let us pray oh god let's instruct the
hearts of the faithful by the light of
the holy ghost
grant us by the same spirit to be truly
wise to rejoice in this consolation
through the same christ our lord
same is
it's good to see you again after a
couple of weeks
and i'd like to go back to our story of
saint philomena
to give us a little purpose in these
conferences about the
holy sacrifice of the mass someone who
lived
the sacrifice of our lord jesus christ
and remember remember how i told you
last time
that there's something significant about
her the way her name is
the same as the name of our lord she is
light she's the daughter of light
her name is the same as that of our lord
and our blessed mother
and her victory over the devil comes
just at the
zenith or the final
persecution of the roman emperors
against the christians
diocletian was the last of the roman
emperors who persecuted the christians
glass of 10 large persecutions
and after the victory of saint philomena
against the emperor and his demonic
plans
the emperor himself felt like a failed
man he said i've
i have failed in not winning the
heart of this girl and he himself died
about
one year later and then came in
constantine
who as we know converted the roman
empire
so saint philomena was known as the tau
maturga
of the 19th century that's a big old
greek word to mean
wonder worker there are there are other
saints who have the title tau maturga
and she has a title because she was
known first of all
for all of her miracles cures
conversions even some people who return
to life
because of her in the 19th century and
following
as you remember her relics were
discovered in the year 1802
and then made known to the whole world
in 1805
at the shrine in muniano of italy
she was declared the patroness of the
children of mary by pope leo the 13th
saint john vianney the cure of ours said
never
have i asked anything from her without
receiving an answer
saint peter julian aymard who is a great
authority and
devotional writer at least of the
blessed sacrament
was cured by saint philomena saint
damien
or damien the leper damien de vuster
of molokai of hawaii
consecrated a church to her you may know
this the
story of damien how um
uh of the group of the fathers of the um
of the sacred heart of jesus he
volunteered himself to go to this island
of the lepers
from honolulu to molokai and
there he was the only priest alone
taking care of
all these people building hospitals and
churches
he built four churches and one of them
was one of them was in honor of saying
philomena i've been there before
some of the things that impressed me
were um uh
in one part of the church there are
holes in the floor
not big holes about the size of a
quarter a coin you know
and where you are in your pew you can
look down the floor in this hole in the
side the size of a
quarter just about every every place of
every person in the pew has a hole in
the floor like that
what is that for so so these poor lepers
could assist at a whole mass without
excusing themselves
as i say they need to uh well they need
to spit
because of all the phlegm that builds up
in the mouth uh due to this disease
and so those holes in the floor little
uh sewage systems to get out to the
ground
another thing that impressed me about
the visit of molokai was simply the
story of how
uh damien uh contracted the disease
he was exposed for so long amongst the
lepers at least 20 years probably more
like 30
without catching the disease uh he used
to smoke a pipe
in order to um kind of like we use
incense
we use incense because it's a sweet
smell towards god and the smoke
signifies our prayers going up to heaven
also brings back to mind all the
sacrifice of the old testament with the
sweet smoke
going up to heaven but
he used the sweet smoke of the pipe
because it was like a deodorant
type of smell against all the you know
fetid flesh that he would smell from the
disease the leprosy
and as you know uh well as you know
children are kind of fascinated by
cigarettes and cigars and pipes and all
those things that give off smoke
and especially there's someone sucking
on them so
while um damien was busy with his
construction problems or whatever
he would smoke a pipe and also leave it
near him while he was working
and the children started smoking it and
eventually he was inhaling
kind of the gas from their lungs he was
inhaling the the
touching the saliva from their mouth his
own saliva so he eventually caught the
disease
but he considered that disease a great
um
a great honor to be finally united to
his savior
in the crucifixion so he had a church
named after saint philomena
it still stands today
indulgences were granted to saint
philomena by the popes
of the 19th and 20th century and
devotion to her
is still exploding so
last class we had i was talking to you
about the transfer
of the remains transfer the relics of
saint philomena
from rome to muniano of italy
there was a priest as you may remember
don don francisco um
from the city of muniano he was
traveling with a bishop
the bishop of naples the newly made
bishop of naples
um the cesare they left
rome with the relics of saint philomena
and the relics of another saint the
saint philomena's relics were placed on
the in the seat
under the seat of the bishop
he felt raps on his legs three times in
a row
and even though everything was closed
and sealed and secured
secured he understood those striking the
striking to his legs coming
somehow from the box of relics of saint
