Bulletin 117

SAINT AGNES CATHEDRAL 533 South Jefferson Springfield, MO 65806

EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS (LATIN)

CELEBRANT Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

September 2, 2012; 14th Sunday after Pentecost

Epistle: Gal. 5:16-24; Gospel: Mt. 6:24-33

Mass Schedule September 3rd through September 7th

Monday –Saint Pius X, Pope & Confessor-- NO LATIN MASS

Tuesday-Requiem Mass +Mr. Xavier

Wednesday-Saint Lawrence Justinian, Bishop & Confessor

Thursday-Feria

Friday-Sacred Heart of Jesus

There will be a Potluck dinner Sunday, September 9th immediately following the 2:30pm Mass in the Saint Agnes school cafeteria. All are invited.

The best reasons for praying the Holy Rosary are the following:

1) For world peace… “Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world.” (Our Lady of Fatima, 1917). The Popes have highly recommended the Rosary to promote peace throughout the world.

2) A means for preserving the home…”There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessings upon the family…than the daily recitation of the Rosary”… Pope Pius XII

3) For courage in the hardships of life …”a powerful means of renewing our courage will undoubtedly be found in the Holy Rosary”…Pope Leo XIII

4) As a ready and easy means of preserving the faith…”We have elsewhere brought it to the attention of the devout Christian that not least among the advantages of the Rosary is the ready means it puts in his hands to nurture his faith, and to keep him from ignorance of his religion and the danger of error”…Pope Leo XIII

We should pray the rosary for the intention of making sacrifices in order to save sinners and ourselves from hell. What are the sufferings of the damned? What is the nature of the pain of sense? Theology has traditionally distinguished two kinds of torment suffered by the damned, the pain of loss and the pain of sense. Both are exemplified in the words which Christ will speak to the damned at the general judgment: “Depart from me (pain of loss), you condemned, into that everlasting fire (pain of sense), prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25.41).

The pain of loss is the intense suffering experienced by the damned because of their eternal separation from God. We can explain it in this fashion. God has given the human person, as a rational creature, a radical craving for unlimited goodness, beauty, love, and life, and the happiness that their possession would bring. But these goods can be found only in God. He alone is the fullness and the source of all goodness, beauty, love, life, and of all beatitude. To reject God is to close oneself off from these riches and to condemn oneself to the pain of a deep-seated craving that can never be satisfied. Think of a drug addict who cannot get the drug he craves. Only one who has known the torment of such unsatisfied craving can have any idea of how painful can be the frustration of a deep human longing. But nothing can compare to the need that the human person has for God, and nothing can equal the pain that comes from losing Him.

The pain of sense is the suffering experienced by the damned expressed in the worlds, “Depart from me you condemned, into that everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The image of fire is found frequently in both the Old and the New Testament to describe the pains of hell. Traditional theology has understood scriptural hell fire to be an element analogous to material fire that would have the capacity to inflict pain not only upon material bodies, but also upon pure spirits. It understood this element to be extrinsic to the human person and to be inflicted by God as vindictive punishment. In this understanding, God’s justice requires that the sinner who has disobeyed God in seeking disordered pleasure from creatures must suffer punishment in proportion to the offense.

In Christ,

Fr. Jeff Fasching

Bulletin 116

SAINT AGNES CATHEDRAL 533 South Jefferson Springfield, MO 65806

EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS (LATIN)

CELEBRANT Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

August 26th, 2012; 13th Sunday after Pentecost

Epistle: Gal. 3:16-22; Gospel: Lk. 17:11-19

Mass Schedule August 27th through August 31st

Monday –Saint Joseph Calasance, Confessor-- NO LATIN MASS

Tuesday-Saint Augustine, Bishop, Confessor & Doctor

Wednesday-Beheading of John the Baptist

Thursday-Saint Rose of Lima, Virgin

Friday-Requiem Mass + David Anderson

There will be a Potluck dinner Sunday, September 9th immediately following the 2:30pm Mass in the Saint Agnes school cafeteria. All are invited.

The best reasons for praying the Holy Rosary are the following:

1) For world peace… “Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world.” (Our Lady of Fatima, 1917). The Popes have highly recommended the Rosary to promote peace throughout the world.

2) A means for preserving the home…”There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessings upon the family…than the daily recitation of the Rosary”… Pope Pius XII

3) For courage in the hardships of life …”a powerful means of renewing our courage will undoubtedly be found in the Holy Rosary”…Pope Leo XIII

4) As a ready and easy means of preserving the faith…”We have elsewhere brought it to the attention of the devout Christian that not least among the advantages of the Rosary is the ready means it puts in his hands to nurture his faith, and to keep him from ignorance of his religion and the danger of error”…Pope Leo XIII

