The devotion to the Sacred Heart is very old, it started at the cross when blood and water flowed.

God’s love is like a lily among thorns. His love burns away all of our sins. Our sins are like a small drop in His ocean of mercy.

If we stay away from His heart of fire and flame, our hearts will grow cold. But, if we come close to the fire, our hearts will become like Our Lady’s heart. We should have the fiery love of Jesus Christ in our hearts.

The Sacred Heart is filled with a tender love, more love than a mother’s love.

 St. Margaret Mary Alacoque spread devotion to the Sacred Heart.

God’s mercy is greater than our sins. Trust in God’s mercy today. Do not make ourselves enemies of the cross.

Father recalled the events of Fatima-1917. Our Lady asked us to make reparation on five first Saturdays. The rosary has the power to bring about peace.

During the Gulf War, a young boy in Louisiana prayed the rosary at recess for peace. Another child joined, and then others. A teacher learned of this and informed the principal. The principal allowed the whole school to have ½ hour each day to pray the rosary.

Our hearts must be united with Jesus and Mary. The hearts of many will grow cold because of the increase of evil. We can find refuge in the Two Hearts - Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, offering everything to Our Lady. Offer big and little suffering as a sacrifice. That way, whatever the devil does works against him.

Are we willing to accept every suffering the Lord sends our way?

The prayer given to the children at Fatima reads: "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, I adore you profoundly and offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the earth, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and if the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners."

Sister Lucia spread devotion to the Immaculate Heart on earth. This will be our refuge.

Our Lady told the children of Fatima there would be war, famine, persecution of the Church, and the Holy Father would have much to suffer. She said pray for the conversion of Russia. Also, the Holy Father would consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. The dogma of faith would be preserved in Portugal.

It is important to make sacrifices for sinners. The Lord uses a prayerful heart. When we pray, maybe our prayers are not answered, but the Lord uses these prayers for another reason.

On December 10, 1925, Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucia holding Her Immaculate Heart with the Baby Jesus. She told Sister Lucia of the devotion to the five consecutive first Saturdays and that she promised to assist at the hour of death all who confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the rosary and keep Her company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the rosary.

On June 16, 1929, She appeared to Sister Lucia and asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.

In St. Luke’s gospel, Luke 16:1-8, the shrewd manager who is going to be dismissed calls in the owner’s debtors and reduces their debts so that they would take care of him when he is dismissed.

Fr. Francis, who was in the business world and a devious (his term) money manager, uses this gospel as an example that we cannot set aside common sense when preaching. Our Lord is an evangelizer who uses tricks to get to us. In St. Luke’s gospel account, the Lord assumes we know that what the manager did was dishonest, but what he did was clever and subtle.

We need to be missionaries. Do we have a zeal for souls? A missionary must have a zeal for souls. We need to be shrewd to be missionaries. What are some of the things we can do in the world to be missionaries? First, we must have zeal. We can give away medals, prayer cards, folders, etc. when we stop along the way and meet someone, even a waiter or waitress at a roadside restaurant. Our meeting another person is not an accident. We have to be a missionary to other people, otherwise, the world will be a missionary to us and try to get us back into the worldly life. The spirit of missionary is the zeal for souls. We need to carry a sense of hope - carry a smile with you at all times.

A study of 25 to 35 year olds asked whether they would rather speak to someone or use e-mail. Sixty-five per cent wanted to use e-mail. The Internet has become a safety blanket. We need to deal with the person. There is a sense of hopelessness in people, thus we must be missionaries of hope. We need to abandon ourselves to the Holy Spirit. We need to be like pencils in the Lord’s hand. He does with us what He wants. "Not my will, but Thy will."

We need to be clever in how we are missionaries. We cannot force feed anyone, but be clever. We cannot be self-righteous. We have to see the good in souls who are living in sin, but we have to pull out the good.

Seminarians today are filled with zeal. A New York Times article on seminarians today says they are far more traditional and missionary bound. They have a hunger for tradition. The rector of the Pontifical College in Rome finds that kids are reacting against the 60’s and 70’s. truth is conforming the mind to reality. The 60’s and the 70’s are dead - in life and in the church. Seminary enrollment hit bottom in 1997 and is now moving up. The Pontifical College has its largest enrollment in 20 years. This signals a renewed respect of the tradition of Rome. Seminarians want to be promoters of the faith. The heroes of seminarians are Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger. Seminary faculties are seeing the heat of zeal. Twenty years ago seminarians challenged everything. In 1970, 85% of diocesan priests said celibacy should be optional. In 1993, only 38% held such a view. 