philomena
so he put the relics on his lap and
there was no more problem
because feminina would be carried
in the most uh dignified of ways
and if you think of the reality you know
just sort of pull down the curtain
of this material world in which you live
one thousand five hundred years had
passed
since this this virgin had been
[Music]
giving her life completely for our lord
jesus christ
in at least three martyrdoms and she
kept surviving or being
kept being renewed to life again so that
she'd go through another martyrdom
but as you know with heaven with the
supernatural life
there is no time so even though 1
500 years had elapsed for her this was
just like
there had been a commercial break and
now it's time to get back to the program
something like that and what was her
program
the demons had tried to take from her
the virtue of virginity the virtue of
purity and the
the vow of virginity that she had and
she wrestled against all hell
against all the demons to maintain that
virtue which she did all the way to the
end
and now she goes to sleep for a few days
as far as she's concerned and wakes up a
few days later
brand new fresh and ready to carry on
the battle again
but not in herself but rather
all these other members of the mystical
body
which were in munyano as far as she was
concerned and then
the rest of the world a point that was
given to us in our retreat
this past week was
all this impurity unchastity if that's a
word
lack of innocence
the whole lack of this virtue that we
see in the world today
is an attack against our blessed mother
how is that because our blessed mother
is
the virgin if we just say the virgin we
know we're talking about the mother of
god
and all of us are children of the virgin
mary
in so far as we are brothers of her son
and so when people go trying to attack
purity in a sense virginity
in the life the world that we live in
that is the devil
trying to attack our blessed mother
maybe he couldn't make her
be a non-virgin but he can make all of
her children be a non-virgin
that's what he's after it appears that
he has great success
but that's just numbers
and he's lost that battle for many
centuries
saint philomena is coming back to win
this battle of virginity
against the same demons one thousand
five hundred years later
not in her own person but now in
members of the mystical body members of
our lord jesus christ
of which she is a member
so she had already worked a few miracles
in naples
we saw a few weeks ago
the mother the woman don angela teres
with her illness of 12 years the lawyer
with his sciatica
and the woman with the
gangrene in the hand these people just
prayed at her to him and then
well the for the for the lawyer was for
the lawyer was the next morning
for the woman with the ganger in his
hand the same the next instant
for don notheres it had been a few weeks
and now the pilgrimage if you will of
the relics
move from naples to muniano which is not
a great distance
probably a one day walk
but they're starting in the about
july the 21st i'm off on that sorry
they're starting at the end of july and
uh saint filomina wants to arrive at
munyano on the day of her victory
which is the day that she arrived in
heaven the 10th of august
so she's going to make them delay in
this journey so that attention can be
can be brought to that day of her
victory
from naples to munana was a short
journey but
many prodigies would happen in route
during this procession on foot
so we have deacons and other holy men
carrying the beer which holds the relics
of saint philomena
while they were marching in the night
the path
became excessively dark they could not
see in front of them in front of them
anymore because of all the clouds
they prayed the same philomena and she
opened the clouds
once a beam of light came down from
heaven and directed the bearers
of the relic on the path as they passed
through a village named
village named simetile the relics became
very heavy
so heavy that the bearers could not
continue
walking all they could do was put these
relics down
no we're looking at his chest with some
you know remains in it
it was because in this place of simi
tilley many martyrs had shed their blood
either simultaneously with saint
philomena or before her
but at least 1 500 years before saint
filamento wanted to recognize them want
to reverence them
for their holy martyrdoms
while she was stopped there we already
speak about her as like
someone walking in real life while she
was stopped there the villagers
came to complain about a crisis they had
they had been suffering a horrendous
drought
they implored her they implored st
philomena to please
give them rain at once a torrent of rain
fell from the skies at night
after the people were some somewhat
satisfied with all the rain
the bearers of the beer intend attempted
to
lift it again and carry it it was still
very very heavy
when they reached the end of the outs
the boundary of this town of simi tele
all of a sudden the relics
became as light as they had been when
they left naples
finally on the eve of the arrival at
munyano
so i guess it was several days journey
walking
on the eve of the arrival at munyano the
town
was completely thronged with pilgrims
and local inhabitants
40 priests were present all of them clad
in the richest
vestments children on all sides were
shouting
shouting viva la santa
long live the saint the entry into the
town took
two hours partly because of this throng
of people
