Here's a transcript I made of the sermon, for those who have not got audio. :wink:
"'Brethren, all we who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are Baptized in his death. For we are buried together with him by baptism unto death, that as Christ has risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been blended(?) together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his ressurection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For he that is dead is justified from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ. Knowing that Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no more have dominion over him, for in that he died to sin, he died once, but he that liveth, he liveth unto God. So do you also recon that you are dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God and Christ Jesus our Lord.'
And then the gospel... Taken from that according to St. Mark, chapter 8.
[skipped in transcription for the sake of brevity]
So there are two times in the Gospel in which we have the multiplication of the loves... the most famous one is the one found in the gospel of St. John chapter six, in which Christ fed the 5,000. And shortly after the feeding of the 5,000, he promised the Holy Eucharist... and the controversy with the crowd, and the crowd left him... But here is the other time, before this... it would've happened before (St.?) John chapter 6, the gospel of St. Mark, chapter 8. And this is the time that he fed the 4,000. The different approach of Christ, the different situation in which he feeds the 4,000 and a few considerations, here, taken today primarily from Fr. G??? ... and on the blessing, which is one of the duties of the priest.
Here in the gospel today, we find that Our Lord... He blessed and broke the bread, set it before the apostles, and then they placed it before the people. He then gathered the fishes and He blessed them, set them before the apostles, and then they set them before the people. We find the priests of the Old Testament also blessed things. And that blessing was something that Christ did throughout the entirety of his life on this earth. He would bless things before giving them. And here we note, in the Gospel today, that it is material things that are being blessed, for the benefit of man. And Fr. G??? points out, that there are two things. There is blessing, and there is consecration. And consecration is a more sacred blessing. It is a more holy blessing of something, a more holy putting of the graces of God upon it, and consecration is reserved to those things that are set aside for God. We do not consecrate those things that are for the use of man, we consecrate those things that are for the use of God. And so a chalice is consecrated, an alter is consecrated, the bells of the church are consecrated, the church itself can be consecrated, the priest is consecrated when he is ordained to the priesthood, sub-deaconate, deaconate, priesthood and episcopate... four separate times he is consecrated. And the soul when it is baptized is also consecrated.
When you come into the church with a little baby, the baby is consecrated, that is, he is set aside for God. This baby is made for heaven, and is made to live for God. So consecration is for those things that are set aside for God, and it is a more sacred blessing. And it of course it is the most important thing that a priest blesses, is that which he consecrates. Confirmation we are consecrated soldiers of Christ. And these are the consecrations of the Church. But there are also blessings. And the blessings are in regard to those things that are for the use of man. And they help us to remember the purpose of the use of these things. And they also work against the devil. Because when God created the world, He saw that it was good, and He poured His divine blessings upon all the things that he created... the sun, the moon, the stars, and all of the elements of the world. But then two things happened. Firstly, the sin of Lucifer, in the heavens, and secondly the sin of Adam and Eve on the earth.
With the sin of Lucifer in the heavens, the fathers of the Church tell us, the planets and the stars were shaken. That when they committed that sin, that the universe was shaken. It was touched by this violence, this act by which a creature rebelled against the Creator. The world was made in union, and made in harmony, and made in peace, and made filled with blessings, and God saw that what He did was good. But then Lucifer came and he shook it up. And he brought in evil where there was formerly blessings. Like remember the parable... I was remembering the parable, of the sower that went out to sew good seed in his field, but in the night an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. The sower sowed good seed, God created a good and beautiful world, filled with blessings, but sin came and shook it up. Sin came and tainted it. Firstly the sin of Lucifer, and then secondly the sin of Adam, and then thirdly the sins of all others down through time.
