FRIDAY EVENING MASS HOMILY – FATHER ANTHONY

Jesus wants to be king of our hearts. Today is the 16th anniversary of the community of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word – the community Mother Angelica received the inspiration to found. 

Father said that they had four visitors and asked us to pray that some of these young men may be chosen to serve this mission. The Lord is calling these men. 

SATURDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY – FATHER JOSEPH 

In the first reading there is the basic Gospel message that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, He rose, and was seen by many. Jesus was the Son of God. This was a startling message, one hard to believe. Someone was dead and rose again as Lazarus. The Holy Spirit was touching the hearts of believers, those who wanted a life for God and to be faithful to God. 

When all the Apostles and disciples preached, the words they spoke were not their words, but the Holy Spirit who was working in them. Only bishops, priests, and deacons can give a homily. If your heart is opened to listen to what the Lord is saying, He will speak to you through the homilist. 

Christ teaches the twelve men and sent them out. This message resonates in hearts – truth. Truth is the only thing that will satisfy us, our minds. Our minds cannot be satisfied with anything less than the truth. Jesus describes Himself in the Gospel as "the Truth". The Gospel about our Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that will satisfy us, because it is the fullest revelation of the Father to man. In the Gospel the Father speaks to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Mother Angelica's message has resonated in the hearts of people, because it is an uncomplicated message of love of Jesus Christ. 

The Gospel is always understood as Good News. The Apostles preached that Christ died for our sins, rose, and was seen. Life has a purpose; we are not alone. Jesus loves me and He died for me. Father spoke of how the Lord reaches down to us in His mercy. He gives us a foretaste of the life He has promised for us. 

SATURDAY MORNING INSTRUCTION – FATHER JOSEPH 

Father told a couple of stories concerning Mother Angelica and Sister Catherine. Father said that when Mother gazes at Our Lord in the Monstrance, something is going on. Her faith, her love for Our Lord, her looking up at the Monstrance was obviously something going on. The people feel the love of Jesus coming to them from Mother Angelica.  She founded the order of thanksgiving to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Eucharist, in Greek, means 'thanksgiving'. They wear the monstrance on their habit.
God does not let his people starve. God does not leave us abandoned. There are so many good books, videos, etc., to nourish us and strengthen us. The important thing is that the Gospel teaches as many as possible. 

Once when Mother Angelica was experiencing difficult times, Pope John Paul II sent her a gift – a monstrance. Our Church cannot be understood apart from the Eucharist. In Acts 2:42 it says that the Apostles devoted themselves to the teaching of the breaking of the bread and prayer. The Eucharist is something special; it should be received with reverence and purity of heart. 

Mother has taught us where to find strength, help, and inspiration - in the Eucharist. We are seeing this grow where people are seeing the power of the Eucharist, an inexhaustible source of holiness. Stay close to our Eucharistic source. There is our source to grow in holiness. 

Continue to contemplate the face of Christ in this Year of the Rosary with Mary. She knows the face of Jesus better than anyone. Pray the rosary before the Mass. Receive our Lord. Jesus helps us to contemplate the face of Mary. If we are close to Mary, we will never go astray and will never lose our salvation.

On Holy Thursday Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist and the priesthood – the greatest gifts and the most wondrous gifts. In communion we receive Jesus Christ, but Christ also receives us. It consumes us. We are brought into the embrace of Christ. In the time after Holy Communion, those are the most precious moments of our life.

Jesus said we would never comprehend His Mercy. He strengthens us with the sacraments, and the Eucharist is an act of His mercy. That of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the Sacrament, the one most dear to God and the one most beneficial to us. Pope John Paul II says that the Eucharist is the source of vocations, an extension of the Mass, an inestimable value. Father then read from the Encyclical on the Eucharist. This place (the Temple) really expresses the acceptance of that gift of the Eucharist, that most treasured gift. 

HEALING SERVICE – FATHER SHANNON  
   
Jesus is there, actual, real, abiding in His Presence. With His permission, I will speak of His Mother. May is the month of Mary. Our Lord is the Word become flesh. He is not offended; He is pleased when His Mother is praised.

This world of ours was a spiritual desert before Our Lord came. He came with a life-giving water. He gave so much to us through Mary. Mary is the mystical channel to which God gives that life-giving water. If Christ is the treasure, Mary must be the treasure chest. The container, if you will, the ciborium, the tabernacle. Jesus is the Son of God in the tabernacle. Mary was saved from original sin at the moment of conception. 

Some people fear praising Mary because they think it takes away from Christ. Some tried to say that Vatican II took Mary out of the Church. Not True. Vatican II wrote more on Mary than any of the other councils. Vatican II gave Her the title "Mother of the Church". This is the age of Our Lady with the Catholic Church promoting Her. She will bring in Her Son. Her only job is to bring Her Son to those in need. She is all for Jesus, never for Herself. She breathes Jesus. She is like a stained glass window; all the brightness is the light of Her Son. She is Mother of God. Mary preaches the divinity of Christ more than anyone. She is physical virgin, before, during and after the birth of Christ. Everything for Jesus. Let us not be afraid to honor Mary. She is our Mother who will change sin in us to the wine of grace. If we offer what little we have to Jesus Christ, it will be changed into wine. "Do whatever He tells you".
Approach Him in Mary's hand because She is our Mother. Let us spend some moments before the Blessed Sacrament with Mary at our side.   
 
SUNDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY – FATHER FRANCIS  
 
When the holy women went to the tomb, they saw that our Lord was no longer there. Jesus did actually rise from the dead. There are two teachings we want to grasp. The Word who was with God from the beginning and the Word was God. Jesus had a divine nature and a human nature. The other lesson that we learn is the connection between our moral actions and Christian doctrine.  

The concrete Christian life brings this to reality. It becomes more real if we live the life that becomes real to us – between Christian moral life and Christian doctrine. We will sin, but we have Jesus Christ, our intercessor with God the Father. 

We must conduct ourselves as Jesus did.  To know God is to know the ten commandments. Cardinal Ratzinger says that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a manual for happiness. It is a how-to book on how to be happy. The Catechism makes that bridge between moral life and doctrine and a guide for happiness. The Catechism is often rejected. Today religious ignorance is enormous. The Christian faith has not been passed on.  A priest can die a happy priest if he has passed on the faith which he was ordained to do. 

The ten commandments are obligatory for Christians, and they are bound to keep all of them. The Lord can always give us the grace to act in a moral way. Take a look at the ten commandments. They show us what we are called to do in the moral life, and conduct ourselves as Jesus did. Father then went over the ten commandments one by one.