FRIDAY EVENING MASS HOMILY – FATHER RAY BOURQUE

Tonight's first reading was from the Book of Tobit, and Father Ray gave several reasons for reading Tobit:

1. Faithfulness to the law;
2. Function of angels;
3. Piety towards parents;
4. Purity towards marriage;
5. Value of prayer; and 
6. Value of suffering.

SATURDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY – FATHER RAY BOURQUE

We should never tire of giving thanks to God for all that He has given us. Do what is good, i.e., fasting, prayers, penance, and giving alms. Almsgiving saves us from death. It is better to give alms than to store up gold.

We have to ponder in our hearts the Word of God. Does the Word of God make us look like Jesus Christ?

1. We should thank God for everything, our health in particular.
2. Give God praise for who He is.
3. Give God glory. There are two kinds of glory: internal and external glory. We cannot make God better, which is internal, but we can spread His glory to other people.
4. Before others, acknowledge all the good things God has done for you. Bless His name.
5. Extol the name of Jesus in song. Let people see you happy for what God has done for you.
6. Praise God for what He has done for you.
7. The works of God are to be declared and made known to others.
8. Praise God with due honor.
9. Do good - evil will not find its way to you.

In today's gospel the widow gave a small coin while the others who had more gave more. She truly gave more because she had so much less. How do we give? Do we give like a big shot or like the widow?

SATURDAY MORNING INSTRUCTION – FATHER FRANCIS

Pray for holiness everyday. If everything is calm in your faith, then something is wrong.

We need to step out for God. It is not a good sign if we are not being persecuted for God. You can talk about the truths of faith, but we need to get the message out to the people. Faith is a veiled mystery to us.

WHO IS THE HOLY EUCHARIST? WHO IS THE BLESSED SACRAMENT? NOT, WHAT? In all the tabernacles, all the hosts contain the whole of Jesus Christ. The Council of Trent in the 16^th Century declared that the Eucharist consists of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. No matter what faith you are, it will not change WHO is in the Tabernacle. This is a reality. The whole of Jesus Christ is contained in the Eucharist. It is not only the true body of Christ (nerves, bones, etc.) but the whole and entire body, His fingernails, hair, etc.

The Cur¾ of Ars said that we would die if we truly realized this. 

Transubstantiation - the whole substance of the bread and wine, its breadness and wineness are changed into the living and glorified Jesus Christ. What remains are the external properties of bread and wine that can be perceived by the senses.

Jesus hides His glory because we could not handle it.

Father also spoke about the fraternity of the priesthood. That is, regardless of where a priest comes from, a fraternity exists.

HEALING SERVICE – FATHER AUGUSTINE

God is in charge. Nothing happens to us that is not allowed or ordained by Him. Trust in God the Father and this will banish evil. If we have trust in God our Father, it is the key to greater sanctity. We are held bound by fear; fear that things will happen to us. His grace and strength will sustain us even in martyrdom. 

The gift of self is one of the greatest weapons against evil. We endure suffering and agony for Jesus. When we are suffering, say: "For You, Jesus, for souls."

We have a glance of the divine savior in the Blessed Sacrament. Look at the Blessed Sacrament with more than your eyes. Jesus wants us to long for Him even more when we endure suffering, when God seems absent. Suffering is allowed to break us of our attachments to the world and to strip us of seeing only with our physical eyes.

Put yourself in the divine arms of Jesus Christ, and you will not fear the storm. Ask Jesus to draw us in His awesome presence of Himself, that rivers of living waters may flow through us. Yield to Him our sufferings.

FATHER RAY BOURQUE'S BIBLE STUDY

Tomorrow is the Feast of Corpus Christi, which was established in 1264 by Pope Urban IV for the Western Church. St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas each wrote a liturgy for the mass, and when they got together, St. Bonaventure decided to adopt St. Thomas' version. In 1990 the Holy Father said we are "pilgrims" and we have to follow Jesus. Jesus is our hero, our trail blazer, and our way to heaven. Tomorrow in the procession we will follow Jesus, but we follow Him not only in the procession but also to heaven.

Father Ray then proceeded to discuss The Church in America, Chapter IV, the Path to Communion. "Faced with a divided world which is in search of unity, we must proclaim with joy and firm faith that God is communion, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, unity in distinction, and that he calls all people to share in that same Trinitarian communion." Para. 33, The Church, sacrament of communion. "Communion of life in the Church comes through the sacraments of Christian initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist." Para. 34, Christian initiation and communion. "The Eucharist is more than simply the culmination of Christian initiation . . . the Eucharist is the living and lasting center around which the entire community of the Church gathers." Para. 35, The Eucharist as center of communion with God and with each other. "Precisely because it signifies, communion in the Church must constantly increase. 'It is up to the Bishop, with the help of the priests, deacons, religious and lay people to implement a coordinated pastoral plan, which is systematic and participatory, involving all the members of the Church and awakening in them a missionary consciousness.'" Para. 36, The Bishops as builders of communion. "The Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops was the first ever to have gathered Bishops from the entire continent, and it was seen by all as a special grace of the Lord to the pilgrim Church in America. It strengthened the communion which must exist among the ecclesial communities of the continent, making clear to all the need for the communion to grow." Para. 37, Deeper communion between the particular Churches. "The recent phenomenon of the establishment and development in America of Eastern Catholic particular Churches, with their own hierarchy, was a matter of special attention on the part of some Synod Fathers. A genuine desire to embrace, in ways both cordial and practical, these brethren in the faith and in hierarchical communion under the Successor of Peter led the Synod to propose concrete ways for the particular Churches of the Latin rite to offer fraternal assistance to the Eastern Catholic Churches throughout the continent. Para. 38, Fraternal communion with the Eastern Catholic Church. "As a member of a particular Church, each priest must be a sign of communion with the Bishop, since he is his immediate collaborator, in union with his brothers in the priesthood. With pastoral charity, he exercises his ministry, chiefly in the community entrusted to him, and he leads his community to encounter Christ the Good shepherd. His vocation requires him to be a sign of unity." Para. 39, The priesthood as a sign of unity.