Now the devil was conquered, says Fr. G???, by Christ on the cross. But he was not slain. He was defeated, but he still has influence. And the devil was not slain, so therefore he still walks the earth and he has influence, and what does he use to influence souls to go to hell? He uses money. He uses homes He uses cars. He uses material possessions. He uses alcohol. He uses many things that all were made by God, and were originally made to be good, and the devil uses these things in order to influence souls to drink too much, be too attached to material things, leave God's law for the sake of pleasure, and so on... Each of the things themselves were created good by God, but we come and use them in a bad way, by the influence of the devil, and therefore each of these things is tainted by the touch of the devil. Therefore, this taint must be removed.
Now the priest, when he travels through this world... when I was made a priest, my hands were placed in front of the bishop, he poured oil upon my hands, with his thumb ... and he made the sign of the cross over and over again on my hands, and then he said a prayer shortly afterwards... "What these hands consecrate, it shall be consecrated. What these hands bless, it shall be blessed..." Consecrate, that is: take things and give them to God. Bless, that is: take things that are for the use of man, and remember the second purpose of all creation.
We consider it in the Ignatian retreat, man was made to praise, reverence and serve God, and by this means to save his soul. That's the principal and foundation. And the second part of it, which is where blessings come in... 'And God gave to man other creatures, which man is to use in order to get to God.' These creatures receive the blessings contained in this book, which is called the Ritual. The Rituale Romanum. That is by which we have prayers, written by the Church. Some of these prayers are taken from the Old Testament, some of them from the New Testament, some of them written by saints of the Church down the last 2,000 years. We don't know when the first Ritual was written. The Ritual we use today was essentially written back in the 1700's, or the late 1600's. And it's the same one that we use today. But all the prayers from that time come way before the 1600's, but the present version of the Ritual we use comes from that time. And these are prayers of the Church... prayers of the Church upon things... such as a ring at a wedding, or an automobile, or, it's one of the blessings that's not in this English Ritual, it's in the Latin Ritual... there's more blessings in the Latin Ritual that weren't translated than there the ones in the normal perish Ritual, which is the usual of blessings that we use. It's why we always have both Rituals. But in the Latin Ritual, for instance, there is a blessing for beer. And in the blessing for beer, it says, 'may the devil be driven out of this grain, and may the (speaking Latin) ... the fat of the grain...' which, by the way in symbolism is a symbol of the Blessed Sacrament... 'may the fat of the grain and the yeast grow...and may it make those who drink of it happy, and may it prepare them for eternal happiness.' So God likes good beer.
One of our priests always travels around with this blessing for beer in his breviary and whenever we go to the restaurant or whatever it is, 'blahblahblah...' he does the blessing. So there is a blessing for every creature, and these creatures, including beer, all of these creatures are to be used in order to get to God, and each one of them has been influenced by the devil. Each one of them, the devil has tried to come in, and take that which is good, and he has tried to harm it, and he has tried to use it for an evil purpose. And so the priest comes in and heals these things. So that, one of his duties is to help souls get to heaven, and another duty is to bring blessings, which is an indirect way of helping souls get to heaven. The direct way is to hear confessions and give out Holy Communion. The indirect way is to bless.
Now when we bless, we bless using our hands, primarily... and Holy Water. Those are the two main elements the priest uses. Of course very often he'll be solemnly attired, but he uses his hands, and he uses the Holy Water. And the hands, which were consecrated... the hands consecrated have a special power, and they remind us, when a priest blesses you with his hands, you are reminded that all blessings come from Jesus Christ. All blessings come from Him, and Fr. G??? points out, 'This is the reason why, when we bless, we always make the Sign of the Cross.' Because the cross is the symbol of the man Jesus Christ. What did He do on this world? He died on the cross. Why did He come? In order to die. Did he fulfill his mission? Yes he did. He is the man that died on the cross, the man that hangs on the cross, and whoever sees the Sign of the Cross, (sees the) sign of that man, the sign of our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, knowing that all blessings come from only through Him, we make the Sign of the Cross when we bless. When the faithful make the sign of the cross, they sign themselves. Why do you sign yourself? Because you were baptized, because you are consecrated, because you are made for heaven. But you don't have the power to bless others. But the priest does not only bless himself, but when I begin the Mass... I am saying the Mass myself, I make the Sign of the Cross as anyone else. But when turning to the faithful, I do not make the Sign of the Cross as anyone else, but rather turn and make the Sign of the Cross towards the others, because the priest has the power, not only to benefit from the cross when I pray for it myself, or to benefit from Christ when I pray to Him myself, as we all can benefit from Him by praying to Him, but I have the power to make others benefit. And therefore the blessing is made towards the faithful, and towards the rosary, and towards the car, and towards the house, and towards the trees when we do the blessings on the rogation days, and towards the plants, and towards the earth and towards the sky... He has the power to bless towards other things, and this blessing always has a negative element and a positive element. The negative element is the driving out of the devil. And the positive element is the bringing in of the blessings of God. Putting back this element of water, or this element of beer, or this element of food, and all of the elements that we have around us, and bringing them back to the way they were when they were originally created by God, without any stain of sin.
