00:00
for god instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the holy ghost
by the same spirit we truly wise never to rejoice in this consolation
to the same christ our lord amen hail mary full of grace the lord

00:01
saying thomas aquinas good evening so i'd like to speak with you
from the beginning about our hero or heroine and actually
saint philomena just to get some dates right in our mind about this
this very historic saint the emperor who put
saint philomena to death was diocletian he was emperor from the year 284 until
305 305. philomena lived from 291 until 304
so notice that her martyrdom was just about one year short

00:02
of the end of his reign as emperor and some say that he really despaired
after that event when philomena won the battle against him
for staying pure the man just went kind of crazy
that someone is small and delicate and uh ladylike as saint philomena was
able to defeat him on this point she he could not win her
with any offer of worldly power and he could not win her with any threats
so he died about a year later and then came his successor constantine
who reigns from the year 306 to 337 which is 30 years and we all know that
under constantine well first of all he converted and then
he converted the empire so it seems uh with that with philomena
saint philomena we have this turn from the the

00:03
the maximum persecution that they could offer to a christian was
given to her and then because of her strong prayers and her strong
intercession the roman empire itself flipped i know there are many saints
before her but she's a turning point and just as we saw last week her name is
the daughter of light our lady told her you have my name
our lady's name means star and moon or star of the sea and moon and
dawn and then the son of our blessed mother
our lord jesus christ he is the son he is the light
and he is the one who frees us from darkness so
there's a lot of connection there between our lord and our blessed mother
and then this saint and then the saint philomena and then this time
of the empire when her life was so she was concealed from the world

00:04
after that from the year 304 until the year 1502 as i told you a few
classes back excuse me 1802 so that means uh there were 1500 years that she was
just in obscurity no even more than that not known at all
and then she comes out of nowhere her name is in no martyrology
that's a study of the martyrs that we read each morning
at the divine office and no other historical account
but there's no doubt as to the authenticity of her grave
and we talked about that um two classes ago
last class we talked about saint john vianney and his
relation with saint philomena so what i'm going to say this evening and
it might get a little bit long we'll see and i might be doing a lot of reading
because there's some details which just are to be read
uh this evening we're going to see how that saint

00:05
saint philomena was uh contained in that tomb for 1500 years
and when she was able to come out into the open again after 1500 years
she's just an explosion of the work of grace in souls
what has been kept quiet and secret and contained
restricted for 1500 years just explodes in conversions and also miracles and
healings and saving lives and well most importantly more important than every
anything is sanctification of souls especially because of her purity and she
gave that purity to the souls 1500 laters same country italy starting from the
same city rome about 1500 years had passed a different
kind of people to speak in different language but the same place so along

00:06
with that i'll continue the story in the year 1805 which was
uh three years after the discovery of the relics
bishop to cesare went to rome he's a bishop of certain
diocese called potenza he went to rome to congratulate the pope
pius vii on his return to italy from france
why was the pope in france he was there held captive under
napoleon so we're talking about the french revolution
and spreading the revolution to the rest of the world napoleon was
conquering and occupying other countries he
bishop de chester was accompanied by don francesco a priest
de lucia from the parish of munyano italy near naples this priest wanted to
bring back a full body relic of a virgin martyr to his parish which only a saint
could convert his perish it had gone so worldly and indifferent
and immoral because it was suffering so much from the french

00:07
revolutionary spirit his parish was infected with revolutionary ideas
resentment against authority of the church unbelief and immorality
father francesco went to visit the custodial generale
that's a place where all the relics are kept in rome
there were 13 such relics of full body saints
only three of them were known saints including saint philomena
for the past three years when he approached the
relics he had an inexplicable joy in his heart and all the heaviness of the sad
situation of his parish left him he wanted that relic
bishop cesare requested it for him but the request was refused instead they
were given another relic that of saint therma during their stay in rome
father francesco became deathly ill he prayed to saint philomena he said

