Lorica

This is what has been going on since sunday, when He rode into Jerusalem to draw demons out of their lair, that they might kill him. As I said last night, all Hell has been unleashed- this is in fact what he says to the mob who came to arrest him- "This is your hour, and that of the power of darkness." He tells us what is going on so that his plan of redemption can be fulfilled.

The Fathers agree that the primary sin of Satan, the sin which caused him to rebel against God and fall from heaven, and the sin that he introduced into the heart of man through his cunning, was the sin of envy. Lucifer was envious of what God had planned for man. He was envious that man had been made in God's image and when he was perfected, man would surpass the angels in glory. Instead of rejoi...

In Leviticus Chapter 23, Moses lays down a law, for a great celebration of joy. The Israelites were commanded, in the sternest possible language, to express their thanksgiving and joy to God with a great celebration. They're actually warned that, if they fail to do this, if they fail to be happy and celebrate, that they will be cut off from Israel. Very interesting, to think that we need to be com...

As we continue to Golgotha may we be sober and circumspect. We are further aided today by the disturbing veiling of our friends and the light of Christ. The Jews tried to stone Him and He hid Himself. Our Lord Jesus, do not hide yourself from us, make yourself known! We want to be closer to God, but something unexpected happens when he takes a step toward us: we often step back away from him. This...

All other provisions in this like are secondary to the provision of the Body and Blood of Christ, which is our healing and salvation. We enjoy them, we are thankful when they are given but our very life does not depend on them like it does on the Holy Sacrifice, which will never fail, and never be taken away.

In this combat remember who you are with, you are with the stronger man- Jesus. If you are not with him, then, as he warns- you are against him, and He tells us how to recognize what side you are on: The one with him gathers, the one against him scatters. To be with Jesus, to be holy and good is to gather. It is to reconcile, to make peace, to forgive, to sympathize and understand, to come along s...

Don't be confused by the fact that only three of the disciples were there on the Holy Mount at the Transfiguration. We were not at his Nativity, nor did we witness his miracles or hear his teachings, we did not see Him die or the empty tomb and glorious body, we did not put our hand in the scars or have him breath on us the Holy Spirit. And yet all of these things are ours, as much as those who we...

This is the power of God's love, that he can through our repentance even make use of our own failures to bring about our salvation and perfection. God's love and power are absolutely triumphant over every evil, He uses the Devil and He even uses our own sin for our salvation. But we have to go willingly, we have to follow the Spirit like Jesus into this wilderness and participate in the great reve...

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between God’s loving discipline unto redemption and God’s wrath unto destruction- difficult, except for faith and trust in the love of our heavenly Father who sent His son to die that we might be made holy. And this the constant theme in all the prayers we pray tonight, an expression of confidence in God’s mercy, while we are crying out lamenting our woeful...

Are you ready to go with Him? We set out this Wednesday, as a family we go up together so that we can walk with him to Golgotha as he bears our sin, so that we can stand at the foot of the cross with our Mother and adore the Savior's sacrifice, so that we can meet him with Mary Magdalene at the tomb as he comes out in glorious victory.

Now the takeaway from this parable is simple. There is one good heart and three defective hearts. What makes the three defective hearts defective is not three complex problems but in the final analysis, essentially just one problem. And the good heart is described as possessing the one thing the defective hearts lack. As I said the takeaway is pretty simple, there is one thing we must avoid and if...

If you came and said to me, "Father, I have a passion to become a master blacksmith", and I told you that you need to be prepared for five hard years of humiliation and failure before you even begin to see much success, and then you get started, and in the first month you are shocked at how hard it is to do anything resembling skill, you will either give up, or remember what you were tol...

Do you think Peter understood what awaited him when Jesus said "Follow Me" and Peter followed Him? How about Matthew, Andrew, James and John? Perhaps St. Paul had a slight indication that he wasn't going to club Med when Jesus knocked him off his horse and blinded him but it wasn't till after he said yes that Jesus showed him all the things he must suffer for Christ's sake. Your contract...

