CAPG's Blog 

OUR AIM IN LIFE

by VP


Posted on Sunday September 14, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons


'Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God."—MATT. vi. 33.

1. It is natural to seek and desire.

2. But how few, the Kingdom of God!

3. What is meant by the Kingdom of God"? -Christ teaches us.

"It is natural to man to seek after something. There is always a want in the heart, and man seeks after that which he imagines will fill the void. Test this. Usually it is something that will ensure a better income, a position, influence; or maybe just the pleasure and joy of life, variety, excitement, the vogue of the present. Or it may be a loving heart seeks for love; it is ready to give, and yet it yearns for a return of affection. Whatever it may be, a man, worthy of the name of man, is seeking something, is keen after something.

But looking around us in the world, the last thing that would strike us would be that the chief thing that mankind was seeking was "the Kingdom of God." And yet that is the injunction of our Blessed Lord: "Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God." Seek it, yea, seek it first! Seek it above everything else! It is of no avail to own that the world at large utterly neglects this solemn word of Christ. The practical point is to ask ourselves our own soul-are we seeking first this Kingdom of God? Is there not something else in our heart striving to be master there? Is there not something else that dominates our interest, our time, our thoughts? About which we are more keen and anxious, more strenuous and determined, than gaining the Kingdom of God.

But you may object: What is this Kingdom of God? How have we to seek it? Can it be that we have to discard and reject the pursuits and pleasures of the world that lure us on, and are not satisfied without they are supreme in our heart, to banish them utterly and listen to what faith tells us of the Kingdom of God? The message of faith strikes us cold and numbs our heart; for we are told in the book that we dare not doubt nor disobey about the Kingdom of God. The gospel says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Blessed are the meek: those that mourn: those that hunger and thirst after justice: the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers: yea, "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven ” (Matt. v. 3, 10)."

Such is the teaching of the God of Truth, God made man for our sakes. These words are in His first sermon, and did not His own life bear them out? He did not teach one thing, and do another. He was born in a stable-poor in spirit. He said, "Learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart" (Matt. xi. 29). He was the Man of sorrows. He was merciful; and the peacemaker, for He came in His mercy to reconcile poor rebel sinners to His Father. He suffered persecution, even to the death of the Cross, and thus He won the Kingdom of heaven. "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?" (Luke xxiv. 26).

And the sacred book teaches us again, what would all the pleasures and glory of the world be to us (and how little shall we ever gain of them !)?—for "the world passeth away" (1 John ii. 17). All that has enthralled the hearts of men with vain hopes is nothing more but merely the short lived glory of a summer's day. Whereas we have immortal souls to satisfy; how can transient joys suffice for them? What a void there would be; and alas, how soon in our deluded souls! Peace and plenty, joy and comfort, friends and love around us only make the thought of death the more to be dreaded, and the leaving them all, the final separation, the more appalling.

Look through the dark and fearful vista of the future, the sacred book comes to our assistance once again. "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world" (1 John ii. 15). Seek not this world and its joys and its vain happiness, but seek first the Kingdom of God, and then when life is over, what a revelation of glory there will be, a Kingdom of glorious eternity. The cross becomes the crown: the poor take possession of the Kingdom; the meek shall possess the land; those that have mourned and suffered shall rejoice; the merciful shall find mercy; the clean of heart shall see God; the peacemakers and those that have forgiven shall find forgiveness and a welcome to their Father's home; and those that have suffered for Christ's sake, theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Poor, unknown, despised on this earth, we may have been: obedient, humble, and contrite of heart, we have daily done our best to seek first the Kingdom of God, and death will reveal it to us that we have succeeded, and the blessed success will last for ever! No more anxiety and fear of falling into sin; no more crosses and afflictions. We shall be transformed into the children of light and glory, companions of the saints, surrounded by the angels. Children of Mary, we shall then learn what it is to have the Queen of heaven for our Mother. We shall be welcomed by our Lord and Savior, because we have obeyed His words in the holy book. And for ever we shall dwell with our Father in heaven, because we kept that word, "Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God."Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB (14th Sunday after Pentecost)


SELFISHNESS

by VP


Posted on Sunday September 07, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons


File:Brooklyn Museum - The Healing of Ten Lepers (Guérison de dix lépreux) - James Tissot - overall.jpg

"Where are the nine ?"-LUKE Xvii. 17.

1. Our petitions very different from our thanks: selfishness the cause.

2. The miracle proves that nine out of ten were selfish and ungrateful.

3. How our Blessed Lord suffered from ingratitude.

4. Let us learn unselfishness from our Savior, and unite our thanks with His in the Holy Eucharist.

"ALL prayer is not simply a prayer of petition, of asking, however much we may need mercy and grace and forgiveness. Praise and thanksgiving are due to the almighty and loving God. The angels and blessed in heaven sing without ceasing the glory and praise of God, and their grateful thanks will last throughout eternity. But on earth how different are nine out of every ten of mankind! We are earnest when we want anything; in fear and misery and pain we make our petitions to God repeatedly and earnestly. The favor granted; the fear removed; the pain alleviated; oh, how poor our gratitude! The old saying is true, "Eaten bread is soon forgotten."