but also because of another factor the
day
was brilliantly sunny but all of a
sudden
it became menacingly dark when a great
whirlwind stirred up
coming from the mountains behind them
from which they had just come
a priest announced that there was no
need to fear
this whirlwind in this menacing weather
because this was just the same demon
that had been confounded by saint
philomena
15 centuries before when she won the
battle of purity against him
and now she saint philomena
was returned to continue with this same
battle against him
in all of these catholics
the whirlwind reached the casket
and it suddenly stopped and rose into
the air
and disappeared it reappeared
several times but disappeared just as
easily
and it never extinguished even one
candle
of those who were close to the casket of
saint philomena
it never extinguished one candle so
that's a great lesson right there that
the devil of impurity can come back and
come back and come back
but if we hang on to saint philomena
if we hang on to our blessed mother if
we hang on to our lord
the devil cannot put out the candle of
purity in a soul
for two days after that the whirlwind
continued to howl
but it caused no one any harm
and then just one more paragraph about
this transfer the relics
the casket was placed under a canopy the
casket arrived at the church
of our lady of grace it's important
because it was our lady who appeared to
saint philomena in the in the prison
after 37 days to say uh you will be
delivered from this prison
normally you would think the words would
be of hope and
in three more days you will be delivered
and you will go free
or you have suffered so much now you
deserve to have
a time of refreshment no our lady told
her
you will be in three days your
imprisonment imprisonment will finish
will be finished but this will be only
to
begin a series of other tortures for you
so that you can be united to my son so
that you can give glory to god
so that you can win the salvation of
many sinners
your body our lady was saying
blessed mother was saying to saint
filamento right now your weakened body
humiliates you
because you don't feel any power within
you but don't worry
i will be with you saint gabriel my
angel will be with you
gabriel means strength of god
my strength of god will be with you so
that you can bear all of these
trials and give victory to my son
so that is our blessed mother's
encounter with saint philippine in the
prison
and now what is the church that saint
philippines brought to our lady
of grace uh our lady of grace
means all of us are um
given the grace that our lord won for us
on the cross through our blessed mother
our lady of grace that's the place where
saint
philomena goes to accompany our lady in
um meriting grace for sinners and also
giving that grace to sinners through her
through our lady but still
giving their grace to sinners the casket
was placed under a canopy on the gospel
side of the high altar
and high mass was celebrated the day was
the 10th of august
her feast day she would later make this
known to sister luisa de jesus
it was a holy day of obligation in this
region of munano many blessings and many
miracles occurred
in the time which followed the faith of
the people grew in intensity
and the sanctuary became known to the
whole world for the marvelous favors
given to the pilgrims
who flocked to the feet of the little
saint
and it's not written in my notes here
but there was a town
paralytic uh living some blocks away
from the church
and just when the body was entering
her relics were entering the church the
bells were announcing this glorious
arrival of saint philomena
the paralytic just for hearing the bells
received a miracle of walking
he was no longer paralyzed he ran into
the church
knocked on the doors beat on the doors
and finally opened up for him and he
said
i'm healed i'm the paralytic that never
could walk just by hearing the bells
i'm healed so that's another part
of the healing and the miracles of the
same filimina
uh next time i talk with you about her
i'll either review her story of her
martyrdom
or go on to another story which is
another story which is the um
healing and the curing of pauline
jerichot the good friend of saint john
vienne
well very good we come to our lessons
about the holy mass
and how is the sacrifice saint
philomena's
someone who lives the sacrifice of our
lord jesus christ
and for all of us we must
live the sacrifice which comes from the
holy mass
and you know when the priest finishes
mass
he announces
literally he's saying in english
translation would be
go it is sent
if someone who studies latin we'll
figure that out
simply means it is sent what is sent
answer everything you've seen here
everything you've witnessed everything
to which you've assisted
at mass it is now sent
very good what have i witnessed the
sacrifice
of our lord jesus christ made present on
the altar
in a living and actual way
not just a memory not just a memorial
not just something which recalls what
happened on calvary
no we have witnessed a reality
of our lord sacrificing himself
to give glory to his father and to pay
the debt of our sins
we have just been present for that
sacrifice
and now the priest says to us go ity
it is sent what do you witness here
the event
the liturgy ceremony at which you have
assisted now is to be brought to your
homes
and to your daily life and what you have
witnessed is sacrifice
now bring sacrifice to your daily life
the catholic church is our archbishop
