Clothed in Virtue

  06-27-21 5th Sunday After Pentecost The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican At a very young age the first thing we learn from the catechism, the first two questions are: Who made you? God made me. Why did God make you? To know him, to love him, and to serve him in this life, and to be happy with Him forever in the next. This is the most basic of all knowledge. We are made for God. We were made to return to God. All men belong to God; all men are for God. Therefore, all men must be religious.  No matter how much the world drifts away from God, they cannot deny the basic truth that we were all made by and made for God. All men are religious. How do we practice our religion? There is a true religious spirit and a false religious spirit. False religion is hypocrisy, where religion is on our lips but not in our hearts. True religion, in contrast, is based on charity. In the Gospel, Our Lord makes a contrast between the false religious spirit and the true religious spirit of ...

 June 20th, 2021 4th Sunday After Pentecost The Miraculous Draught of Fishes by Raphael The victory will come to those who have a great faith. Examples of this great faith: 1. Peter. There is an example of his faith during the event in today's Gospel.  He caught no fish all night long, now it's morning and not the best time to go fishing, not a time that you would expect to get many fish.  The Lord told them to put down their nets.  They got a great catch, more than expected.  There is a great reward for his faith.  We need to have that same confidence and trust in God in times of adversity, rather than trusting on our own strength and ability. 2. Peter's mission as an apostle.  It was not by Peter's own strength that the faith would have a great victory. It was Peter's belief and faith that gave him the strength to lead the Church.  Peter knew his own weakness.  He was a humble fisherman and was chosen to be the head of the whole Church....

06-13-21 St. Peter Penitent by Guido Reni "There shall be joy in heaven over one sinner who does penance." Our Lord says there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who does penance than over 99 who do not need penance.  How is it more pleasing to see a sinner do penance than to see 99 who don't sin?  You can't understand this passage without understanding penance. What is penance?  Penance is sacrifice.  A sacrifice is usually a victim offered to God, offered by a representative of the people, and the victim has to be destroyed.  It shows God's supreme dominion over us.  The animal being sacrificed is meant to represent themselves, as though they were offering themselves to God. The sacrifice of the New Law is the sacrifice of Jesus: he is both the priest offering himself, and the victim. When we say we did a sacrifice or penance, we are talking about offering up our actions.  We usually refer to actions that are difficult to perform.  We ca...

 06-06-21 Second week after Pentecost The Invitation to the Banquet "A certain man made a supper and invited many..." The Feast of Corpus Christi is a very important feast because the Eucharist is the most important gift God has given us.  It is the most important sacrament because it is God giving Himself to us; it is the closest union we can achieve with God on earth. You probably didn't quite understand what you were doing when you received your first communion because you were too young to fully appreciate it.  How much have you grown and changed in your appreciation since then?  Do you have a better disposition now; is it the same, or worse?  Many receive the Eucharist out of routine, failing to understand the great gift that it is. It is worth fighting for.  You should fight your whole life to receive communion.  Great saints prepared every single day to receive the Eucharist and gave thanks afterward.  Then they prepared to receive again. T...