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How Should Your Advent Be Spent?

by Filed Under: 11 November, Advent, Fr. Leonard Goffine, The Church’s Year 1 Comment

May we spend this Advent season befitting a true Christian.

“They should recall, during these four weeks, the four thousand years in which the just under the Old Law expected and desired the promised Redeemer, think of those days of darkness in which nearly all nations were blinded by saran and drawn into the most horrible crimes, then consider their own sins and evil deeds and purify their souls from them by a worthy reception of the Sacraments, so that our Lord may come with His grace to dwell in their hearts and be merciful to them in life and in death.

Unjust to themselves, disobedient to the Church and ungrateful, indeed, to God are those Christians who spend this solemn time of grace in sinful amusements without performing any good works, with no longing for Christ’s Advent into their hearts.”

➕
PRAYER IN ADVENT
O God, who by Thy gracious Advent hast brought joy into this world, grant us, we beseech Thee, Thy grace to prepare ourselves by sincere penance for its celebration and for the Last Judgment.
Amen.

A Family Patron

by Filed Under: 11 November Saints, Patron Saint, St. John of the Cross Leave a Comment

We celebrate a beloved family patron saint today and seek his intercession always.

May Our Lady help us make the maxims of St. John of the Cross firm principles for the good of our souls.

➕

The Litany of St. John of the Cross

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of Heaven,

Have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world,

Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Ghost,

Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God,

Have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Queen and Beauty of Carmel,

pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross,

pray for us.

St. John, our glorious father, etc.

Beloved child of Mary, the Queen of Carmel,

Fragrant flower of the garden of Carmel,

Admirable possessor of the spirit of Elias,

Foundation stone of the Carmelite reform,

Spiritual son, and beloved father of St. Teresa,

Most vigilant in the practice of virtue,

Treasure of charity,

Abyss of humility,

Most perfect in obedience,

Invincible in patience,

Constant lover of poverty,

Dove of simplicity,

Thirsting for mortification,

Prodigy of holiness,

Mystical Doctor ,

Model of contemplation,

Zealous preacher of the Word of God,

Worker of miracles,

Bringing joy and peace to souls,

Terror of devils,

Model of penance,

Faithful guardian of Christ’s vineyard,

Ornament and glory of Carmel,

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,

Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,

Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,

Have mercy on us.

V. Holy father Saint John of the Cross, pray for us,

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray.

O God, Who didst instill into the heart of Saint John of the Cross, Thy confessor and our father, a perfect spirit of self-abnegation and a

surpassing love of Thy Cross, grant that assiduously following in his footsteps, we may attain to eternal glory. Through Christ Our Lord.

R. Amen.

Family Retreat 2021

Fr. Weninger offers the following practical consideration.

“Saint John asked of God, in his first Mass, the grace of remaining free from all mortal sin; and at another time, he begged to suffer, to labor, and to be despised for Christ’s sake.

Oh! how different from this is the object of your prayers!

What do you seek and ask of God?

To what end do you promise masses, fasts, pilgrimages, and prayers?

Is not almost everything you ask temporal?

When you, your child, your husband or wife is sick, then you promise in your prayers to do all that is possible in order that God may ward off the disease.

When you have a cross to bear, you pray to God to release you from it. Although it is praiseworthy to fly to God for refuge in such circumstances, tell me, why do you not ask His assistance in much more weighty matters, in such as concern your soul?

Why do you not ask as often or oftener and more earnestly for spiritual gifts, and beg the Almighty to avert spiritual evils? Is not this an incontestable proof that you are far more solicitous for your body and your temporal welfare, than for your soul and your salvation?

And is not this not only unreasonable, but even wicked?

Correct this fault in future, and pray to God frequently and fervently to bestow spiritual gifts and graces upon you, and to avert from you spiritual and eternal evils.

Pray to Him for the grace to avoid sin; to be freed from temptations, or to be upheld in battling against them, for strength to correct evil habits, to overcome sinful inclinations or to practice virtues; to die a happy death, and to escape eternal destruction.