We cannot help but think thus with the example of the lepers fresh in our minds to-day. Anxious, earnest, imploring were those lepers in their misery. The voice of the Savior filled them with hope, they obeyed; they were cleansed, to their utter joy and amazement; but only one returned, giving thanks to his divine benefactor. Selfish in their prayer, to get rid of their loathsome disease; selfish even when miraculously cured, they went on their way selfishly rejoicing!

“Where are the nine ?" It is a humiliating avowal to own that we too have been selfish; that we find ourselves amongst the nine. Our conscience can recall anxiety, fear, tears in the past, when we humbly begged of God for forgiveness of some grave sin; in dread of a calamity or the expectation of death. Yes, and conscience is ashamed to own the brief, halfhearted, or perhaps forgotten gratitude with which we repaid our loving Lord. Selfishness led us to beseech and pray; selfishness led us to forget the grateful thanks that were due.

How, then, can we overcome this love of self, which is the cause of our want of thankfulness? Gratitude is due to God, and He loves us to be grateful. gratitude hurt the Sacred Heart of our divine Lord, not now indeed, but in His lifetime. Continually, all through those thirty-three years of His days on earth, our Lord had present in His mind the ingratitude of men, and it grieved Him. He knew all that He would do and suffer for sinners, and infinite love could do no more and He knew all the neglect, the forgetfulness, the ingratitude of those whom He had loved so much. We are told that the sufferings of His soul were greater far than the sufferings of His sacred Body in His Passion. The scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails through His hands and feet were less agonizing than the stabs of ingratitude through His tender, loving Heart. The bodily sufferings of the Passion, from His Betrayal to His Death, were over on Good Friday, but in His Heart He had suffered all His life. It was not merely the ingratitude with which He was treated whilst on earth, but all the ingratitude that would be shown Him, the Prisoner of love in the Holy Eucharist. He foreknew how He would be treated, even by those who believe in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar-all their neglect, forgetfulness, disdaining to visit Him, to receive Him. They know that Mass and Holy Communion are the supreme acts of love and thanksgiving to Almighty God. Alas! "where are the nine?" Some few are faithful and loving, but where are the nine? By most men, He is often and carelessly forgotten.

What a model of unselfishness is our dear Lord! Though He knew all this and suffered it, yet did He give Himself not only to the Cross; but to continue His Redemption, He renews it in each Holy Mass, and dwells continually with us in the tabernacle: “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Matt. xxviii. 20). If we would only study His unselfishness and make the memory of it live within our hearts, it would shame us; it would make us annihilate the self-love within us. Let us, then, learn unselfishness from our Lord in the tabernacle. He is there longing for us to visit Him, to pray to Him, to love Him and receive Him. Look back at our own lives. For days, weeks, months perhaps, we have forgotten Him. How cold and distracted we are even in His sacred Presence! During how many a Mass of obligation it has been merely by our bodily presence that we have been before Him, and our hearts far from Him. Selfishness again! Distractions born of worldly desires, of uncharitableness, because self had been slighted or hurt, of memories of self-gratification, of memories of our sinful past perhaps, have occupied our minds. And all the time, He, our Divine Benefactor, Whom we were pretending to worship, was waiting for a loving word of thanks.

Our poor thanks - are they worth offering? Are they worthy of His acceptance? Yes, indeed; for in His mercy He has made Himself our own thank offering! Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist, is the thank offering. At Holy Mass, at Holy Communion, we are united to Him; and our poor thanks are borne up to heaven with His, and accepted before the throne of God." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB (13th Sunday after Pentecost)


KINDLINESS ONE TO ANOTHER

by VP


Posted on Sunday August 31, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons


File:Brooklyn Museum - The Good Samaritan (Le bon samaritain) - James Tissot.jpg

"He that showed mercy to him . . . and Jesus said to him: Go and do thou in like manner."-LUKE X. 37.

1. How many neglect to do "in like manner."

2. Love one another in thought, word, and deed.

3. Even in small things, how blessed by peace of conscience and piety.

4. But the greatest blessing is, by practicing kindliness, we grow like our Lord.

"THE touching parable of this day's Gospel contains many lessons, and amongst others, it is an instruction how we should fulfill that command of our Blessed Savior, "Love one another as I have loved you" (John xiii. 34). And the necessity for us to study this lesson is impressed on us by the fact that so many neglect this duty. This we see from the parable, for our Lord tells us how the priest and the Levite, representing good people and those who should have known their duty, passed by the wounded man; and it was left to a poor Samaritan - an outcast, as the Jews considered him - to give us an example of brotherly love. The very lawyer who had cross-questioned our Blessed Lord sought to evade the command by asking, "Who is my neighbor?" But he brought on himself the rebuke which forced from him the answer that will teach mankind until the end of time. Jesus said to him, "Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbor to him that fell amongst robbers?" He was compelled to answer, " He that showed mercy to him."

Love for our neighbor is a duty by the command of God. To love God is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. xxii. 39). And the practice of this duty is inculcated and explained in this parable. Anyone needing kindly assistance is our neighbor, and we are bound, according to our ability, to help him. Even by thought we can be charitable, and study how to comfort the afflicted and the dying. A pitying thought would lead us to pray, and with prayers we can follow even the dying, and rescue them from purgatory. By word, by comforting, consoling, advising those in trouble. By deed, by bestowing alms, taking trouble to assist them, by visiting the sick and the dying.

