Father Nick Blaha Homily Cast

It’s said that words instruct, but examples inspire us to follow.  Do we not want to see Christians who, in the midst of all the darkness, are still able to stand above it all in clarity, calmness, and confidence, who, in the midst of all the lack of peace and joy, the egoism and hate, still stand there in the purest peace and cheerfulness?  ----Franz Jägerstätter

"All the way [to the guillotine] the Carmelite sisters sang: the 'Miserere,' 'Salve Regina,' and 'Te Deum.' Beholding them, a total silence fell on the racous, brutal crowd, most of them cheapened and hardened by day after day of the spectacle of public slaughter. At the foot of the towering killing machine, their eyes raised to Heaven, the sisters sang 'Veni Creator Spiritus.' Sister Teresa, thei...

eu·ca·​tas·​tro·​phe ˌyü-kə-ˈta-strə-(ˌ)fē  A sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur, a fleeting glimpse of joy, joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief. Delivered at Our Lady of Most Holy Trinity Chapel on the campus of Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, California

As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1127

There is a much greater distance between the nature of man, or even between the nature of the highest of the angels, and grace, than there is between grace itself and glory. No created nature, however perfect, is the germ of grace, whereas grace is indeed the germ or the seed of eternal life, semen gloriae . Hence when the sinner is absolved in the confessional, an event occurs which is proportion...

"He loved humankind. And that’s why he died as the bridegroom who has gone off to rescue his bride from the robbers’ hands. And they bind him and torture him to death, but he sees his sweetest friend sitting at the table with his executioners, bantering with them and mocking his pain and his loyal love.  I realized that this mighty love sustains everything in the world—even the fire in Hell....

Full text of the homily available at: https://www.thomasaquinas.edu/news/fr-blahas-homily-baccalaureate-mass-holy-spirit

"The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art."   Sacrosanctum Concilium, The Second Vatican Council

«La tradición musical de la Iglesia universal constituye un tesoro de valor inestimable que sobresale entre las demás expresiones artísticas, principalmente porque el canto sagrado, unido a las palabras, constituye una parte necesaria o integral de la liturgia solemne.»  --El Concilio Vaticano Segundo

In the final three paragraphs of the fascinating memoir he wrote while still Prefect of the Congregation , Cardinal Ratzinger explained the significance of the bear:  According to legend, on his way from Germany to Rome in the early 700s, St. Corbinian’s horse was torn to pieces by a bear. Corbinian reprimanded the bear, loaded onto it the pack the horse had been carrying, and made the bear h...

For God there are only individuals.   Nicolás Gomez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito

Para Dios no hay sino individuos.  --Nicolás Gomez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito: Selección , p. 26.

Delivered at Christ the King Catholic School

Of Hildebrand’s thirty books surely one of the most interesting for our generation is Trojan Horse in the City of God: The Catholic Crisis Explained (1967). An early post-Vatican II book written more than fifty years ago, Hildebrand proved once again, as he did in the 1920s when he was among the first to warn about the coming disaster of Nazism, that he was prophetic in detecting the ominous storm...

"As they stared blankly, in dumb misery deepening as they slowly realized all they had seen and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze, dancing up from the surface of the water and blew lightly and caressingly on their faces, and with its soft touch came instant oblivion. For this is the last, best gift that the kindly demigod is careful to bestow on those to whom he has revealed himself in...

This is an old idea--one that started way earlier than the last time I used this image, three years ago in the lectionary cycle.  "Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the...

Want to assist with the project of restoring the communion rail to use in Blessed Sacrament Church? You can give online at https://blessedsacramentkck.weshareonline.org/ Make sure you include a reference to the communion rail in the comment portion of the form. My rough and ready translation of Father Pro's meditation on the empty tabernacles is corrected and somewhat improved below. "Lord, return...

Las meditaciones y oraciónes de Beato Miguel Pro SJ: https://www.morderlarealidad.com/2021/11/24/beato-miguel-agustin-pro-9-9-oraciones-y-meditaciones-del-p-pro/ «¡Señor, vuelve al Sagrario! Ya no esté el Tabernáculo vacío... Mira que en su calvario lo piden tantas almas, ¡Jesús mío! «Almas tuyas, Señor, crucificadas en la cruz del dolor despedazadas por el duelo más hondo en la existencia ¡el dol...

"One needs to open one’s heart to the abundance of grace and to allow the word of the Redeemer to act with all its power: ‘ Duc in altum !’ Whoever opens his heart to Christ will not only understand the mystery of his own existence, but also that of his own vocation; he will bear the abundant fruit of grace." Pope Saint John Paul II, 2005 World Day of Prayer for Vocations

[The Church needs] a change of mindset, particularly concerning laypeople.  They must no longer be viewed as ‘collaborators’ of the clergy, but truly recognized as ‘co-responsible’ for the Church’s being and action — thereby fostering the consolidation of a mature and committed laity. Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Clergy, 2009

If we believe in God we should not say, “I believe in God,” but rather, “God believes in me.” Nicolas Gomez Dávila, Scholia on an Implicit Text , 1128 There are those who, while they recognize the glory of God as well as the importance of man and the call addressed to him in general, believe in false humility, that the call is meant for all others but not for their own person. They deem their own...

We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam. Even fireworks, for all their prettiness, come from the chemistry of the earth. Yet somehow we think we can grow, feeding on flowers and fireworks, without completing the cycle back to reality. Do you know the legend of Hercules and Antaeus, the giant wrestler, whose strength was inc...

The passage read as the spiritual sense of the Gospel of this fourth Sunday of Advent is 2 Samuel 6:1-19 Linked here for your convenience: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2samuel/6

"Although nothing is to be seen, the soul senses very sharply the presence of an evil power which wants to influence it to give up: the sins are too many and too horrible to allow any hope.  But it also senses another spiritual power present.  It may be the guardian angel soothing the soul, reminding it, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: reminding the sou...

Take time to read Pope Saint John Paul II's encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, available on the Vatican website . https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html