00:08
that if she cured him he would take her for his special patroness
and he would give her great reverence in his church
in munyano he was instantly cured the bishop was convinced that this was a
miracle he told the director of the custodial about this
and they were granted the relic of saint philomena
the rest is history that's an expression we
say we used to say that the famous story all started there uh it
it only gets better from here that was the beginning of the longest series of
miracles attributed to anyone to any one saint in the history of the
catholic church so let us hear about the beginning of
miracles of saint philomena now you know we're talking about a box
a casket of relics that have been hidden for 1500 years and this saint

00:09
has not had the opportunity to work any of our miracles
physically present with other souls she might have been working miracles and
certainly intercession in heaven for many many years in the catacombs
but now not only is it going to be known between her and god what's going on
it's going to be known between the faithful that's us the church militant
and her and god so it was actually under the command of pope leo the 12th
that the relics were assigned to the parish of muniano on the 21st of july 1805.
that'll be yes that's that's right at this time so the carriage ride
where father de francesco and the bishop um cesare returning to naples
and then munano began in rome on this day
no correct that's not right it was some it was

00:10
some weeks before july 21st and i'll tell you why in a little bit
so the carriage ride of the bishop and father francesco from rome to naples
naples was already eventful saint philimino's relics were
securely fastened under the seat of the bishop
three different times he had he had to stop the carriage three different times
he had to stop the carriage because something was sharply striking at his legs
even though this box of relics below his seat could not move
he was being struck by something that was seen to be coming
out of the box he put the relics on his lap
after being molested and bothered three times and the problem ceased
saint philomena would only be carried with the most on her
they reached naples on the 2nd of july 1805 and that's why the former data gave
you was not possible for the beginning of their trip
but it would have only been a few days of journey there
bishop de cesare officially recognized the relics

00:11
they distributed the remains of the relics in five packets
they opened the casket and they made five packets of the relics
every time they opened up the general box of relics
in order to take out some pieces a strong perfume odor exuded from within
the first packet was her vial of blood the second was her severely crushed
and fractured skull the other three packets were a combination of bones with
ashes uh the bones were much more intact than any other saint of that much time
in the catacombs and the ashes which come from the flesh
actually looked much fresher than any other than any other ashes
coming from other saints which have been reserved in the catacombs for so long
while they were in naples the relics were encased in a paper mache

00:12
statue this was put into an ebony case they began to put clothing on the statue
it was constantly exuding a perfume smell the woman that was
one of the women that was helping to clothe the statue was donna
angela terres teres in whose house they were actually working
and she was helping to dress the statue she had been suffering from an incurable
disease for 12 years her husband and friends had begun to fear for her life
i'll come back to the story about one paragraph
there started to be disorder in the terrorist house because of visitors
trying to come and flock together to see this saint
they took the body to the local parish church for three days
since no miracles were happening there they decided to bring the body back to
the terrace house so these italians italians are very insistent that

00:13
if a saint is worth her is worth anything he or she will work miracles promptly
a woman with gang green in the hand came to the house
she was slated or slated to be operated on
on the next day with an amputation they took some of the relics of saint
philomena to this woman with the gangrenous hand
and it was completely healed by the next morning
a lawyer who had been suffering from sciatica for six months came to the house
sciatica is this nerve somewhere in our waist
that when it's damaged it's it gives great pain
to our legs and our back and everything else he prayed fervently at the tomb
and was instantly cured back to the story of dona angela the one
that was helping to give dress to saint filamento before the body
was taken from the terrorist house saint philomena showed her appreciation
for such a warm reception by curing dona angela terres

00:14
don angela she was the one with the incurable disease for 12 years
she could not bear to part with a relic father francesco who was traveling with
bishop de chazare father francesca gave her the key to the urn or the casket
and said that she and her family would always be the owners of the body
he would only be the custodian no matter where saint philomena was
i think i'll have to leave the story at that moment that point
uh so we can get on with the sacrifice of the mass but um
it's a pleasure to relate to you this journey of the relics
relics of saint philomena because uh you might have heard that just yesterday
the body of archbishop lefeve was transferred from
a temporary resting place for the last almost 30 years
to his permanent resting place in the big church they have
at the cone seminary now so with the transfer of his

