Thursday, November 30, 2006

Sunday, December 3, 2006



Although we are just under one month away from a new calendar year, the Church begins a new liturgical year today with the first Sunday of Advent. We have entered our preparation period for the commemoration of our Lord's nativity. It is well worth it if we recall the events of two millennia ago. The world was largely pagan, without the one true God. People, usually the ones in power, dictated the definition of god. The ones who believed in the true God were faithful Jews. They were in a period of waiting -- waiting in patience for the promised Messiah. They had to endure oppression and other hardships. They were not respected as persons as they should have been. People had to live by the ethics concocted by the state and not by the gift of good moral teaching from God.

Our modern world is becoming sadly similar to that time of the birth of Christ. The ethics of the state dictate what is right and what is wrong. More and more freedoms are taken away though a plethora of new laws. Marriage, as we know it and as God has instituted, is threatened. Individual rights to ownership are whittled away through unjust taxes, through eminent domain, and through exorbitant lawsuits. Because of political favors, we are at the mercy of special interest groups. Worst of all, the human person has become a commodity to be exploited. Only for the simple reason that a person is not born, he or she can be put to death through dismemberment. All this is the "ethics" of man.

God always triumphs. Even if our world becomes more corrupt and more vile, the holy will of God will be accomplished. The question is where will each of us stand: with Him or with an ethical system doomed to implode on itself?

God helps us and asks us to be a part of His work to sanctify the world. We can be like the faithful Jews of the Old Testament, praying, keeping the Commandments, living upright lives according to His will. The best of those models are our Lady and St. Joseph. Just think about it: Mary's "yes" (her fiat) radically changed the world. God and man were united in the two natures of Jesus Christ. St. Joseph's perfect obedience prevented interference in God's plan of salvation. Let's rely on them. They are our champions; they are our intercessors.

Our witness will be a leaven for society.

On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, this Friday, we might make it a special day of prayer that each of us show that Christ is the center of our lives. We judge by His Standards and not by the world's.

Fr. Stanley

Monday, November 27, 2006

Sunday, November 26, 2006


The Culture of Secularism....

During a convention on the Church in Italy on Oct. 28 in Verona Italy, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about difficulties facing the Church. The West now sees itself as self-sufficient. There is a pervading belief that people need to depend only on themselves. The Holy Father said that God is excluded from culture and from public life. In the minds of people, He has become superfluous and out of place. This has a profound effect on how we view ourselves. Man is reduced to being just another part of nature and is subject to being treated like any other animal. Furthermore, Christian morality is replaced with secular ethics. Rather than conforming our lives to God's Commandments, men judge the goodness of something on the basis of its usefulness. In other words, if it works for me or if I can gain some advantage from it, it's good. If not, it's bad. Also, it is reasoned that if it's good for you, that's OK as long as it doesn't hurt me. This reasoning disregards God's revelation in the Bible, and, as the Pope said: "It is not difficult to see how this type of culture represents a radical and profound break not only with Christianity but more in general with the religious and moral traditions of humanity. It is therefore not able to establish a true dialogue with other cultures, in which the religious dimension is strongly present..."

Because the Church is living in this milieu, it must be a leaven to society. Already there is a sense that something is lacking in the minds of many who embrace a secularist view. Therefore, Pope Benedict appealed to the participants of this convention to give a Christian response to the questions of people living in this culture devoid of God.

The environment of secularism – that is, a world without God – is more and more prevalent right here in America. Somehow, God has tolerated it He stays within church walls and within the confines of our homes. But never is He or His teaching allowed in the marketplace or in the chambers of government. The proponents of this agenda are really imposing their religion on us: the religion of secularism whereby man or nature is made a god. We have the opportunity with the gift of our Faith to make a difference. For the sake of truth, for the sake of our fellow man, it is important to happily and gently stand up for God and all that He taught us through His Son. He continues to teach and strengthen us through the Church.

I would like to close with the following portion of the Holy Father's address:

Special attention and extraordinary commitment are demanded today by those great challenges that endanger vast portions of the human family: war and terrorism, hunger and thirst, some terrible epidemics. But it is also necessary to face, with equal determination and clear policies the risks of political and legislative choices that contradict fundamental values and anthropological principles and ethics rooted in the nature of the human being, in particular, regarding the guardianship of human life in all its stages, from conception to natural death, and to the promotion of the family founded on marriage, avoiding the introduction in the public order of other forms of union that would contribute to destabilizing it, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable role in society.

Fr. Stanley

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Sunday, November 19, 2006



If each of us would take the time to review his or her situation, I think that we would find much to be grateful. When there are problems -- health, financial, emotional -- we tend to focus on them. The greater the difficulties the more do we spend our time thinking and talking about them. But as we look more closely at our lives, we see that everything is not bad. We are grateful for life, for the health that we do have or had, for the family that God gave us, for the ability to love and help others, and for many more things.

I can imagine that, after such an arduous journey, the pilgrims were most grateful to God for having made it to a new land and for their lives. Rather than mulling over the hardships in their homeland and on their voyage, they found the time to give true thanks to God. The Thanksgiving holiday is a reminder for us to see the blessings that we have and to be thankful. Hopefully, we find time everyday to tell God how much we appreciate what He has done for us. In spite of pain, heartache and worry, we know that He does care for us and wants us to be happy now and forever. Knowing the Eucharist means thanksgiving, we thank Him for this greatest of all the Sacraments and the other Sacraments -- for the gift of Himself. His Sacrifice, his forgiveness and his word are among other gifts for which we are grateful.

A natural response to receiving from God is for us to give to others. It is so good to see the outpouring of gifts for the less fortunate at this time of year. May God reward you. May we continue this spirit of giving throughout the weeks and months ahead.

In behalf of Fr. Joe, Msgr. Jim and Deacon Vinney, I wish you a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING. I pray that God bless you with good health and all that you need.

Fr. Stanley

Friday, November 10, 2006

Sunday, November 12, 2006


While on vacation in the papal summer residence last August, Pope Benedict XVI had an impromptu meeting with a group of visiting priests. He wanted to know what concerns and questions they had. One of them had to do with the decline of Catholic practice in Europe. If there had been American priests in the group, the same concern would have been for our country. The Pope responded by saying that the Church is alive. To avoid discouragement, we have to review history. The Church faced a number of threats: persecutions, heresies, Muslim invasions, Marxism, and Hitler. Yet, the Catholic faith, not only survived but flourished. The Holy Father said: "We have 2,000 years of Church history, with so many sufferings, including many failures.... on the other hand we see how the Church has revived after so many crises with a new youth, with new freshness." He also noted that vocations are flourishing in Africa. The Church is growing in various places in the world.

The Pope stressed the necessity of prayer to this gathering of priests: It is not a time that is taken away from our pastoral responsibility, as it is precisely pastoral work to pray, to pray also for others … substituting others who perhaps do not know how to pray, who do not want to pray, or who do not find time to pray." Prayer and fasting certainly are the most effective means of winning hearts to our Lord. This is not only for priests but for all of us. We can do this in Church and also in our homes. St. Theresa, the Little Flower, is a patroness of the missions. Why? She never left her Carmelite monastery in Lisieux, France. Her prayers and sacrifices were power behind so many missionary endeavors.

We too can help our world to turn to God. Daily prayer and some fast for this purpose would indeed be the work of love. Fasting can mean giving up, on a particular day, some kind of food that we like or it can mean refraining from doing something that we would like to do on some other day. We also can be evangelizers by our charity, cheerfulness and kindness. Hopefully, each of our lives can be a textbook for others to learn what it means to be Catholic.

Fr. Stanley