Greetings,

I received this description of the power of the holy sacrifice of the Mass from one of our St. Mary’s parishioners. I hope you find it helpful…

The Value of Holy Mass

At the hour of death the masses you have heard will be your greatest consolation.
Every mass will go with you to judgment and plead for pardon.
At every mass you can diminish the temporal punishment due to your sins, more or less, according to your fervor.
Assisting devoutly at mass, you render to the Sacred Humanity of our Lord, the greatest homage.
He supplies for many of our negligences and omissions.
He forgives you all the venial sins which you are determined to avoid.
He forgives you all your unknown sins which you never confessed.
The power of Satan over you is diminished.
You afford the souls in purgatory the greatest possible relief.
One mass heard during your life will be of more benefit to you than many heard for you after your death.
You are preserved from all sorrows and misfortunes which would otherwise have befallen you.
You shorten your purgatory by every mass.
Every mass wins for you a higher degree of glory in heaven.
You receive the priest’s blessing, which our Lord ratifies in heaven.
You kneel amidst a multitude of holy angels, who are present at the adorable sacrifice, with reverential awe.
You are blessed in your temporal goods and affairs.
When we hear mass, and offer the Holy Sacrifice in honor of any particular saint or angel, thank God for the favor he bestowed on him, we afford him a new degree of honor, joy and happiness, and draw his special love and protection on us.
Every time we assist at mass, we should, besides other intentions, offer it in honor of the saint of the day.

The greatest aspect of my life as a priest of our Holy Catholic Church is the honor and privilege I have in celebrating the sacraments, particularly the holy sacrifice of the Mass. It is an awesome responsibility that no one is worthy of and yet, God calls some of us to this incredible way of life. Remember, for all of us trying to live out our vocations, our calling from God, that He does not call the qualified, but rather, qualifies those He calls.

Peace, Fr. Tom

Greetings,

From 1979-1984 Pope John Paul II gave a series of 129 homilies at the Vatican based on what we now call Theology of the Body. It is a teaching on the healthy and holy expression of one’s sexuality. I believe it to be an outgrowth from the Pro-Life Encyclical called Humanae Vitae written in 1968 by Pope Paul VI and from our developing understanding of Natural Family Planning over the years.
Theology of the Body is an incredible, dare I say, revolutionary look at the beauty of the human body and how God has made it to function in its healthy expression of human sexuality. Its core teaching is that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and the way we use them has a certain witness to our love for God and each other. Christopher West has been leading the charge in many areas throughout the country. He is a dynamic speaker and seems to have the gift to present this material in such a way that our young people living in a culture that does not support or understand healthy sexual expression can accept. It teaches that the only place for holy and healthy sexual expression is within the context of marriage where there needs to already be in place a strong life-long commitment and a mature emotional and psychological understanding of the relationships involved. In other words, within the context of the sacrament of marriage, the spouses must learn to take lust out of the relationship and put love into it. We are called to a self-giving, unselfish authentic love based on respecting each other’s God given dignity as human persons. In a nut shell, to learn to love each other in the same way that Jesus loves us on cross. We just entered into the passion on Good Friday. Jesus was crucified for us that we might share eternal life with Him someday after this earthly existence. Jesus gives to each one of us 100% not 80 or 90%, but 100% and we need to do the same with Him and each other. When we learn to love unselfishly, the way Christ loves His Church, we begin to experience Easter Sunday in our daily lives.
Theology of the Body will be offered as an adult education class here at St. Boniface starting at 6:30p-7:30p on the first four Monday’s of May. Please consider making this commitment to expanding your faith and how you live it out in such a way that it will have a great impact on our culture surrounding us. I am happily making Theology of the Body a top priority here at St. Boniface and everywhere I go. It is a roadmap to a healthy family and community, a holy Church, and a world filled with God’s loving presence.

Peace, Fr. Tom