00:15
body yesterday that made me think of the transfer of the relics of saint
philomena which is a big part of our story seeing
her start to work these miracles on so many people very good so last week
when we talked about the holy sacrifice of the mass some of the um
more emphasized points were that the sacrifice of our lord is the
unbloody sacrifice on the altar our lord remains in heaven
mediating for us his main mediation is his wounds the two in the two hands
the two feet and the side which are constantly exposed and they
are a constant prayer to his father gaining pardon for us and not just pardon
but the graces we need to sanctify ourselves
because as we know the sacrifice of our lord and the calvary
was infinitely sufficient to pay for all of our sins

00:16
and that's the only way that god wanted it was the sacrifice on calvary
but besides that it's also infinitely sufficient to gain
all the graces we need to sanctify ourselves so our lord is
mediating in heaven by his five wounds without any misery to himself
without any suffering to himself and at the same time
he is offering he's continuing to offer his sacrifice
here on earth by the unbloody sacrifice on the altar and remember that unbloody
sacrifice is the clean oblation which is offered throughout the whole world
throughout all of time ever since the crucifixion
and that makes it a superior sacrifice to any things
anything that happened in the old testament first of all because it's the
sacrifice which is really adequate to pay for sin that of our lord jesus christ
and then it's superior because because it's clean it's not the messy
uh you might use the word dirty sorry oblation

00:17
that people made in the old testament it is the sacrifice of melchizedek
our lord is the priest according to the order of mecca
he offers a sacrifice of bread and wine which becomes body and blood so superior
because it pays for the debt and superior because it is the clean sacrifice
and i also insisted last week that only the priest
offers the holy sacrifice of the mass the faithful are present
but he is the one who offers the faithful are the one who ones who
participate in the prayer of the mass they are the church along with the priest
and the the the mass is offered by sorry the sacrifice is offered by
lord jesus christ the mass is offered by the church which is the priest
the faithful are present but only he the only the priest offers and the faithful

00:18
help insofar as their present praying so this evening i want to consider with
you that the holy sacrifice of the mass has the three
elements of sacrifice first of all it has the gift
it has the priest and has the action of sacrifice speaking of the gift
our lord is made present by the visible species of bread and wine
and since i already told you about how the bread and wine
are superior to the sacrifice of the old testament there's enough said on that
point and then it has the sacrifice the mass has a sacrificing priest

00:19
now this priest directly is our lord jesus christ there is only one priest
of the new testament and of the new and eternal
sacrifice it is our lord jesus christ but he he makes that sacrifice present
through his minister which is the priest that you see at the altar
so the only difference we have between calvary and the altar
is that on the side on the on the cross of calvary
our lord merited all the propitiation for our sins please remember that there
are four purposes of prayer for ends of prayer
and likewise there are four purposes of the sacrifice of the mass

00:20
and they are adoration first of all of god
and then thanksgiving for all the grace is given to us
and then propitiation for our sins and then finally only petition
impatration for the things we need to be to be sanctified
to sanctify ourselves on the cross all the merit for propitiation was one
we don't have to do anything more to merit propitiation
that's all been done on the cross however applying the fruits of the redemption
applying the fruits of this merit of propitiation
requires the holy sacrifice of the mass and that is why at the last supper
our lord said to his apostles right away as soon as they
consumed his flesh and drunk his blood he said
do this in commemoration of me he was giving them the power to be priests

00:21
and to consecrate and he was saying this sacrifice that you have seen made
present or at least represented by this last supper all of you must continue to
offer why so that the sacrifice of the cross will be applied to souls
that's such an important point and that's what separates a catholic from
any other kind of christian in quotation marks who's not really christian
uh and unfortunately we have to admit that the
novus ordo mass and the nova sort of tendency in the church now
is to go this way too to take the emphasis off of sacrifice
and to take the emphasis off of the sacrifice of the mass
you know it's been repeated many times that the words of padre pio are
that the earth or the world would be better off without the sun
than it would be without the mass what does he mean by that
he means that without the holy sacrifice of the mass there is

00:22
no way that the merits and the fruits of the cross can get to the souls
you see a protestant is all about um you know just kind of wishing it
happens or praying that it happens whatever you ask a protestant if they've
confessed their sins and they said yes yes i
yes i spoke to god and he knows my sins and i'm forgiven.
you ask a protestant if he is um attended church and said yes i went to
church and we listened to the minister and we prayed together and we listened
to hymns we sang hymns and we also had fellowship with our neighbor
uh you're constantly finding a pride in a protestant that
there's no physical connection to the grace and the graces that they
hope to be receiving one of the definitions of a sacrament in
the catholic church is that is a it is a visible sign of an invisible grace

