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