This power of blessing that the priest has, and that the Church has... and that is one of the duties of the priest... this power of blessing creates sacramentals. There are many sacramentals, but remember the rules, there are sacraments and there are sacramentals. The sacrament operates by the power itself. The Holy Eucharist has power in itself. Baptism has power in itself. But the sacramentals, they have a conditional power. That is, they are blessed, so there is power in them, but the power is trapped inside of them. Power is trapped inside of a rosary, so to speak, and it can't come out, unless the faithful use the rosary with devotion and faith. So it's a conditional power. The sacraments have an absolute power. The sacramentals have a conditional power.
And also we know that blessing is something that is found all throughout sacred scripture. For instance, our origin of our putting salt in the water. In the novus ordo, they do not put salt in the water. The water is the primary element that we use for blessing other things. Why? Because water was used for blessing by Christ, water was used in the Old Testament, and the first putting of the salt, first we find Eliseus, the first one to do that... and we mention Eliseus in the blessing of the Holy Water. Eliseus... there was once water that was poisonous that was killing the people, and Eliseus put the power of God inside of salt, and he took the salt and he sprinkled the water, and he poured the salt into the water, so that not only was it no longer poisonous... that is, the driving out of the devil... but this water had the power to cure, and the power to benefit those who drank it. So that it was no longer not only not poisonous... because God does not know how to only drive out evil. He always makes that which He has driven the evil out of, better. He always improves. And that's why blessing involves both elements, driving the devil out, and bringing Christ in, and bringing the blessings of God in.
And Fr. G??? points out, at the beginning of the Mass, why does the priest walk up and down with the Holy Water? At the beginning of a high Mass, like today... There are many of you who are not familiar with this cause you've never, ever been to the beginning of a Mass. But there are Catholics who do show up before 9:30... You can ask them what happens. Those Catholics who have been to the beginning of a Mass, realize that the priest comes out of the sacristy... we're not already here... we actually come out of that door over there... cause some of you have never seen me walk out of that door, and some of you have never seen me walk in... but it happens! We walk out of the sacristy, and we walk back in. Back in is at the end... some of you leave before that... and coming out is at the beginning... some of you never arrive at that point... Generally they're the same people, by the way... But in any case... for those of you who have experienced the Asperges, it's the part of the Mass where the priest walks down wearing the cope, and he sprinkles the water to the right and to the left, and puts the water on the people. Why the water? Fr. G??? says, well the water comes out in drops. And St. Agustin tells us, this reminds us of the necessity of tears. For tears come out like drops. And that we must remember that we must be sorry for our sins, and we must be purified of our sins. And when we walk into the church on a Sunday, theoretically we're clean and we're dressed up for Mass... but, our outside is clean, but the Holy Water reminds us that the inside must also be clean. There must be a purification of the inside. That purification means sorrow for sin, and driving out the devil... This part is no longer mentioned in the new blessing of water in the new Mass. In the new rites of the water blessing... And it brings in the blessings of God.