“Pray,” says Cardinal Hugo, “for all that you need for your salvation.” Such graces are more necessary than all others, and you may be sure that they are useful to you, while you do not know that temporal blessings are for your good.” #frweninger #saintoftheday #jffsaints

Advice for Parents

by Filed Under: Libertas Leave a Comment

“Prepare your children to be with the Faith of the martyrs because they will probably live to see the AntiChrist. It is not impossible that they will live to see the age of the AntiChrist. So make them love Our Lady because she’ll make them strong in that period.” – Priest of Tradition

Watch the video clip here

May God Grant Him Many More Years

by Filed Under: Birthday, Dad Leave a Comment

My beloved celebrated another year of life. Deo gratias!

He is a glorious husband and father who is always striving to be and do better.

He takes his duties as the head of the family very seriously – as nature imposes it on him, God wills it, and his salvation depends on it.

He honors me in the presence of all — my children, friends, strangers, and before priests. He loves me greatly and helps me to sanctify myself.

There is no doubt in my mind that he loves me as his own body, as himself. He strives after that which enables me to flourish in joy & peace.

The sweetness of his love tempers the force of his God-given authority.

His love is tender and pure, with God as its motive and end; vigilant and devoted, giving with kindness to me all that I need to live and to keep my position.

He supports me in my infirmities and defects with a tender charity, and shares in my joys and sorrows with compassion.

He serves as a means of sanctification for me, and makes it a priority to pray with me. It is by his good example, the sweetness of his virtue, and his charity, that he wins my esteem and affection and sustains me in the right path.

He works at establishing a union with me that is not just physical, but also emotional and spiritual. He constantly remembers that I need emotional support and friendship from him. I never go neglected.

He embraces his duties as a father — to make of them good and manly Christians, useful citizens, and saints for heaven.

He raises our children in the fear of God, corrects them, and seeks to settle them decently in the world.

He completes and consolidates the education which I begin as he has discerned best for our children.

His grace of authority and of strength lends extra power to his words — winning them over.

We give thanks for him everyday and most especially as we celebrate the gift of his life. May God grant him many more years!

Octave Day of All Saints

by Filed Under: 11 November Saints, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, The Church’s Year Leave a Comment

Today is the Octave Day of All Saints, the last day to receive a plenary indulgence applicable to the Poor Souls for those who have met the necessary conditions and who visit a cemetery to pray for the faithful departed. ➕

“Strangers as we are and pilgrims on the earth, let us fix our hearts and our thoughts on the day which will give to each of us a home, and restore us to Paradise.

Who, that is on a voyage, would not hasten to return to his country!

Who, that is on the way home, would not eagerly desire a favourable wind, that he might the sooner embrace his dear ones!

Parents, brothers, children, friends in multitudes impatiently await us in our heavenly fatherland; blessed crowd already secure of their own eternal happiness, they are solicitous about our salvation. What joy for them and for us, when at length we see them and they may embrace us!

How great the delight of that heavenly kingdom: no more fear of death; but eternal and supreme happiness!

Let all our earnest desires tend to this: that we may be united with the Saints, that together with them we may possess Christ.

These enthusiastic words, borrowed from St. Cyprian’s beautiful book “On Mortality,” are used by the Church in her second Nocturn; and in the third she gives us the strong language of St. Augustine, consoling the faithful, who are obliged still to remain in exile, by reminding them of the great beatitude of this earth : the beatitude of those who are persecuted and cursed by the world. To suffer gladly for Christ, is the Christian’s glory, the invisible beauty which wins for his soul the good pleasure of God, and procures him a great reward in heaven.” #domprospergueranger

Four Crowned Martyrs (11.8), orate pro nobis.

Friday in the Octave of All Saints

by Filed Under: 11 November Saints, All Souls Day Leave a Comment

Today is the Fifth Day within the Octave of All Saints.

We prayed for souls at the grave of my beloved grandmother who had 13 children, my father being number 12.

LORD God almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which Thy divine Son shed on this day upon the wood of the Cross, especially from His most sacred hands and feet, deliver the souls in purgatory, and in particular that soul for which I am most bound to pray: that no neglect of mine may hinder it from praising Thee in Thy glory and blessing Thee forever. Amen.

Our Father
Hail Mary
De Profundis

De profundis Psalm 129

A prayer of a sinner, trusting in the mercies of God. The sixth penitential psalm.

Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.
Let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
If Thou, O Lord, shalt mark our iniquities: O Lord, who can abide it?
For with Thee there is mercy: and by reason of Thy law I have waited on Thee, O Lord.
My soul hath waited on His word: my soul hath hoped in the Lord.
From the morning watch even unto night: let Israel hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord there is mercy: and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

(Eternal rest or “Requiem aeternam”)
Eternal rest give to them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
Amen.

V/. Lord, hear my prayer.
R/. And let my cry come unto Thee.

Let us pray.
O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful; grant to the souls of Thy servants departed the remission of all their sins, that by our devout supplications they may obtain that pardon which they have always desired. Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

V/. Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord.
R/. And let perpetual light shine upon them.
V/. May they rest in peace.
R/. Amen.

Every Catholic Knows…

by Filed Under: Archbishop Vigano, Libertas, Pro-Life Leave a Comment

“Every Catholic knows that the killing of a defenseless creature in the mother’s womb is a horrendous crime; and that the most serious scandal is given to the faithful not only by Joe Biden as a convinced supporter of abortion, but also by Bergoglio himself, who is recognized as holding the authority of Supreme Pastor of the Church.

His work of demolition knows no respite before the astonished silence of the Cardinals and Bishops. The very rare exceptions of Pastors who truly have at heart the souls entrusted to them — the example of His Eminence Cardinal Burke stands out among others — are seen with hostility by the majority of their brother Bishops and by the Vatican, in a disturbing subversion of the mission of the Church of Christ, which today has been reduced to climate change, inclusive capitalism, and mass vaccination.

Bergoglio was recently recognized as “moral guide” by the Council for Inclusive Capitalism led by Lynn Forester de Rothschild, and he appointed Jeffrey David Sachs as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Sachs is the president of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network of the United Nations, a supporter of reducing the global population and of the fight against climate change — this has nothing to do with the mission of the Papacy and ought to lead the Prelates of the Church to seriously ask themselves about Bergoglio’s mental and moral suitability for the role he holds.

I exhort the faithful, on the Feast instituted by Pius XI in honor of the social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to beseech the Divine Majesty, asking that among the many societies afflicted by the present crisis, the Church of Christ may be the first in which Jesus Christ, Who today has been replaced by the idols of globalist ideology, returns to reign.” #archbishopvigano

Full letter from Archbishop Vigano

📸My family at a ProLife Flash Mob rally at the CA Capitol in 2011

Instruction on the Feast of All Souls

by Filed Under: 10 October Saints, All Souls Day, Fr. Leonard Goffine, The Church’s Year Leave a Comment

Today, and throughout the octave of the feast of All Souls (11.2), we will visit the cemetery and pray for souls in purgatory. Then we will go to Holy Mass.

The following is instruction on this feast from #frleonardgoffine

The Introit of this day’s Mass as of all Masses for the Dead reads:

“Eternal rest give to them, O Lord: and let perpetual light shine upon them. A hymn, O God, becometh Thee in Sion; and a vow shall be paid to Thee in Jerusalem: hear my prayer; all flesh shall come to Thee. Eternal rest give to them, O Lord: and let perpetual light shine upon them.”

The Epistle and Gospel of this day speak of the resurrection of all men and of the judgment, when every one according as he has lived, sinful and impenitent, or pure and innocent, will receive an eternally miserable or an eternally happy life. Purgatory will then end and there will be only Heaven and Hell. It remains with us to choose which of these two we shall possess.

At the Offertory of the Mass the priest prays:
O Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory, deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hell and from the deep pit: deliver them from the mouth of the lion, that hell may not swallow them up, and they may not fall into darkness: but may the holy standard-bearer, Michael, introduce them to the holy light: which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham and to his seed.

We offer to Thee, O Lord, sacrifices and prayers: do Thou receive them in behalf of those souls whom we commemorate this day.

Grant them, O Lord, to pass from death to that life which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham and to his seed.

We may profitably and devoutly repeat the following as often as we pass a graveyard.

V. From the gates of Hell,
R. Deliver their souls, O Lord.
V. Eternal rest give to them, O Lord,
R. And let perpetual light shine upon them.
V. May they rest in peace,
R. Amen.
V. May the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace,
R. Amen.

Who Am I?

by Filed Under: Uncategorized Leave a Comment

My children choose their saints, aside from me having to say no repeats (of St. Michael & St. George).

