What is the oil they are talking about in the Gospel?  This oil is the life, love and grace of GOD.  We have to have it to keep us ready when He comes to us in the hour of our death.  Immorality destroys this grace; immorality represents all that is bad.  We have to examine our own heart in this choice we are asked to make. 

Where am I in my love life with God? Love is in the willingness to give.  A lover is a giver; a giver is a lover.  We can give without loving, but we cannot love without giving.  We are not speaking  of lust.  He hates himself who lusts.  A lustful person is never happy.  When you analyze lust and greed, they have the same tap root as Satan.

There are four types of love. If a person has enough love in their marriage, they do not look for illegitimate love.   When brothers and sisters do not speak to each other, it is an insult to their parents because they shared the same womb.  A friend is somebody to share secrets with and your deepest feelings without being embarrassed.

God loves us eternally, completely, unselfishly and unconditionally.  God speaks only one word-LOVE.  God is LOVE.

The most necessary kind of giving is FORGIVING.  The most difficult kind of giving is GIVING IN, doing the will of another.  The most proving kind of giving is GIVING UP or sacrificing.  You prove your love by a spirit of sacrifice.  The smartest kind of giving is GIVING AWAY.  Why do you do it?  What are your intentions for doing this?  The most practical and important giving is ALMSGIVING.  Which is the best giving-THANKSGIVING.  The test of all happiness, gratitude is when you can say 'Thank You'.  The greatest kind of giving and love is LIFE GIVING.  WHERE DO I STAND IN MY LOVE LIFE RIGHT NOW?
 

SATURDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY – FATHER ANTHONY

"Psst" - our secret code to the call to holiness.

From the Church's teaching on education as regards the family - What is the role of the family?  Parents give life to children and are responsible to educate them.  Parents are seriously obliged to educate their children.  They are the first and primary educators of the children, enriched by grace and the sacraments.

The duties of marriage:  (1) To know, to feel and to worship God and to love their neighbors according to the grace received in Baptism.  (2) To consider carefully the importance of the truly Christian family.

The role of the family is so important.  We cannot underestimate the evil one's attack on family life and marriages.  He is ruining God's mission of love.  That is the work of the devil.

Our work in being united to Jesus Christ is to foil every attempt the devil makes on God's mission of love.  We have to make still greater progress - our challenge this week-end in the way of love. 

SATURDAY MORNING INSTRUCTION – FATHER ANTHONY

A continuation of the 9:00 A.M. Mass homily.

We are about renewing the face of the earth, but in doing so, we will never do it on our own.  God asks for our cooperation.

The most effective way to teach children is through the family.  Society instructs our children quickly, but it doesn't last.  All of us are trying to build up family, marriage, Church.  The devil is after those who follow God, he will not leave us alone.

A child is born and you love them.  No matter what your children do, you still love them.  They connect.  You belong with family.  The biggest hurt is when a child leaves.

In marriage, there is no security.  In the work place, you always have to prove yourself.  In marriage, the permanence is not because it is a sacrament, but because of the dignity of the person.  He loves you and she loves you for you.  You can make mistakes and successes, and you have the affirmation of the other.  In marriage today, there is no security.  You are vulnerable.  It takes sometimes years to get over a hurt.  In divorce today, the child knows there is no security.  There is a pain there.  This is not the reality that God intended.  What the enemy wants is alienation.  He wants to make it look like the family is a joke.

The devil wants us to feel alone and abandoned.  God is not far away.  He became man and became so close that He is within us.

The reason the Pope is against the death penalty is because of possible conversion and salvation.  We are justified in anger and punishment.

Fifty percent of Catholic youth entering college this fall will lose their faith by next spring.  They do not come back in two years but rather in 10-15 years after they have lost their youth.  Then they want the Church to accept them immediately.  The devil wants to get the young people off the track.

What do we have to do?  We all have our struggles; we know how the world is.  God is at work renewing the face of the earth.  The enemy keeps on working.  As long as we cooperate with God,  He will always get ahead.  We do not have time to lose one soul.  We have no time to waste.

In the world, there is a struggle of chastity - a word that sounds like it is charity.  There are the virtues of faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.  Sometimes we overlook love and charity in the home.  Only the good things people need to hear should be spoken.  Everything we say, think and do should be for the glory of God.

When we examine our conscience, we should examine according to the commandments.

We have to uncover Jesus in our hearts.  Make Him the treasure in our gift box.

HEALING SERVICE – FATHER WADE

Catholic doctrine in regards to the Blessed Sacrament:
 1. Whereas the other six sacraments effect what they signify, the Holy Eucharist is what it signifies.  It is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.  It is the sacrament Par Excellence.
 2. This sacrament will be with us until the end of time.  The day of the second coming of Christ, the Blessed Sacrament will still be in our churches.

At the end of the Divine Praises, we pray "May the Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament be praised, adored and loved with grateful affection at every moment in all the tabernacles of the world even until the end of time."

FATHER RAY BOURQUE'S BIBLE STUDY

God chose us before the world began.  WHY?
 1) to be holy,
 2) to be blameless,
 3) to be full of love
 4) to be children of praise.

God's plan was there at the beginning, before we were born, and even after we are dead.  When you die, there is a judgment and there is no second chance.  During your life, how much time were you holy?  How much time was wasted? That wasted time is not coming back.

We are made in the image and likeness of God.  Jesus is the perfect image of God.  We are supposed to look like Jesus.

The Holy Father wanted the energy and enthusiasm of the Jubilee Year to go on.  We should not go back to where we were.

Everything we do has to be in line with holiness.  Hurry up and grow in holiness.  Learn to say you are going to Heaven.  If you do not become holy, you waste the blood of Christ.

If you love as God loves, you are like God.  Love with all your heart and all your strength.

Deut. 30:14 - But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and your heart, so that you can do it.  (Check your mouth).

John 13:34 - Such as my love has been for you, so your love should be.

Heb 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

SUNDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY - FATHER ANGELUS SHAUGHNESSY

The new word in psychology for humility is maturity.  The day you can give a good laugh at yourself is the day when you have grown up.

There are four beautiful explanations we have that really explain where we want to go in our Faith: humility, gratitude, happiness and  holiness.

Happiness and holiness always go together.  A happy person is a holy person, and a holy person is a happy person.

A saint is someone who loves God and is convinced God loves them.

Gratitude and humility are twins as well and follow the argument of only the grateful are happy.  The test of all happiness is gratitude; only the grateful are happy.

Only the humble are grateful, because they acknowledge the source of their giftedness; therefore, only the humble are happy.

The only way to true happiness in the world is through cultivation of the humble heart.  Our God wants our humility more than He wants our successes.  In fact, He wants less our success than He wants us to be faithful, full of faith, and only the humble heart can persevere in God's love.  Our God will not gift us with these wonderful things He wants to give us unless we come to Him with a humble heart.

Vanity is a superficial form of pride.  Only boast about your grandchildren in their absence.

(Jesus' command to love) -  unless it is a humble love, it is really not Jesus' kind of love.  Get rid of pride in your lives.

Give up that guilty game of gossip.  When you flaunt the faults of other people, you are really comparing yourself to them at least subconsciously.  You are putting yourself in judgment over them, and when you are gossiping, you are manifesting your own insecurity.

The humble heart is patient.  Humility really and truly is accepted humiliation without rebellion.  Humility deals with the truth; humility is truth always, and that is why it is so important that, when you go to Confession, you speak the truth.

The ugliest form and face of pride is the sin of envy which is the sadness at the good fortune of other people.  The temptation to envy will be there.  The feelings will be there.  But the feelings are not necessarily sins, and if we could turn these feelings into praise and thanks for God in the ways He has gifted us, then I believe we are on the road to cultivating a humble heart.  Feelings are feelings; it is what we do with these feelings that really matters.

There is a good kind of pride which is rooted with gratitude, i.e., proud of family and home.  Praise God for it.

There is only one thing Jesus explicitly ever asked us to learn; that is, to be meek and humble of heart, because that lesson really contains all the rest - meek, kind, gentle, courteous with other people. Be very humble in adoration and prostration before Him, because He is God, and we are not God.  That's what it comes down to.  If there is no God, then you're God and I am God and we're all Gods, and we all turn out to be atheists.  But if there is a God, we relate to Him as that Supreme Being, the one necessary Being.  We are the contingent beings.  We really do not have to have existence.

God is the great independent one.  We are the dependent ones.  He is the Creator; we are the creatures, and this is how we worship.

The most common denominator of all the saints is that humble heart.  I believe it is the most common denominator of all the angels too.  If the example of the angels and saints are not enough for us, then the example of the Son of God has to be.

If we stay on our knees, there is no danger of falling too far.

Our prayer always: "Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine."

The three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity are front and center of the Christian life.  There are four beautiful expressions that really delineate and explain where we want to go with our charity:
humility and gratitude,  happiness and holiness

Happiness and holiness always go together.  A happy person is a holy person; a holy person is a happy person.

There is only one sadness in life and that is not to be a saint.  A saint is somebody who loves God very much and is convinced God loves them.  If you and I were completely convinced that God loves us, there would be no end to the generosity that we would be capable of.