Alas! our neighborly love is often weak and attenuated for want of practice. We are so engrossed with ourselves, with our own comforts and well-being, that we forget others, and begrudge a little sacrifice for them. To some, perhaps, we are a little charitable: their misery appeals to us. Others we pass by: their poverty, disease, surroundings are repulsive to us. We cannot bring ourselves to the practice of kindly charity to them. We shudder at the remembrance of what so many saints and pious people have done-visiting the hospitals, seeking out the afflicted in their homes, and attending to them in their wretchedness.

But how many other ways are there of being charitable, that do not call for such heroism! Begin with humble little practices, but let them be daily ones. A daily practice soon becomes a habit, and little kindnesses will nourish our thoughtfulness, our generosity, and presently we shall find ourselves showing mercy and being blessed by it. The least thing done for Christ's sake is worthy of reward-even "a cup of cold water" given in His name. The rich man, who was buried in hell, cried out to Abraham for a drop of cold water to cool his tongue. He was past all mercy. But the souls in purgatory are longing for a little alleviation; and how many are totally forgotten by their friends, perhaps even by those to whom they had been so kind in life! Perhaps some fond mother suffering now for being too indulgent to us, and we heartlessly forget her. "Show mercy," by prayers, masses, and do not begrudge a Holy Communion offered for them. How blessed will be the reward of our charity, and how grateful we shall be for having practiced it, when our time comes to be judged and punished!

Amongst the rewards for kindliness to others, who can tell the peace of conscience and happiness that result from works of mercy, or even from words of consolation, with which we have comforted others? The hard-hearted, the selfish, the haughty cannot picture to themselves what they miss, and the comforting, holy joy of which they deprive their souls.

But the greatest blessing for being kindly one to another is this, that day by day we are growing more like our Blessed Lord, Who went about doing good to all. His spirit is filling our souls, and our hard and selfish hearts are being subdued and taking up the yoke of Christ. "Love one another as I have loved you." This is the motive that urges us to be kind and charitable; to grow like to Him should be our daily endeavor. Therefore a peace, that the world cannot understand, envelops our daily life, and by degrees this world and its love and its pleasures lose their fascination for us; and with joy we feel that it is heaven and the Lord of heaven to Whom we are seeking to attain.

Practicing kindliness, in little ways day after day, transforms our lives, and from being selfish and hard we grow prompt and generous, ready for some great occasion, which may arise, when we can prove ourselves imitators of our divine Master, and ready for His sake to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others.

"Go and do thou in like manner." This He bids us do. Unless we attempt it, force ourselves to do it, we are disobeying; we are cowards. Self is our master; our Blessed Lord is ignored. No wonder our prayers are unheard; our passions unsubdued; the practice of piety repugnant. Our religion is merely an outward show; the spirit of Christ is not in our hearts; we hear, but heed not, His words, "Love one another as I have loved you."

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Francis Paulinus Hickey



OUR FAITH

by VP


Posted on Sunday August 24, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons


File:Brooklyn Museum - Jesus Heals a Mute Possessed Man (Jésus guérit un possédé muet) - James Tissot.jpg

JacquesTissot, healing

"By which also you are saved."—I COR. XV. 2.

1. Faith the gift of God.

2. The objects of our faith in the Gospels-viz., Redemption, Church, Sacraments, Prayer, Reward in Heaven.

3. Some fall away from faith, some think little of it; few treasure it.

"FAITH, without which we cannot be saved, is the gift of God. And faith is the most necessary gift for us to possess, and the noblest gift that the Almighty can bestow upon us, for faith can lead us to life eternal. For faith to do this, we must have a knowledge of its doctrines, and we must strenuously live up to it.

Faith teaches us through the Gospels. In the Gospel we can find all that it is necessary for us to know. And this knowledge is imparted to us in such a way that to know leads us to love and serve our good and merciful God. We adore one God in Three Persons. -Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. We are taught that God the Son became Man, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost. And His object in this-His Incarnation was the Redemption of fallen man. The consummation of our Redemption was the Death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, on Calvary.

But the Gospels teach us, moreover, that during His life on earth our Blessed Lord and Saviour established His Church, which was commissioned to preach the Gospel to every living creature. This Church was fortified with the promise of Christ, that it should be imperishable; that the Holy Spirit should teach it all truth, and that He Himself would remain with it until the end of time. That this Church should continue in its blessed work of guarding the truth and saving souls, Christ appointed a Vicar, the head of the Church, Peter the rock, to whom His powers were delegated, for to him He gave the Keys of the Kingdom of heaven.

Moreover, to seal us unto the Faith, and to strengthen us to act up to it, we are taught in the holy Gospel that Christ instituted the Seven Sacraments, by which grace is given to our souls. This power they have from their divine institution by Christ, the merits of Whose precious Blood is applied by them to the souls of men. The first is Baptism, which cleanses us from original sin, makes us Christians, children of God, and members of His Church. We receive the Holy Ghost in Confirmation to make us strong and perfect Christians. In the Holy Eucharist, which is not only a Sacrament in which we receive the true Body and Blood of Christ, but a Sacrifice also, the Holy Mass, which is one and the same Sacrifice with that of the Cross.

