Monday, December 31, 2007

The Feast of The Circumcision of Our Lord

From the Collect:

O God, who by the fruitful virginity of blessed Mary hast bestowed upon mankind the rewards of everlasting salvation: grant, we beseech Thee that we may experience her intercession for us, through whom we have been made worthy to recieve the Author of Life, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord.

Epistle from the letter of blessed Paul the Apostle to Titus (2: 11-15):

Dearly beloved, The grace of God our Savior hath appeared to all men, instructing us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly and justly and godly in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ: Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to Himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works. These things speak and exhort: in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel according to St. Luke (2: 21):

At that time, after eight days were accomplished that the Child should be circumcised: His Name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel before He was conceived in the womb.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

"Whose side are you on?" The Sermon of Fr. John Trough for The Octave Within the Nativity of Our Lord

I’ve met a few new faces today. I am Fr. John Trough and I’m the Pastor of a CMRI related parish in Tacoma, Washington and Fr. Gerard McKee and I basically switched places for this weekend, so it’s definitely a pleasure to see you all. To those of you who I do know, it’s a pleasure to see you all again.

Well today, my dear friends in Christ, we have a beautiful Gospel and we have two role players in our Gospel. We have Holy Simeon and then we have Holy Anna. Both of them who were advanced in years, as well as in wisdom, were awaiting the consolation of Israel and waiting for the redemption of Israel. Redeemed from whom or from what? Waiting for the redemption of mankind from the slavery to sin. Remember what we find so interesting, or I find interesting, is a little bit of irony when Simeon says as he asked that he see the Savior, the Messiah before he leaves earth by death, as he was holding the baby Jesus in his arms he told his Blessed Mother that “This child is destined for the fall and the rise of many in Israel.” And we may ask ourselves: “The fall? What is he talking about?” We know, unfortunately, that not everyone will accept the Gospel and many people, because they will not accept the Gospel, the message of Christ, will end up going to hell and those who rise and do accept the Gospel and live the Gospel message as members of this Church and then have the hope of going to heaven.

But they were awaiting the consolation of Israel and we see that Jesus is the greatest hero, this is a wonderful story, and he is our Savior who comes to rescue us from the darkness and the slavery of sin. Everyone loves a story and everyone loves a movie that has a hero in it. We see enemies, evil people, crushing innocent people or harming them and then just when it seems like the enemy is going to take the day at the very end, the hero rushes in, the big brave soul, defeats the enemy, crushes him and saves the innocent. These are very popular for us to read or to watch. The liturgy tells us the greatest story that has ever been told: the story of our redemption. This is not just a story that happened years and years ago, that story is happening here and now. It started with Adam and Eve and it will close at the end of time.

This why it is important that when we follow along at Mass, we follow along with the Missal, that we use the Missal, which Pope St. Pius X so earnestly encouraged all Catholics to read and to follow along. Why? Because the Mass unfolds this beautiful story before our eyes. It starts with Advent, we go to a time before Jesus, Our Lord and Our Savior, came. Then we go to Christmas where the Savior has arrived in the form of a little baby boy. Then we go to the season of Pentecost and that closes the story and we see that image of the last day, of the Final Judgment.

The begins with Adam and Eve, we’re all familiar with that, we may ask ourselves if Adam and Eve, after they had sinned, were given the penalty of death and that they would die and that they would lose the four natural gifts, which I will describe in just a moment, and we see how evil enters the world from there on out and it seems like the evil predominates the good. Is that how God planned it? No. We know that the original plan was that Adam and Eve, provided that they passed the test of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, if they were to pass that test, after this lifelong test would be over without any death, they would enter into heavenly glory. But we know, unfortunately, that’s not how it went. They decided to disobey God and listen to the temptations of the serpent, the Devil disguised as a serpent, and then they lost sanctifying grace as well as the other three natural gifts. These are very interesting. Hopefully, we can remember what they are, there are four of them and they lost these four privileges and gifts.

The first one is Impassibility. Think of how nice Adam and Eve had it. They would never die, and they would also never suffer. No flu, no colds, and my least favorite, no vomiting or nausea, that has got to be the worst. No illnesses, none, period.

They also had infused knowledge. They didn’t have to go to school, God infused into Adam and Eve all the knowledge that they needed to know, it was totally infused without any schooling on their part.

They also had no concupiscence, that means that the sins of passions, let’s go through them there are seven of them: we have pride, one of the strongest of mankind, if not the strongest, we have envy, we have anger, gluttony, lust, avarice (or the want of riches or things) and of sloth, or sloth to do what we need to do. These seven passions were completely dominated and subjected by our free will. They didn’t rebel against us and they had not temptations neither on flesh to do evil because the free will, ruled by grace, completely subjected them. But after the fall what happened? They found that these passions will fight, as St. Paul describes in his epistles, the law of the flesh fights against our free will. Women would also have to bear their children in great pain and sorrow, and then their sorrow would be turned to joy afterwards, after the baby would be born. We have men given the penalty that they would only be able to win their bread only by the sweat of brow, the earth would bring forth briers and thorns and bristles.

We may ask ourselves while reading about these: “My gosh, God is being kind of harsh isn’t he?” Think about it, no he’s not. He’s actually being very kind and very merciful. What was the lesson that he wanted Adam and Eve to learn? Their job was to take care of the garden, that means giving up your self to take care of something other than yourself and then, of course, you increase and multiply. Sacrificial love, they did not learn that lesson, they failed. They ate of that tree and they did not learn to obey. And so God has given them another chance: “Okay, you didn’t learn your lesson the first time, let’s try it again. You’re going to learn to give up yourselves to love others.” It is in giving of yourself do you get back. That is the way it is with our Holy Religion. Knowing that the sentence of going to hell is laid upon us, for those who did not live in God’s favor, in God’s grace, and the gates of heaven were shut because of sin. Jesus, realizing that we could never pay this price, stands before his Heavenly Father as the second person in the Blessed Trinity, and says: “Father, I will assume their guilt, I will become man, I will pay the price that they can never ever pay.” Advent was the spirit at the time when we awaited his coming and at Christmas time he’s here.

You think of all the sins of mankind, think of our own sins, scary thought. Frightful thought, think of God’s judgment. Think of the sins of today’s age. Think of the rapid sins of impurity, people don’t marry anymore they just go ahead and live with one another. Think of that. Think of the irreligion, the religious indifference. Think of the sins, all the mortal sins since the time of Adam and Eve, the sin got to be such a feverous pitch that God caused the flood to wash away sinners and only Noah and his family survived. That’s how bad it’s been and you think that when God would come to save us, Jesus Christ Our beloved Lord and Our Savior, had every right to be very very angry with us. He could have come as a full-grown man striking us down with thunderbolts, he had every right to do it because of our sins and he will do that on the last day to those who are not on his side.

Instead, he comes as a helpless, lovable baby. He’s telling us: “I’m giving you all a chance, I love you all so much.” Who does not love a little baby? As a matter of fact, I like to hear the gurgling of little children in Church because that means that the Chapel has a future. We all act their age, we go “gaa gaa, goo goo, and goochi coo”, we love babies because they are so sweet and helpless and innocent and loving. Jesus comes that way wanting to win our hearts and show us how much he loves us. And remember that Jesus said that there are two sides. There is his side and the side of Satan. What’s so neat about this role is that it’s a great story about our hero, our Savior, Jesus Christ, Our Lord, we don’t read about him in some book and say: “well, that’s a good story”. No! This story is still happening. We are not idle bystanders, every single human being on this earth will play a role, we are role players. There is no such thing as an idle bystander in this story. All human kind is involved.