We should pray the rosary for the intention of making sacrifices in order to save sinners and ourselves from hell. The Magisterium has always taught the reality and eternity of hell. If God is merciful and if the human person is free, and thus capable of change, why must hell be eternal? We must not imagine that the damned piteously plea for God to accept their repentance and that He refuses to do so because they failed to meet a deadline that God arbitrarily set. If they are in hell forever it is because they refuse to repent and, indeed, given their choice to be who they are, they cannot repent. They do not wish to repent because they have freely chosen to make themselves and their will, not God and His will, the absolute value of their existence. Instead of embracing the infinite goodness and richness that is God, they have elected the barrenness which is themselves apart from God. It is not God who first rejects the damned, it is they who reject God, and they continue to reject Him. If God should offer the damned all the joys of heaven as a reward for sincere repentance, they would say, “I would rather be damned than submit to you.” Their will is totally, firmly, and irrevocably fixed upon themselves and against God. Having excluded God completely from their existence, they lack the principle from which conversion could take its origin; that is, reverence and love for God and a willingness to obey Him.

Let us pray for the conversion of sinners through the Holy Rosary!

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Jeff Fasching

Bulletin 115

SAINT AGNES CATHEDRAL 533 South Jefferson Springfield, MO 65806

EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS (LATIN)

CELEBRANT Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

August 19th, 2012; 12th Sunday after Pentecost

Epistle: II Cor. 3:4-9; Gospel: Lk. 10:23-27

Mass Schedule August 20th through August 24th

Monday –Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor--NO LATIN MASS

Tuesday-Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Widow

Wednesday-Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thursday-Saint Philip Benizi, Confessor

Friday-Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

The best reasons for praying the Holy Rosary are the following:

1) For world peace… “Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world.” (Our Lady of Fatima, 1917). The Popes have highly recommended the Rosary to promote peace throughout the world.

2) A means for preserving the home…”There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessings upon the family…than the daily recitation of the Rosary”… Pope Pius XII

3) For courage in the hardships of life …”a powerful means of renewing our courage will undoubtedly be found in the Holy Rosary”…Pope Leo XIII

4) As a ready and easy means of preserving the faith…”We have elsewhere brought it to the attention of the devout Christian that not least among the advantages of the Rosary is the ready means it puts in his hands to nurture his faith, and to keep him from ignorance of his religion and the danger of error”…Pope Leo XIII

Many saints have had mystical experiences of hell. One well know account is contained in the report on the Fatima apparitions which Lucia Santos, one of the seers of Fatima, submitted to Dom Jose, bishop of Leiria, on 31 August 1941. Lucia writes that during the apparition of 13 July 1917, Our Lady gave the three children a momentary glimpse of hell to encourage them to pray for sinners.

After the vision ended, Our Lady urged the children to pray and offer many sacrifices to save sinners from hell. The Holy Rosary is a most powerful means to do so! It is a weapon to combat evil. It is a powerful means of obtaining Christian perfection and graces from God.

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Jeffery Fasching

Penance II

The Sacrament of Penance is a Sacrament which our Lord Jesus Christ instituted for the forgiveness of sins committed after Baptism. There is no sin which this sacrament does not remit, no matter how grave or how numerous. Every sinner is sure of forgiveness and being made one again with God provided that he makes the necessary reparation. We must know our sins, the number of them, and the circumstances which cause us to sin. We have to pray to the Holy Ghost in order to attain this knowledge. If we examine our conscience without praying for enlightenment from the Holy Ghost we run the risk of making a sacrilegious confession!

The Council of Trent teaches us that the complete confession of sins was also instituted by the Lord and is by divine law necessary for all who have fallen after Baptism…For it is clear that without knowledge of the case priests could not exercise this judgment, nor could they observe equity in the imposition of penances if the penitents declared their sins only in general not specifically and in particular.

Thus it follows that all mortal sins, of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious, must be recounted by them in confession, though they may be most secret and may have been committed only against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound souls more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly…when Christ’s faithful strive to confess all sins that occur to their memory, they undoubtedly place all of them before the divine mercy for pardon. But those who fail to do so and knowingly withhold some, place nothing before the divine goodness for remission.

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Eternal Punishment

Jesus Christ spoke often about the reality of hell. He left no room for doubt that Hell exists. "If thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into the kingdom of God, than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire" (Mk 9:46). "After the judgement, the good will go into life everlasting, the wicked into everlasting punishment" (Mt 25:6). "Fear ye Him Who hath power to cast the body and the soul into hell" (Lk 12:5).

We must remember that God does not predestine anyone to damnation. Jesus Christ died for the redemption of all men. Everyone has received the graces necessary for salvation. Damnation is what a man chooses for himself. He refuses to accept God's love and prefers instead to turn away from God for ever. The individual take personal responsibility in the loss of his soul.

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Purgatory Revisited

The justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. These faults may be light in our eyes, but to God they are not! The least sin displeases Him infinitely and demands enormous atonement. This is why the pains of Purgatory are so severe and should arouse in us a holy fear!