The holy Gospel also hands down those blessed words of the Saviour: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them" (John xx. 22). How faith makes poor sinners cling in hope to this Sacrament of Penance. The sick and the dying are not forgotten in the list of Sacraments. The continuation of priests and bishops for the ministry is safeguarded by the Sacrament of Holy Orders; and family life is blessed and ennobled by the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Faith does not leave us lonely and unprotected in our daily life. How we should wander and lose our way, and be seduced by vain pleasures and pursuits on all sides, if our Faith let us forget God! But in the Gospel we are taught the duty of prayer-to raise up our minds and hearts to God. Our Blessed Lord Himself taught us how to pray! To lift up our souls to our Father in heaven; to do Him honour by our good lives; to long for His Kingdom to come; to know that perfection is in doing His holy Will; to turn to Him for strength for soul and body; to be forgiving to others, as we pray Him to be forgiving to us. Oh ! blessed prayer that thus directs our hearts and souls to God each day of life. Pray always," says the Gospel; and our Blessed Lord gave us the example, praying for us on the mountain side the long night through. And we need not fear that our poor prayers will be of no avail, for we pray "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Remember His promises," If you shall ask Me anything in My name, that I will do" (John xiv. 14). "If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him" (Matt. vii. II). Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you" (ibid. 7). The Gospel repeatedly assures us of blessed answers to our prayers.

And most glorious too in the Gospel is that blessed assurance of eternal reward, if we keep steadfast to the Church, led on by our holy Faith. After the Last Supper, our Lord prayed thus: "Father, I will that where I am, they also, whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me: that they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me" (John xvii. 24). But speaking as the Judge our divine Lord and King speaks thus: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the Kingdom prepared for you" (Matt. xxv. 34). Oh! how often have we prayed "Thy Kingdom come!" And thus our faith will be crowned in that eternal Kingdom of God.

Thus is our faith taught by the holy Gospel. Can it be that men, who once have been thus blessed with the sacred gift of faith, should fall away? It is, alas! too true. And for what have they abandoned their faith? That will be the remorse of it all throughout eternity. For what have they bartered their soul, their immortal soul, the soul that by faith was the child of God - the soul that had been redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ ?

But many amongst us think but far too little of this gift of faith. There is something else that they prize still more. What can it be but something perishable, for this world passeth away, but faith leads to immortal glory. We then must treasure our faith, the blessed gift of God. We must know it thoroughly, follow its guidance, be loyal to it, and profess it openly. The Gospel and the Faith "you have received, wherein you stand; by which also you are saved, if you hold fast." Remember, eternal life depends on that "if you hold fast."

Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr.  Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB 1922 (11th Sunday after Pentecost)




HOW TO PRAY

by VP


Posted on Sunday August 17, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons


“O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”—LUKE Xviii. 13.

1. One prayed and offended God; the other prayed and was justified. Why?

2. Not that we are as bad as the Pharisee; but it would be better for us to be more like the Publican.

    3. Perhaps we resent being classed with him, a sinner. 4. How did the saints pray?

How many of us at times have wondered why our Blessed Lord spoke only of two kinds of prayer, the Pharisee's and the Publican's. Where do we come in —we ordinary, everyday kind of Catholics? Surely we are scarcely as proud and presumptuous as the Pharisee, whose very prayer was turned into sin and offended God; and, on the other hand, perhaps in our own hearts, we almost resent being classed with the Publican. And yet our Lord, divine truth and wisdom, made no reference to such as we think we are --not so bad as either.

Let us not be too complacent. Our Lord describes a man who was well instructed, outwardly irreproachable, a model man as he thought himself, and yet he knew not how to pray. He mistook vainglory, boastfulness, attitudinizing, as prayer; he disdains his neighbour, he praised himself instead of the Almighty! Whereas the other, humble in the consciousness of his sinfulness and frailty, besought the mercy of God. Short was his prayer, but it was from the heart. He found mercy and was justified. It was mercy that he needed; mercy that he longed for and prayed for; and mercy that was granted him.

The Pharisee knew not how to pray, because he did not realize his need of God's mercy, but trusted in his own self-righteousness. The Publican knew his need of God's mercy, prayed for it and obtained it. According, then, to our realizing our need of mercy, our prayer will be acceptable and blessed. If we resent in our hearts being classed with sinners, needy and weak and prone to evil, we are not in the state of humility, which longs for and receives the mercy of our Father from heaven. Without prayer we cannot be saved, and there can be no genuine prayer unless we realize our need of grace and mercy. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity" (1 John i. 8, 9). They need not be glaring sins, that the world looks askance at; but whose heart has not been defiled in thought, word, or deed ? Have we never disobeyed a commandment through self-seeking, self-indulgence, or wilful negligence? Then do we not need to pray that such sins should be forgiven, and for grace lest again we relapse and forfeit God's friendship?

Our need of grace and mercy is evident, and the means to obtain every blessing is humble prayer. "By all prayer and supplication, praying at all times,” says St. Paul (Eph. vi. 18). And David teaches us to pray: "Help me, O Lord my God, save me according to Thy mercy" (Ps. cix. 26). Thou art plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Thee" (Ps. xxxv. 5). And God's mercy is not only to forgive, but to keep us safe and strengthen us to be faithful. In answer to prayer there is God's constant watchfulness and the care of a loving Father. Prayer makes us mindful of God's mercy and anxious to correspond to His graces, and be faithful in observance. It makes us grateful for our Father's care and solicitude. And gratitude merits a continuation of God's favours. The kindness of God is revealed to us in prayer. How does the Scripture describe the goodness of God? "Thou, O Lord, art a God of compassion, and merciful: patient, and of much mercy" (Ps. lxxxv. 15). The Lord is gracious, merciful, patient, and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all; and His tender mercies are above all His works" (Ps. cxliv. 9).