Remember what Jesus said when he was preaching his Gospel message: “He who does not gather with me scatters and he who is not with me is against me.” There are two sides you can play in this story, you can be on the good side with the good guys, with Jesus Christ, our beloved Lord and Savior as our hero and our leader or we can be on the side of darkness. It’s interesting that Jesus said he is the light of the world and this season, Christmas season, the Epiphany season, is one of light, Christ is the great light of the world, he shines into the world. We have February 2, Candlemas day, the day of candles, the celebration of light. Ephiphany, January 6, the light of the world shows himself to all mankind with the Three Kings coming to kneel at his crib.

Let us be part of this kingdom of light, as we continue our Mass, let us ask ourselves: “What side are we on? Are we going to be on the side of the good or the side of the bad? If on the side of good, you stay in this story on the good side just as long as you remain in sanctifying grace. We cross over into the state of darkness though, when we commit a mortal sin but confession will bring us back into the good side. Stay in the good side, fight for the cause of Jesus and by living your faith every single day and that way we can always be on his side.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Announcements for the week: The Sunday Within the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord

Fr. John Trough, CMRI, will be at the Chapel during this week. The Mass schedule is as follows: Sunday Mass 2PM; Feast of The Circumcision 2PM; First Friday Mass will be celebrated at 7PM. Any other Mass that will be celebrated during the week is to be announced.

His Excellency, Bishop Pivarunas, will be coming here to Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel on January 13, 2008 to celebrate Mass and perform Confirmations afterwards. Anyone who needs to be confirmed or conditionally re-confirmed, please see Fr. Gerard or call him at (509) 868-5893 for more information. ONLY BAPTIZED MEMBERS can recieve the sacrament of Confirmation. Regardless of Confirmation or conditional re-Confirmation, Fr. Gerard requests that those who wish to recieve the sacrament present to him copies of baptismal certificates for purposes of Church records. If you cannot meet this requirement, please see Fr. Gerard.

St. Michael's Convent in Spokane, Washington will be holding a "Vocations Weekend" retreat for young women who are at least juniors in high school up to the age of 35 and might be interested in religious life. "Vocations Weekend" will be taking place from February 29 to March 2, 2008. For more information, please contact:
Vocations Directress
St. Michael's Convent
8502 North St. Michael's Road
Spokane, WA 99217-9333
phone: (509) 467-0986 ext. 102
e-mail: smjosephine@miqcenter.com

A weekend Lenten retreat will be held at St. Michael's in Spokane, Washington between March 7-9, 2008. If you are able to attend, registration forms are available at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel and also you may access an online registration form at www.cmri.org. The applicable registration fees are $150 per individual, for those who need overnight accomodations; $75 per individual, for those who do not need an overnight accomodation but meals will be provided. Please note, the fee includes a $50 deposit, which is due by February 25, 2008. For additional information, please contact Fr. Casimir Puskorius, CMRI at (509) 467-2425 ext. 100

Audio CD's are now available from the 2007 Fatima Conference "All Generations Call me Blessed", which took place in Spokane, Washington at Mount St. Michael. They are $60.00 for a complete set of the talks, and $5.00 for the individual topics. For more information call (509) 467-1077

Sunday Within the Octave of The Nativity of Our Lord

From the Introit:

While all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven from Thy royal throne.

Epistle from the letter of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Galatians (4: 1-7)

Brethren, As long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all: but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father: so we also, when we were children, were serving under the elements of the world. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem them who were under the law, that we might recieve the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son; and if a son, and heir also through God.

Gospel according to St. Luke (2: 33-40)

At that time Joseph and Mary the mother of Jesus were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning Him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His Mother: Behold, this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel: and for a sign which shall be contradicted: and thine own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed. And there was one Anna a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; she was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until fourscore and four years: who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day. Now she, at the same hour, coming in, confessed to the Lord: and spoke of Him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel. And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their city Nazareth. And the Child grew and waxed strong, full of wisdom: and the grace of God was in Him.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Sermon of Fr. Gerard for The Feast of The Nativity of Our Lord


Almighty God is Lord of all that is or can be in the world. And yet, he did not rule over the hearts of mankind that was growing under the miserable tyranny of the Devil. Before the coming of Jesus Christ this tyrant, the Devil, was lord and even made himself worshiped by men as a god with incense and sacrifices, not only of animals but of their own children and of their own lives. In what return did this tyrant make to them? He tortured their bodies and their blood and their minds. By the path of pain and misery, led them to everlasting torments. It was this tyrant that the divine word, Jesus Christ, came to overthrow and thereby release mankind from his retched slavery in order that unfortunate creatures, freed from the darkness of death, and enlightened as to what was the true way of salvation and serve their real and lawful master, who loved them as a father, who instead of leaving them as slaves of Satan, wished to make them his own beloved children.

Our Savoir Jesus was the only begotten Son of God equal in all things to his Father. But for love of man, he stooped to the lowly form of a servant, clothing himself in human flesh, making himself like unto man. And since sin had made men the vessels or servants of the devil, he came in the form of man to redeem them, offering his sufferings and death and satisfaction to the divine justice for the punishment due to mankind. Who would’ve believed it if Holy Faith did not assure us of it? Who could have conceived it?

But faith tells us, as we read in the epistle of St. Paul: “This supreme and sovereign taking the form of a servant, and he became obedient unto death, even to the death on the cross. From his childhood, the Redeemer, by becoming a servant, was eager to begin to wretch from the devil that dominion, which he had over man.”
“Behold Jesus, scarcely born.” Says the Venerable Bede, the doctor of the Church who lived in England in the early middle ages. Before he is registered in the census of Caesar and for our liberation is himself written down in the list of servitude, see how he begins to pay off our debts by his sufferings, how he allows himself to be wrapped in swiveling clothes, a prefiguration of the cords which should bind him at a latter date, to be led to death by cruel executioners. Bound then in these swiveling clothes and turning to us, Jesus invites us to unite ourselves closely to him, with the sweet bonds of love. And turning also to his eternal Father he says: “My Father, men have abused their liberty and rebound against thee have made themselves the slaves of sins. But I to make satisfaction for their disobedience are willing to be bound and confined in swiveling bands behold that for these, Heavenly Father, I offer thee my liberty in order that man may be delivered from slavery of the Devil. I offer myself to be, one day, bound and led to death, for the salvation of men.”

Seeing how much our dear Jesus has done for us, even from the first moments of his life, let us do, as St. Francis of Assisi exhorts us, and say: “Let us love the Babe of Bethlehem, Let us love the Babe of Bethlehem.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Monday, December 24, 2007

The Feast of The Nativity of Our Lord

From the Introit:
A child is born to us, and a Son is given to us: whose government is upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called the Angel of great counsel.

Epistle from the letter of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews (1: 1-12)

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prohets, last of all in these days hath spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world: who being the brightness of His glory and the figure of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high: being made so much better than the angels as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels hath He said at any time: Thou art my Son, today have I begotten Thee? And again: I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son? And again, when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith: And let all the angels of God adore Him. And to the angels indeed He saith: He that maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. But to the Son: Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of justice is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. And: Thou in the beginning, O Lord, didst found the earth: and the works of Thy hands are the heavens. They shall perish, but Thou shalt continue: and they shall all grow old as the garment: and as a vesture shalt Thou change them and they shall be changed: but Thou art the selfsame, and Thy years shall not fail.

Gospel according to St. John (The last Gospel at the end of the Mass):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing that was made: in Him was life, and the life was the Light of men; and the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the Light, that all men might believe through him. He was not the Light, but was to give testimony of the Light. That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.

He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. he came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God to them that believe in His Name, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but God.

AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, and dwelt among us: and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Christmas Novena

Ninth Day (December 24)

O divine Savior, O King of immortal glory, Who, in Thy great mercy, didst come into the world to redeem us and to make us holy; grant that, denying all ungodliness and love of this world, we may live soberly in ourselves, justly toward our neighbor, and piously before Thee, that so we may be happy with Thee for all eternity.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Advent Prayer).