Each child is also responsible for coming up with a short speech about their saint. We help them memorize their speech for the Vigil festivities. Sometimes they nail it and other times it’s an abbreviated variation at best.

They even design their costumes, for the most part. Big siblings and I are charged with the task of putting it together to their liking.

This year, my littlest one chose his beloved friend from the Bible.

Dad even attempted to give him lessons on using his weapon of choice.

Great discussions (at his level) we’re had about praying for courage, following God’s will in all seasons of our lives, not listening to what the world would have us believe, and trusting that God can do all things.

This boy of mine has loved this heroic priest since an early age. 💜➕

I was torn between the priestly duties at home and the need to serve the brave men in the military fighting in World War II. My bishop recommended me for the U.S Army Chaplain Corps. I joined the post-world war peacekeeping force and experienced firsthand the horrors of the Korean War. 

I was compelled to fight in the front lines with my troops. Due to the circumstances I offered Holy Mass on the hoods of our jeeps and prayed with my men in foxholes. I never carried a gun or fired a weapon.  One day we were ambushed by the communists, rather than retreating with the others I and a doctor stood behind to care for the dying and wounded. We became Prisoners of War.

I risked my life every day by sneaking out to find food for the other prisoners.  When the Chinese guards discovered that I had a blood clot in my leg, they moved me to the death house. There, I died, alone on May 23, 1951.

I forgave my captors and told the prisoners of the camp “Don’t worry about me, I am going to where I always wanted to go and I will pray for you!”

WHO AM I?

I was an Earl who became a knight in the Second Crusade to recover the Holy Land from the Moors.   Upon my return, I received the County of Flanders.

I forbade any of my subjects to blaspheme or take the name of God in vain. The punishment was to lose a hand or foot. 

I gave all I could to those in need.  One day, I GAVE away 7,800 loaves.

I walked every morning barefoot to the church.  I was warned that some were plotting against me.  I  answered:  “We are always surrounded by dangers, but we belong to God?” 

While I was praying before the altar, a mob rushed in and split open my head, in 1124.  

WHO AM I?

I became a priest in France in 1624.  I went to the new lands to work and share the Faith.  

I was kidnapped and held captive for over 1 year.   The natives tortured me be by fire, removed fingernails, gnawed away my fingers, and much more.  I even had to throw my finger in the woods so I wouldn’t be forced to eat it. 

I was rescued from martyrdom a number of times. And eventually, I returned home.  No one recognized me because my condition was so poor.  

The Pope gave me special permission to offer Holy Mass since my critical fingers were missing. 

I eagerly wanted to go back to the new lands in 1644. I told my friend, “I will go, but I will not return.”

Just two years later, on Oct. 18 1646, I was captured and tomahawked to death.  My head was placed on a stake as a trophy of sorts and thrown into the river.

WHO AM I?

ORATE PRO NOBIS

Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost

by Filed Under: Uncategorized Leave a Comment

“Render therefore to Caesar,” says our Lord, “the things that are Caesar’s”, and then He adds: “And to God the things that are God’s”

pic of one son studying his daily Catechism during the first quarter of school

This often-quoted statement means that since the soul of a man belongs to God who made it in His image, all the faculties ought to return to Him, in the sense of paying the tribute of their worship and service.

“We,” says St. Augustine, “are the coins of God stamped with His image, and God demands the return of His coins as Caesar did the return of his.”

And St. Jerome adds: “Let us give to Caesar the money which bears his inscription since we cannot do otherwise, but let us give ourselves freely and of our own accord to God, for what our soul bears is the glorious imprint of the face of a God and not the more or less majestic head of an emperor.”

Bossuet says: “This image will one day pass again through the hands and before the eyes of Jesus Christ, and some day He will look at us and say: Whose image and inscription is this? And the very depth of our being will answer: God’s. It is for Him that we were made and we must bear His stamp upon us. But what has become of the divine features which we ought to bear? Christian soul, may God’s image be in you!”

It is in this sense that we must interpret this Sunday’s Gospel (Matt. XXII. 15-21), one of the last of the ecclesiastical year and in which the Church reminds us of the end of the world.

Thus the Epistle twice speaks of the coming of Christ as nigh at hand. St. Paul prays that “He who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus” (Epistle – Philipp. I. 6-II).

#domgasparlefebvre#twentysecondsundayafterpenecost#tridentinemass

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