Clothed in Virtue

 September 27th, 2020 "One Lord, one Faith, one baptism." The world is seeking peace.  It started with Adam and Eve, right after the Fall they were looking for peace, for a certain unity of their goal and end.  The world's means of achieving peace comes by arguments and wars with the goal of forcing everyone to agree and have the same opinion.  The problem is that it's not possible on a natural level.  Without God, you cannot have peace.  Peace can only come from the supernatural.  Peace is right order.   You have to have the right order before you can have peace, and you have to have unity before you can have order. Peace by equality? That's not possible because not everyone can be equal. Unity comes from oneness in mind and heart: when we all have the same goal, the same end. If we don't have this oneness of mind, there will be no order and no peace.  We cannot have peace and order without unity, and we cannot have unity without virtue....

 September 20th, 2020 The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio What is the role of these feast days in our lives?  Why does the Church present them to us? Look at the universal whole: an array of beautiful feast days varying in degrees of importance.  Like the night sky full of stars, some shine more brightly than others, but all add the luster of their beauty to the heavens.  The Church is trying to show us these feasts.  Don't let them pass by without giving them any importance.   How many can identify the principle feast of the month of September?  Is it the Nativity of Our Lady?  The Exaltation of the Cross?  The Sorrows of Our Lady?  It's a tragedy if they pass us by, unaware.  Are you more aware of the secular feasts?  The world celebrates them "religiously" -- and there is nothing really wrong with that -- except that these feasts are disconnected by anything higher than the natural world. On a basic level, the fe...

 September 13th, 2020 "I say to thee, arise." The mother is weeping over her dead son.  This was a great act of mercy of Our Lord when he brought him back to life.  It is also a reminder that we will rise to a new life; not an earthly life, but a new heavenly life.  Our body will be reunited at the end of time.  Our Lord foretold many times that there would be a resurrection: to life for the good, and to judgment for the evil.  Our Lord promised this resurrection.  He died on the cross to save mankind; to save the entire man, the whole man, the body and the soul. Because of Adam's sin, all men die.  Because of Christ, the new Adam, all will live. Our Lord wants to stress this point by giving us different types of this nature of death and new life.  (1) Spring is a new life every season after the death of winter.  (2) A seed falls from the plant and comes to life to produce a new plant.  (3) We go to sleep each night with a new risin...