It is prayer that creates this peace and trustfulness in God; that made the austerities of the saints a foretaste of the joys of heaven. They were wisely humble enough to know that they could not do without the mercy of God, and yet trustful that they could obtain it and every grace if they prayed for it. How different our prayers would be if we realized our need of the mercy of God, and how prayer would always obtain it for us, if we humbly sought it. The saints did, and constant was their earnest, humble prayer. Who are we to dare to be self-sufficient, and imagine we need not pray for forgiveness of the past? Pray to make a good beginning once again; pray to persevere, for without it we cannot hope to persevere, a day or an hour, in doing good.

Let us recall a prayer of St. Gertrude. It reads as if a poor sinner, like the Publican, had composed it; and not a great saint, who was favoured with the gift of miracles, had frequent visions of our Blessed Lord, and who was the first to introduce devotion to the Sacred Heart. This is the prayer: "O sweet mercy of God, full of tenderness and clemency, behold, in the sorrow and pressing need of my heart, I seek safety in Thy loving Will, for Thou art my whole hope and trust. Thou hast never despised one sad and sorrowful. Thou hast never rejected the vilest sinner. Thou hast never abandoned one seeking help. Thou hast never passed by one in grievous trouble without a look of mercy. The needy and poor Thou dost always assist, as a mother her child. To all invoking Thy most holy name Thy loving assistance is given. And even unworthy me, Thou wilt not cast from Thee on account of my sins and my unworthy life" (Exer. c. vii.). Let us implore our Lord to grant us the spirit of such prayer as this. We shall not then be ashamed to use the prayer of the Gospel, "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." Frequently and from our heart let us say it, and we shall be justified in the sight of God." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr.  Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB 1922 (10th Sunday after Pentecost)


The Retribution of Sin

by VP


Posted on Sunday August 10, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons


Enrique Simonet


" Because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation." - St. Luke 19. 44.

1. Our Lord's lament over Jerusalem.

2. That city the type of the fate of sinners.

3. The mistake: sinfulness not liberty but slavery.

4. This remembrance helps us to be watchful and to pray.

"It was as our Blessed Lord was riding towards Jerusalem, during His brief triumph on Palm Sunday, that He uttered these words. For the last time before His Passion He looked down upon that city which had been blessed in so many ways-the chosen city; the home of the Temple; the city that had heard so many of His divine words and warnings; that had witnessed so many of His miracles. But all to no purpose; for during the next few days that city would resound to the cries," Away with Him, crucify Him !" Our Lord wept over it as He realized that all His mercies had been of no avail, and foretold the dreadful judgment and punishment that would befall it for its rejection of its Saviour. It was all its own fault, its impenitence and hardness of heart. Alas! Jerusalem is the type of so many of God's creatures of ourselves, perchance. God gives a sinner many chances, graces innumerable; visitations of mercy; warnings to urge him to give up his evil ways. But there is an end of God's mercies, for this life is short, and remorseless death is hastening to overtake us.The last grace offered and disdained, then the allmerciful God has to abandon us, because we "have not known the time of our visitation." Words that verify this flash across our memory. And Jesus hid Himself" (John vii. 59). "You shall seek Me, and you shall not find Me " (ibid. 43). You shall seek Me, and you shall die in your sin " (ibid. 21).


It seems almost impossible that man could prove himself thus obdurate, in spite of all that the loving Saviour has done for him. But always and everywhere there have been men and women, who really and through their own fault have made themselves so guilty and impenitent as to be abandoned by their Saviour and their God. This hard and impenitent heart is the result of the power of the habit of sin, which enslaves them. When a man begins to sin and to turn from God, he thinks he will be his own master and independent. He will not brook the commandments, "Thou shalt " and" Thou shalt not." His own will is to be master. There is the fatal mistake! Free, independent, one's own master; yes, such is the lying suggestion of the devil. Whereas the truth, the inspired Word of God, teaches us most emphatically the very opposite.

"Amen, amen, I say to you, that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin " (John viii. 34), are the solemn words of our Blessed Lord Himself. And St. Peter, who, alas knew what sin was, says, "They themselves are the slaves of corruption, for by whom a man is overcome, of the same he is a slave " (2 Pet. ii. 19). If by sinning we become the servants, the slaves of sin, to what a state of abject slavery, indeed, must a habit of sin enthral us! Of his own power such a man is utterly unable to free himself. He has bound himself beyond release. A bad habit is like a rope. A child can snap a few slight hempen meshes of which a rope is made. But when countless strains have been twined and formed into a stout rope, the man that is bound with it is powerless. And so with our souls. Habits slight at first, that a good will and a sorrowful heart could break, by degrees form themselves into bonds that defy our efforts, and will become everlasting bonds, unless God's gracious mercy intervenes.

