FRIDAY EVENING MASS HOMILY – FATHER ANTHONY 

We cannot count on other people. You will find your satisfaction only in God, not in other people. We allow ourselves to open up to other people, because we cannot survive by closing ourselves off from them. However, it can get sideswiped.

When we are in good times or in bad times, God is there. Our model of friendship for us is God's relationship to us. God knows how to respect boundaries. In our relationship with God, He always respect our free will. Jesus is a model for our friendship. The relationship of man and a woman has to model Christ. 

Father quoted the passages from Genesis about man and woman. Jesus said "What God has joined together, no man can separate." You are modeling the Trinity. Marriage is a sacrament – two individuals becoming so united, so committed to each other, modeling Jesus on the cross. "If I want this to work, I have to stop thinking of myself". In marriage there are children. In marriage we are representing Christ and would not be reducing it to a cheap thing.

SATURDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY – FATHER ANTHONY

Be like little children.  Jesus said that we must become like a little child. We need to throw ourselves in our parent's arms. We pray the "Our Father" every day. In the context of the Mass, we include after the "Our Father" another prayer, "Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, etc." Be attentive to that prayer, because we pray as Jesus taught us. However, we finish with the above prayer. 

The recognition of the devil's existence in the world – two ways he lies to us: 1) that we are too overly consumed of the devil everywhere at work. We have the power to tell him to go to hell; and 2) we get so comfortable that we forget the devil's existence. We cannot have the attitude that we do not have to worry about anything, that we are saved.  The devil works in dark corners. If he cannot terrify us, he wants us to think he does not exist.

"Father, deliver us from every evil. We realize it is only by Your power that we will be delivered. Help us to rid ourselves of all sin."  Holy people, live your lives to part from all sin. The saints wrestled with that. 

Peace comes only from God. The Holy Father sent a Cardinal to our President with a message. We want peace. We want to pray that it is God's peace. Our serenity lies in God alone. When there is a recognition that God reigns, we can have peace in the midst of war. "In Your mercy, keep us free from sin." We beg that His mercy is operative in our lives. Our Lady was totally free from sin only by the mercy of God. "So that we can be like our Blessed Mother and have hearts like our Blessed Mother, free us from all anxiety". If we would go to confession instead of going to a counselor, we could get free from our sins. We forget that God is in charge when we have so much tension.

"In Your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety." We end the prayer with "as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ." 

We have a real joy at His coming back. We claim Him for our Savior and we wait for Him with joy and hope. When we have an authentic love for God and we know His love for us, we have peace, love and joy. Trust is rooted in the virtue of hope. "I give you My mercy. Place your faith and hope in Me." 

SATURDAY MORNING INSTRUCTION – FATHER COLLINS 

The saints say that Mary is the treasurer of distributing the graces of the Lord. St. Bernard said that Jesus is the head of the Church. Mary is the neck, the Ivory Tower, through which they come to us. She is the greatest member of the Body of Christ.

Pope Leo XIII said that our Lady is the one through whom the graces flow and are distributed. To Jesus through Mary. No one goes to the Father but through the Son, and no one goes to Christ but through His Mother. This teaching is very logical.

A very well known news anchorman was at the Second Vatican Council, and he said that the Council decided to downgrade Our Lady. As Satan had it, She was going to get in the way. People were saying that we should not pray the rosary anymore. There was a lot of misinformation.

There are several major teachings regarding our Blessed Mother. Every one of them is for Jesus Christ. She does not take glory to Herself – only for Her Son.
1) Mary was conceived without original sin (to prepare Her for the motherhood of Jesus Christ). 
2) Mary is Mother of God. Her maternity is divine, but She is not divine.
3) Mary is a perpetual physical virgin – before, after, and during the birth of Christ. (Isaiah – "A virgin shall conceive, a virgin is to give birth").
4) Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven.
5) Has not extraordinarily been defined yet – Mary is the Mediatrix of all Graces. All the graces of the Son of God come through Our Lady is the teaching of our Church (#969, Catechism of the Catholic Church).

Mary is the real cause in our salvation. She said "Yes" when the Angel came to Her. The Church has always believed that She distributes grace on individual human souls. She gives what Her children need, to all those who need them.  The price of our liberty is none other than the flesh and blood of the Virgin. She joined in our salvation at the foot of the Cross. We owe Mary our very salvation. We need Mary in our lives. No man goes to Christ but through our Mother. Bring Mary with you when you go to Jesus Christ. We should go with a humble attitude. In order to get sin out of our lives, we go to Mary. 

In Baptism we say "I reject sin, I reject satan, etc." Get Mary into your life in order to reject satan. She is the "crusher", because it is part of the conversion to eventually crush the prideful head of satan. Satan fears Mary more than God Himself. Satan is so prideful that he cannot stand that he will be defeated by a woman. God will send an instrument (Mary) to defeat satan. To be Her true followers will make them an enemy of satan. The greatest soldiers of Jesus Christ will be the followers of Mary.

HEALING SERVICE – FATHER ANTHONY 

Father Anthony pointed us to the Monstrance. He said he likes to think of the crystal on either 
side of the host as the Blessed Mother. She will never deceive us, and all She wants is to let us see Her Immaculate Heart and we see Jesus.

This is the Year of the Rosary. Mary is not trying to get our attention for Herself. She wants our attention to be on Christ. If we look into the heart of our Blessed Mother, we see all the different facets of the life of Jesus Christ. In His Blessed Mother we see Jesus in His infancy and throughout His life.

She magnifies the Lord. She strengthens and magnifies our strength. This is our Savior on the altar. Anyone who prays to Jesus prays through Mary whether they want to or not. The very path that He took to come to us, we go through Mary back to Him. When we look at the magnifying glass to Jesus, She brings Him closer to us. She magnifies for us every grace He gives to us. She stands before us and magnifies us to the Lord.

Remember the crystal around the Host. "Mary, your soul magnifies the Lord, magnify me before the Lord. Everything I see and do, magnify it". She makes everything we do more beautiful, and She knows the will of Her Son. Give Mary our weak little efforts. Keep in mind the glass around the Blessed Sacrament.