00:23
so when someone gets baptized you see water
you see the action of water cleansing a body
and what you're seeing on the outside is what is being effected on the inside
and we catholics recognizes that our lord jesus christ
used physical things to work cures and to work miracles
whether he was using water or clay or his own
saliva he was using physical things all the time to work his cures
and so the catholic church continues in the same spirit of physical things
which represent the grace that's going on so when you come to holy mass
you are seeing the priest at the altar making present again the sacrifice of

00:24
calvary by bread and wine which represent our lord jesus christ
but then they become our lord jesus christ and the souls
receive the body and blood soul and divinity of our lord jesus
christ they receive that sacrifice into their own souls and then that
sacrifice of our lord on the cross becomes their own sacrifice in their own
life because they've received of that sacrifice
through the mass through the holy mass and this very important point every
sacrifice of the mass is an immolation immolation
i think we all know what that word means it's a complete destruction of a victim
with the intention of showing to god you are worth more than what i'm offering
so our divine lord on the cross allowed himself to be immolated
in a way he was immolating himself because he was in charge of every single
soldier that was executing him but our lord on the cross allowed

00:25
himself to be immolated or destroyed so he could offer up that obedience to
his father and that same sacrifice of our lord is present on the altar
and you there is a complete immolation insofar as
the host that the priest consecrates at mass the large host
and the wine that he consecrates in mass are completely consumed
all right we might think that after communion the priest has a few steps to
take care of in front of the tabernacle before we
continue with the mass while he's simply cleaning up the vessels
with respect so that nothing will be left behind that's true
it's he is cleaning and purifying and all the rest of it but he's making sure
that every last particle of that large hose which he consecrated
is consumed and he's making sure that every last drop of that chalice which he
consecrated is consumed because if not it is not a complete immolation
and our lord must be immolated on the altar also our lord must be made present

00:26
on the altar of body and blood now we know by doctrine
that every single particle of every single host no matter how small you make it
is all of christ we do not receive a corpse a cadaver christ we are
receiving christ as he reigns in heaven right now made
present through his sacrifice which was in a a violent shedding of his blood
but it's all of christ every single particle of every host
every single drop of every single precious blood
every chalice is our lord jesus christ body and blood soul and divinity however
in a certain way at holy mass there is a mystical separation of body
from blood by the consecration happening first over the host this is my body

00:27
and then over the chalice this is the chalice of my blood
the two things in a certain way are separated
which means the death the sacrifice the immolation if a priest
only consecrated one let's say you only consecrated the host
and then forgot to consecrate the other one or there was an earthquake and had
to bend in the altar as i don't know what there would be the presence of christ
but there would not be the sacrifice of christ that's how important is the
two things are consecrated one after the other
so we have uh the sacrificial gift which is the wine which uh water bread
and wine made into the body and blood of christ then we have the
sacrificing priest who is our lord jesus christ but through the
minister that we see at the altar and since i'm on that point i better

00:28
stay there uh the priest has a great obligation to sanctify himself
we might reflect who is the very first one who brought christ down from heaven
to this earth and the answer is the mother of god the blessed virgin mary
the blessed virgin mary had no sin the blessed virgin mary was always
working on a greater or greater obedience to god's will and a
greater submission of her own will just like her son eventually would do
in his human nature our lady suffered greatly in order to unite
herself with a passion all of this is very sanctifying in the blessed mother
there was no room for not sanctifying so as the church fathers used to say
it's true that the priest will always have the power

00:29
to draw down god from heaven and put him on the altar there's no
doubt about that he is the ordained minister
just as our lord gave that power to his own apostles and very likely judas
himself just our lord gave that part of the apostles all priests have it
but now they've got to get their lives to be somehow corresponding um
conducive to corresponding to that great holiness to that that
great holiness that's going on at the altar when they call down
god from heaven and the one that should be praying to is the
mother of god because she had that great holiness
she didn't call down god from heaven but he was made present inside of her and
then in the world through her that's why every priest has to have