says the catholic church
is the church of the sacrifice of our
lord
if we have the sacrifice we are being
true catholics if we
live the sacrifice we are being true
catholics but if we don't have the
sacrifice anymore
at the altar and if we don't live and as
a result
if we don't live the sacrifice in our
life anymore
then we are not being catholics
and that's why the church is not blessed
anymore with vocations
and that's why the church is not blessed
anymore with faithful marriages
that's why the church is not blessed
anymore with big families
all of them living a life of sacrifice
they don't have a sacrifice anymore
so itae misa est
a little review from some of our past
classes
lessons conferences
the mass is a sacrifice which is
eminently clean or the clean oblation
why is that because the one who
sacrifices
is a divine sacrificer our divine lord
the victim which is offered is a divine
victim
our divine lord it is eminently clean it
is the clean
oblation offered from one part one side
of the world to the other
and all day long because it is the clean
sacrificer our lord jesus christ and is
the clean sacrifice
our divine lord
please remember that
our lord already made the covenant
of this new sacrifice with his apostles
and us at the last supper
so holy thursday the year 33 if all the
years
were counted correctly in history holy
third thursday
of the year 33 is when our lord
made the covenant with his people of his
sacrifice on the cross
the covenant is already from holy
thursday night and
the ceiling of that covenant
is the next day good friday so every
time we have a mass
we are renewing this covenant that our
lord has
with all the faithful christians and the
covenant
of his blood
last week we talked about the value of
the holy mass
and you might remember not last week but
two weeks ago
you might remember that
the sacrifice of the cross sacrifice of
the cross
is infinite the sacrifice of the cross
was exclusively our lords
the eucharist the holy eucharist which
is
offered in the mass is the sacrifice of
our lord and of his church
in as much as the church offers it and
is offered with it
so since the
eucharist the holy mass is offered
it has the infinite value of the
sacrifice of our lord jesus christ
to his father but then it has another
accidental value which can be more or
less good
depending on
how good are the dispositions of the
priest how good are the dispositions of
the faithful
the mass will always be infinite insofar
as the infinite sacrifice of our lord
but we'll have a greater or lesser value
depending on
the dispositions or the intentions well
better dispositions
which we have when we come to mass
and the same for the priest so there was
a question from our last class
someone asked someone asked me uh the
prayer of the susheepiad
of the mass when the priest says pray
brethren that my sacrifice and yours
will be worthy will be a worthy
sacrifice unto the lord our god
and you answer may the lord receive your
sacrifice
to your benefit and ours
the question is well why do we pray the
sushi piat
if the mass is always infinite and the
answer is yes
the mass is always infinite but
here in the sushifiat we pray that our
dispositions
will be as generous as possible
so that we might receive the greatest
fruit possible
from the mass for my your benefit and
ours the
faithful are saying for your benefit and
ours the greatest amount of fruit
or fruit fruit from the mouse
the mass is infinite insofar as the
sacrifice of our lord but it has limits
depending on the disposition the
dispositions of those who are
present and the priest who offers
very good this evening we we will
consider the holy mass
as um
the four different ends or the four
different four different purposes of
prayer
we probably hear them frequently and we
might not remember them
but as soon as we hear we say yeah i
knew that so
as you might remember prayer has four
purposes
first of all we adore with prayer we
give reverence and praise to god
with prayer and then
we pray in order to give thanks to god
and we also we also come to mass in
order to give thanks to god
our third purpose of prayer is
expiation reparation propitiation
begging pardon for sins and finally
our fourth purpose of prayer is to ask
for what we need
and it's always good to add on to that
to ask for what we need
for our own sanctification and salvation
because if we're asking outside of that
criteria
we might fit into that category that our
lord said just after his resurrection
hitherto you have never asked for
anything in my name
one of the meanings of that expression
of our lord is
until now you have not asked for
anything which is good for your own
salvation
now i ask you to ask for that he was
also referring to the fact that
now you will ask through my sacrifice on
the cross
and that will really make your prayer
valuable
but he was also saying you've not asked
for things
for your sanctification salvation you've
asked for things
for your own um security and comfort
so adoration thanksgiving propitiation
petition those are the four purposes of
the mass
and um the largest one is going to be
propitiation
which is really worthwhile studying or
knowing about
because i don't think a person
a single person in the modern church
could tell you what propitiation means
anymore
i would just say that's a long word that
maybe in
traditional in a traditional atmosphere
used to mean something like
reparation but i'm not sure what it
means
so i won't spend too long on these
