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just a few introductory marks before father novak gives his
conference of course some people cannot stay
they need to go homes but don't worry the conferences are
are streamed on the youtube channel and eventually probably facebook as well so
you can let people know that they can they can listen to or watch and listen
these conferences um on the computer on the youtube
uh as it suits at the time that they need
father novak will will begin soon we'll begin with a prayer
and then he'll give his his conference you you might have heard from last

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sunday that we're trying to use these conferences that each friday of the month
after the evening mass give a conference to
to deepen our faith to learn more about the truths of our faith and about of
course our lord our lady etc uh the series that we're going to begin tonight
will go on for quite some time beyond the the holy sacrifice of the mass
of course we chose this because this is the this year 2020 is the
50th anniversary of the founding the canonical foundation
of the society of saint paise the 10th in 1970
by archbishop with all of the proper authorities it's it's a good time to

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think back upon these 50 years of the wisdom the providence of god the wisdom in
establishing uh archbishop to uh maintain and train priests for the priesthood
for the holy mass of course so that you have the opportunity to
to in these conferences to learn the truths
the important truths of what you what what the mass is
and why it is such an incredible thing that it's worth
dying over it's worth sacrificing over it's worth
making great efforts in this holy mass so we can see
more clearly this year we can see more clearly in these these uh
after 50 years of the founding of the society of saint pius
10th you can also see the damage and the destruction and the
the catastrophic uh problems in the in the novus or mise and then the

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so-called reform of the mass and in the late 60s so this is uh
some of the reasons why we we we need to cover
what is the true mass what is the mass and then of course
simply by presenting what the the nova sort of
is it's it's an obvious comparison it's an obvious
lesson to learn hopefully for our soul so i'll turn over to father novak now who
will start with the prayer and then give the conference foreign

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hail mary full of grace the lord blessed are those women for us
very good my faithful so um i'd like to start with you start out
right away with you with a story and uh that story hopefully will uh
permeate or will come up several times during the conference
and it's about saint philomena the saint who's
we are small we have a small shrine to her in the altar at the entrance of the
church there we're talking about the year 250 after the
coming of our divine lord the church was still in persecution

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but many conversions she this little girl named philomena was a
daughter of a prince in greece her parents were idolaters
they were not christians they had no children and
they had a physician who was from rome working in greece
and he was catholic he was christian and he saw their
their struggle in their trial he said i would like to evangelize you and teach
you about our divine lord jesus christ and
perhaps as payment god of us as a reward for you coming to the faith
god might allow you to conceive a child which is exactly what happened
they came to the faith they were catechized
by this man named publius this physician named publius
and very soon after they conceived a child and they wanted to name her lumina
in honor of the light which is our lord jesus christ

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who takes away the darkness of sin the darkness of idolatry
and darkness of all kind of paganism she was born they named illumina and on
the day of her baptism they called her phil lumina film being a greek word which
means the son of or daughter of this in this case the daughter of the light
who is our lord jesus christ philomena uh she's a beautiful little girl a very
christian very catholic learned all her catechism
loved god offered her virginity to our lord jesus christ at the age of nine
smart little girl she had that all figured out at the age of nine
she offered herself as the spouse of our lord jesus christ
so uh greece is a very important place many city-states and we know that rome
was a very very big large empire at the same time
and rome would go around and uh defeat and colonize and make it part of

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the empire etc and the emperor who was diocletian at
that time we're talking about the year 250 again
uh he wanted to um take over that part of greece
where philomena's parents were the governors we'll use the prince and the
princess and so this father of philomena said well let's go
to rome to see if we can somehow convince the emperor not to attack us
not to make war against our little city state because as far as human
physical manpower is concerned it's nothing he can defeat us in a day no problem
so they went to rome to plead with the emperor and the state why it's not
necessary to make war against them they'd be happy to do his bidding in
other ways and as soon as diocletian saw them and especially with a little girl
a 13 year old girl by that time he said absolutely no problem i have no
problem with any of you but there's one condition that little
girl right there i want her to be my wife and remember we're talking about a 35