But why all this? We are not as bad as this; no, thank God; but we should be humble and thankful that we are not. For how many graces have the best of us disregarded! How many sins have we not committed! How many habits have begun to twine themselves round our souls, but, by God's mercy, they have been snapped by our repentances and confessions. A good man, therefore yea, a very good and devout man - should fear and watch any starting of a careless, sinful habit. He should break it at first, lest it grow too strong and enslave him. This holy fear and watchfulness will make us careful to use God's graces and the means of our salvation, and to obey the admonitions of the Church. And there is one practice that will ensure this carefulness and piety, and it is this: to pray for others. Pray for others, who are in the sad state of habitual sin, and who do not see and understand their peril. It is likely that we know someone who needs prayers. What an act of charity to rescue their soul! Let us give them of our best.

And at this very hour it is certain that there is someone near to death. Remorse, despair, agonizing his soul that he has not known the day of the visitation of God's graces. He may doubt God's goodness and the tender mercy of the Sacred Heart. If our prayers, our Mass, our Holy Communion could whisper hope to that poor soul, and bring him, writhing in the bondage of his evil habits, humbly to plead for mercy once again, he would find it was not too late! What more precious offering could we make to our heavenly Father than that of a soul redeemed by the precious Blood, snatched from the evil one, even at his last hour? Such prayers will help to save others, and secure for ourselves a holy life now, and a welcome to heaven after a merciful judgment, because we have not stood idly by and let our brethren perish." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr.  Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB 1922 (9th Sunday after Pentecost)


Sons of God

by VP


Posted on Sunday August 03, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons


File:Brooklyn Museum - The Lord's Prayer (Le Pater Noster) - James Tissot.jpg

Le Pater, Jacques Tissot


"Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."-ROM. 8. 14.

1. This glorious title "sons of God" fails to touch so many hearts.

    2. They prefer the world, which is the enemy of God.

    3. They object to being "led": fatal mistake.

4. What follows from being sons? Heirs also.

"WHAT joy and enthusiasm should be enkindled in our souls by the announcement of this truth, that St. Paul declares to us, that we are destined to be "the sons of God; and if sons, heirs also; co-heirs with Christ." But, alas! this announcement awakens no echo in the souls of so many. They are in this world; they raise their eyes to nothing beyond, but find occupation, pleasure, contentment in the fleeting joys of the present. What a misfortune to disregard the glorious destiny to which they are called, and to content themselves with the world" which passeth away." They give no heed to the warnings of the Scripture: "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world" (1 John ii. 15); and that other, “The friendship of this world is the enemy of God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God' (Jas. ii. 4).


An enemy of God! and they are called to be the sons of God. It is all-important, then, that we watch ourselves, and do not make the fatal mistake of becoming an enemy, whereas we are called to be sons. And it is easy and natural to make this mistake, deluded and misguided by self-love and self-sufficiency. Witness those of whom our Blessed Lord speaks, as claiming heaven because they have prayed and done miracles in His name: but they had been ruled by self, and not led by the Spirit of God. Therefore the gospel continues, "And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you that work iniquity" (Matt. 8. 23).

How can we explain this? Alas! in all that they had done, it had not been the Will of God they had sought to do, but their own will. They had not been "led by the Spirit of God." This is the test by which we make sure of our calling. "Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." It is the word "led" that is the stumbling-block! A man has faculties and intelligence: he determines to go by them, imagining that they are all-sufficing. He forgets their limits; of how much he is ignorant; how prone he is to evil; the insidious enemies around him. He chooses his own way.

A fatal mistake, indeed, to imagine we can choose our own way and be independent. Our own way! Blind men choosing their own way, and refusing assistance and guidance. Our own way! Forgetting that we are prone to evil; that we have deceitful enemies around us, leading us to destruction-enemies, who craftily conceal the dangers and the evils under the guise of pleasure and freedom and independence. Our own way! And yet we cannot shake ourselves free from the thraldom, for we are slaves to our sins. Such a man forfeits the grace and help of the Spirit, and is powerless of himself. For instance, some Sunday he may hear some word of our Lord in the Gospel that is a rebuke to him; he knows that he should change and repent, but no, he clings to his own opinion or to the habit he has formed. He thinks he is free and independent, yet in reality he is a slave, enthralled in his evil ways. Warnings are given; even a bad conscience can be stricken by fear of some evil that seems impending. He is powerless to change, though he dreads the consequences. Aided by the tempter, he stifles the voice of conscience, and remains a miserable slave of sin. Thus, from the practices of a good Christian life, he is led astray and, sooner or later, the tempter leads him from the Faith... Good practices he has abandoned; next some doctrine or precept of the Church annoys him, persistently rebukes him. Will he be humble enough to obey, or rebel and choose his own way and cling to his own will? Alas! he thus falls from the Faith! For what is a heretic, but a chooser, as the meaning of the word implies; and one that clings obstinately to his own opinion in defiance of the Church? He becomes one of those of whom the prophet speaks: "They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart" (Jer. vii. 24).

But how different all is, thank God, for those who lovingly yield themselves to be "led by the Spirit of God." They are “partakers of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit dwells within them, as St. Paul tells us, and securely in His strength and under His guidance they tread the path of life. Their faith, received at Baptism, strengthened within them at Confirmation, beams down upon their path of life, enlightening them day by day to fulfil their duties to God and man. Walking in the light of this divine Faith, there is no hesitancy, no doubt, no difficulties in following the road that leads to eternal life. Faith points out the way; hope sustains them in the journey, both the gift of that divine Spirit by Whom they are led. The hope that they are thus the sons of God inspires them with courage to bear their cross, to dare and do whatever the Spirit bids them. This hope bids them also remember that, if they are the sons of God, they are "heirs also, heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Let us pray, then, for the Holy Spirit to endow us with wisdom and understanding to give ourselves to be led by Him, and not by the false maxims of the world, of self, of the evil one. Pray that He may teach us to set a right value on the means to salvation; to relish the things of God; to be ever ready to follow His leading and His guidance, for then we shall be "the sons of God."

Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr.  Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB 1922 (8th Sunday after Pentecost)


THE PROMISE OF SALVATION

by VP


Posted on Sunday July 27, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons


"The grace of God, life everlasting." -Rom. vi. 23.

1. The value of a promise.
2. What is this promise ?

3. It has been made to us by God.

4. Can we not promise in return to merit its fulfilment ?

A PROMISE made to us is an attraction that enkindles hope and leads us to make endeavour. But how often have we been promised and have been disappointed! Or again, promises have been made, but the conditions have not been fulfilled, and there is no result. So a promise on which we can build our hopes, and which may urge us on to do our utmost, must be made by one whom we can trust, by one who has power to fulfil it; and it must be a promise of something well worth gaining. The greater the good that is offered, the more the promise is to be prized. And finally, the condition or the conditions imposed must be within our power of fulfilment.

Then what is the promise that the text alludes to ? Life everlasting! We have it plain and unequivocal in Holy Writ: "And this is the promise which God hath promised us--life everlasting" (I John ii. 25). Test this promise, and see how wholeheartedly we can trust to it. First, it is the promise of one in whom we may confide--the God of Truth. Again, it is the promise of one who has the power to fulfil it--the Almighty. And it is a promise of infinite value, that will last for all eternity, without fail or change-life everlasting, which is the blessed vision of God and the participation in His glory and beatitude.

And how is this promise to be fulfilled? By our divine Saviour, Jesus Christ. Witness the inspired words of God in the Scriptures: "According to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. i. 1); and again, "God according to His promise hath raised up to Israel a Saviour, Jesus" (Acts xiii. 23). For all the promises of God are in Him" (2 Cor. i. 20).

[ocr errors]

The Son of God, Jesus Christ, became Man and lived amongst us, showed us by example and taught us the way of salvation; He redeemed us by His sacred Passion and Death; He instituted His Church to be our guide and our safeguard, and made it infallible and imperishable by the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. He instituted the Sacraments, and specially the Holy Eucharist, through which we might receive grace and nourishment and strength. All this to prove to us that the promise was efficacious and alive with power. Moreover, that the promise might always be before our minds, illuminating, filling them with hope, inflaming our souls to venture all, to do their utmost, His divine Presence dwells amongst us. In every church He has made His abode to dwell amidst the children of men.

All this is held out to us, and given to us by the promise of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Can it be that this gracious and glorious promise has really been made to us? Look around: does mankind seem to believe it and understand it? That life everlasting is promised, is guaranteed to them? Is it their one thought, engrossing all their attention, inspiring their actions, their zeal? If life everlasting is promised us, can it be possible that the desire of money, position, comfort, or anything in this fleeting world can occupy our attention, can preoccupy our thoughts so entirely that we utterly disregard and forget this promise of Almighty God?

Perhaps the condition to be fulfilled to gain the reward of the promise is entirely beyond our powers and our hopes. Can we believe for a moment that the just and faithful God would treat us so? No; according to His promise He has raised up a Saviour; so it is through Him, our Saviour Himself, that we can surely fulfil the conditions to make the promise effective. He is ready and longing to give us both the will and the power to do His blessed Will; for that is the condition--we must obey Him and do His holy Will, then there is eternal life for our reward. The Church prays: " O Almighty and eternal God, grant us an increase of faith, hope, and charity, and that we may deserve to obtain what Thou promisest, make us love what Thou commandest." It is because we have not the faith or hope in our hearts to cling to His promise that we have not the love to venture all in striving to gain "life everlasting."

God has promised us so much; cannot we find in our hearts to promise Him in return our obedience, our loyalty, our love? Let us not be smitten by the glamour of the vain promises of the world, so as to give our time, our activity, our souls to seek to gain them. Rather with the faith of St. Peter, let us cry out: "Lord, Thou hast the words of life to whom shall we go?" Aye, indeed, to whom shall we go, when we feel that this short life is drawing to a close, when death is drawing nigh? What promises will avail us then, except the one divine promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord ?

Everything will slip from our grasp then; we shall have to leave and part from all. What consolation will it then be, that we have trusted in the promise of God -the faithful God- Who will give us life everlasting through His Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! ( Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey O.S.B. 7th Sunday after Pentecost)



Five minutes Sermons: Man's need of God

by VP


Posted on Sunday July 20, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons



-"And Jesus said to His disciples: I have compassion on the multitudes, because they have nothing to eat, and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way."-St. Matt. xv. 32.

If our Divine Lord were to reappear in the flesh to-day, walking amongst men, as He did nineteen centuries ago, He would, no doubt, have with Him again the multitudes, attracted by the sweetness of His divine personality. He would see at His feet amongst the miserable millions embodying mankind's collected woe not only the dumb, the blind, the lame and maimed, casting themselves down before Him to be healed, but crowding around Him a multitude of those who have nothing to eat. Compassion would again be dominant and rule supreme in His Sacred Heart, and who can doubt that the Healer of mankind would again, while healing the sick, not send away the others fasting?

