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