Sermon of Fr. Gerard for the Fourth Sunday of Advent


The Gospel of today gives only a part of what we learn from the gospels about St. John the Baptist, who preached about baptism of repentance by the river Jordan in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, the manifestation of our Lord, which took place during his preaching. St. John the Baptist preached interior penance, particularly the doing of one’s duty. When various people asked him what they should do, after they have repented of their sins, he told them in general to do their duty. All different classes of people came, even soldiers. Penance is primarily something interior it consists mainly in compunction of heart or an abiding sorrow for having offended God, which leads to our obtaining the pardon for our sins. But St. John the Baptist adds yet another element, which is also interior, the doing of our duty.

It is necessary to avoid wrong ideas about penance, there is an exterior penance certainly but it is only useful if it is the fruit of interior penance and leads to it. The Pharisees were well known for their external observances of the law of doing penance, as required by the Law of Moses, but there was nothing in their hearts, they had not an interior spirit of penance, sorrow for their sins and a desire to make atonement. The true penance is interior consisting in the doing of our duty in all things and at all times.

Sister Lucía, one of the three children who saw Our Lady at Fatima, wrote a letter to the Bishop of the area in 1942: “When Our Lord asks a sacrifice that penance, which everybody must impose upon himself, in order to live a life of justice in the observance of His law, and he wishes this road be made plain to souls for so many judging that the word penance means hostilities, which are too much for their weak strength, they’re bound to a life of tepidity and sin.” Then she relates the apparition of Our Lord to her: “At twelve O’clock at night, the Lord told me: ‘The sacrifice to be made by all is that of the observance of my Law and the fulfillment of the duties of each one, that is the duties of each one’s state in life, that is the penance which I ask for and demand now.’”

So we can ask ourselves at every moment: What is God’s will for me here and now? What is my obligation? The reply will be given by your profession, that is your work in life, your state in life, or by the commands of your superior, if you are subject to someone else’s direction, like children are to their parents and like employees are to their employers, do your duty as though it were the only thing you had to do here and now without argument or excuses with all of your strength. Whether you like it or not, whether it costs you an effort or not. That is true interior penance, which St. John the Baptist preached, and which the Church also encourages. This is the principle virtue of them all. There is no virtue so eminent as that of doing simply what we ought to do, but doing it for God’s sake, not just because we are driven to do it by some necessity.

One point, in particular, may be useful to emphasize with regard to parents and the religious education of their children, since that is one of their primary duties not only to bring children into the world but to raise them as members of the Church and future citizens of heaven. It is primarily the duty of parents to provide for the religious and moral education of their children. They even trust this education to others such as teachers and catechists but they are still obliged to make sure that their children are learning the faith. One of the problems in the 1960’s and 70’s is that while parents assumed their children were getting Catholic religious education, the courses had been changed following Vatican II. New Catechisms were produced and these were actually destroying their children’s faith. Many parents found out too late that the faith of their children had been destroyed because they were not actively involved in ensuring a Catholic religious instruction for their children. They assumed it was all being taken care of as it had for them when they were younger. Even when properly provided, religious instruction still needs reinforcement from the parent or parents. Children need to have the things they see in Church explained to them, if possible during a private visit to the Chapel, or very quietly at Mass. They need to be told how Jesus dwells in the tabernacle and the altar and how he becomes present upon the altar at the consecration of Mass. It is not enough for them to be able to come to the front, to the communion rail and kneel quietly while their parents and older siblings receive. They must understand the reason why their parents, why their older brothers and sisters come to the communion rail and receive the Host. They need to know that it is really and truly the body and blood of Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament. Parents are to work with their children regularly on their Catechism lessons making sure that they know the commandments, the seven sacraments, about the redemption, the mystery of the Blessed Trinity as far as it can be understood, to ensure that they have adequate knowledge of Christian doctrine according to their age.

These things that I just mentioned are necessary for first communion. Older children, preparing for confirmation, must do the same as well as adults, who may be preparing for conditional confirmation or receiving it for the first time if they never received it validly. There are booklets on preparation for confirmation, which can be acquired if you ask myself or Mrs. Balderrama for those. Bishop Pivarunas is scheduled to come here on the 13 of January for confirmation. If a child or a young adult is not sufficiently prepared, it would be much better to wait and to prepare more thoroughly as to understand better and receive the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and or Confirmation with a better appreciation. Because if they have a better understanding they can prepare their hearts better and receive more of the actual graces which would come from receiving the sacrament with a better disposition. Please make sure, those of you who are preparing for confirmation, that you provide the necessary copies of baptismal certificates, the names of sponsors and confirmation names, as they need to be in hand so things can be organized for confirmation. The date is only a couple of weeks away.

During family prayer at home, or during visits to the Chapel, if possible, children should be trained to sit still and be quiet to join in the family prayers or to listen, if they are too young, and be attentive so when they come to Church they can be bound to order by a few quiet words or a stern look. We don’t have the luxury of a cry room so the efforts of parents with young children are very important in training them and maintaining good order during our time to worship Almighty God through the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Remember that as members of the mystical body of Christ, you are not only allowed to be present at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but you actually join with the priest in a secondary sense in offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The priest is the principle one who offers but the faithful also offer it with him as they follow along in the prayer books and read the prayers, the priest often times during Mass, recites the prayers in the plural, that means those present and those present are also remembered during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and on a number of occasions, at least once during the offertory and at least once during the Canon during the first part. So these things are all means hopefully to appreciate and profit by the sacraments, by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and by so doing to prepare more fervently and more worthily to celebrate the “re-presentation” so to speak, through the liturgical prayers through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with our Lord’s birth, which we celebrate shortly on the feast of Christmas.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Announcements for the week: The Sunday Within the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord

Fr. John Trough, CMRI, will be at the Chapel during this week. The Mass schedule is as follows: Sunday Mass 2PM; Monday, December 31, 2007, Mass will be celebrated at 8AM; Feast of The Circumcision 2PM. Fr. Gerard will return to celebrate First Friday Mass at 7PM.

His Excellency, Bishop Pivarunas, will be coming here to Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel on January 13, 2008 to celebrate Mass and perform Confirmations afterwards. Anyone who needs to be confirmed or conditionally re-confirmed, please see Fr. Gerard or call him at (509) 868-5893 for more information. ONLY BAPTIZED MEMBERS can recieve the sacrament of Confirmation. Regardless of Confirmation or conditional re-Confirmation, Fr. Gerard requests that those who wish to recieve the sacrament present to him copies of baptismal certificates for purposes of Church records. If you cannot meet this requirement, please see Fr. Gerard.

St. Michael's Convent in Spokane, Washington will be holding a "Vocations Weekend" retreat for young women who are at least juniors in high school up to the age of 35 and might be interested in religious life. "Vocations Weekend" will be taking place from February 29 to March 2, 2008. For more information, please contact:
Vocations Directress
St. Michael's Convent
8502 North St. Michael's Road
Spokane, WA 99217-9333
phone: (509) 467-0986 ext. 102
e-mail: smjosephine@miqcenter.com

A weekend Lenten retreat will be held at St. Michael's in Spokane, Washington between March 7-9, 2008. If you are able to attend, registration forms are available at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel and also you may access an online registration form at www.cmri.org. The applicable registration fees are $150 per individual, for those who need overnight accomodations; $75 per individual, for those who do not need an overnight accomodation but meals will be provided. Please note, the fee includes a $50 deposit, which is due by February 25, 2008. For additional information, please contact Fr. Casimir Puskorius, CMRI at (509) 467-2425 ext. 100

Audio CD's are now available from the 2007 Fatima Conference "All Generations Call me Blessed", which took place in Spokane, Washington at Mount St. Michael. They are $60.00 for a complete set of the talks, and $5.00 for the individual topics. For more information call (509) 467-1077

Traditional Catholic 2008 calendars are back in stock. If you would like to purchase one, you may come to the Chapel or call Pat Balderrama at: (909-829-0997). They are priced at $8.00 per calendar.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

From the Introit:
Drop down dw, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just: let the earth be opened and bud forth a Saviour.

