Today is the feast day of St. Andrew. Andrew was the brother of Peter. Jesus lived at the house of Peter. Andrew was first a disciple of John the Baptist. He introduced Peter to Jesus. Andrew was the one who sent the little boy to Jesus with the fish and loaves. He was called "the introducer." He baptized with John the Baptist. Andrew went to Greece, and he died in Achaia. He is the patron of Russia. He was an apostle of Scotland. We have no proof he traveled to all of these places, but he was an apostle and is still guiding us as an apostle of Jesus Christ. 

Father pointed out two places in Scripture which talks about Andrew. One of these passages is: If I confess with my lips that Jesus Christ is Lord, and if we believe in our hearts, we will be saved. Also, what is on your lips tells what is in your heart. There are two dimensions: what is in your heart leads to justification and vice versa.

Andrew spent the rest of his life talking about Jesus Christ. There is mercy from God for those who call on the Lord. Live the first beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit."

We can't do it on our own. Call on Jesus and He will be there. You cannot sanctify yourself by yourself. Call on Jesus Christ. About 4-1/2 billion people do not call on Jesus Christ. Have they not heard of Jesus? Maybe they have not heard enough.

Become concerned about the Muslims. What they have heard about Jesus is not good. They do not know Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. How will they call on Jesus if they have not heard? Pray for the conversion of Muslims. 

Look at the calls of Jesus: 1) went to Jerusalem together; 2) started as disciples; and 3) became apostles. Jesus is still calling, because the work is not over. Disciples of today should be us. Mary has called and is now calling us in an urgent way to be people of prayer. Pray the rosary faithfully - at least three rosaries a day. There is an urgent call to penance. Our Lady is calling us to prayer and penance. It is possible that the urgency is the most it has been.

The rest of our lives is one great big penance, a loving penance. Offer it to God. A penance wrapped up in love and offered to God. Everything that you do, offer to God. Offer up even your sleep, washing, eating, everything. Let your life be one big penance. Then you will be apostles of the modern times. 

SATURDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY - FATHER WADE 

 Today is the last day of the Church liturgical year, a good day to focus on the year's resolutions. On the Church liturgical calendar, to make us good sons and daughters, today is a good day to make good resolutions: a good, holy monthly confession, First Friday devotions, First Saturday devotions, a particular novena each month for the unborn or a novena to a particular saint. Think of two or three realistic resolutions, not to burden yourself, either individually or as a family, that are spiritually, liturgically or devotionally focused.

 Advent is the first coming of Jesus Christ. Let us not resist His first coming so that we dread His second coming. We know the Blessed Virgin had a prominent role in His first coming. She will no doubt have a prominent role in His second coming as well. Lourdes and Fatima had wonderful messages.

 All Marian devotion is Christocentric (Christ centered); it points toward Jesus. Mary is never referred to in Sacred Scripture without an implicit reference to Her Son. Father gave us several different references in Scripture of mention of Mary with an implicit reference of Her Son, Jesus Christ:  Jesus' first miracle at the wedding at Cana; if one thinks about the rosary, each of the fifteen decades leads to Jesus Christ (Christ centered). Mary stands in the background. Hail Mary, full of grace, means that She was conceived without sin. 

The Holy Father wants us to invoke Mary this Advent as the Mother of the New Advent (new coming). As you think about the new resolutions, ask Mary, Mother of the New Advent, to help you to keep them.

SATURDAY MORNING INSTRUCTION - FATHER JOSEPH 

 There are four types of love as understood by the Greeks. In our English language, we use one word to mean all loves; i.e., we love hotdogs, we love our kids, we love God. We use the same word to describe our loves. For the Greeks, they had different words.

1) Storege Love - the love for family, the love of father for children or children 
for parents. Responding to another in the family.

2) Filia Love - love of friendship, things that we hold in common in this friendship, concern for one another deepens and grows through life. This friendship is a reciprocal love as well. Mutual sharing in this filia love.

3) Eros Love - romantic feelings (couple towards one another). This is the highest ideal that our culture says to strive for. It is held up as the ultimate sort of thing. 

4) Agape Love - the highest level of love. Agape stands on its own. Can see the dignity of the other person and goes out and love. This is the way the Christian loves. We are called to forgiveness in love even though this person hurt me. As Christians, agape love is a love of compassion - to share in the sufferings of another. (Ex. Mother Theresa seeing the dignity of the people in the gutter and lifting them up out of the gutter.) There is a lovability about them with the image of God in their soul. She saw the dignity of these people. Agape love is the essence of Christian love. 

Jesus' name for Himself in Greek was Ha Agapetos. (The Beloved One).

By prayer we grow in Agape love. We come to know our own lovability. It cannot be based on our perfections or lack of perfection, unable to overcome faults, or comparing ourselves with this family or this person or religious. We have to see our apparent dignity and lovability, because God has made us. When we pray the rosary, our Lady's loving presence is consoling us. It is in that life of prayer that we experience a reconciliation with God. 

