FRIDAY EVENING MASS HOMILY – FATHER  FRANCIS

The Lord created us without our help, but He will not save us without our help. Jesus is the truth, the way and the life. He is the way, the only way. He is also the truth; we abide in something. You enter through the narrow gate to get to heaven.  The big wide road with people on it is not the way.  If you are not getting persecuted, you are not on the right road.  There is no middle way; it is either the right way or the wrong way.

He is the way and the truth.  If we believe in the truth, we believe in Jesus.  To believe in God is more than just believing.  You can't see God, but you can see Jesus.  He revealed Himself in Jesus Christ through the word made human. What is it that I actually believe in?  Jesus Christ - happy, peaceful, contented life, a fulfilling life. What path am I on? Is it the right way; do I believe in truth with my heart and head? We will experience eternal life in bits and pieces here on earth. A greater plan is His plan. Believe in it and act on it. 

SATURDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY – FATHER WADE

There is a hostile world towards Christ and Christianity. There can be no compromise between Jesus and the world, between His kingdom and sin. Father was speaking about Catholics going to weddings outside of the Catholic Church rules. We need proper dispensations from Church Canon Law. If you go to this type of wedding, you are giving approval to the state of fornication. If one of the people or both of them have been married before, it is a state of adultery. Even giving a gift to the couple is pseudo approval.

The fiercest persecutions that Father had ever heard were from the Catholic relatives when they tried to stick up for the Church. We must stand neither left or right of the Chair of Peter, but right in line with the Chair of Peter. There can be no compromise. You are to be happy that the relatives are sticking up for the Church. Pope Gregory the Great said that no one can be pleasing to God and to God's enemies at the same time. 

We have a moral duty and responsibility to the pure and unadulterated teachings of Holy Mother the Church and to be joyful while doing it. If you are right in line with the Chair of Peter, everything is done for you. You have no work to do. It is all done for you by the beautiful tools of the Catholic Church, such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church. But, if you are liberal left or liberal right, you make extra work for yourself. This is what we are called to be in virtue of Baptism and Confirmation - to be loyal sons and daughters of the Church. 

Support the P.U. doctrine - the "pure and unadulterated" teachings of the one, holy, Catholic, apostolic Church, no compromises. The Catholic Church holds the canonical form of  marriage.  The family is torn up with invalid unions.  The union is not made present in God's sight. Society reaps adverse effects of this. We have to get back to the basic of family.

We are Christians, and we want to get healthy. It is not love to go to an invalid union. It is a distorted love to go to this fornicated union. We should lead relatives to the truth to receive sacraments worthily. We have a very distorted sense of love in our society. The most innate and fundamental vocation for a human person is to love. If love is distorted in society, then society will be turned upside down.  If you go to a wedding of an illicit union, you are wishing them damnation. The people will think you are judging if you do not go. We can judge objectively, but not subjectively. 

There are three persons in one God.  Jesus says the chief, greatest manifestation of the Father - the Son - one person with two natures, human and divine. Jesus is the greatest reflection of the Father through His human nature. In Jn 14, v 6-14, Jesus said, "If you know Me then you will also know My Father. From now on you do know Him and see Him."  Jesus Christ was one divine person who assumed our human nature. Jesus willingly subjected His human nature to temptation. 

The one devotion to Jesus Christ that specifically brings out all is to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, because God took on a human heart, a viable pumping heart. The human heart, potentially speaking, has always been a symbol of love. The human person is called to love. Jesus' falls during the carrying of the cross were symbolic moral falls. 

God assumed the human nature through Jesus Christ. The human nature, per se, was the one chosen by God to be the greatest manifestation of Himself. We should be radically pro-life, all stages of life. 

HEALING SERVICE – FATHER  JOSEPH

Father read Scripture from the Apocalypse. The vision of St. John read on the Feast of Martyrs reminds us of our destiny to be in that number dressed in long white robes. 

Why are we here in this Healing Service? Because we need healing in this valley of tears. We all have wounds and have need of the Lord's healing. We all have need of God's help in one way or another. Anyone who has perfect health (physical or spiritual) must be from heaven.  The place where His healing is most given to us is here in the Blessed Sacrament. His healing rays are going out to us. It is a healing place because the Lord is here and is worshipped and adored here. That should be the predominant feature at the Healing Service. We never come into the Lord's presence and leave the same. He can work His healing graces in us if we come with a little confidence and a little faith. A physical healing goes much deeper; not only a physical healing, but something more spiritual is taking place. 

Jesus will not remove every cross in our life, because that would not be for our eternal good. He beautifully mixes periods of consolation with the cross. If there were not trials along the way, we would become spiritually arrogant, and we would never grow. We would be like a child seeking consolations. If it would be only the cross, we would give up. Our greater happiness is our greater love, our greater freedom.