Epistle from the First letter of Blessed Paul to the Corinthians (4: 1-5)

Brethren, let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required among the dispensers that a man be found faithful. But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by man's day: but neither do I judge my own self. For I am not conscious to myself of anything: yet am I not hereby justified, but He that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge not before the time, until the Lord come: who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise from God.

Gospel according to St. Luke (3: 1-6)

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being govenor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrach of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrach of Abilina, under the high priests Annas and Caiphas: the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins, as it was written in the book of the sayings of Isaias the Prophet: A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord: make straight His paths: every valley shall be filled: and every mountain and hill shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain: and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Christmas Novena

Eight Day (December 23)

O divine Savior, O King of peace, Who wast pleased to make Thy appearance amongst us when the whole world was in peace, vouchsafe to send us Thy peace, so that all our powers being brought into subjection to Thee, Thou mayest at the approaching solemnity be born anew in our souls.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Advent Prayer)

Friday, December 21, 2007

Christmas Novena

Seventh Day (December 22)

O divine word who for the love of us, Thy poor creatures, wast pleased to be born under the most lowly roof, to be wrapped in the meanest swaddling-bands, and to be laid in a vile manger, amongst beasts, and to suffer a thousand evils. O grant that we also may renounce all worldly vanities, and embrace poverty of spirit, and mortification of the flesh, so necessary for our perfection. Grant that we may be thoroughly detached from creatures, and poor in all things save in Thy love and Thy grace.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Advent prayer)

General Thoughts on Christmas

Christmas time is a very joyful time for families who celebrate it. Even those who do not celebrate it for the reason intended. There are many good people out there who prefer to hear us say "Merry Christmas" as opposed to "Happy Holidays". But unfortunately, there are people who practically shove "Happy Holidays" down the throats of everybody just to appease the screaming minority who hate Christmas as much as they hate Christ himself.

The whole business that relates to the repression of publically displaying nativity scenes, the story of Christmas in public school plays, "Merry Christmas" being replaced with "Happy Holidays" all stems back to athiest, anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish, pro-Muslim groops such as the ACLU (American Civil/Communist Liberties Union). For years, the ACLU has intimidated people into submitting to "Happy Holidays", not celebrating Christmas as it has traditionally been celebrated across this country for decades and many other things with the intent to wipe away Christmas and Christ himself from the view of the public.

The good news is, I personally find, that most people prefer to hear "Merry Christmas". At my job for the last three weeks, I have been saying "Merry Christmas" to almost all of my customers and all but one of them have not taken offense to it. The one who did just basically said: "I don't celebrate Christmas" and walked away calmly instead of threatening to report me to the ACLU and put me away. For the most part, many people have told me that they are glad that I say "Merry Christmas" because it IS the Holiday that this false commercialism is based on and what's more, besides the buying of gifts, these people, who thank me for defending our right to exist in the world, celebrate Christmas, for the most part, for the reason it was intended.

Personally, I am amazed that most of my customers at Wal-Mart, here in California of all places, have accepted my saying "Merry Christmas", not one of my co-workers have said to me to say "Happy Holidays" for fear that I would offend people. During my days in Connecticut, I took that nonsense a lot but when I ignored them and said Merry Christmas, the customers would thank me for ignoring these communist, anti-Christ bigots.

I encourage all of you, who are being repressed by the communist and anti-Catholic attack on Christmas, to ignore your superiors who are doing evil by commanding you to go along with this communist attack. Happily cry out "Merry Christmas" to all you serve. Do not let their threats frighten you, you have every right to wish people Merry, even if they are not christians, for there is nothing offensive about "Merry Christmas". It is offensive to people like those involved with the ACLU because it goes against their policy of "Freedom from religion". Groups like that don't have a right to shove their agenda down our throats because what we intend in the words "Merry Christmas" is not to force people to believe in Christ, but to wish people good health and a blessed day in one of the most important Holy Days in the liturgical calendar. Christ is coming to redeem us, and we pray that those people who do not believe in Him, have a sudden change of heart from the words that we happily say to them. Merry Christmas.

The Website Editor of Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Christmas Novena

Sixth Day (December 21)

O Divine Infant, Who, when excluded from Bethlehem, didst inspire the holy Mother to retire to a poor and wretched stable, in which obscure and humble place it was Thy will to be born, in order to confound our pride, and to teach us humility. O grant that henceforward, conforming ourselves to Thy will, we may renounce all pomp and pride and become truly meek and humble of heart.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Advent prayer)

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Christmas Novena

Fifth Day (December 20)

O most adorable Jesus, Who, upon Thy arrival at Bethlehem, was rejected by all men; grant us to follow Thy example in sufferings and contempt, that we may welcome Thee joyfully into our hearts, when Thou seekest an entrance there, either by holy inspirations or by Thy divine Sacraments.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Advent prayer).

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Christmas Novena

Fourth Day (December 19)

O sweetest Jesus, Who didst go up to Bethlehem in the womb of Mary, to obey the commands of Caesar, who had ordered all his subjects to be enrolled; grant us grace to obey with alacrity the most arduous commands from those who hold Thy place over us.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Advent prayer)

Monday, December 17, 2007

Christmas Novena

Third Day (December 18)

O Infant God, Who from the moment of Thy conception in holy Mary’s womb, didst offer Thyself to Thine eternal Father for the salvation of our souls, vouchsafe to give us a lively sense of the one thing necessary so that we may labor zealously for others, and work out our own salvation in fear and trembling, yet with confidence in Thy love.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Advent prayer)

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Christmas Novena

Second day (December 17)

O merciful Redeemer, Who didst vouchsafe to remain in the chaste cloister of Mary’s womb, hidden and unknown, though Thou was the Eternal Word, and the wisdom of the Father, grant that we may learn from Thee to love solitude and silence, and escape the evils that are found in the tumult and distractions of the world; grant us greater purity of mind and of heart; grant that we may glorify Thee, and edify others by our purity and modesty.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, Advent prayer)

Christmas Novena

First day (December 16)

O God and Savior of our souls, sweet Infant Jesus, Whom the angels and shepherds adored in the stable of Bethlehem on that holy night when Thou wert born of the virgin Mary, we offer Thee our profound adoration and our most earnest thanksgiving for having become man for our redemption and salvation; grant that we may apply all our powers to fulfill Thy gracious designs, that we may become perfectly renewed in heart and inflamed with Thy holy love
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, Advent prayer)

Sermon of Fr. Gabriel for The Third Sunday of Advent/ Gaudete Sunday


This Third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday, that’s from the first word in Latin for the Introit, which means “rejoice” and that’s also taken from the Epistle where we just read St. Paul saying: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again, I say rejoice.” That is the theme, every year, for the Third Sunday of Advent. It’s one of joy and expected joy, expecting the great joy of Christmas, which is to come very soon. And so, even though this season of Advent is a penitential time in preparation for Christmas, every year, on the Third Sunday of Advent, The Church allows a little mitigation of that and so instead of the violet vestments, the priest may use the rose vestments, which has a more joyful character to it than the penitential purple, it still reminds us that we are still in this time of penance and preparation. You’ll notice that there are flowers on the altar, which is not allowed on the other Sundays and ferias in Advent, but it is allowed on this Sunday. So the Church gives this Sunday a little foretaste of the joys of Christmas, which are very soon to come, especially in a year like this year where Christmas falls so near to the Fourth Sunday of Advent. We only have nine more days of Advent before Christmas.