God is not a solitude, but a family, and we are invited into that life of love, all of us. 

Four loves lead us into four levels of happiness. Our whole Western culture is running after the lowest levels of happiness. What is happiness = the way we define that in our life is the way we define our purpose, our goals and our identity.

1) Lowest Level - is instant gratification. No matter if it is illegitimate, we go for it for instant gratification. Father said that in his generation, the baby boomers, whatever they wanted or desired, it was given to them - instant everything. Pleasure and possessions will not lead to happiness. This is a superficial existence. It leads to identity crisis - why am I here, does my life have any meaning. We all have to find our meaning for existence. Deep down we know that, and there is a meaning in our lives.

2) Personal Achievement -  ego gratification. It builds up our pride, being a success. If that is sought in itself to gratify our own ego for our goal, it leads to competitiveness, jealousy, fear, frustrated in some way, depression, self-pity, inferiority or superiority (comparing ourselves to others). This leads to one or the other. Many in the world are going after these two lowest levels. But they experience a deep emptiness. Something terribly is missing. They are experiencing affluenza.

3) To See a Good beyond Yourself - you want to make a difference in the lives of others, not just seeking for yourself. That transition for many is made in raising a family. They sacrifice their love. One of the dangers if this becomes the end all, we can have very high ideals (commit themselves to a charitable work and they realize this is not perfect - dark expectations or ideals).

4) The Highest Level of Happiness - the ultimate good. Participating in that love of goodness, justice, and being. Living for God, for the divine. Parents can mislead their children where they have athletic ability, a great mind (be the best football player, be the best of everything), but if we speak to children as that will be their greatest fulfillment, we will lead them to disappointment. How much deeper our satisfaction is in one Holy Communion. The Mass today is a much greater help in our greater good. The Eucharist fills our soul's deepest need and our longing for happiness.

It is for the Catholics to transform and convert our culture, to make our culture one nation under God.  We all need a shoulder big enough to cry on, and only God's shoulder is big enough. The only one who can satisfy our hearts is the Lord Himself. 

Christmas is about finding our ultimate happiness in Him. Our ultimate fulfillment is going to God. It is not in the passing of pleasure on earth. St. Francis wanted to be detached from everything, so that God could be his all. When He is everything, we lack nothing; we have all that we need.  Our very being rebels when God is not part of our life.

Let us rejoice that we have found happiness, the true happiness in the little Child in Bethlehem running after Him and seeking Him with all our hearts, loving Him with our prayer and adoration and finding our happiness.

HEALING SERVICE - FATHER WADE 

The first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the new liturgical year in the Church.
For Advent, our resolutions should be spiritual in nature. Advent has a two-fold coming of Christ: 1) as a season to prepare us for Christmas - Christ's first coming, and 2) as a season to direct our thoughts to the second coming of Christ.

Let us not resist His first coming so that we may not dread His second coming!

The third coming of Christ is His entering into our hearts during communion.

Advent is a time of preparation for the solemnity of the Lord's birth and for His second coming.  Advent should not be as penitential as Lent, but it can be in personal devotions. 

FATHER RAY BOURQUE'S BIBLE STUDY

Jesus' Incarnation is the greatest thing the Holy Spirit did in creation, the greatest thing in salvation. What is Christmas? It is Jesus' coming. We are adopted sons and daughters. The Holy Father talked about the Jubilee Year for 20 years.

We wish to see Jesus this Advent. Has anyone seen enthusiasm in me because of Jubilee? To be a witness, we need to see Jesus. What kind of witnesses are we? The Holy Spirit will witness on my behalf, and we must witness like the Holy Spirit.

For Advent, look at the messianic prophecies. Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Jesus Christ. In 2 Cor 4:6, it says that the light of Christ is supposed to shine on us.

Tension was there from the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

Look for two things in looking for the face of Jesus - have deep faith and be in prayer.

Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do people say that I am?" In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus does ministry in Galilee then goes to Jerusalem in one year. In John, Jesus goes to the  Temple several times.

You need faith and prayer during Advent if you want to see the face of Jesus. Jesus is Word made flesh. One person with two natures - human and divine. Jesus is like us in everything except sin. He emptied Himself. The face of Jesus should shine on us. Remember Jesus knew who He was. Because of that, He was rejected.

His face of sorrow - as man He is so scared, His blood starts falling to the ground. He prayed for God's will be done. As divine - "Into your hands I commit my spirit." He abandons Himself to the Father. As man, He feels abandoned. He turns towards the Father. 

When we sin, we turn away from God. Sin is horrible. He suffered because of it. We want to forget the worst sin real fast. We have a horror of sin. We do not spend enough time to see how we offend God. We might not have real sorrow for sin.  The word "contrite" is crushed. The part of shame may be larger than the sorrow. The part of suffering we can relate to better.