points because i've taken quite a bit of
time on
the review and the uh what's the other
thing the introduction of this evening
but the holy mass is adoration it's the
best
adoration we can give to god
when god the father looks down on
earth while mass is going on
you can consider every church as a
window
god the father is looking down and he
sees many many windows
and what does he see in those windows he
sees his son
on the cross and now
what's so wonderful about that but we
already know but it doesn't hurt to hear
it again
he sees his son on the cross offering
the best
adoration possible to him
now there's no vanity in god he can
receive as much praise as you can
imagine and that would be just
incorrect and he should still receive
more
our lord jesus christ on the cross is
offering the greatest adoration to his
father
because there you have a completely
contrite spirit
completely afflicted spirit
we know from the psalms god says
sacrifice speaking of the old testament
sacrifice
of animals you know bulls and bullocks
and lambs
i will not i don't wish for those things
but an afflicted heart a contrite spirit
that i wish for when we see our divine
lord on the cross
we have the um personification
of an afflicted spirit my god my god why
is thou
forsaking me a contrite heart
we see that that is a complete
undoing of every sin of pride that has
ever existed
because when a man comes commits a sin
and all sin comes back to pride
my will not yours i will not serve
uh we have the exact opposite we have
someone saying
god i know you're out there but right
now
my ego deserves its rights right now
even if it comes at your expense expense
to your presence and my soul
i kick it out because i want my rights
now
so what's going to undo that egotistical
spirit nothing less than
god himself on the cross that is our
lord jesus christ himself on the cross
with an afflicted spirit afflicted heart
contrite spirit
saying man is sorry
man is sorry in me so when god the fire
looks down from heaven and sees all
these churches
all these different windows with liturgy
going on inside of them
what he sees is his son offering him the
greatest adoration
that's the holy mass
the god man himself offers himself so we
have the perfect sacrificer like we just
said the clean oblation
god man himself offers offering himself
as a perfect sacrificer and perfect
oblation
on the altar to his father
all the prayers labors and fatigues
of his humble life his painful passion
and death
jesus christ in the mass ever presents
to his heavenly father
so you might remember from a couple
classes ago
in heaven our lord is our mediator what
is the mediation he makes before his
father
he's constantly showing him his wounds
hands and feet inside
those are each one of is a victorious
trophy of our lord of adoration of his
father
each one is a victorious trophy of
taking all the sins of man
and putting them to death on the cross
and that's the prayer that our lord
constantly offers his father in heaven
as mediation for us
while on earth our lord continues day
after day after day
his sacrifice on the altar as you
remember
the sacrifice and the altar is necessary
to apply
the fruits and the merits of the mass to
our life
if it were not for the sacrifice and the
altar our lord sacrifice on the cross
would remain there an event in history 2
000 years ago which cannot touch our
life
it has all the strength but it doesn't
have a vehicle
to arrive at our soul that's a huge
difference between a catholic and a
protestant
the protestant will believe that he does
not need
that application of the fruits and the
merits through the mass
the protestant will say that he only has
to believe in that sacrifice which
happened two thousand years ago and that
immediately gives them the fruits and
the merits
but that's not the way our lord made it
our lord said
do this in commemoration of me this
covenant has to be renewed
do this in commemoration of me
that's the adoration of the mass
and now the thanksgiving of the mass
we might have a rather
practical or pragmatic idea of
giving thanks of i remember reading
in a book one time talking about manners
for a priest how he should behave
in order to edify people to
to make them feel attracted to the
priest or the priesthood so they'd be
attracted to the mass and encouraged
to continue with the catholic life which
is all very
worthwhile and virtuous
but they said you know if someone
invites you to their house
make sure to say thank you so that they
invite you again
which is true i mean i guess we all want
that
but uh i would think that there's some
other criteria make sure to say thank
you because those people have made a
sacrifice for you
those people have enjoyed your company
and vice versa
but they've had to do some work
themselves to make it happen
and these people deserve thanks because
of the good that they've done
and you are thanking god in them as you
give them this thanks
and that's what i would say about the
holy mass and it's thanksgiving
we're there to thank god
without any hope of something in return
you know he's created us out of nothing
he's given us all good things that we
needed to
live and be raised done and then he gave
us this huge second chance versus the
redemption
those are all infinite things we can
never repay and so therefore we have the
holy mass
which is our greatest help for giving a
um
adequate uh or um you know
commensurate and adequate thanksgiving
sincere thankfulness is the mark of a