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year old man here uh so he wants her to be his wife because she's so
beautiful i'm sure she had a she had a pure countenance
very attractive not just attractive but transparent
and attract well transparent um sort of union with the next world just
by seeing this little girl's face the parents were pleased they
went home the same day they talked to the girl about the situation
and she said absolutely not and she they said to her well
this isn't just for you my darling this is for us your parents
and also for your own country so he does not attack our country
and she said you know that all sounds very impressive
uh it all sounds very persuading and persuasive and all the rest of it but
you don't understand one thing i am a bride
of our lord jesus christ the one that you baptized me
in honor of the light and daughter of the light

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he's my spouse i'm his wife my virginity in this world is not something that i
have power over it's not for me to dispose of
it belongs to christ already i cannot renounce that
without renouncing my lord and savior himself they tried all kinds of you know
pressure with her pleading rewards everything and she said no absolutely not
absolutely not so they brought the girl back with them to the palace of
diocletian the next day to say i'm sorry maybe you can convince her but she does
not want to accept your hand in marriage the emperor was inflamed infuriated
he was angry he threw me into a dungeon i'm sorry this would be philomena
talking he threw me into a dungeon of the palace he came to see me every

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day trying to coax me into changing my mind
he renewed his attacks those would be threats you know if you don't
cooperate this will be done to you that'll be done the other thing we've
done to you uh her captivity came to 37 days in the prison and
our blessed mother appeared to him her with our lord jesus christ her son in her
arms and she said to the saint philomena you'll have three
day three days more of prison and then you'll have to then you shall
leave the prison you are lumina christ is light fear not
i will age you in the moment of struggle grace will aid you along with my angel
gabriel is that significant you know she's going to send our lady is going to
send her angel saint gabriel to direct and guide saint philomena on this journey
because she's not going to just leave the prison that's going to be the end of
it she's going to be martyred three different times and she'll survive

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each time until finally they take the last blow but the angel gabriel
will accompany her and it's our lady who's going to send the injured gabriel
uh angel gabriel because he's associated with the incarnation
he's associated with putting christ in the world
angel gabriel who our lady puts christ in the world angel gabriel
through saint philomena is going to put christ in the world
and then it's our lady who makes this announcement to the saint philomena
meaning that by submitting your will to god by renouncing your own will
by having resignation to god's will you're going to do a
huge work of grace in this world it's significant that our lady appeared
to saint filamento to encourage her because it shows something of the same
mission by submitting your will you're not renouncing your will you do

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you'll do a huge work of grace in this life so as she was let out of the prison
she went to see diocletian again she said that no she was not convinced she
was not going to marry him and he said fine you follow a leader who was
crucified uh he was scourged you like him so much well we're going to treat
you the same way so she was scourged to the point that she was bathed in blood
her whole body was one open wound back to the dungeon
that very night two angels appeared they put a soothing balm on her wounds
and the next day she was cured the emperor saw her and she said he said
to her this is my friend and god jupiter who has done this thanks to your
friendship with me you've been cured and he told her to be his wife again she
said absolutely not the divine spirit filled me with fruit and knowledge fruits
of the holy ghost obviously and knowledge the gift of the holy ghost
next step was he put an anchor around her neck

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and had her cast into the tiber it's interesting
i can't exactly picture the logistics of this but she must have been brought out
into the middle of the type or with the anchor around her
the executioners must have thrown her over the boat
and she didn't even touch the water angels came and released that anchor
from her neck and she was born or carried to the shore of the river
without ever getting wet and this as you can imagine made many
converts like we've said in the past in some sermons
there were many graces at the beginning of the church to make
converse to the faith many converts were made because of her arriving at shore
completely dry and this and they they embraced christianity
diocletian was angry he saw this as all so much witchcraft
and what he do he had her dragged through the city behind a chariot
making her into one large wound again and then had her shot with arrows