What is going on when Jesus is on the cross? As man He had tremendous suffering, full of pain. The Lord is full of joy; He is saving the world. The union between God and man is so deep, a hypostatic union. It is urgent that we do penance, loving penance. Anything that is hard to put up with, wrap it up in love and give to Jesus and Mary. Look at the face of Christ in the tomb, all bloody. 

SUNDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY - FATHER JOSEPH

What happened in Noah's day will be repeated the Lord said. They were totally unconcerned until the flood came and destroyed them.

And if an angel appeared to you during this Mass this morning in all of his brilliance and his glory and he said to you, "Get ready, tomorrow the Lord would be coming for you," would your day today be different than what it would ordinarily be? If it would be different, how would it be different? What would be different about it? Would there be things that you would definitely eliminate from this day? Would there be extra prayer? If there were those that you had not forgiven, would you forgive them? Would you seek to live a life of charity? Would you try to get yourself ready for the next day? I think all of us would say the answer to that would be "Yes." And as we begin this Advent season, let us examine how we would live differently if we did indeed know if an angel came to us and told us to get ready because the Lord is coming for you soon. 

It is for us then to prepare our hearts for the Lord's coming, because He is coming again in glory. The Scriptures tell us again and again that it will be sudden, it will be unexpected. We should not be like those people of Noah's day - unconcerned. No, it is for us now in these days to make our hearts ready. The Gospel yesterday said that we must pray for the strength to endure all that is going to happen to you, that you may stand with confidence when the Son of Man comes again, stand with confidence. How is it that we can stand with confidence, that we can be ready for the day of the Lord, when He comes again in glory, how to prepare ourselves then. We need to live now with Him; we need to know Him, to love Him, to grow in our friendship and our relationship with Him. If we know Him and we love Him already in this life, already today, and if we are constantly seeking His face, we're being attentive to His word, conforming our lives to His will, and seeking Him first of all, would we fear His coming again in glory? No, we like the early Christians would say, "Come, Lord Jesus, come again, come again." We would look forward to His coming; we would stand with confidence. 

So, we are here this morning, because we want to know the Lord; we want to love Him more, and we want to prepare our hearts for His coming in glory. It is for us now to know and to love Him. Don't let your first time in church be at your death. If we live that life with the Lord, trying to conform our life with His will, then He will say when He comes again in glory "I know you. You are my friend, you stayed with Me, you spent time with Me, you adored Me, you stayed awake, your prayer was your strength. When I was sick, you visited Me, when I was hungry, you fed Me, when I was a stranger, you welcomed Me, you taught Me, you helped Me with your prayers and your sacrifices. Yes, I know you and I love you. Come into My Father's reign." We will stand with confidence, and like those early Christians, we will say "Come, Lord Jesus."

As we will light the first candle on this Advent wreath, it is a reminder that the light is beginning to pierce the darkness as we draw near to Christmas Day. That light will grow brighter as the candles are more and more lit; the darkness is being dispelled by the very light of Christ.

Some of the figures we will meet during this Advent Season are Isaiah, Jeremiah, prophets who longed for His coming. How much they longed for the Messiah, the one who was to come, and prayed for His coming. The prophets and chosen people had longed for and prayed for the Messiah to come, but it was the profound longing and prayer of Mary that brought Him to be born. So we stir up those longings in our hearts this day preparing for the second coming when He will come again in glory. 

In the last week of Advent in the readings, we have the figure of Mary. Pope John Paul II said, "Let us pray that heartfelt prayer of the Church 'Come, Lord Jesus' that it will become the spontaneous plea of every human heart."  We can never be satisfied by the things of the world. Our hearts yearn for the promised blessings still to come. If we try to find our happiness in the things of the world, we will only meet with disappointment.

Father then spoke on the four levels of happiness. (See Father Joseph's 10:00 A.M. talk on these levels of happiness).

As Catholics, we are called really to rescue our culture, to tell people gently and lovingly who may be seeking their happiness only in the two lowest levels that they are going lead only to disappointment. They should rather seek their happiness in the only one who can meet in God their ultimate happiness. Otherwise, something terribly important is missing in their lives. During this Advent Season, it is for us all to realize not to get caught up in the things of the world and materialism in this season, but stir up our longing and preparing our hearts for Christ. He will come again anew in those hearts that are ready for Him. To prepare our hearts, to make them ready dwelling places for His coming, rooting out sin, stirring up longing for Him, seeking to conforming our wills to Him, coming to love Him more and more every day.

We are here today for that purpose and reason. And on this altar in a few moments the Lord will become present through the hands of the priest. We have that opportunity to be united with Him in Holy Communion, and our viewers and listeners to make a Spiritual Communion. "Come, Lord Jesus, come into my heart and make it ever more a fit dwelling place for You. Root out of me all attachment to anything but You, that You Lord may be the Lord and King of my heart."