noble soul
when we give thanks to god
we are showing the greatness
and love of the divine benefactor
we are paying reverence to his greatness
we are paying reverence to the
preciousness
of his divine gifts
and also when we give thanks to god we
are recognizing our own
wretchedness and unworthiness
you might see two people that are equal
working with each other
they have a habit of work with each
other
and um they don't really have to use
that
though too many words of um
would you please do this and i thank you
so much for having done that
it's good to use that once in a while to
remind each other those
very good intentions but you might see
when equals work together
they don't use so much that kind of
language
but father of a family if he
takes his children to a restaurant and
gets him some ice cream cones or
something like that
uh well you better believe they're going
to be all over him saying thank you and
we didn't deserve that and you're so
nice to us and what can i do for you
daddy
something like that uh that's normal
the child is showing the greatness of
his dad
he's showing the how much he values the
gift that he just gave him
and he's showing that you know dad i'm
just a kid i i don't know anything yet i
couldn't raise five cents if i needed to
and you just gave this to me out of the
goodness of your heart thank you so much
we're more like that with
god and thanks to our lord jesus christ
we can give
a
and keep saying worthwhile or adequate
valid
we can give a valid thank you to god the
father through our lord jesus christ but
by ourselves we couldn't
the mass is perfectly commensurate with
all the benefits that god gives us
what a thought you know how many times
do i
do i try to say thank you to our lord
and i offer some prayers and i
kneel down or whatever it is and i i
know
that my little efforts are nothing in
compared to what's
what has been given me but i can have
that security when i go to holy mass
that my thanks are being appreciated
by god the father because he's receiving
that of a son
and his son is united to me because i'm
part of his mystical body
he receives that thanks of his son even
though i'm the one who's saying it
through him
we know that on the other hand we know
that ingratitude is the reward of the
world
people do not value
generosity anymore people
certainly do not value this supernatural
life
and the sacrament of confession
sacrament of communion
the holiness that comes to soul through
praying the holy rosary
people don't value those things anymore
so what is god receiving generally from
the world he's receiving
ingratitude but when we go to the holy
mass imagine the constellation we're
giving to god the father even
not just our lord but also god the
father we're giving him an adequate
gratitude for taking us out of nothing
for giving us all good things and for
them for redeeming us
and now the big one propitiation the
holy mass is propitiation
it is expiation for sin it is reparation
for sin
what should be our attitude about sin
first of all
it is good for us to admit it i have
sinned
i deserve god's wrath for my sin
but then thanks be to god thanks be to
our lord jesus christ
there's this thing called propitiation
literally it means
i wish to change the sentiment of god
i wish to change the attitude of god he
certainly deserves to be angry with
angry with me and justice he certainly
deserves to destroy me
because i'm not just
a tiny being compared to him but i'm a
tiny being that has
as i call thumb this nose or something
like that whatever this gesture is
called an italian
that expression i've just done that to
god
you are not important to me and i don't
wish for you to be
ruling my life
but propitiation is where we beg god to
change his attitude towards us
for god to be propitious to us
you might hear that word propitious
amongst uh politicians
you know they sort of bargain and
negotiate with each other
and uh politician x was being especially
propitious to
politician why but politician y did not
respond
propitious protect exceptionally
generous in his offers
that's what we're asking for from god
that he'd be especially
extraordinarily exceptionally generous
with us despite
our bad behavior that's propitiation
the fruits of the sacrifice of the mass
are applied to our sinful souls
and thereby we are reconciled to god and
regain his favor
while we're at mass
the holy mass is making propitiation for
our sins
nevertheless keep in mind that the mass
is not destined
directly to impart or bring about
the grace of sanctification
consequently the sacrifice of the mass
cannot without another means
remove mortal sins
nevertheless whilst the mass as a
sacrifice of propitiation
restrains or disarms god's avenging
justice
against the sinner it has as a sacrifice
of petition
the power through the divine goodness
and liberality
to dispense many fault manifold graces
and benefits
the mass is an extremely powerful means
to affect the grace
of true repentance and sincere
conversion
so it's very important to remember
that the mass is the setting to begin
the road
to conversion the mass um
is begging pardon for for sin from god
for sin for all of us but it doesn't
forgive us our mortal sins
it can still be attended by a person
who's in mortal sin
but just that attending of holy mass
is going to give that person sentiments
of
conversion
it's not the mass itself that converts
or that
forgives the mortal sin but it gives
sentiments of conversion
so there was a story i think this would