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and brought back to the dungeon once again angels in a dungeon cured her so this
explains why when you see statues of saint philamine or images
she has arrows in her hands she has a scourge she has an anchor
and if i'm leaving anything out she has it all you know she went through many
martyrdoms back to the dungeon remember this is an
emperor who wants to marry her this is what he does
to people that he wants to marry this is the world and this is the life without
the faith and without the grace of our lord jesus christ
back to the dungeon next day she was brought out again
and he was going to kill her for good this time for not for saying that she
would not be his bride he sent archers he sent her to the archers again
and this time they set the heads of the arrows uh the arrowheads on fire
or she says darts they put the darts on fire
and so she had at least you know ten men shooting arrows at her at once

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and the arrows miraculously uh turned route in their trajectory into
their flight they turned route and went right back to the men who had shot them
and six men died six of the archers died because of these arrows flame flaming
arrows being shot and the rest of them did not persist in shooting at her
many people converted and this was a huge testimony of the divinity of our lord
jesus christ so three different attempts at martyring her at least
all of which he survived and finally you know she's the bride of christ she
wants to be with our lord after this great testimony was made to
his divinity and many converts were made then our lord was ready to take her to
himself his bride and so finally it was a friday
it was three o'clock in the afternoon when the emperor
had her um wounded in the neck someday some say she was beheaded
it seems more apparent that she was actually um stabbed in the neck

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with a spear and that is what killed her that's what was her final martyrdom
so the point here being that this is someone saint philomena
who believes in the divinity of our lord jesus christ
who understands the necessity of the crucifixion of our lord jesus christ
and finally who understands the necessity of our union
with the crucifixion of our lord jesus christ so he can
he can continue to win his grace for the redemption of souls
and win the sanctification the conversion and the sanctification of many souls
not just his act on the holy cross but our act along with him on the cross
to convert sinners to sanctify souls and to bring them to heaven
and that's the reason i started with that anecdote or that story of the martyr
so that we could see that as a a backdrop behind this class and all these
classes sacrifice is from our lord jesus christ

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it is shared out to his of the members of his mystical body
and that's what wins the redemption with him and converts
sinners you're going to see uh this coming sunday in the bulletin maybe it's
already gone out on telegram father summers has put in there a very good
transcription of the sermon of archbishop lefeve on the occasion of his
50th anniversary of priesthood so that's a jubilee
and what did he speak about he spoke spoke about the holy mass
in particular the holy sacrifice of the mass
and he speaks about when he was in um gabon gabon as a recently ordained
priest back in the 1930s he worked for 12 years there and he says
the holy sacrifice of the mass it was amazing the effect it had on souls
of course it changed them spiritually but even besides that
it changed them in the way they behaved at home

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it changed them in the way they uh learned and
were educated in school it changed them in the way they worked
in business it changed the economical world and finally changed the political
world when everything is focused on the sacrifice of our lord jesus christ
all of a sudden people do miraculous things and they are more they practice more
sacrifice and staying faithful to their duty they practice more sacrifice in
receiving injustice and attacks and all the rest
of it and only responding in a christian way
and finally all the sufferings that they do have
are something that they don't talk about they don't complain about
they understand this is being offered in union with our lord and that's what
saves souls and that's how sacrifice changes a nation
um holy sacrifice of the mass once i heard a retreat preacher speaking
about the holy sacrifice of the mass to his deacons and sub-deacons that were

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on the retreat saying some relatives of mine came to my ordination
they were present for the archbishop lefebvre's sermon and they said your bishop
he seems to have a panchant or pinchon hang up preoccupation
to keep talking about sacrifice and the sacrifice and the holy sacrifice of the
mass he just keeps mentioning it all the time and um the priest
who had been ordained that year said to his relatives
i haven't thought about it that much before but you're right he's always
speaking about that and he said to them it's because he knows
the archbishop knows that that's what's gone
in the mass of today that has gone in our society in which we live
is the sacrifice of our lord jesus christ this idea that