However, we should allow this fear to turn into a charitable compassion towards the poor suffering souls, but also with a vigilant zeal for our own spiritual welfare. If you truly think of the fires of Purgatory, you will avoid the least faults, and you will practice penance. The idea being that you expiate your sins in this life, rather than in the next!

We should be careful of excessive fear and not lose confidence. We must also remember the Mercy of God, which is not less infinite than His Justice! “In te, Domine, speravi, non confundar in aeternum—“In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be put to confusion.”

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Christ Must Come First

"Come my sons, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Hurry, while you have the light of life, so that death's darkness may not overtake you." "Which of you wants to live to the full; who loves long life and the enjoyment of prosperity?"

If you desire true and everlasting life then the Lord says: "Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceit; turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." When we do this God will listen to our prayers.

Saint Benedict writes: "Just as there exists an evil fervor, a bitter spirit, which divides us from God and leads us to hell, so there is a good fervor which sets us apart from evil inclinations and leads us toward God and eternal life."

We must strive to adopt this good fervor. It is only obtained through a well-ordered, disciplined life of prayer. It takes effort on our part, but God always provides the grace when we seek His aid.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Holy Saturday

The whole earth is silent and still on this day. Christ our Lord is asleep in the tomb. Our Lord has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. Christ descends into hell with the mission of freeing those who live in darkness and the shadow of death. Christ bears His Cross, the weapon He used to win the victory over satan and death. Christ commands all those who are asleep to rise from the dead and promises to give each person His light. Christ did not create humanity to be prisoners in hell. He therefore orders all to come forth to receive His light.

The Way of the Cross

"Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the everlasting fire" (Matt. 25:41). We must take up our Cross in this life and follow Christ if we wish to gain eternal life. For many, however, this saying seems hard. If we follow Christ willingly now we will not fear His second coming as our judge. If we willingly embrace our Cross now we will be able to draw near to Christ the judge with great trust.

Embracing the Cross means salvation. Embracing the Cross means life. Embracing the Cross means protection from our enemies. Strength of mind, joy and peace of spirit, virtue and holiness of life all come from embracing the Cross.

Take up your Cross and follow Christ in order to win eternal life. There is no other way.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Death

All of us one day will die. Most of us at one time or another have thought about what kind of death that will be. Will it be a good death or a bad death? Will it be a sudden death? Will it be at the hands of another person? Will it be by an unfortunate accident? Will it be by disease? Most people consider the above types of deaths to be bad deaths. However, in and of themselves none of the above mentioned types of death are evil. What matters is whether or not we have made our peace with God. It does not matter if we die in the prime of our life. It does not matter if we die at the hands of somebody else. What matters is that we are prepared. The Holy Martyrs were all prepared to die. What makes a death bad is the sinner who dies in his sins. It is sin which destroys his soul.

We must recognize God's divine justice in this life while we still have time. If we don't do this now chances are we won't do it on our death bed. If we hide our sins now they will later be made clear as day. Lent give us a great opportunity to recognize our sins and acknowledge them before God. Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.

Let us repent and embrace the mercy of God.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Temptation Continued

The greatest misfortune for a Christian is not to be tempted. Saint Gregory says that if you have no temptations the devil is your friend, your guide and your shepherd. If he now allows you a life of peace, he will at the end of your life drag you into hell. If we are not tempted then we must consider ourselves abandoned by God.

Temptation is necessary. It helps us persevere in humility and distrust of ourselves. Temptation obliges us to take refuge in God alone. In fact, temptation is one of the sure signs that we are on the path to heaven, no matter how humiliating the temptation may be. Saint Augustine says that everything we do without overcoming temptation is of very little value. We cannot become discouraged. We should rather thank God and fight the good fight because we have already won the victory in Jesus Christ.

Mary, Mother of God

From a homily of Blessed Simon of Cascia, priest:

Imagine how reverently the angel stood before this glorious village girl, knowing that she was to be the mother of the Son of God! See and contemplate how humbly and modestly she listened and gave answer to the angel who had come as ambassador and was awaiting her reply.

What would you have done if you had been at the door of this room or cell and had heard this holy, pleasing dialogue between this blessed girl and the angel? Would not your heart have been sweetly riven by great joy and boundless consolation? Harder than stone and steel is the heart that is not riven as it reads or hears or thinks about the words the virgin spoke to the angel and the angel to the virgin. Would you not have cried aloud, humbly but very fervently and from a full heart: "Sweet Madonna, kindest of women, I beg you, agree quickly to what the angel says, so that your Son may deliver us from the damnation in which our first mother has put us!"

What would you have said and done, Christian soul, when you heard the Virgin Mary say to the angel: "I am the servant and handmaiden of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word?" At that moment, the power of the Holy Spirit immediately formed and generated the body of Christ form the pure blood of the Virgin, infused and newly created soul into that body, and united the divinity inseparably with that soul and body. We must therefore firmly believe that Christ is true God and true man, the Son of Mary who was a virgin before, during, and after his birth. Those who do not belive this will be damned, unless they are converted to the true faith.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching