SATURDAY MORNING MASS HOMILY – FATHER FRANCIS

Matthew in the Gospel recounts the signs and wonders of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord, King, Master of spiritual, cosmos, of everything. He can do anything and He does. The Sermon on the Mount is the best sermon Jesus gave. Jesus gave to the apostles the authority to cure the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, etc. Jesus came to pass this on from the times of the apostles to the present Holy Father. That is what priests are called to do. Go out and preach the gospel.

ADVENT: What are you doing for Advent? Are you changing your life from two weeks ago? Is there something different? Turn away from something each day, like turning off the T.V. By turning off T.V. you will get more silence in your life. We have to have a sense of silence in our lives. We need to have silence free of all media. Test yourself to do that. Think about it. Try it. Television is an occasion and source of sin for many souls. Be an example; be a proclaimer for penance.

The Holy Father spoke about marriage and family in his last Wednesday General Audience. There is a crisis in marriage. Crisis in marriage becomes a crisis in our families, crisis in our country and then in the whole world. The family is slowly being crunched. Marriages are less happy today than in the past. God was the one who designed what marriage is. How do we penetrate through what it is today? We need to turn to the Church to understand what marriage is. Priests need to preach the gospel and take their lumps for it. We need to spread the good news.

SATURDAY MORNING INSTRUCTION – FATHER RAY BOURQUE

The Jubilee is starting in 20 days. It is a year of favor.

We are Trinitarian people. God is totally happy inside the Trinity.

God decides to make man in the image of God. God made us to be free to do anything you want except to eat of the tree of good and bad. After man falls, God helps him up by sending His Son. The Word of God became flesh, the biggest thing that ever happened. Mary was there to give Jesus a body. The Son crosses infinite barrier. Only Jesus Christ can cross infinite barrier. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. The Son was made flesh to keep us company.

Jesus' mother had no sin because she was to be His mother. The Son and the mother are found throughout the Bible. Mary had no other children. If she had, Jesus would not have given Her to His disciple to be taken care of. Jesus came to us through Mary, therefore we go to Jesus in the reverse order, through Mary.

We call the turning point the Incarnation, God sending His Son to us. To take the Word of God and put it into flesh was done by the Holy Spirit. Our salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit.

We receive our status as adopted sons and daughters of Jesus Christ through Baptism. Adam and Eve were creatures of God. We, through Baptism, are children of God. You receive 65 virtues at Baptism.

Theological virtues are faith, hope and love. Cardinal virtues virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.

Why seven sacraments?

Scriptural Biography:

Born - rebirth in Baptism.

Grow - Confirmation.

Eat - Eucharist.

Sick - Penance.

Vocation - Marriage.

People help you - priests.

Die - Anointing of the sick.

HEALING SERVICE – FATHER RAY BOURQUE

Before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He told His apostles to heal the sick. We can do the same. When two or three are gathered in My name, I am there also, said Jesus. A person who has faith in Jesus, Jesus will do what they ask. Have confidence that anything we ask will be done according to His will. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Father gave a brief summary of the 14^th Chapter of Tobit.

If you don't feel good, pray for yourself. Believers can heal. What Jesus did, we must keep on doing. You can run to the medicine cabinet or to the Lord.

FATHER RAY'S SATURDAY NIGHT BIBLE STUDY

Jesus Christ is the light of the world in a world of darkness. We do not know the year or the day Christ was born. The birth date could be as much as four years earlier.

The Jubilee year starts on December 24, 1999, and ends on January 6, 2001. It lasts 377 days.

The signs of the Jubilee:

1. Door of Jubilee - Jesus is the door. The Pope will walk through the door with the Bible.
2. Indulgences - the frosting on the cake is the indulgences. The Pope is given the power to govern the Church. What are indulgences? To take care of penalty due to sin. Each day you can gain an indulgence (plenary) for yourself or the poor souls in Purgatory.
3. Treasury of the Church - Greatest treasure, the blood of Jesus. Some of the sufferings of the saints are in the treasury of the Church. Open yourselves to receive from the treasury.
4. Purification of Memory - Make an act of courage and humility. We need healing of memories. 
5. Sign of Mercy - Mercy for a heart full of misery.
6. Sign of Love - to forgive is to keep giving after the hurt. A Christian cannot refuse to forgive; it is a sign of mercy.
7. Sign of Truth - We need to be merciful. We are all people with darkened minds and our weaknesses.

1. All the faithful properly prepared can enjoy fully throughout the Jubilee the gift of indulgence.

2. Can also be applied to the souls of the deceased - great act of charity.

3. High point of the Jubilee: encounter the Father through Christ in the Church and sacraments.

4. Sacramental confession must be individual and complete. Having fulfilled the required conditions, a plenary indulgence even daily without needing to go to confession again. Fitting however to receive grace of sacrament of penance frequently to grow in conversion.

5. Participation in the Eucharist is required for all indulgences, properly take place on the same day as the prescribed works are performed.

6. Also accompanied by witness of communion with the Church manifest by prayer for the intention of the Roman Pontiff - Pope, also by acts of charity and penance to express true conversion of heart.

A. Confessors can commute the work prescribed and conditions required for religious cloistered or infirm, can go to their own chapel, or only by uniting their prayers, sufferings, discomforts.

B. Rome: visit one of the four Basilicas, join in Mass, or office, rosary, stations of the cross as a group, if spend time in adoration ending with creed and prayers to Mary.

C. Jerusalem: Holy Sepulcher, also Basilica of Bethlehem and Annunciation.

D. Catacombs, also Basilica of St. Lawrence, Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love.

E. Cathedral Church and other places designated by the Bishops around the world. (St. Francis and St. Joseph - in Houma-Thibodaux Diocese).

F. In any place if they visit for a suitable amount of time those in need: sick, imprisoned, elderly, those living alone, handicapped, as if making a pilgrimage to Christ. Obviously, not more than once a day.

G. Plenary indulgence also for abstaining for a least one whole day from unnecessary consumption: 

Smoking, alcohol, etc.

H. By donating a proportionate sum of money to the poor.

I. By supporting by a significant contribution works of a religious or social nature, especially for the benefit of abandoned children, young people in trouble, elderly in need or foreigners in need of better living conditions.

J. By devoting a suitable portion of personal free time to activities benefiting the community or other similar forms of personal sacrifice.

SUNDAY MASS HOMILY - FATHER AUGUSTINE

The Second and Third Sundays of Advent focus on John the Baptist. It is a time of purifying ourselves in anticipation of the Lord.

The message of Advent is prepare the way of the Lord. The Advent candles give light for the coming of the Lord.

John the Baptist is the precursor of the Lord as is humility the precursor of charity. We have to have an increase of humility before an increase of charity. Find good in others and humility will be in you.

Advent is the joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord, this year in particular because of the Jubilee. We are preparing for that flowing of grace. The opening of the door is symbolic. Jesus is the door, and no one comes to the Father except through Jesus.

We should learn from the Old Testament figures and how they prepared for the coming of the Lord, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Let us ask Jesus to help us to be prepared for the Holy Season.