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going through hardship against one's will
and further yet renouncing one's will in order to go along with that hardship to
give glory to god that doesn't exist in our society anymore it used to exist
and that's why you found sisters and nuns that would leave their own country
to go to a missionary country never seeing their family or their home again
going through all kinds of sacrifice sacrifices
to give the divinity of our lord jesus christ to souls
it was all about that there was a almost an equity equality between
how much sacrifice they made and how much life of the redeemer came into souls
sacrifice was present and so sacrifice is what
converted souls and we need to get back to that
so as father summers was telling you these classes are going to be about
the holy sacrifice of the mass to better know and appreciate it so we

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can love and profit from it uh the more we know about these truths
the mass of all time the more we can appreciate it in
comparison compares it in what is comparison to
what is lacking in the reform of the mass nowadays
and the sacrifice of the mass is something that we watch
and not just watch we assist at and it must become a sacrifice in our own life
so with that i'll bring i'll begin with some notes and some principles and some
terms these kind of things a little bit more like a class
uh but hopefully things will continue in the spirit of a conference
so that you don't feel like you have to get out of notepad if you don't have the
notepad you're taking notes that you're somehow
not profiting in all the rest of it but this is about the holy sacrifice of
the mass you must remember that there are three
words that will keep coming up in these classes in these conferences

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first of all religion which is the virtue religion
and then next adoration which is the first of four
reasons why we pray and finally sacrifice we must have religion or the virtue of
religion because god has given us all good things he created me out of nothing
he gave me parents and food in a house and clothing i didn't do
anything to get that none of us did and then we in adam and eve but also
through our own fault we have sinned against our lord jesus
christ and then he gives us a second chance all these things are completely
gratuitous it means it comes from god i had nothing to do with it
i know i have not earned this in any way but god has given me
all the good things we have in this life um
he has um yeah sorry he's given me life all the good things we have in his life
and he gave me a second chance these are three things that i could

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never pay back to god but every time i make the sign of the cross or i pray
the rosary i assisted master i make a genuflection i i'm somehow attempting
to pay back to god those things which he's given me
so this religion is an infinite debt that we're trying to pay back
it's it subjects man to the will of god and brings man into the closest
communication with god it makes our human will give to god the
adoration which is due to him and uh actually this is the greatest perfection
of man to be subject to the being above us and that's a little bit hard a little
hard concept to get in our mind how is it that being subject is actually
my glory how's it being submissive to god is somehow my greatest happiness

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well it's a principle every creature meets its happiness or glory when it
comes into service of the of the being above it for us it's god
but you could say for um our body our body isn't subjection to our soul
and it is the glory of our body to obey our soul all the way to heaven
in the world outside you have air and wind and
so forth all these things are subject to the sun and the air and the wind and
everything of the atmosphere that we observe
has glory insofar as it works for the sun
now this one might sound like a bit of a stretch and maybe even unfair
i happen to like fishing fishing is a great sport and past
time and a great satisfaction to bring one of those

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creatures on board the boat and it sounds
like a guy thing but well to kill it and eat it
it's a wonderful thing and as long as you do these things in proportion
good stewards of god and so forth that's what we're supposed to do
and even a fish i suppose he's not so happy about it uh
but he got a good piece of bait out of it he got a good uh whatever
match and a little sporting match with someone uh in a certain way he
is coming to his glory by giving serving the next class above him which is human
beings perhaps not such a good comparison
because it involves so much pain for the animal
but any being serving the being above it in our case god
is that's what's giving it its glory and you know
how things are working ever since original sin i know that
six thousand years of history of man but especially in the last 200 years
there's this great rebellion against the
presence of our lord jesus christ in the church

