ii] in Sudan who was sentenced to death for her Christian Faith. She was ordered to give up Christ, and become Muslim – ‘No,’ was her answer. Yes, she was happily married. Yes, she had a child. But she was determined to die rather than renounce her faith. Are we? Are we prepared to be another St. Paul and lose our head rather than our Faith? Or a St. Peter? Our Faith in Christ must mean more than our life, because we owe everything to Jesus Christ. We must be able to say what St. Peter said: I know and believe, that ‘you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’
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I think everyone here can all say ‘Yes,’ without hesitation – that we would each give our life rather than ever deny Jesus. But we can test ourselves to see if we would really do it. We just have to ask a few questions: Are we faithful to the Lord in small things? When friends or colleagues criticize the Catholic Faith, do we speak up? Can’t be a martyr if we won’t even do that.
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The martyrs gave their lives for Christ, yet today, many throw away their Faith for the most pathetic things: – in order to remarry outside the Church, many walk away – because their friends are in another religion, they go too – they want to live at their boyfriend’s apartment, so they walk away from God. Pathetic reasons.
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We have to make choices, to do what is right or to walk away from Christ. Do we tell the truth when under pressure to lie? Do we cheat when there is an advantage? God permits us many opportunities to show him our loyalty, but we aren’t worthy to be a martyr unless we can be faithful in small things.
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In the spiritual warfare that is part of life, we do have our Angel to help us like St. Peter did; and if we are on the run, we can always knock at the door of the house of Mary, who will always open to us. May the Blessed Virgin help us in our daily life to be worthy of the promises of Christ.
[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Mary, niece of Abraham]
[i] The name Rhoda means ‘Rose,’ and it is also interesting that the house he went to was the house of Mary, the mother of Mark.
[ii] Meriam Yehya Ibrahim
Mother of all the Living
Beloved in Christ, it is a heresy to say that Jesus is a human person. He is not. He is a Divine Person who united himself to human nature. So in Christ, God joined himself to the whole human race, and because his Person is Infinite, he is able to contain all of us.
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Yet this connection to the entire human race – this bond that God formed with the human family – it took place when the Divine united himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary. For the Mystical Body of Christ, for the entire human family, the Blessed Virgin is the point of junction with God.[i]
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Jesus Christ possessed not only a physical body, but also his Mystical Body. Therefore, Mary, who bore the Savior in her womb, may also be said to have given birth to all of us, whose lives are contained in Christ. Mary is therefore the true Mother of all the Living.[ii]
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Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And this Heart of our Mother – well, we cannot live without it. Maternal love is so inseparable from life, that we see it reflected even in the animal world. The need for our mother is an instinct of life, which we see from the first cry of an infant in the cradle to the last appeals of a dying man for his mother. And God did not intend that the supernatural life should be less human, than natural life, so he created Mary.
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The Divine Maternity, says St. Thomas, belongs to the order of infinite things. In some sense, the maternal love of Mary is infinite.
Because of Mary, Christianity has a unique spirit of hope and joy. Because of her it remains a religion of freshness and youth. Because of her it is a religion whose great mysteries are perfectly accessible even to little children. Their mothers on earth still tell them about the little Jesus and his mother, who is also their mother in heaven, and this was the same with St. Augustine, and St. Thomas, and all the rest.
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After the children and their innocence come the sinners; the sinners – For them especially, Christianity would lack some of its goodness if this Blessed Mother, were not there. The more wretched men may be, the more merciful is her response; she knows how to change their hearts by the goodness of her Immaculate heart.
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Just look at religions where Mary is lacking, or where she is not known. There, God does not seem to be so much a Father, and Christ is not so close; the Church is less of a family. Without Mary, our religion would resemble a Protestant church which has no Living Presence; a system that is well-ordered but cold: because there is no longer a Mother in the home.
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In reality, mothers are often servants, handmaids, of their children, giving their all to help them. Mary was the handmaid of the Lord, and of her Son, and really of all her children – helping them, praying for them, serving them – all because, of her Immaculate Heart.
[i] Theology of the Mystical Body, Mersch, pp. 172-173.
[ii] ibid, p. 187.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus
Friends in Christ, during the French Revolution, many were killed for their faith. One goal of the leaders of the French Revolution, was to drive God out of society. The modern era had arrived: it was time for MAN to create the perfect world, and God and religion and Christ were in the way. As we know, thousands of priests, and nuns, and devout people were slaughtered in the name of progress. Over 16,000 died by the guillotine.
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In all of this there was a remarkable 22 year old young woman, named Catherine Doublot (of Besancon), who continued to believe that the love of God would never leave the world. Even a world full of hate. In her home were found over a dozen images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was upon these images of God’s love for a sad, and confused world – it was upon these images that Catherine would often ponder and pray.
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The authorities discovered that she had these pictures of the Sacred Heart, and for this she was taken away to die at the guillotine; but she nevertheless went, still believing in the love of Jesus for mankind.
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Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The Sacred Heart – displaying this painful, wounded, physical heart of Christ, which aches for his children – it is a representation of His divine love for humanity, and the flame shows us the power of divine love. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is very ancient, going back a thousand years. It arose in the Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries. Love of the Sacred Heart was already known to St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde, and St. Bernard. This devotion was practiced by many in the various religious orders, and the Jesuits often used the image of the Sacred Heart, and hung it in their rooms.
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Nevertheless, it remained a private devotion until St. Margaret Mary Alacoque came along. Jesus appeared to her and made known his burning desire to be loved by all people; he gave us the 1st Friday Devotions, and so came about the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. After many requests for many years, in 1856, the Church established the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Why? So that we would know the burning love of Christ for us.
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‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
Corpus Christi Procession
Corpus Christi: The great Feast of the Body of Christ, the day that we pay reverence to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.
Bells are rung as we approach an altar.
Stopping to pray at one of the four altars, beautifully provided by Catholic families
Off again to proclaim our Faith! Curious neighbors looked on to see our love of Jesus.
Father carrying Our dear Lord
Altar boys leading the way. Maybe they will all become priests!
The streets could not contain our love
The Lord has many loving children on this earth