I wanted to reflect today upon this theme, what St. Paul says in the Epistle: “Rejoice in the Lord always.” The spiritual writers warn us about the dangers of sadness and how it is a good sign with us that we are going on well in the spiritual life, and we have cheerfulness about us. Now that doesn’t mean that sorrow is a bad thing. There are two types of sorrow. One of them is bad and one is good. There is a type of sorrow where someone is sorrowful to the point of despair. You have someone who is sorry for their sins but they are despairing over their sins, never thinking that they are going to overcome them. That is not a good sorrow, not a Christian sorrow. That is the kind of sorrow and trouble over sin that the devil tries to get us to have where he gets us to simply give up trying.

But now a good and true sorrow for sin is that kind of sorrow that is tempered by the virtue of hope, a trust and confidence in God. Although we grief very much over the fact that we have offended God by our sins, we nevertheless do not give up trying to fight them, we trust that God will forgive us our sins, we make a good confession and he will give us the grace to overcome them. That is a very good sorrow and of course, it is a very good thing to sorrow over our sins because they offend God.

Now, one of the things the devil tries to do is to tempt us to one or two extremes. There are many contradictions in the spiritual life and when the devil can fit one thing against another it seems to be contradictory, then he can get us to fall or at least to prevent us from making the progress we should in the spiritual life. A good example of this is the fact that in order to go on well in the spiritual life, we need to have a certain knowledge of ourselves, we need to know our virtues and we need to know our vices. But the devil can take that knowledge, he can take the knowledge of our virtues and tempt us to pride with it. He can take the knowledge of our vices and tempt us to despair with it. These are two contrary things that the devil keeps tempting us to.

There’s an example in the life of St. Catherine of Sienna, the devil tried to tempt her once. First he tried to tempt her to pride at the sight of her virtues and so to fight the temptation she humbled herself and brought to mind her failures and what she is in the sight of God. So then the devil went and he tried to tempt her to despair in the sight of her failures and then she turned away from the sight of her failures and lifted her thoughts up to God and his great goodness and mercy to resist the temptation to despair. So the devil said: “I can’t tempt you, I tempted you to pride, you humble yourself and think of your failures. I tempted you to despair, you forget your failures and you think of God’s great mercy.” And so he couldn’t get anywhere. Well, the devil often tries to do the same thing to us. When we have a little knowledge of ourselves, very often he’ll tempt us to pride at the sight of our virtues. But then when he can’t get us to fail that way, he will try to get us to fail by despair and by an excessive sorrow and sadness. This is why St. Aluphisious Guzanga said that: “The devil always finds fish to catch in troubled waters.” The devil can get us to despair to unreasonable sorrow and sadness, then we don’t go on cheerfully in God’s service and he can get us to fall very easily. So that’s why St. Francis De Sales says: “The worst thing after sin is sadness.” The devil ruins many souls by sin but after that he will ruins many souls by an excessive sadness.

So to resist this temptation we like to know sometimes: are we going on well in God’s service? Are we growing in holiness? That is sometimes a difficult thing to know and in fact, we can’t know for certain when we trust in God’s mercy and we try our best and we trust that God will not abandon us if we are truly trying to do his will. Now if we don’t avoid the occasions of sins and we commit many venial sins without even caring about it, then yes we are not going on well in the spiritual life because we are deliberately neglecting something that we know we have to do to go on in holiness. But let’s say that we do make a conscious effort to avoid occasions of sin and although we commit venial sins, as everyone does, we do care about that, it does bother us that we commit venial sins, then how do we know if we are actually making progress? There are signs that are true ones and there are false ones. A good example of a false sign is when we look at how many faults we’ve overcome or how many we have not overcome. That is not necessarily a sign of progress or a lack of progress. Yes if we overcome various failures, that may be a sign we are making progress but often times God may allow us to struggle against various venial sins as a trial to us, to keep us humble, and that doesn’t mean necessarily that we are not making progress. On the other hand, let’s say that we overcame many of our faults, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are making progress because perhaps we are in circumstances now where we are not tempted so much or circumstances that make it easier for us to practice virtue.

So there is a saying of St. Teresa of Ávila, I think this is after she was selected to become a Superior, she said that she had more faults than she had before but she felt that she was making greater progress in the spiritual life. There’s one of those contradictions in the spiritual life. How is it that you can commit more faults but be making greater progress? Well the answer is very easy if you think of it. Previously, it was much easier for her to practice virtue. But later on, she was in circumstances where, perhaps, her patience was much more tried, many other things entered into the picture which made it much more difficult to practice virtue. And so she committed more faults but by the fact that she made sincere efforts to overcome those faults, she was making very great progress in the spiritual life.

There was one spiritual writer, Fr. Louis Dupont, who used to say that he had many faults but never made peace with them. And that is a true sign of progress in the spiritual life. Even if we have many faults if we never stop trying to overcome them, we never make peace with them, that is a sign that we are making progress in the spiritual life.

I’d like to conclude just by pointing out today that as Catholics we have every reason to have a great joy in our lives, a supernatural joy. Not that worldly happiness that those in the world think they have. They don’t have true joy if they don’t know what their end is to know and serve God in this life and be happy with him forever in heaven. If they don’t know that is their purpose in life and they don’t strive to fulfill that purpose, they can’t have true joy and happiness and they are the ones who have reason to sorrow. When I look around the world about us, you see so many people that are in a hurry to do so much and very few of them know what they’re doing. It reminds me of a couple weeks ago, when I came at the airport in Ontario, we got off the plane and we were walking to the gate and we walked for a while and all of a sudden we came to a wall. We had gone the wrong way. Whoever was first off the plane went the wrong way and everybody else followed, myself included, and none of us bothered to read the signs, everybody was just following everybody else and the whole plane went in the wrong direction. That’s very much like how many people in the world are, everybody is following everybody else, everybody is in a hurry to get somewhere, we were in a hurry to get through security, but nobody knows where they are going. Unfortunately, they get to the end of their life and they hit a wall and realize they went the wrong direction and the problem is, at that time, many times, instead of turning around and going the right direction they simply despair and give up. They didn’t read the signs along the way, that is, the warning signs that God gave them to point them in the right direction, they were too absorbed in the world, too absorbed in following everybody else so they just continue on, lost in the wrong direction. So we have every reason to be grateful that God has given us the Catholic faith and let’s be sure by living that faith we cooperate with God’s grace and so we are able to have that true joy that St. Paul spoke of in the Epistle today.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Announcements for the week: The Third Sunday of Advent/ Gaudete Sunday

This week, please observe the following Ember Days: Wednesday, December 19; Friday, December 21; and Saturday December 22. Only one meal, which is composed of meat, is permitted. Monday, December 24, Christmas eve is a day of fast and abstinence. No meat is permitted.

Christmas Day: Mass will be celebrated at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel at 2:00 P.M. and is a Holy Day of Obligation.

Fr. John Trough, CMRI, will be at the Chapel during the weekend before and the day of The Feast of the Circumcision. The Mass schedule is as follows: Sunday Mass 2PM Feast of The Circumcision 2PM. Any other Mass that will be celebrated during the week is to be announced.

His Excellency, Bishop Pivarunas, will be coming here to Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel on January 13, 2008 to celebrate Mass and perform Confirmations afterwards. Anyone who needs to be confirmed or conditionally re-confirmed, please see Fr. Gerard or call him at (509) 868-5893 for more information. ONLY BAPTIZED MEMBERS can recieve the sacrament of Confirmation. Regardless of Confirmation or conditional re-Confirmation, Fr. Gerard requests that those who wish to recieve the sacrament present to him copies of baptismal certificates for purposes of Church records. If you cannot meet this requirement, please see Fr. Gerard.