be the 19th century
freemasonry was very active by that time
and a man
was called upon to assassinate a priest
during mass i think the priest was
making special
uh obstacles to the freemasons in that
city
and because of making a newspaper
for the catholic church that was
exposing the freemasons
and people were converting to the
catholics and going to catechism etc
and you know the freemasons in and of in
according to their essence there may be
a lot of false freemasons out there but
according to the essence of a freemason
they have a
purpose which they must fulfill which is
to destroy
the presence of our lord jesus christ in
this world and so when people start
getting particularly active against them
those people are labeled and uh soon
disappear
so this man was a hired killer he was
supposed to call his go to the
church and kill the priest during mass
so he's present in mass and there was a
miracle
and the priest as he was consecrating
the host
and then elevating it same thing with
the chalice
there was very clear for this man not
just the priest and the chalice the
priest and the host
but our lord crucified hanging above him
and it was not just the crucifixion
the crucifix crucifix on the altar it
was the crucifixion of our lord made
present for this man to see
he saw that and he understood it once
that this is a supernatural atmosphere
i should not do anything to stop it
those who have paid me to kill this
priest
are wrong and
he did not kill a priest he converted
any beg pardon from the priest
and became a catholic uh
so that's really the reality i call it a
miracle and it is
but that miracle is happening every time
mass is going on the sacrifice of our
lord on the cross
in a certain sense as a sort of just
taking down the veil over the miracle
so they can see which so the man can see
what's really going on
the mass has this value the mass is
propitiating god for our sins
and then the mass is this atmosphere of
converting sinners
to grace
mortal sins are acts of ingratitude
towards god
god has a plan for each one of our souls
he wants us us to occupy heaven
obviously but
even in this world he wants us to
fulfill something which is going to add
to his glory
and when a person insists on committing
mortal sin or staying in mortal sin
without confessing it
there's a problem god
has a an influx of grace
no a certain amount of abundant grace
that he wishes to give to every soul
but when a person stays in mortal sin
it's checking checking putting a stop to
the plan of god of giving abundant grace
to the soul
however since the mass is propitiatory
as i say changing the sentiment of god
as a result mass
averts from sinful man this severe
punishment of the withdrawal
of the abundant helps of grace
so someone commits mortal sin it makes
god
stop giving grace to that soul
that person comes to mass
is present in this propitiation for sin
and god starts giving grace to that soul
again
because the propitiation of the mass
beautiful thought and along those lines
everyone should always pray obviously a
person in the state of persons state of
grace pray
but even persons who slip out of the
state of grace if i can call it that
because sometimes mortal sin is easy to
commit
even people who slip out of grace they
should keep praying
why because they want to give great give
glory to god again
as soon as possible and how are they
going to go give glory to god well they
got to get back in the state of grace
so by praying they open up that door
again to god to give grace to their soul
but especially at the mass and the
prohibition of the
propitiation of the mass
mass is often repeated even for the same
intention
or the same intentions the same person i
don't know father
it says on the the envelope for
intention of the holy mass please pray
offer mass for
my son johnny who's not coming to mass
anymore
and the priest receives ten such
envelopes for the same person
is that redundant or unnecessarily rep
repetitive
no
um why is that
because when mass is offered it's the
infinite sacrifice of our lord but
it still depends on how much god's
justice is placated by a single mass
god sort of decides how much he's going
to be placated by
single mass for our offenses and how
much he wishes
the obstacles to grace to be removed the
ones we just talked about
so mass is offered mass is infinite
because it's a sacrifice of our lord on
calvary
god receives infinite glory from the
mass can't stop that
but with the intention which is getting
more into the accidental value of the
mass
god can put a value on that and say well
thank you for the mass yes
i'm placated you know appeased to this
degree
by this mass i'm
content to go this far towards the
conversion of this
sun sun based on this mass
keep offering it this mass has gone a
long way to help but not completely
and how much also depends on how much
god wishes to take away the obstacles to
grace
which has been caused by mortal sin and
also
it depends on the disposition of the
sinner
that we're praying for in the mass how
much he wants to be converted
all right well i've gone on quite a bit
this evening
i'd like to take it from here the next
time but normally i i give you more
i give you a little more information
but i don't spend so much time in every
point so normally i see you after the
conference and we visit and so forth
this evening i won't do that because
father summers and i are still on
retreat
until tomorrow may god bless you and
we'll say a prayer
is