Just for the record, there are many priests who began their journey to Catholic tradition, and stopped saying the new Mass, just through Holy Water. That was the beginning. There was one priest I know, he's still saying the new Mass, he has not yet come over to the Latin Mass... but we're friends with him... and that in Colorado, the rector of the seminary there, of the novus ordo seminary in Colorado... he was just lookin in some old books in the library there, they still have all the old books in the library there, so (he used to?) visit it from time to time... and he was just pulling out the ritual... the old ritual, reading the prayer for the blessing of Holy Water. And then he pulled out the new ritual, that he was primarily(?) using, and the new ritual prayer for the blessing of Holy Water, doesn't mention anything about driving the devil out, doesn't give any power to the water... I'll read here the new blessing...
'God our Father, Your gift of water brings life and freshness to the earth, washes away our sins and brings us eternal life. We ask you now to bless this water, to give us Your protection in this day which you have made your own. Renew the living spring of your life within us, and protect us in spirit and body, that we may be free from sin, and come into Your presence, to receive Your gift of salvation. We ask you this through Christ our Lord, amen.'
Which is like the blessing of any other thing... And we can bless many things, but it doesn't give any power to the water to bless other things. And it doesn't drive away the devil. The old blessing says, 'May this water dispell all evil, and drive out any contact with the devil. And may those faithful who use it...' in other words, there's a power in the water... May those faithful that use it, also be able to drive out the devil. For though the faithful cannot do a blessing like a priest, they can take the water that is blessed, and use the water just like Eliseus used it in the Old Testament, so when Eliseus left, and the prophet was no longer there, the faithful could still use the water in order to bless things, and they could still use the water in order to drive out the devil. Even though Eliseus had to go on and take care of other things... So if the priest had to go everywhere and practically bless everything, it would be very difficult, so he puts a power inside of the water, so that the faithful can take the water, and sprinkle their own homes, and sprinkle the places... but remeber that it is a sacramental, not a sacriment. And a sacramental has power in it... but it's conditional power. It will not come out unless we have faith. Our Lord showed that in the gospel. Remember when a man needed his sins to be forgiven, Christ said, 'thy sins are forgiven thee.' But when he needed physical healing He said, 'thy faith has made thee whole.' You see the difference... Supernatural forgiveness of sins, Christ does it directly, through His power as priest. But a physical benefit... He does indirectly, because He wants the person to be involved in an act of faith. Thy faith has made thee whole... So that it is necessary that the faithful, you pray with faith. The rosary has power, but we need to pray with faith. Blessed objects have power, but we need to use them with faith. And this Holy Water, that is blessed, has the power to bless other things... The salt is no longer put into it in the new Holy Water... it is blessed, because a priest has blessed it, but it has no power to bless other things. Remember that every time I eat a meal, I bless the water, and it's blessed water. Then I drink it. But that water that I have blessed, does not have any power to bless anything else. Blessed water and Holy Water are two different things. Holy Water has the power to bless other things. Blessed water does not.
Getting back to these priests, this one priest, the rector and the vice rector of the seminary there at St. John Vianney Seminary in Colorado, they saw the difference between the new blessing and the old blessing, and so they decided one day, without telling anyone, to get a whole big bucket of water, and then to bless it with the old blessing. They said the consecration of the salt, the exorcism of the salt to cast out the devil, the exorcism of the water, casting out the devil, and then the blessing of the salt and the blessing of the water... so that the water had the power to cast out, and the water had the power to bless, and the salt had the power to cast out and the salt had the power to bless. And then they sprinkled the seminary with the water. And they told my priest friend in the diocese there... and the next day they could tell the difference. Agitation, less. Blessings, more. Several other priests took this water, and in their parishes, blessed around the outside of their parish (church?) without telling anyone, and blessed around the inside, and noticed a change of their people, and for many of these new priests saying the new Mass, it was the beginning of their conversion and the beginning of their coming back to the Latin Mass. Just the power of something as simple as Holy Water. An element that Christ has used in the New Testament, and that the prophets used in the Old Testament, and that God himself directly used to wipe out the sins of the world in the flood... And this element has been used by God, and it's a sacred element when it is blessed by the priest.