St. Michael's Convent in Spokane, Washington will be holding a "Vocations Weekend" retreat for young women who are at least juniors in high school up to the age of 35 and might be interested in religious life. "Vocations Weekend" will be taking place from February 29 to March 2, 2008. For more information, please contact:
Vocations Directress
St. Michael's Convent
8502 North St. Michael's Road
Spokane, WA 99217-9333
phone: (509) 467-0986 ext. 102
e-mail: smjosephine@miqcenter.com

A weekend Lenten retreat will be held at St. Michael's in Spokane, Washington between March 7-9, 2008. If you are able to attend, registration forms are available at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel and also you may access an online registration form at www.cmri.org. The applicable registration fees are $150 per individual, for those who need overnight accomodations; $75 per individual, for those who do not need an overnight accomodation but meals will be provided. Please note, the fee includes a $50 deposit, which is due by February 25, 2008. For additional information, please contact Fr. Casimir Puskorius, CMRI at (509) 467-2425 ext. 100

Audio CD's are now available from the 2007 Fatima Conference "All Generations Call me Blessed", which took place in Spokane, Washington at Mount St. Michael. They are $60.00 for a complete set of the talks, and $5.00 for the individual topics. For more information call (509) 467-1077

The Third Sunday of Advent/ Gaudete Sunday

From the Collect:

Incline Thine ear, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to our petitions: and, by the grace of Thy visitation, enlighten the darkness of our minds.

Epistle from the letter of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Philippians (4:4-7)

Brethren, Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous: but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And let peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel according to St. John (1:19-28)

At that time the Jews sent from Jerusalem Priests and Levites to John, to ask him: Who art thou? And he confessed, and did not deny; and he confessed: I am not the Christ. And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the Prophet? And he answered: No. They said therfore unto him: Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet Isais. And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him: Why then dost thou baptise, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the Prophet? John answered them saying: I baptise with water: but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not. The same is He that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptising.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

In Rememberance of Archbishop Ngo Dinh-Thuc

Today, December 13, we remember the great Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngo Dinh Thuc, who suffered great tragedies during the course of his life and by the guidence of the Holy Ghost he truly carried out Christ's mission on earth by consecrating bishops in the wake of the Vatican II disaster without a mandate, which was the power given to him by Pope Pius XI. The CMRI, of all religious organizations, which remains faithful to the traditional Catholic teachings owes Archbishp Thuc a debt of gratitude for his bravery unto the last years of his life.

I will re-edit the side bar to include the declaration of Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc and a nice article that was written on July 26 of this past year on the website known as Daily Catholic.org, in rememberance of the Archbishop.

A few weeks ago, I (the website editor) personally spoke with His Excellency, Bishop Pivarunas, on the phone and asked him if he knew anything about the sudden death of the great Archbishop. His comment was as follows:
"He was in Rochester, New York and a group of religious Vietnamese invited him to dine with them in Carthage, Missouri and he never returned."

Today, Archbishop Thuc is burried at the site where he died in Carthage, Missouri, little is known about what he died of. There is much suspicion of how he died but nonetheless, personally speaking, I believe that one day when the smoke clears he will be known as a great saint.

(The Thuc line and how it relates to the CMRI):
Ngo Dinh-Thuc† -------Moises Carmona†------Mark Pivarunas, our Bishop.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

The Website Editor of Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Sermon of Fr. Gerard for The Second Sunday of Advent

Art thou who is to come? Or shall we look for another? In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

The Jewish people, whose mission it was to wait for and receive the Messiah, should have known clearly his mission, so often explained to them by the prophets, present this question. Are you he who is to come? Or have we to wait for another? In this, we can see two periods of development in the life of the chosen people, one of growth and another of decline, the latter due in part to failure on the part of the chosen people and in part due to divine punishment.

In the Old Testament, the Jewish people in spite of their frequent infidelity, for which they often suffered God’s punishment, were still the star of the east, a brilliant light among the pagans. They were at intimate terms with God who sanctified and governed them, especially through Moses, and then by the prophets and judges. Jerusalem, which is called the vision of peace, was a symbol of this great people called by God to be the greatest on earth because it was from them the Messiah was to come forth. By the time of Christ, a time of decline had already begun. Christ reproached them bitterly, in fact, he wept over Jerusalem, as we read in the nineteenth chapter of St. Luke: “He lamented the terrible destruction, which would come upon them and their city.” After this destruction, the Jews were dispersed over the whole Earth, they were despised by others with a stain of blood on their hands which is yet to be removed. Because as a race, they had not repented for that call before Pontius Pilate, that his blood, the blood of Christ, be upon them and their children. Their vocation was to receive Christ, but blinded by political notions of his kingdom, they did not recognize him when he came. As we read in the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” On the contrary, they accused him of evil doing, persecuted him, and ended by calling for his crucifixion. Christ himself lamented over them as we read in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 23.

This history is frequently repeated in the life of individual souls. The Fathers, who were early ecclesiastical writers, bishops for the most part, see in Jerusalem the symbol of the Christian soul. Like this people, the soul also will sanctify their baptism. This people formed part of a royal race, a kingly priesthood, as we read in St. Peter’s first epistle, Chapter 2. The soul is the object of God’s special providence and all this so that it may fulfill a vocation, similar to that of the Jewish nation. That of receiving Christ, living his life, through sanctifying grace accepting his word and reflecting that word in actions. The secret of the fulfillment of this vocation is nothing else but fidelity. Fidelity to God and his will. All men are called to sanctity of life in the imitation of Christ. Those become saints who do imitate him, those who are faithful. On the other hand, those who do not imitate him become sinners.

What would have become of St. Paul, had he not been faithful to Christ? He may have been a great man in certain respects, but otherwise very unhappy, scandalous, and a great sinner. What would have happened to Julian the Apostate, had he been faithful to Christ? Instead of remaining faithful to Christ, he fell into paganism and tried to restore it as the religion of the Roman Empire. The history of France would have been far different had the King of France listened to St. Margaret Mary and consecrated France to the Sacred Heart. Because this did not take place, a hundred years almost to the day afterwards, this message was given and it was not followed, France experienced the horrors of the French Revolution and the reign of terror, which toppled the French Monarchy and caused the death of so many, including many priests and religious and bishops. The history of Europe would be far different if Napoleon had listened to the message, which a blessed Italian mystic received from God to give to him. He would not listen. The same thing would have happened had Hitler listened to the message that Theresa Nieghman, the stigmatic is said to have had for him from God. It is said that Hitler told his utter lings to leave her be, not to bother her but he had no interest in any message from God.

Through infidelity to Christ, men fall into sin. For the same reason, there are many souls who wish to be saints but who live without giving much fruit, without being at peace with others but finding it in themselves. These are always liable to fall more easily into serious sin, because they have failed to cooperate with the graces given them. Let each of us examine our fidelity to the grace of God. In the manner of love of God and of our neighbor, in the manner of fulfillment of our duties, our prayers and mortifications. Let us examine ourselves so as to avoid the punishment, which we would meet if like the Jews, we prove unfaithful to our vocation.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Announcements for the week: The Second Sunday of Advent

Saturday, December 15, 2007, Fr. Gabriel will celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at 7:00 A.M. Anyone who can attend is more than welcome to do so.

His Excellency, Bishop Pivarunas, will be coming here to Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel on January 13, 2008 to celebrate Mass and perform Confirmations afterwards. Anyone who needs to be confirmed or conditionally re-confirmed, please see Fr. Gerard or call him at (509) 868-5893 for more information. ONLY BAPTIZED MEMBERS can recieve the sacrament of Confirmation. Regardless of Confirmation or conditional re-Confirmation, Fr. Gerard requests that those who wish to recieve the sacrament present to him copies of baptismal certificates for purposes of Church records. If you cannot meet this requirement, please see Fr. Gerard.