I will not dwell here on the fact that in the present as in bygone times there is scarcely much difference as to the vastness in numbers of those who literally, in plain Gospel language, "have nothing to eat." I will only say, that if the percentage of the poor and needy, of those hungering for their daily bread, has remained unchanged, as great as in the past, it is owing to the prevalent, all but universal love of gain. If, then, the wretched become dependent upon others more fortunate than themselves, their relief is a means to make those who help them like Jesus Christ. But though without such help the wretched multitude must go away fasting and fainting, this sorrowful truth is not the whole truth. The real state of things is still worse. For if we consider likewise, as we ought to, the spiritual and moral condition of the greater number of those that have abundancethat is, that are filled with bread and meat and the other good things of this life-we find that in another sense of the divine text they have nothing to eat. If we only were able to read their souls, it would be seen that, in spite of their bodily fulness, they still are spiritually fasting owing to the void in their hearts.

In this world there is no food which can fill the desire of men's souls. There is, then, not only the danger of their fainting by the way, but there are in reality vast numbers of them who have fallen, who at every moment are falling, by the wayside, and away from true life. We then discover this fact, even more deplorable than the first, because having nothing to eat in the spiritual sense, so many fall away from all belief in God. In the truer and deeper, the mystical sense of the text, we see that there are millions to-day who have nothing to eat, who go about fasting, faint, and who even die in the way. The experience of past ages bears me out when I say that God alone can satisfy the necessities of the human heart and the aspirations of man's soul."

In vain has mankind attempted to live without its Creator. "Of old," says the venerable Father Lallemant, "the devil disguised himself as God, presenting himself to the heathen in idols, as the author and the end of everything in the world." Later on, in modern, in our times, men have tried to fill the void within by creatures which they substituted for God. But nobody has succeeded, nobody can succeed without God. The oft-repeated attempt of man to deceive his own heart and soul into the belief that anything but God will still his hunger, has caused only wretchedness and supreme misery.

The truth then is: Today, as of old, multitudes are without God, without Christ, by their own fault. They will not follow Him out to the desert, will not listen to His words, ponder upon them; will not ask for grace to believe and be filled with truth. No; in pride, in deluded self-satisfaction, in the bustle of life, in the entanglements of passion or business, they suffer life to run on in some faint, half-hearted way, desiring the truth but never, as the Apostle says, coming to the knowledge of it. But we, by God's mercy, have the truth, we have eaten and been filled; oh! let us prize it, let us above all be faithful to it—for our Lord says: Blessed are you, not because you know the truth, not solely because you possess it, but blessed are you if, knowing it, you live up to it."  The Five minute Sermons by the Paulist Fathers, 6th Sunday after Pentecost



Five-minute Sermons: Good Reading

by VP


Posted on Sunday July 13, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons


"Converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here."-I. St. Peter i. 17.

"PRINTING as an art has been of such great value to the human race that it may seem to some like an attack upon the liberty of men to say anything against the use of it. So many books have been written, so much knowledge has been spread abroad by means of them, so many evils and abuses exposed, and so many thousands, indeed hundreds of thousands, of lives made happier because of the printingpress, that it deserves a place among the greatest of God's blessings to men.

This we admit, and gladly and heartfeltly thank the Lord for the benefits He has been pleased to bestow upon us through the press. We know it has had, and still has a noble office, and has done a noble work. It has uprooted evil and righted wrong; it has advanced knowledge and has given joy to many a heart. And it has done well when it has done these things. It has done well when it has aided justice and truth and the living of a good life.

For all these reasons its influence and power are deservedly great, so great that to lightly estimate them or overlook them would be to ignore great factors in human affairs. Nor do we wish, nor do we seek to lessen this influence as long as it is exerted in the cause of what is right; but the press, like many another thing good in itself, has been misused.

It has been made to pander to the grossest vices of men. It has been made to lie, to steal, to be impure. It has been made to teach false religion, false politics, and false morality. At times it has been the very worst enemy of mankind; filling men's minds with theories entirely impracticable, or such as, put into effect, would destroy their happiness.

Nor have men hesitated to prostitute its high calling for the sake of furthering personal gain and ambition, or even revenge. The trust and confidence of the public have not unfrequently been abused, and error commingled with truth so subtly, and right with wrong, that the public sentiment has been arrayed against truth and justice; for there is an almost unaccountable impression given many people that what they find printed is of necessity true unless it is absolutely proved to be false.

Our care must be, in the light of the facts before us, to distinguish between the good and the bad press. We must beware of the evil sent flying, as it were, upon the air, and hold ourselves aloof from the crowd, when it is being hurried along to its ruin by bad advice and by bad principles. Good books and good papers are doing God's work in the world-as apostles in their way; but those that are bad are working in the interest of the "prince of darkness."

A good press sheds a bright light over the earth -the light of truth; a bad press is like a heavy cloud obscuring the sun. We can have nothing to do with evil; we should hate evil. Let us have nothing to do with bad books and bad papers. Let us neither read them ourselves, nor permit others to read them, when we have authority to prevent them. Let us banish them from our houses; that at least we can do, for there we are supreme. Let us strive also to have them banished from the shops where we deal and from the land wherein we live."  Five-minute Sermons by the Paulist Fathers 5th Sunday after Pentecost