It does not really matter what is going on circumstantially- If we know that we are pleasing to God, even if the waves rage, there will be peace within. But if we doubt, if we are in the throws of shame and dubiety, then even the thrill of hitting all the green lights is not going to be satisfying for long. So in times of uncertainty, and in times of ease, we must always be asking ourselves: &quot...

Among all the things John is communicating to us in the story of the wedding at Cana, he is depicting the Woman, the Mother of the Living One in her role as confident and at peace with herself and what she had to do. And she gives a command, not just to the servants, but to us all: "Whatever he tells you, do it"

We want to live, and to live to the fullest, and if we are not pressing on toward that high calling we will never feel contentment. It is no news to us that this is not easy, that there are many distractions, assaults, and offers of Turkish delight to draw us off course. We must be alert, vigilant, watchful, thoughtful, circumspect, prudent, brave, and courageous to fight the good fight and come o...

The event we celebrate this day runs counter to modern sensibilities- feast of the what? Some may ask. The Roman Catholics discarded it in their liturgical reforms as they got with the times- but we still celebrate, if with a wince, the circumcision of the God Child and Savior of the Human race Jesus Christ. This is in fact the Saviors first shedding of blood in his holy sacrifice for the remissio...

When we are enveloped by the power of God’s love in Christ, by what he has done for us, by our freedom and glory then all of the present sufferings will be as nothing to us. Sure, there are times to mourn and grieve in this life but it never eclipses the deep abiding presence of Joy and Peace because we know, we know deeply and feel the reality that this is all very temporary and will soon pass aw...

Christs first coming which inaugurated the age of perpetual coming, which age we are in, is the age of mercy for sinners. As long as we are in this age, there is still opportunity to respond to the Evite- the call for repentance which is the prerequisite for entry is still being sounded. The door has not been shut, get your oil now- we are in the age of longsuffering. Even though the King of Justi...

The Forerunner prepared the way for the manifestation of the Son of God, for the gospel- for the coming Kingdom. We can think of him like we do the Blessed Virgin. God prepared her from before creation in order to cross the infinite divide and become man, without her fiat there would b no Jesus the Man. God also prepared the Forerunner to prepare the way for Christ to manifest himself and bring th...

I suppose folks just don't want to think about the Judgment, it's so unpleasant and negative, while the birth of the Holy Babe is so sweet and joyful. But this is to misunderstand both the Judgment and the Birth. The Birth in fact begins with the great kenosis, the divine humiliation. Talk about negativity- He crossed the infinite divide, and went down. It then proceeds with the death of the Holy...

Faithfulness is the brass ring, and the thing that we so often lack. And what is critical to achieving this sturdy faithfulness in the Christian life is Knowledge and understanding of the gospel and grace, followed by obedience to what we have learned.

In the last few verses of our reading St. Paul prays that their love may abound. This is a thematic prayer of St. Paul in his epistles. Our love needs to grow and be perfected. We need to love more, and love better. One of the perennial problems we face is sluggishness in spiritual zeal, pulling up short, atrophy, lolly gagging, coasting, half hearted effort, maybe not going in for that sin whole...

The whole point of fasting is to override the fleshly hunger, by ignoring it and turning to your true desire which is for God. But this can only be effectively done if you realize what is actually going on in the process, otherwise you may fall prey to the temptation. The enemy is shrewd and powerful, dangerous and threatening... only to those who are ignorant or blatantly disobedient. To those wh...

When we say He is master and ruler to whom we owe obedience, we do not mean despot. He is a benevolent ruler who has laid down his life for us. As King he defeats our enemy and brings peace to his subjects. He then rders our life in harmonious proportion so that it is a content and beautiful life in the kingdom. He provides nurture and sustenance for his subjects. He feeds us a sumptous banquet. A...