St. Michael's Convent in Spokane, Washington will be holding a "Vocations Weekend" retreat for young women who are at least juniors in high school up to the age of 35 and might be interested in religious life. "Vocations Weekend" will be taking place from February 29 to March 2, 2008. For more information, please contact:
Vocations Directress
St. Michael's Convent
8502 North St. Michael's Road
Spokane, WA 99217-9333
phone: (509) 467-0986 ext. 102
e-mail: smjosephine@miqcenter.com

A weekend Lenten retreat will be held at St. Michael's in Spokane, Washington between March 7-9, 2008. If you are able to attend, registration forms are available at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel and also you may access an online registration form at www.cmri.org. The applicable registration fees are $150 per individual, for those who need overnight accomodations; $75 per individual, for those who do not need an overnight accomodation but meals will be provided. Please note, the fee includes a $50 deposit, which is due by February 25, 2008. For additional information, please contact Fr. Casimir Puskorius, CMRI at (509) 467-2425 ext. 100

Traditional Catholic 2008 Calendars are now available at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel. They are priced at $8.00 each. If you wish to buy one you may pick one up here at the Church or call Pat Balderama at (909) 829-0997.

Audio CD's are now available from the 2007 Fatima Conference "All Generations Call me Blessed", which took place in Spokane, Washington at Mount St. Michael. They are $60.00 for a complete set of the talks, and $5.00 for the individual topics. For more information call (509) 467-1077

The Second Sunday of Advent

From the Collect:
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways of Thine only-begotten Son: that through His coming we may deserve to serve Thee with purified minds.

Epistle from the letter of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Romans (15: 4-13)

Brethren, What things soever were written, were written for our learning: that, through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind one towards another, according to Jesus Christ: that with one mind and with one mouth you may glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore recieve one another, as Christ also hath received you unto the honour of God. For I say that Christ Jesus was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: but that the Gentiles are to glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: Therefore will I confess to Thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and will sing to Thy Name. And again He saith: Rejoice ye Gentiles, with His people. And again: Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and magnify Him, all ye people. And again, Isaias saith: There shall be a root of Jesse; and He that shall rise up to rule the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall hope. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing: that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.

Gospel according to St. Matthew (11: 2-10)

At that time, when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two of his disciples, he said to Him: Art thou He that art to come, or look we for another? And Jesus making answer, said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them: and blessed is he that shall not be scandalised in Me. And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? A Prophet? Yea I tell you, and more than a Prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.

Sermon of Fr. Gerard for The Feast of The Immaculate Conception

Hail, full of Grace, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

These words of the Gospel of St. Luke tell us exactly the story of Our Blessed Mother that she is full of grace and, as the Church teaches us and has defined as a dogma, from the first moment of her conception she was preserved from original sin and full of grace. As St. Alfonso tells us: “at every moment she was increasing the store of grace, which she possessed, because she was always cooperating with it, it cost an effort for her to cooperate but there was an effort to cooperate with the grace of God at every moment of her existence.”

In defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Pius IX drew on this passage in scripture as also many others from the Old Testament such as from some of the writings of Solomon, one is “my dove, my perfect one” and many other passages in the Old Testament intimated this fact. Also the fact that Our Blessed Mother, we know, is the woman prophesized to our first parents as the one who will crush the head of the serpent, to be victorious over Satan it would be necessary to be so at every moment in one’s existence and never to have been subject to his dominion.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, of course by his nature of God, is victorious over Satan in his state of humanity, as well he conquered Satan, especially by his death upon the cross and by those merits foreseen by Almighty God, the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved Immaculate from the first moment of her conception. The Fathers of the Church, especially those who wrote in Greek, were prolific in their praises of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They almost argued with one another inventing new terms of description for her purity.

One time, a few years ago, Bishop Pivarunas put in the “Adsum” bulletin a whole list of all these different adjectives which the Greek Fathers came up with in order to describe the Immaculate and complete purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is one of her favorite feasts, if not perhaps her favorite because, although it was a preparation for all the others, especially her divine maternity, I’m sure that to possess this freedom from sin, she would have been willing to forego even being the Mother of the Redeemer because, as we, when the Angel Gabriel came to her, she questioned him as to how she was to become the Mother of the Redeemer. Because she knew not man and had a vow of virginity and tradition tells us that St. Joseph also had a vow of virginity. The Angel told her that it would be by the power of the most high, the Holy Ghost would overshadow her and the son to be born would be called the Son of God.

And so on this feast, let us ask Our Blessed Mother for the special graces, which she is always so willing to grant on her feast days, especially the grace of purity of body and soul, of which she has, after her divine Son, the greatest model and exemplar in this world.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen

Friday, December 7, 2007

The Feast of The Immaculate Conception

From the Introit:
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God: for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the robe of justice He hath covered me, as a bride adorned with her jewels.

Epistle (or Lesson) from the Book of Proverbs (8: 22-35):

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything, from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old, before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already concieved; neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out; the mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth; He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there; when with a certain law and compass He enclosed the depths; when He established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters; when He compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits; when He balanced the foundations of the earth; I was with Him, forming all things, and was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times, playing in the world: and my delight is to be with the children of men. Now therefore, ye children, hear me: blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors. He that shall find me shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.

Gospel according to St. Luke (1:26-28):

At that time: The Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin's name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Advent Prayer

Hail and blessed be the hour and the moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure and Blessed Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe O my God, to hear our prayers and grant our desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother.
Amen

Sermon of Fr. Gabriel for the First Sunday of Advent


Today is the first Sunday of Advent and on this Sunday we begin a new liturgical year. The Church begins a new year every year with the first Sunday of Advent. I wanted to speak today about the liturgical year, the cycles that we go through in the liturgy each year and what the meaning of it is. There are two cycles in the Church year: one is called the saintoral cycle and the other is called the temporal cycle. The saintoral cycle means the cycle of the feast days of the saints, every year go through the same feast days and they have certain days assigned to them. The other cycle, the temporal cycle, means the cycle of sacred times, that is, certain times are set aside throughout the year to commemorate different events in the history of our redemption and this is what the Jews in the old testament did as well, besides keeping holy the Sabbath day, they had various feast days that were meant to recall the various things that God had done for them in his Providence. For example, when they celebrated Easter, they were remembering the deliverance from Egypt and the Passover when the angel of death passed over, the angel did not go into the homes where the blood of the pascal lamb was spread over the door and so every year the Jews celebrated that Passover to commemorate that event. Of course, that is prefiguring what we remember on Holy Week how Christ, who is the lamb of God, shed his blood for us, his blood is poured out of our souls to wash us clean of our sins so that we don’t remain in spiritual death. So they have these feast days to commemorate different events. We have special times to remember the events in the life of Our Lord.

So in Christmas, the four weeks of Advent before Christmas, are meant to remind us of the four thousand years from the time of Adam and Eve until the coming of the Messiah, the time when Christ was born. And so it is a penitential time, but a sort of hopeful penitential time. The priest wears the purple vestments, which is the color of penance and you notice in the Mass, we didn’t have a “Gloria” because the “Gloria” is a very joyful thing and normally we do have a “Gloria” on a Sunday. But at the same time, it is not as much a penitential time as Lent. You notice in the Mass, we did say the “Alleluyia” verse after the Epistle. “Alleluia” is a joyful word, but it was still in this Mass where as during Lent, no “Alleluia” is said for the whole time from Septuagesima Sunday until Lent, for almost 70 days “Alleluia” is not used in the liturgy. Nevertheless, I do believe, in times past, in the history of the Church that Advent was observed with a fast just like Lent, but that has not been a custom in the Church for quite some time. But we still remember that this is a time of penance to prepare for Christmas. Now in school, we have the custom of students writing out sacrifices that they come up with for Advent and they put them in a bowl and everyday when they come to class, they pick a sacrifice from out of the bowl and that’s their sacrifice for the day and the next day they pick another one. That is also good practice for us to make out for ourselves a prayer and penance schedule or a list of extra prayers or sacrifices that we intend to do during Advent to prepare ourselves spiritually for Christmas.