Jesus can do all that He wills. When we come up to receive the blessing today, bring those burdens up with you to Jesus. He says "I will refresh you." He knows we will need some refreshment along the way carrying our burdens. Bring also your family and friends, especially those who need a spiritual healing, those who left the Church, those who need physical healings now. Bring them to Jesus, the Divine Physician.

Pray for one another. Say a simple prayer for everyone as they receive the blessing: "Jesus, heal him; Jesus, heal her. Jesus, bless him; Jesus, bless her."

What are we willing to endure rather than be deprived of the Eucharist? We need Him most especially in the Eucharist. Let us come with that faith in the Lord's real presence, trust in the Lord's merciful love, bring our own burdens to Him and your love ones in need of the Lord's healing.

FATHER RAY BOURQUE'S BIBLE STUDY 

Father Ray spoke on the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are knowledge, understanding, wisdom, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord.  The smallest gift is fear of the Lord.  It is not working frequently.  If we could work seriously with fear of the Lord, the Holy Spirit could work.  The seven gifts are made to give harmony.  One of the seven gifts has an answer to any problem which someone has.  Prepare yourself for Pentecost Sunday.  We have to meditate on the gifts of the Holy Spirit to see how they are working in our lives.  What is the degree of my cooperation?

The Holy Spirit is the gift of Baptism.  How are we using it?  You have to work with the Holy Spirit - the Sanctifier.  We cannot do anything without the Holy Spirit.  The job of the Holy Spirit is not over with yet.  The mission of the Holy Spirit is to make us saints, to be holy and blameless, full of love.  If the smallest gift is not working, then the other gifts are probably not working either.  The Father and the Son do not do anything without the Holy Spirit.  We have Jesus and the Holy Spirit with us at all times.  The Holy Spirit is coming to teach us everything and to remind us of all that Jesus told us.  The Holy Spirit will not speak on His own; He will get from the Word who gets it from His Father.  How open are we to the Holy Spirit?

At Baptism we received God's life and the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit will be with you always.  Ask Mary to finish preparations in our heart before Pentecost.  "I want everything that the Holy Spirit has to give me."

SUNDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY - FATHER  JOSEPH

Jesus speaks of another Advocate who will be given. Again and again in Scripture we hear that word associated with the Holy Spirit.  I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate. 

On Friday we are beginning what is the oldest Novena in the Church - the Novena to the Holy Spirit. We should especially begin our prayer to the Holy Spirit for His coming anew in our hearts, in the Church and in the world this coming Friday. 

We read of Our Lady and the Apostles gathering in the upper room praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit. When a person gives a gift to someone else, it establishes a bond between the two. The exchanging of gifts is an old custom. We profit more by giving than from receiving. It has an element of self-sacrifice. When a gift is given, it unifies. When a gift is a true gift, it is given for the good of the recipient.

God is the great giver. Every best gift and every perfect gift comes from above. What God bestows has the power to vivify us. What God gives is for lasting happiness. We have been created to use our wills to unite ourselves to God, placing these wills in conformity with His. Both of these things are means to something else. 

God is a gift. He gives Himself in pure liberality. We need to know more about the Holy Spirit. We need to invoke Him to come to us. Invoke in humility with openness of heart. Sin is an obstacle of the Holy Spirit coming. Let us root out of our hearts any obstacles that stand in the way. (Father then recited a poem to the Holy Spirit). The Holy Spirit is a person, another Advocate. Jesus is the first Advocate, but the Holy Spirit comes after Him because of Him. 

One image of the Holy Spirit is of fire. He is the Sanctifier.  In all four Gospels that adjective "holy" is used. He is not just a passing visitor but comes to dwell in us, to transform us more and more. He comes to us and chips away and polishes us to become more and more in the image of Jesus. We know, too, that fire is something that purifies. He will not allow that obstacle of sin to remain with us. Fire warms us with consoling presence. The Holy Spirit is source of our love. The first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. 

Fire gives light to our minds. He is the spirit of truth who guides us into all truth. The Holy Spirit has been described as living water. So, too, the Holy Spirit had different effects. He is given to all who welcome Him. The Holy Spirit is the Hidden God; the Word became flesh. Jesus came, the Holy Spirit is not seen visibly, but by the effects of His actions. The work of Jesus continues by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Acts of the Apostles is still being written in the lives of Christians today. The gift of the Holy Spirit is a call to friendship with God. At Pentecost something new happens.

So we pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. We want to be children of God. Now the Lord dwells in our hearts through His Holy Spirit. The sacraments are all effects of the Holy Spirit. There is a profound relationship between Mary and the Holy Spirit. During this month of May, we honor Mary. It was through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit coming to Her at the Incarnation. She is there at the beginning of the Church's life at Pentecost as well.  So we ask Her to join us in these days before Pentecost to intercede for the Church once again, for each of us that we may be sons and daughters of God.