Search Page

Priests must be determined to grow in holiness. Men are called by Christ so that the faithful can have a Christ amongst them where they live, and Christ made Really Present in the Blessed Sacrament because of the priest who celebrates the Mass. Amongst pure priests, God sees, here and there, however, a gloomy figure: like an empty space, symbolising a lack of charity, when a priest is in serious sin.

The whiteness of an alb represents the purity that a good priest should have; a very sinful priest is like an area of emptiness, from which the Holy Spirit has fled, leaving only darkness. How can sinful priests be helped, or holy priests kept pure? - By the intercession of the faithful, the Mother of God, and all the Saints, who petition God to help the Clergy.

We learned that God's presence was experienced long ago amidst thunder and fire, on Sinai. People today who live in serious sin and are afraid of God, feel as though He is a God of terror and fire. All who have been purified in Baptism - or, later, in Reconciliation - can realise that God is love: a tender love, in which He enfolds those who trust in Him and strive to do His Will. Their souls are at peace.

We should be able to defend the Faith. It is not superstition. We believe in things Divinely revealed, but our faith is not unreasonable. God's beauty, power and laws are discernable in nature - including our nature and conscience. There is historical evidence for Christ's life; and His friends were transformed and made brave by His Resurrection. We have two thousand years of evidence - despite sins and mistakes - that Catholicism elevates society, marriage, government, education, treatment of the sick, and children, and brings peace, and hope of Heaven.

Whenever a politician uses his or her power to promote or pass foolish or corrupt laws, there will come a time of being called to account by God, as the politician is shown, at last, what dreadful results have arisen from his sinful outlook.

There is much mutual trust in a good society which can pre-suppose the desire of citizens to lead good lives. A police-force is then required only to deal with those who are determined not to be good, but to take advantage of the trust and goodness of others.

Whoever wants to be at peace with Christ need only take a few simple steps to emerge from misery and isolation. We need only make a gentle confession, regretting our sins, but determined to stop sinning, and wanting to be freed by the graces of the sacrament. Then we can go to Mass and Holy Communion, knowing we have been made worthy to take part!

We must not hold on to a slavish fear of God. The second Person of the Blessed Trinity took flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be made man, able to suffer and die in earthly life, to save sinners. The gentle love in the heart of that Divine infant is the tender love at the heart of the Trinity.

Some souls lead lives of such resolute self-will that, instead of being full of Divine warmth and glory they are like snowy waste-lands, where the snow is frozen on the trees, or even like those places in Siberia where the permafrost never melts. These souls will need a lengthy purification in Purgatory - if they die in a state of grace; not mortal sin. Their love for God has grown very cold.

The soul of a fervent person in a state of grace is not like the cold, half-dead soul of someone whose love for God has grown cold. It is like a Cathedral, in that it is a beautiful soul, a worthy place in which to welcome Christ in every Communion: a place in which the Holy Spirit can move freely, inspiring that person to offer sincere prayers, and to do good works.

In all sorts of buildings where people gather to worship with those of the same beliefs, there can be found aspects of truth; yet the Truth that God the Father wants everyone to know is that His Son has been sent into our world, as man, to save sinners and to bring us to Eternal Life. Only in one place - the Catholic Church - is the Truth shown out in its fullness, and the full means of Salvation given.

Even when we are sincere about our conversion, and we come into full Communion, determined to follow Christ and to grow in holiness, on the path to Heaven, we might still be laden with fears, bad habits, resentments or misapprehensions, from which Christ can gradually deliver us, if we surrender to Him more and more bravely, for love of Him. Near the journey's end, we might be carrying only a small 'handbag'!

A couple who enter marriage while planning to disobey the moral laws, for example, by the use of contraceptives, or having agreed to divorce if they don't feel happy, are in great spiritual danger. It's as if they enter a meadow to begin the dancing after their wedding, yet do so near an old well, unfenced, nearby. It is very likely that someone will fall in and be lost.

No unbaptised baby will suffer after death. All the innocent babies who die by abortion, or in miscarriages, or in infancy, fall into the care of God. Though not praising God in glory with the Saints, they are held in God's love, in peace. It's as if they have fallen into a comfortable cot, held out in the loving hands of Jesus.

We need to refocus our thoughts: on Heaven! Someone sad can gain a new perspective, by looking at a traditional scene, and realising that he or she enjoyed many more happy Christmasses than sad ones. What counts is to realise that in every season we are deeply loved by God, as precious individuals whom He wants to bring to enjoy eternal joy with Him.

God never leaves us alone on earth in our sins and miseries. He is constantly pouring out His graces upon us, calling us to be washed clean, and find refreshment and peace; it's as if people in earthly life live in a dark cave, when living water pours from a giant funnel. Some people immerse themselves and are transformed, others choose to remain filthy and parched.

By sincere prayer in Christ's name, we can make a 'bridge' - thanks to Divine grace - between what we desire now, and what we ought to desire in order to become holy. A new stage of determination and repentance can give us a real hope of making progress on our spiritual journey instead of continuing in mediocrity or worldliness.

When we begin again in the spiritual life, and by sincere prayer we cross a chasm that separated us in our mediocrity from the climb to sanctity, we should be glad and grateful; but we must not suppose that our difficulties are over. There is still a long way to go before we reach holiness or Heaven. Patience and fortitude are essential.

Long ago, the new rite of the Mass was very hurriedly introduced. Through long-standing, tragic ignorance of the Traditional Mass, many people have lost the sense of ascending, together, to Calvary, to offer the Holy Sacrifice. The Traditional rite seemed to be put aside, and the Novus Ordo was in place. But now (in 2010) Christ is encouraging, through the Papacy, a growth in understanding, at last, of the beauty and antiquity of the Traditional Mass, and of its reverent phrasing, and its silences.

Every valid Mass is holy, and admirable; yet the Traditional Mass, now called the 'Extraordinary Form', is admirable especially for its beauty, its antiquity, its reverent phrasing, and its silences which are so little found today. All of these aspects lead us to approach the Father in a spirit of holiness.