The Christmas season starts on Christmas and it lasts for the 40 days after Christmas, there are several feasts in the time period. Aside from Christmas, when we celebrate Our Lord’s birth, we have eight days after Christmas “The Feast of the Circumcision”, another holy day, January 1. That is because Our Lord was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, as was the custom required in the old law, the custom of the Jews. And then we have twelve days after Christmas, January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, this is where we get “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. Epiphany means manifestation, when we celebrate on that feast day, when Our Lord’s divinity was manifested by the Three Kings coming to worship him, to offer him gifts of gold, frankincense and mirth to signify his divinity and his royal dignity and that feast actually is, I believe, older than the feast of Christmas and it was at one time celebrated with greater solemnity than Christmas itself and in many countries it is a Holy Day of Obligation still, such as in Canada. There are different customs for the feast of the Epiphany, one of them being the very good custom of picking a Saint for the year. It would be your special patron Saint for that year and during the next Epiphany you pick another Saint and we usually do that if we have an Epiphany “get together” in families or in parishes, you pick a Saint and that’s your special patron for the year. The Christmas season then ends on February 2, which is 40 days after Christmas, it is the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or also called the feast of the Presentation. That is when Our Blessed Mother, in obedience to the old law, went 40 days after birth to present the child Jesus in the temple. So that day ends the Christmas time.

The next “time” in the liturgical year that we have is called the time of Lent, which begins with the three weeks of pre-lent, which sometimes, such as this coming year, I believe, will actually start in January so it will come before the Christmas season actually ends. But we have the three weeks of pre-lent: Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sunday and then we begin Lent with the Wednesday before Quinquagesima Sunday, Ash Wednesday. Then we have 40 days of fast, actually it’s 46 days but we don’t fast on the Sundays so we have from Ash Wednesday to Easter 40 days of fast, and that is to commemorate Our Lord’s fast of 40 days before beginning his public life.

In the Christmas season we commemorate Our Lord’s hidden life for 30 years in Nazareth and then in Lent we commemorate the 40 days of Our Lord’s fasting in preparation for his public life. In Holy Week we conclude with remembering the special events that happened leading up to Our Lord’s crucifixion, remembering on Holy Thursday Our Lord instituting the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and also giving us the great precept of charity at the Last Supper. On Good Friday, Our Lord’s agony and Passion on the cross. Then we wait until the third day, until Easter Sunday, to celebrate Our Lord’s glorious resurrection. Just as Our Lord stayed on Earth for 40 days, before ascending into heaven after his resurrection, for 40 days we have what is called the paschal time, the time after Easter, until the feast of the Ascension, we celebrate Our Lord ascending into heaven. Just as the Apostles for ten days awaited for the coming of the Holy Ghost, they prayed for nine days and the Holy Ghost came on the tenth day after the ascension, so on the tenth day after ascension Thursday of every year (which is always a Sunday) we have Pentecost Sunday, we commemorate the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and Our Blessed Mother, and that is the third major feast of the liturgical year, the three major feasts being Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Those three feasts remind us of the love of the Blessed Trinity for us. At Christmas we remember the love of God the Father in giving us his only begotten Son. At Easter we remember the love of God the Son in suffering and dying on the cross for us and founding the Catholic Church, which we have the great grace of belonging to and purchasing our souls with his precious blood. At Pentecost we remember the love of God the Holy Ghost in coming down on the Apostles and giving them grace and strength to go out and preach and to spread the Church that Christ founded.

Then the time after Pentecost, from Pentecost Sunday to the Last Sunday of the liturgical year, which is the Last Sunday after Pentecost (which was last Sunday). That whole time period is meant to signify the time from when the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles all the way to our own time until the end of the world when Christ will come to judge the living and the dead, all of those who ever lived. During that time we wear the green vestments, green is the color of hope, and during that time the flowers and trees are in full green color and that green is a color of hope as opposed to winter when everything is dead, at least in the northern climates. That reminds us that time reminds us of the hope of Christ coming again at the second coming to judge the world. Its very appropriate how in the northern hemisphere the liturgical cycle fits very well with the cycle of the seasons. St. John the Baptist said concerning Our Lord: “He must increase and I must decrease.” Well, the feast day of St. John the Baptist is in the end of June and that’s when the days begin decreasing, they get shorter, and they keep decreasing until Christmas time and then they start getting longer in the northern hemisphere and this, of course, reminds us of Christ, the light of the world, who was born on Christmas day.

Also in Easter, when everything is coming out of the state of dormancy and the flowers begin to bloom, that reminds us of Our Lord’s glorious resurrection. In the summer all of the green color reminds us of hope and at the end of the liturgical year as we go into the season of fall and the trees go dormant and lose their leaves we have the commemoration of All Souls on November 2, and we remember the poor suffering souls in purgatory, those who passed away and need our prayers. We also commemorate the day before that, we have the feast of All Saints so we are reminded by these feasts what we call the communion of Saints, that is we are united with the Saints in heaven and the souls in purgatory with Christ as our head, we celebrate also in the end of October the feast of Christ the King. We conclude the year with the Last Sunday after Pentecost, which we always read the Gospel, which tells of the events that will happen, the signs that will occur to indicate the end of the world.

I’d like to just conclude with what was said in St. John’s Epistle it says: “Now is the time to rise from sleep.” He means spiritual sleep. So as we begin a new Church year today, let us try to begin also with greater fervor to make progress in the spiritual life. If we have been sleeping spiritually to rise from sleep and to make a fresh start and if we do this, especially during the season of Advent, we’ll make a very good preparation for Christmas. When Christmas does come, it will truly be a feast of great rejoicing for us.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Announcements for the week: The First Sunday of Advent

Saturday, December 8, 2007 is the Feast of The Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be offered by Fr. Gerard at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel at 10:00 A.M.

Saturday, December 15, 2007, Fr. Gabriel is planning to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in between the hours of 7:00 A.M and 8:00 AM. The time is subject to change, for Father Gabriel has not yet set an exact time for when he will celebrate the Mass.

His Excellency, Bishop Pivarunas, will be coming here to Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel on January 13, 2008 to celebrate Mass and perform Confirmations afterwards. Anyone who needs to be confirmed or conditionally re-confirmed, please see Fr. Gerard or call him at (509) 868-5893 for more information. ONLY BAPTIZED MEMBERS can recieve the sacrament of Confirmation. Regardless of Confirmation or conditional re-Confirmation, Fr. Gerard requests that those who wish to recieve the sacrament present to him copies of baptismal certificates for purposes of Church records. If you cannot meet this requirement, please see Fr. Gerard.

Traditional Catholic 2008 Calendars are now available at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel. They are priced at $8.00 each. If you wish to buy one you may pick one up here at the Church or call Pat Balderama at (909) 829-0997.

Audio CD's are now available from the 2007 Fatima Conference "All Generations Call me Blessed", which took place in Spokane, Washington at Mount St. Michael. They are $60.00 for a complete set of the talks, and $5.00 for the individual topics. For more information call (509) 467-1077

The First Sunday of Advent

From the Introit:
To Thee have I lifted up my soul: int Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed: neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on Thee shall be confounded.

Epistle from Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Romans (13: 11-14):

Brethren, knowing that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is passed and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in contention and envy: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Gospel according to St. Luke (21: 25-33):

At that time Jesus said to His disciples: There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves: men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved. And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand. And He spoke to them a similitude: See the fig tree and all the tress: when they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see the things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen, I say to you, this generation shall not pass away till all things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away.