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and started with the french revolution and probably before that but ever since
then last 200 years there's this idea that man
does not have happiness man does not have glory
unless he's doing his own thing and things like the ten commandments
and the laws of the church and the obligation to be at mass and follow what
the church says in your own private life those are things to be cast
away because they are inhibiting your liberty no that's horrible that's bad
because those false ideas false principles are taking away from
man the opportunity to be submissive to the being above him which is god so
it effectually is taking away our happiness
curious no taking away our happiness by not allowing us
to sacrifice ourselves with along with our lord jesus christ on the cross

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on the altar as well in order to give glory to his father and to
redeem souls convert souls and sanctify them so religion is this virtue religion
its highest expression is adoration adoration is um
recognizing the greatness of god and our littleness beside him
and adoration is not just in prayer but adoration has its greatest expression
in sacrifice sacrifice is when we renounce something which is dear to us
in order to show the person that we're sacrificing to
which normally is and should be god in order to show
the person that we're sacrificing to that he is worth much more than anything i
love in this world i would sacrifice i would give up

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anything i have in this life in order to please him you know i have a nice car
some other car represents me i feel identified with it
well if god wants it to be sold or given to someone else
because i don't need it anymore um i happily separate myself from that
because i love god more than i love that possession
and god deserves to see that i think he's much more important than that part
of my life now keep in mind that when we use the word sacrifice it covers
a pretty broad spectrum we know that sacrifice um par excellence the best one is
right here the holy sacrifice the making present of our lord's
sacrifice on calvary 2000 years ago we know that
however we can speak of sacrifice kind of in analogous ways comparative ways
a very familiar way that we hear it is it's lent what are you going to give up

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i'm not going to eat in between meals eating between meals
that's going to be a sacrifice that i offer for the love of god
well how is not eating a few you know snacks between meals in any way related
to this infinite sacrifice of our lord on the altar
and the answer is our lord in the altar is thus infinite sacrifice the adequate
sacrifice it pays an infinite debt to his father
for our infinite offense which is sin [Music]
but somehow some way way down the line very very far away a small and tiny
thing that i might do i'm not going to eat something in
between meals during 40 days it has something similar in it which is
that costs me a little bit i'm in the habit of eating some
potato chips or whatever the thing might be in between meals
and it probably doesn't hurt me that much at all

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but i'm renouncing my will when i say i want to eat that
but you know what i'm not going to because even though my will says i
should i want that there's a greater part of my part of my
will that says i really want to give glory to god first so i can
renounce some small things like this and that's how
a concept so big as sacrifice can go all the way from the altar which
is the infinite sacrifice of our lord all the way down to something that small
i will um remember what i told you about sacrifice being
sorry adoration being this expression that god is everything and i am nothing
and the best way i can show it to god that i really mean that is by sacrifice
i give up something in my own say i give up something of myself to show you

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you're much greater than me man is nothing in comparison to god
he is but a fleeting presence that is here today and gone tomorrow
therefore man must bow down before god the angels and saints are already doing
it in heaven now it's time for man to join with them
we have to put man in his place you know
i know we hear everything nowadays about rights of man
and human rights and our liberties and these kind of principles very popular
but usually usually they are at the expense of saying god's rights
and my um like we were just saying the glory of myself in submitting myself
to god and finally when they say liberty and liberty and liberty too much
quite often unfortunately what they mean is
liberty to not obey the ten commandments liberty to not

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have control over my passions liberty to do what i would like whatever i want
well that's called license or licentiousness it means no check at all
on my tendencies and usually ending up in offending god and harming neighbor
all right so it's good to we have to put man in his place
he's nothing in comparison to god he must bow down before god
as the angels and saints are already doing in heaven and that is their
greatest glory but do remember that blessed trinity
has great happiness amongst its three members
and the blessed trinity wants to share that happiness and that love
they have with themselves with themselves outside of themselves
and so when the blessed trinity sees man they see the potential the possibility
of extending their own love and their own happiness
to souls and they get that gives them great glory that gives them great

