Pentecost XII

Daily Sermons
July 11 – Bp. Dolan – The Adventure of Holiness
July 23 – Fr. McKenna – St. Apollinaris
July 24 – Fr. McKenna – Temptations Against Purity
August 1 – Bp. Dolan – For Our Home-school Graduates
August 15 – Fr. Nkamuke – The Role of Mary in Salvation
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zelusdomustuae
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Fat August, long in days, well watered and rich in harvest, as well as rest for the weary who managed to get away, gives way tomorrow to serious September, labor indeed. August’s last day is under the patronage of Raymond the-notborn, protector of families, mothers in labor, and the unborn particularly. St. Raymond’s arrival presages the coming of Our Blessed Mother’s greatest month, tomorrow. September shows us Our Lady’s birth, her mystical yet true death at Calvary, her Holy Name and finally her order for the Redemption of Captives, or the Mercedarians, whose great light and greater than a protomartyr was St. Raymond. See him today, insistently preaching Christ to the Moslems who have pierced and padlocked his lips to silence him. Spare a prayer to this great unknown saint, doubly so a saint for today.

Tomorrow we fittingly start September with our traditional Votive Mass of St. Joseph. It is true, he is the patron saint of workers, and Fall spells “back to work” in bold letters. St Pius X, the centenary of whose death just fell, has left us a beautiful indulgenced prayer “for those dedicated to labor.” But St. Joseph is surely the saint who admits us to the Holy House of Nazareth, to the presence of his Spouse and Queen. May he then bless our September, along with our centennial saint Pius X, a humble worker his whole life long. Joseph-like he protected the life of Jesus against those who would slay Him, slay Him in souls, slay Him – if they could – in the Church, by preaching the false gospel of Modernism.

Well, it’s a week to look lively, isn’t it, and show up for church, even before First Friday and Saturday. “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” I thought of Septuagesima’s Gospel the other morning myself as I was saying my prayers in front of the oldest shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States. Beautiful Santa Fe is full of the oldest things of our still young Faith. Well, I was watching the sun rise over the Sangre de Christo mountains, and coming to rest in glorious rays upon a rather good outdoor sculpture of La Morenita, as the Mexicans call her. This square is also the pick up spot for day laborers. All day long the sidewalks are lined with hopeful Hispanic workers, even unto the ninth hour – literally. Sometime after None they give up and go away, “because no man hath hired us.” What a living meditation! New Mexico is full of the greatest beauty and the deepest truths of our Faith, the same Faith for which the Conquistadores claimed it. It’s a refresher course to be here for a few days.

I prayed for you all before America’s oldest Madonna, the Conquistadora, as well as at our annual pilgrimage to Chimayo, the shrine of a miraculous crucifix, with its holy and healing dirt. Quite a story. Today, after a weekend of Masses and recollection, I am administering Confirmation to a nice sized group at our ever more rapidly growing sister chapel of St. Gertrude the Less in Albuquerque. Fr. Palma comes in twice a month for Mass, and takes very good care of souls there. Bishop Sanborn is confirming in Krakow, Poland today, ably assisted by our own Fr. McKenna as MC, chauffeur and bag boy – a bishop’s luggage is no small thing, if ceremonies are properly to be performed, and another priest is a great help for the same purpose. Fr. Nkamuke finishes up his stay in Milwaukee and returns tomorrow, while Fr. Lehtoranta is due back tonight from Louisiana. He begins a busy school year Wednesday, as do all of the teachers and students of our record size school. Please say a prayer for our school’s so important apostolate, and for those who give themselves so generously to the task.

August’s rains brought bumper allergies for some. I thought I would get away from them in New Mexico, but they had a wet summer too, and the desert is abloom, which spells trouble for those so afflicted. Still, it is a small cross. Fr. McGuire burned his hand very badly in France, and now must follow an elaborate daily routine of dressing changes and exercises. Things are looking good, however. The same is true for young Jack Morgan. Thank you for your prayers. Please keep them up for the young father of a family, Alex Fulton, recently operated on for brain cancer, as well as for all of our sick and shut in.

May St. Joseph lead you to Mary this September, and may She make you just like Jesus.

“Jesus, Mary Joseph, I love you, save souls!”
– Bishop Dolan