Now they don't do that anymore. And people don't believe in blessings anymore. At least not the friends of God. But the enemies do. Those who are not close to God know... I have been asked, many, many times by atheists and by pagans and by protestants and by non-practicing religious people, and Catholics no longer practicing the faith... to bless things. They know that a priest is about blessing. And then the enemies, they know that they don't like it.
I remember when I was within the first two years of my priesthood, shortly after ordination, I was in Post Falls Idaho at the time and flying back from Denver and my parish to Post Falls on an airplane. And on that plane there were a whole bunch of protestants, a whole bunch of charismatic protestants were coming back from Mexico, trying to evangelize the Mexicans away from the Catholic Faith. And they started talking until they saw me, Catholic priest, enemy number one... And they started talking, and they said, "We're gonna pray over you, that the Lord and the Holy Ghost fills you, and drives out this..." whatever it is...
I said "Well, if you pray over me, you know what I'm gonna have to do." I said, "I'm gonna have to give you a blessing."
And they said, "No!! You can't belss us!"
And I said, "Well, if you try one of your little prayer routines... I'm gonna have to bless you."
And so, they went ahead and held hands across the isle. Meanwhile the stewardess... the Catholic stewardess...she was trying to get her little bus thing down, and they were, "blahblahblahblah..." Whatever they were saying... they made up something... So then I stood up on the seat... I was gonna stand on the seat, but I (stood) partially on the seat so I was way up... And I said (super-serious tone) "Benedixio Deo omnipotentis... Patris, et Filli..." and you should've seen them.... The ones in the seat right behind me, they snuck (sunk?) down into the bottom of the seat, and were in terror. One of them ran down the isle... If it was nowadays, one of those federal martials would've shot them, cause he was running towards the pilot... And they cowered, and they were angry, and they were terrified... and when I finished the blessing, they were silent.
See, they claim that they love God, but they knew... that they were his enemies. And they didn't want the blessing.
Speaking of which, after the Mass today... I'm not going to get unvested... and we're going to put into practice blessing, cause one of the beautiful blessings that should be done, is the blessing of an automobile. Don't worry, it only takes a few seconds. I know how important it is to leave the church with great haste... I wouldn't want to slow you down unnecessarily.... Now this morning when I went out, I almost got ran over... Okay, so I went out... I went out immediately after the Mass and I took off the chasuble, which was too much time... So this time, I'm goin straight out. I'm going straight out, and I'm going to bless every car... and those that shall be blessed, shall be blessed. Now, the Holy Water doesn't have to hit every single car, just like when we bless the fields, we bless in the whole... we bless in the directions, and that covers all the fields and all the crops and we don't have to hit every single tomato... But nonetheless, I will bless the cars.
And the blessing of the automobile we read in the blessing... it's a short blessing... it's just one little prayer... And then we sprinkle Holy Water... and I'll walk up the isle and sprinkle the holy water... And I'm gonna go out and you're gonna have to run me over... I almost got killed already after the first Mass... so... I know how to face danger. So I can face death after the second Mass.
Now the fact is... So we'll go out... and we'll bless the cars. I know it's great urgency, that there's a law in the Catholic church that you gotta get outta here, like, immediately... But I'm going to go over, and I'm gonna bless the cars... it's a short blessing... And you won't be able to hear me read the prayer, but the prayer is concerning the Ethiopian. And we read the little prayer of the blessing of the automobile, it says: Remember, o Lord, once upon a time there was an Ethiopian sitting in a chariot... Remember in the New Testament, in the Acts of the Apostles... And he was sitting in the chariot, reading the sacred scriptures, and he wanted to understand them. And Philip the deacon... there were seven great deacons, one of the most famous of course was St. Stephen... and then Philip was another one... And Philip the deacon appeared and sat up beside him in the chariot, and they went on their way, and Philip explained to the Ethiopian about the gospel. And then what happened is that, as they were going on their journey, the Ethiopian saw... he was a prince of Egypt, some kind of... not necessarily a king, but some kind of higher ranking prince of Ethiopia... and he saw a pond of water or he saw a creek of water, and he said, "Well, I've heard the gospel, I might as well be baptized..." And so he got out of the chariot and he went over and got baptized, and Philip baptized him, and then Philip disappeared, and the Ethiopian continued in his chariot... Now may what happened to the Ethiopian in his chariot, about discerning the sacred scriptures, and about traveling upon the path to heaven, and remembering that when we get into a car, we're on a journey... Well, where are we going? We're supposed to be going to heaven. And let us remember that everything that we get in this life is a tool, as it says in the Ignatian retreat, principal of foundation number 2: All creatures are given to us in order to get to God. Let us use them in order to get to Him.