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satisfaction we may be very low but we have the capacity
to possess inside of ourselves the very life which is the life of the blessed
trinity god is very happy that to share that out to souls
something like parents of a child when they see this child start to think
a little bit and start to have his or her likes and dislikes and they see that
a few of these things are things that they have taught the child that gives
great pleasure to the parents to see the goodness of themselves repeating
in that creature something very similar with god um
the virtue of religion gives us a desire to make greater acts of homage to god
first kind of acts of homage would be those which we give to the x which give
god due acknowledgement such as offering sacrifice or fulfilling vows

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it would be for religious a second kind of homage to god acts of all the other
virtues insofar as they direct they are directed to
the glory of god all right like we've been saying
religion is the moral virtue which unites us to god any kind of practice of
renouncing your self-will in the honor of god gives him great glory
so please remember that we adore god and as an immediate result
of adoring god we're going to have we're going to have thoughts of
giving him thanks for everything good that he's given us and also asking for
the other things that we need thanksgiving and supplication and
finally because we all have a tendency towards sin
another purpose of the virtue of religion is going to be
to beg pardon for sin or propitiation please remember that when we have the

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holy mass the holy sacrifice of the mass it is not something which is only a
thought and that's important it is important that the mass is the
thought and it's a sentiment from the heart
but it's something that has to show on the outside and the reason is
a man is not an angel angels are pure spirits they can give glory to god just by
thinking about god but a man is a spirit and a body
so not just his spirit but his body also must be involved in giving glory to god
and that's why we have physical things at the altar we have candles
we have bells and incense we have beautiful vestments we have the beauty
of the altar because man is a corporeal being
things physical have to be involved with the sacrifice
just as things spiritual and you know this is something that really separates
us from protestants uh protestants have this idea that man is an angel
he just has to think about it with god and the sins are forgiven he just says

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think about it with god and and somehow he's praising god without a sacrifice
that is so important sacrifice is this like i told you this
highest act of the virtue of religion highest
form of adoration sacrifice is saying that god
is everything and he deserves whatever renouncement of myself
so he received glory from me very good so i had a resolution that i
would not go over 30 minutes and that's where we are right now so
i'll be closing up as father summers told you there'll be
some comparison with what we see in the church of the last 50 years
and that's the closing remarks i'll make you now see some of the ideas
which support this principle that sacrifice
is absolutely necessary for adoration of god

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there is no adoration of god without sacrifice
there's no other way the man can prove to god you are everything for me
if he's not giving something up of himself
the best thing we can give up is god's own son who is our brother in this holy
sacrifice of the mass because he's an infinite sacrifice with
infinite value on his blood the creation of the new mass in 1969
completely abandoned this necessary sacrifice
and this is not merely my opinion it is the very intention of those the would-be
reformers who wrote the new mass they want to
abandon sacrifice the new definition the definition they put on the new mass
is the following it's rather theological and um it is um repugnant for me

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because every single word that has substance they immediately change it into
perhaps another meaning which has no substance
here we are they say the lord's supper or mass is the sacred assembly or
congregation of the people of god gathering together
with the priest presiding in order to celebrate
the memorial of the lord we did not see the word sacrifice not one time in there
we didn't see the word adoration we are celebrating a memorial
i could do that if i went to the cemetery with the soldiers and had a
whatever it is a 13 gun salute and that would be celebrating the
memorial of those people it's still not even an act of religion
all right you get the idea so you might think well
maybe they said that and made a mistake and some some people are actually
meaning good when they say these are these words
because they can be used in couple in quite a few different senses so maybe

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there's some good that we can recover from what they said perhaps but just to
bring the point home as if that wasn't clear enough
one of the writers who was a certain father brandolini
he later commented and made clear that the assembly of the people
is the primary definition and quality of the new mass
it is no longer firstly the sacrifice these are his words huh
it is no longer first of the sacrifice but the gathering of the people
which is the new order of the mass no further comment necessary
there's no real commentary needed when you see how the novus ordo
compares to the traditional maps there we are
uh that's all for tonight i think father summers already explained to you
that we'll have these spiritual conferences on friday evenings

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except for the first friday of the month and we'll say a prayer you