SAINT AGNES CATHEDRAL 533 South Jefferson Springfield, MO 65806
EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS (LATIN)
CELEBRANT Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
July 22nd, 2012; 8th Sunday after Pentecost
Epistle: Rom. 8:12-17---Gospel: Lk. 16:1-9
Mass Schedule July 23rd through July 27th
Monday-Saint Apollinaris, Bishop & Martyr-NO LATIN MASS
Tuesday-Saint Christina, Virgin & Martyr
Wednesday-Saint James the Greater, Apostle
Thursday-Saint Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Friday-Saint Pantaleon, Martyr
God has called us to a divine sonship. We are debtors to Christ because He has redeemed us with His blood and so made us God’s adopted sons. As such, we are led by the Spirit of God. We must therefore live our lives with courage and conviction! The Spirit of God is not a weak Spirit, but rather one of strength, power, and wisdom! We too should live our lives embracing this power, wisdom, and strength.
As God’s adopted sons, we must live our lives as children of the light. We must not be outdone by the children of this world in zeal. We must learn to take sanctity by force. Saint Paul says this involves not living according to the flesh, lest we die. Instead, we live by the Spirit and mortify the deeds of the flesh in order to live!
As Christians, we must profess our belief in Christ by the witness of our lives. We live in the midst of a culture of death and darkness. We should never be outdone in zeal when it comes to bringing the light of Christ to the world.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Jeff Fasching
Prayers at the Foot of the Altar
Showing posts with label favors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label favors. Show all posts
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Winning the Crown
The discipline it takes to be a successful athlete spills over into the spiritual life. Unless we strive to develop and maintain a well-ordered, disciplined and regular life of prayer to God we cannot advance in the spiritual realm. “Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one!”
We should approach the spiritual life with a competitive spirit. We should beg God that nobody is getting ahead of us. We should ask God for the grace to pray our rosaries more attentively than the next person. We should ask God each day that we are counted among His favorites. We must be ready and willing to sacrifice. We must not let anything get in our way of our relationship with God. There will always be obstacles, failures and personal limitations, but we can never grow discouraged.
Saint Paul says: “…but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” Even our most serious sins should not discourage us because we have God in the Sacrament of Penance to grow holier through forgiveness. How many times in scripture do we see Jesus Christ our Lord moved by a sinner’s repentance?
Furthermore, we must never take our efforts for granted. Saint Paul says: “Let no one feel assured of this gift with an absolute certainty, although all ought to have most secure hope in the help of God. For unless we are unfaithful to His grace, God will bring the good work to perfection, just as He began it, working both the will and the performance (Phil 2:13).” Saint Paul reminds us of the necessity of physical mortification and self-control. When we make the effort, God will always help us with His grace. This we must do to earn our “crown of righteousness.”
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
We should approach the spiritual life with a competitive spirit. We should beg God that nobody is getting ahead of us. We should ask God for the grace to pray our rosaries more attentively than the next person. We should ask God each day that we are counted among His favorites. We must be ready and willing to sacrifice. We must not let anything get in our way of our relationship with God. There will always be obstacles, failures and personal limitations, but we can never grow discouraged.
Saint Paul says: “…but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” Even our most serious sins should not discourage us because we have God in the Sacrament of Penance to grow holier through forgiveness. How many times in scripture do we see Jesus Christ our Lord moved by a sinner’s repentance?
Furthermore, we must never take our efforts for granted. Saint Paul says: “Let no one feel assured of this gift with an absolute certainty, although all ought to have most secure hope in the help of God. For unless we are unfaithful to His grace, God will bring the good work to perfection, just as He began it, working both the will and the performance (Phil 2:13).” Saint Paul reminds us of the necessity of physical mortification and self-control. When we make the effort, God will always help us with His grace. This we must do to earn our “crown of righteousness.”
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Pray Without Ceasing
If you want your prayer to be answered without fail you must pray without ceasing. Those who get tired after praying for a time are lacking in either humility or confidence, and so they do not deserve to be heard. Their attitude is that God “owes” them and that their prayer should be obeyed instantly as if they were giving out orders to God! God resists the proud but bestows His favors upon the humble. We show very little trust in God’s goodness when we give up our prayers so quickly and take delay for an absolute refusal!
If we begin to really understand how far God’s goodness extends we will never believe that we have been refused or that He wishes to take away our hope. Rather, the more He makes us keep on asking for something we want, the more confident we should feel that we shall eventually obtain it. In fact, the only time we should begin to doubt that our prayers have been heard is when we notice that we have given up and stopped praying!
For example, if after a year we discover that we are praying just as hard as when we first started, then we shouldn’t doubt the success of our efforts. Instead of losing courage after such a long delay, we should rejoice because we can be certain that our desires will be all the more fully satisfied for the length of time we prayed. Remember how it took Saint Monica sixteen years to obtain the conversion of Saint Augustine, but the conversion was over and above what she had prayed for. She prayed that her son’s incontinence would be checked by marriage, and instead she had the joy of seeing him embrace a life of chastity! She only prayed that he be baptized and become a Christian, but she lived to see him become a bishop! She prayed that God turn him away from heresy, and God made him a pillar of the Church and its champion against heretics.
What do you suppose would have happened if Saint Monica would have given up after a couple of years, or after ten or twelve years? Her prayers seemingly were getting no results and her son grew worse instead of better for so many years. She would have done her son an injustice by ceasing to pray for him! She would have thrown away her own happiness, and deprived the world of one of the greatest Christian thinkers!
In Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
If we begin to really understand how far God’s goodness extends we will never believe that we have been refused or that He wishes to take away our hope. Rather, the more He makes us keep on asking for something we want, the more confident we should feel that we shall eventually obtain it. In fact, the only time we should begin to doubt that our prayers have been heard is when we notice that we have given up and stopped praying!
For example, if after a year we discover that we are praying just as hard as when we first started, then we shouldn’t doubt the success of our efforts. Instead of losing courage after such a long delay, we should rejoice because we can be certain that our desires will be all the more fully satisfied for the length of time we prayed. Remember how it took Saint Monica sixteen years to obtain the conversion of Saint Augustine, but the conversion was over and above what she had prayed for. She prayed that her son’s incontinence would be checked by marriage, and instead she had the joy of seeing him embrace a life of chastity! She only prayed that he be baptized and become a Christian, but she lived to see him become a bishop! She prayed that God turn him away from heresy, and God made him a pillar of the Church and its champion against heretics.
What do you suppose would have happened if Saint Monica would have given up after a couple of years, or after ten or twelve years? Her prayers seemingly were getting no results and her son grew worse instead of better for so many years. She would have done her son an injustice by ceasing to pray for him! She would have thrown away her own happiness, and deprived the world of one of the greatest Christian thinkers!
In Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
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