00:30
a great devotion to the mother of god because in a certain way he's fulfilling
the same function as she did she's the um
i think that's called the the exemplary cause of priests very good and finally
uh in this sacrificial gift sacrificing priest we have the action of sacrifice
the action of sacrifice happens in the mass precisely at
the words of consecration there's no way we can get away from that
uh in the traditional mass we insist on the holiness
uh the primacy of these words of consecration
by separating them off off from the rest of the mass
in what's called the canon so you know at the beginning of the mass

00:31
everything from the prayers the foot of the altar until the
until the gospel you have what's called the mass of the catechumens
or also known as the instructional part of the mass
in the old days that's when the catechumens left the church and the mass
was only for the faithful in fact that's where we get the word mass
because the catechumens were dismissed m-i-s-s
missed and that word eventually became known as mass in english
the catechumens are dismissed and those who are the true faithful stay
that gave its word that gave its gave the name to the mass
and and then begins the canon shortly after the offertory is total silence
where the priest is speaking individually to god and that's when the
the the consecration happens there's no way around the consecration

00:32
that's where christ really becomes present and this is a real
sacrifice again which represents the violence separate
the violent separation of christ's body from his blood
this is what preserves souls from eternal perdition
the making present of christ sacrifice because that's what gives the merit
of his cross to the souls so it's very important that we get in
our minds that this is not just a memorial now you can read it in those flyers
outside in our bookstore there's triptychs whatever they call us
one flyer that says why the traditional latin mass and why
not the new that's a flyer which has been around for about 30 years or more
and they give 62 reasons why the new mass is not acceptable
one of them is that they just refer to it as a memorial
it's a way of making present in our minds what happened with jesus with our

00:33
lord jesus christ at the last supper with his apostles or it's a
yeah it's a recollection a re-celebration of the last supper
and a word we hear quite often nowadays is that it's the celebration of the
eucharist without any idea of the word sacrifice the mass is not just a memorial
it's a true and a real and effective sacrifice if it were just a memorial
it would not be sanctifying our soul or saving us from perdition
so what i've just told you about sacrificial gifts sacrificing priests
and action of sacrifice this has been the word of our savior as
i told you from the last supper the apostles the fathers of the church
the liturgy of the church and all the faith of the church have
practiced this same idea of sacrificing priest

00:34
action of sacrifice and sacrificial gift now in the
uh sacrifice of the mass we might wonder well if it's an infinite sacrifice uh
and it completely pays the debt of my sin and it gains from me all the grace
that i need to sanctify my soul why is it that we're constantly
repeating it you know infinite is infinite you can't measure
that you can't break that down and say it wasn't enough payment the answer is
the eucharist is the sacrifice of our lord and of his church
in as much as the church offers it and is offered with it
the faithful should offer themselves with all their labors
their sufferings and their prayers and their with their body and soul so you may
notice at mass there are some uh there's at least one um

00:35
portrayal of this when the priest is in the offertory and he puts wine in
the chalice he puts mostly wine in the chalice and
this is just a then just a tiny drop of water after that
why do you need water in the chalice when you're just consecrating wine to
make that the precious blood and the answer is that tiny drop of
water which the priest puts in there that represents us christ is the wine
the rich flavorful um and sweet and solid solid flavor
strong flavor that's the sacrifice of our lord which is infinite completely
efficacious etc and then the little drop of water is us
tiny just a little bit no flavor no kind
of like no substance either but we're in there
and a priest has to put that drop of water in them the mass will still be valid
if he doesn't put it in there but he's committing a mortal sin if he purposely
does not put that in there uh that's one thing

00:36
the other one is the elements which are used for the holy sacrifice
are bread and wine the bread is made up of many grains
as in many faithful make up the church of our lord jesus christ
and the wine is made from many grapes as in many faithful make up the church so
uh in the mass well this the eucharist is a sacrifice sacrifice of our lord
and of his church in as much as the church offers it
and is offered with it so when you go to mass
you have to bring something to it so to speak i know you bring your missile and
you bring you know your rosary your chapel veil
whatever it is yes physically those things but
when you go to mass you bring something to it
meaning the sufferings that you're going to go through
perhaps the successes you have the um joys you have any joys you have and even

00:37
the miseries you have you bring it all to mass and in this
spiritual way you put that on the paten with the priest at mass to be offered
with our lord jesus christ but this is where you know the question
was if the mass is infinite why do we have to have a repeated so
often and the answer is its application to us is still
infinite but then we're like um well we're like let's say a child in
kindergarten sorry for such an extreme example a child in kindergarten
with a 25 year old teacher teaching him and she knows the alphabet
she knows how to read she knows mathematics she knows
history and some literature and probably some science
and she's going to give that to a kindergarten student now
well she's probably only going to teach some letters
some math just to form numbers is a big deal for kindergarten students
it's their capacity to receive limits how much they're good how much

00:38
they're going to receive from the teacher and that's a figure of us at mass
our capacity to receive is not infinite and therefore it has to be repeated and
repeated and repeated also we have sins so we go to mass with dispositions
hopefully they're good dispositions but there's always going to be something
lacking in our dispositions of of you know dedication to god
sacrifice of ourselves love of god probably loving ourselves too much
these kind of things our dispositions won't be perfect
and so it has to be repeated for that reason too because you it's
we're a receiver which is not perfect we can't understand everything or
receive it well and then we even have some defects in there too
which are constantly being cured cured or resolved by the mass

00:39
if we were to take away the memorial sacrifice on the altar
and i don't use the word memorial in a bad sense there
i'm just saying that the holy sacrifice of the mass a makes present christ's
infinite sacrifice the cross on the altar we have
a memorial element there but it's not only a memorial
it is a true and effective sacrifice if we were to take away the memorial
sacrifice of christ on the altar sooner or later the entire work of the redeemer
would fall into a deplorable state of oblivion
if we were to take with a memorial sacrifice offered on the altar
sooner or later the memory of christ would be the the the work of the redeemer
would fall into a deplorable state of oblivion um a few examples

00:40
uh you might hear of you know protestants um
they're not also pious as they used to be 500 years ago
and now they have something called the mega church which quite
quite a common phenomenon nowadays basically a rock concert for christians
uh very little of our divine lord jesus christ there
sooner or later the work of the redeemer redeemer will fall into oblivion
and then another case closer to home and very unfortunate
i think a lot of you have heard about the attack on the
altar of saint agatha just a couple days ago on the island of sicily
you know where perhaps the church was not guarded enough
i understand but if that church had its normal 40 people inside of it all hours
of the day this would not have happened but it's not going to have 40
people inside of it every hour of the day because the sacrifice of the altar

00:41
is not what it used to be sooner or later the work of the redeemer
will fall into oblivion yesterday i watched a little bit of
taylor marshall on that atrocity in saint agatha's church
and he said we're in the second stage second stage of persecution
according to what the roman persecutions were according to what the protestant
revolution was and according to what the french revolution was
the first stage of persecution is when there is a desecration of symbols and
images so you know you get rock stars up there
making some reference to our lord jesus christ and
blaspheming it that's the first stage of persecution
desecration of symbols and images second stage
is desecration of churches we are there and third stage of persecution is the
harm and death physical harm and death to christians
we're halfway there we might see martyrdoms of ourselves but before the

00:42
end of our lives we'll see i don't i didn't think so but maybe it's
closer than i thought the cross of christ is the tree of life
the cross of christ is the golden bridge uniting heaven
and earth it procures all honor and glory to god
and obtains all graces and blessings for man nevertheless it has kind of finite
limited effects on us because of the defects of us
as creatures and the defects of our intentions
a little parentheses on intentions not speaking about the intentions and
dispositions dispositions with which you come to mass
but rather the intentions of the mass that you offer

00:43
the priest to have a mass said for a family member or friend or whatever
if you say father i don't know who please offer mass for this intention
and you put one person's name on there that's a very good thing
if on the other hand you offer to a priest
a mass intention it has the names of 25 people on there
it'll still work those 25 people will get some advantage from the mass but they
won't get as much as just one person being the one intention of the mass
so please try to keep that principle in mind if you are
asking for masses to be said the mass always has an infinite value in
and of itself from our lord jesus christ but the effect of us effectively on us
is limited based on our deficiencies the church cannot make an infinite

00:44
sacrifice on her own because all her members will never be perfectly holy
sometimes the mass will be more pleasing or less pleasing to god
and more or less beneficial to man therefore the church can only beg for graces
and blessings from heaven she can never merit them
like our divine lord himself our divine lord himself on the cross
actually merits graces because he is perfection he doesn't have any bad
dispositions and then he um he gives those graces to us
we on the other hand when we attend mass we gain some merit
but that's only by asking for it it's not by gaining it on our own um laurels

00:45
or our on our own perfect perfection or our own credit and then
closing note on um the value of each mass
you probably know there's different kind of masses there's what we call the
solemn high mass where you have three ministers at the
altar the celebrant a deacon and a subdeacon
a lot of altar boys a lot more candles more incense
everything this gives more glory to god see we still have the infinite value of
the mass whether it's a solemn high mass that it just started to describe or
a low mass done in secret in order to hide away from a persecution
they both have infinite value because it's the sacrifice of the cross of our
lord made present but then there's an accidental value which is added to it and
that's where some masses will have more value than others so the solemn high

00:46
mass has the most value because of what i just described all the
solemnity added to it then there's the sung mass where there's only one pre one
minister at the altar which is the priest and then the singing
and a lot of ultra voice then there's the low mass which has less again
then you get in we get into this distinction of a mass which is called a
ferrial mass which today would have been if it weren't for the
amber day then a votive mass and a regular mass
requiem as for the deceased these are infinite masses as all as all
of them are but depending on the different um prayers and colics which are added
particularly in the votive mass and the requiem mass more grace will be
given to the souls that these masses are offered for and for the faithful

00:47
their personal participation has an effect on how valuable the mass is also
if the faithful have more piety and more attention
the fruit of the mass is more plentiful if the priest has more virtue or more
holiness or more devotion the fruit is more plentiful there is an
ocean of divine mercy to be gained from the mass let us try to gain that
and then i make a comparison to what we see in the novus ordo
last week we saw the definition of mass how it had been changed from
sacrifice to prayer of the assembly from priest to presider from
the church to the people of god we could be which could be people in
other religions we saw that last week today we see how
they give to the mass the present-day mass the novus ordo

00:48
four titles they say it's a meal they say it's a sacrifice they say it's
thanksgiving and they say it's memorial it's
interesting that they still say that it's a sacrifice
but it's immediately balanced by that word meal
to say it's not only a sacrifice it's also fellowship which is dangerous because
they're taking away the value the importance of that word sacrifice
thanksgiving very good that's the whole eucharist means
but it's a concept shared by catholics protestants and modernists
thanksgiving finally they insist that the mass is memorial
i know i talked about this earlier this evening
both catholic and protestant theology apply the term
memorial to the eucharist but they understand it in entirely different senses
thus the term memorial is a perfect tool for an ecumenical blurring

00:49
of essential doctrine doctrinal differences
the modernists say that memorial is one of the most precious
terms that the new liturgy brings to light
and an example of the liturgical reform um sorry this is just one of the most
precious terms that the new liturgy brings to light
the traditional church when we talk about memorial this is what we wish to say
it is a memorial of christ's passion christ's passion by the way we're
talking about that sacrifice again because it is a sacrificial act directed
toward god it works objectively because christ
instituted it and it takes place because an
ordained priest turns the bread and wine into the body and blood of christ
for the protestant the eucharist is a memorial for other reasons
why because it is a reminder of the benefits

00:50
christ's passion won long ago won long ago
or a sign of joy being saved or a symbol of the unity of the assembly
in the spirit of christ so it's a shared word
but the traditional catholic goes in the direction of the sacrifice made present
again whereas the protestant or the modernist goes in the direction of
just makes us think of jesus christ but it doesn't do anything effective to
make him present to make his sacrifice present on the altar so that's
that's the biggie i want to focus on tonight uh
memorial we understand it correctly in the modern church um not dilutes but um
stirs up blurs the meaning of that word memorial so very good that's as far as

00:51
we'll get this evening and may god bless you we'll see you next week [Music] you