Sickness does not end in death, but rather for the glory of God. The call to reparation is clear and it is for the glory of God. When we offer our sufferings to Jesus, He multiplies them to bear fruit in a wonderful way. God wants our cooperation in suffering. "Take up your cross and follow me." The glory of God is the power of God manifested.

It is our duty and joy to suffer with the Lord. Suffering is a weapon and for a purpose. Don Bosco said don’t pray for miracles because a lot of suffering must happen for a miracle to happen.

St. Athanasius was a bulwark for orthodoxy. Power is made perfect in weakness. Do not complain about our sickness. The Lord wants us to be willing to unite our sicknesses to His sufferings.

The Holy Spirit - seven things we know about the Holy Spirit: 1) Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, 2) the Lord, 3) the giver of life, 4) proceeds from the Father and the son, 5) is worshipped, 6) glorified and 7) spoke through the prophets.

Try to read about Baptism in the Catechism.

Our God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Find something in the Father, then in the Son, then in the Holy Spirit and then in yourself. We must be open to the Holy Spirit.

There is only one God and it has always been that way. The Holy Spirit was from the beginning. When the Old Testament was written, no one knew of the Holy Spirit, they did not know God was three persons.

Sometimes Isaiah is called the 5^th gospel. Isaiah is like a bridge between the Old and the New Testaments.

The sign of God’s covenants:

1) Noah - the rainbow,
2) Abraham - circumcision,
3) Moses - the Ten Commandments, and
4) Jesus - crucifixion.

Why is the Holy Spirit not popular? Because if we sin, the Holy Spirit will bug us until we stop. The Holy Spirit convinces the world concerning sin. The Holy Spirit gives us life.

The world is wrong about sin and justice and condemnation. The biggest sin is to refuse to believe in Jesus. Therefore, some are already condemned. The Holy Spirit is Sanctifier - makes saints.

Who is Jesus Christ? "In the beginning was the Word." Jesus is the word and the devil is the anti-word, the anti-truth, the father of lies, falsifies God and puts God in state of suspicion. Father discussed the modern age of the anti-God: rejecting God, hating God and loving self. The death of God would be the death of man.

The Holy Spirit is consubstantial with the Father and the Son. "Con" means "with," "sub: means "under," and "stantial" means "stand".

Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the person of love. The Son is the word. At confirmation when we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive love. The Holy Spirit is an uncreated gift. It is the same of every gift. No gift comes to us except through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the communicator. God talks through the Holy Spirit.

The hypostatic union is the union between God and flesh. Who is Jesus Christ? He is the word made flesh with both a divine nature and a human nature. When Jesus became man He took on all human nature except sin. The Holy Spirit stayed with Jesus when He died and then rose from the dead.

The Catholic Church is like a ship on a huge lake. The Church is the ship docked on the lake and the ship is captained by Jesus Christ. The ship shoves off with Jesus as the Captain. The ship is unsinkable, but we have the opportunity to jump off. Jesus will honor our free will. The Catholic Church assures us that the ship will get to the other side of the lake. We can jump off to other churches (ships), but only the Catholic Church as the ship will get us to the other side.

The gospel of this day’s mass was of the seven brothers who marry their widowed sister-in-law. Just before this parable, Jesus told the parable of the farmer who finally sends his son, the one they killed. The Pharisees tried to trick Jesus and make Him look like a fool, but He turned the tables on them.

When we die we give up the ghost. When we die our soul separates from our body; our soul lives forever. The ramifications of "forever" are steep. At the resurrection our body and soul will be re-united. If you do not believe that, you just jumped off the ship.

What will our bodies look like? We retain our gender; our bodies will be radiant; they will have impassibility, no illness, no sickness, no disease, no defects, etc.; will have agility, perfect unity between body and soul, will not be fighting vices as on earth; will have sublety, ability to walk through closed doors and matter.

Jesus says that in heaven there are no marriages because there is no need to have children in heaven, the reason for marriage. Also marriage is to help each other, which we will not need in heaven.

Martyrdom means witness. We are all called to be a witness, a witness who chooses to suffer rather than deny his faith. Suffering can take on different levels: physical suffering or mental suffering such as embarrassment.