Blessings are important.
I remember one time, working with a Jєω... a non-practicing Jєω... A Jєω who was helping me out. He said, "You know, Father... I haven't lived the best of lives, and I need blessings. So that's why I'm going to help you out. Can you give me a blessing? Oh, and by the way, one of my buddies, another Jєω... he really needs blessings!" And so very often those who are not practicing the faith, they know what blessings are. They know where blessings come from. And they know who to ask in order to get them. It has happened so many times. We are to bring blessings. And here is a rule, Fr. H???? my old pastor used to tell us this... an old Irish pastor... He says, "Never, ever, ever let a priest leave your home... without asking for a blessing." Don't let him do it! You've got to ask for a blessing. "Father, can you give me a blessing?" And the blessing comes.
Remember at the end of the Mass we give you a blessing. That blessing is so that you can carry that blessing out into the world and use the creatures in order to get to God. Consecration, related to the things of God directly. Blessing, related to the things of God indirectly.
And so we must recognize the importance of blessings, and that we need to use them and have confidence. We're in an age with all kinds of curses. An age with all kinds of problems. And lots of negative things. What we need more of, is blessings. And so lets use them, lets take advantage of the blessings of the church... Ask the priest to belss your things, and at the end of the Mass today... be sure you have Holy Water in your house... And at the end of the Mass today, I'm going to go out... immediately... go over, say the short prayer... Takes every bit of... maybe as long as fifteen seconds. I know that's a long time... And then bless your cars. And hopefully nobody will kill me. I almost got killed after the first Mass... but I'm not getting out of the way, by the way... and we will see if we survive it. If not, then you'll have to find some other priest to say Mass in Heartford. So whoever runs me over, has gotta find another priest.
But I'm going to go out, and we're going to do the blessings. And remember the importance of the use of Holy Water. Also, at the end of those blessings, I'm going to do the short blessing of the cars, and then afterwards, I'm going to come in and then I'll do a mother's blessing, so if there's any mothers... I'm going to do this every three months or every four months at least... cause the average pregnancy is somewhere around nine months... Mothers should be blessed before they have their babies, when the baby is still in the womb. Some mothers, of course, have already had this blessing... When you find that you're pregnant, you should go to the priest and say, "Father can you please give me a mother's blessing?" And so after the Mass, any mothers... any pregnant ladies who have not yet been blessed, they can come up to the Communion rail. So I'm going to go bless the cars first, and then come over and if there are any... I know I've already blessed some... but if those that are not yet blessed should come up and do the mother's blessing at the Communion rail.
And then also, after baptism, there's another blessing... of course Baptism obviously blesses and consecrates the child... but after baptism, usually on another day sometime shortly afterwards, there's a ceremony called the Churching of Mothers... which is a blessing of the mother and a blessing of the child after baptism. So that's another thing which is good to do. But the more important one especially, is the blessing of the baby inside the womb and the blessing of the mother during the pregnancy.
So after the Mass today, I'm going to go out and bless the cars immediately, then come back in, and then go ahead and if there's any young ladies that are pregnant, then I'll go ahead and bless them, if there are any that haven't already been blessed.
-end-
Note: I omitted the names of priests from the sermon, because frankly, I have no idea how to spell their names properly.
Topic: I'm gonna have to bless you... (Read 813 times)