Pentecost XIII
Daily Sermons
August 1 – Bp. Dolan – For Our Home-school Graduates
August 15 – Fr. Nkamuke – The Role of Mary in Salvation
September 3 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Pius X and the Saints
September 4 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Ida and Love to Holy Ghost
September 5 – Fr. Lehtoranta – What Your Heart Desires
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✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Wednesday school bells rang out through the fog, and a new school year, with a record enrollment, opened at St. Gertrude the Great. As we often do, we began under the patronage of great St. Pius X. He knew the value of things. He willingly walked for miles to go to school. He knew the value of things. He walked barefoot so as to save the shoes his father, a poor postal worker, had purchased for him at great price, only stopping to put them on shortly before he arrived at school. What a great first lesson for our young scholars, new and returning. If only they learn the value of things, human and divine, they will have the key to a good life, nor waste it, as do most.
The life of St. Pius X ended 100 years ago on August 20th. This most pastoral pope brought little children to their first Sacraments, and fought against the Modernist heresy which had infiltrated the Church, and which would return, alas, after his death. But he died of grief because of the Great War, the first World War which opened a century of wars that would wreak such bloody havoc, suppress Catholic kingdoms, reconfigure the map of Europe and set the scene for naturalism triumphant, national and international socialism. He must also have seen that the enemy would use these means, along with creeping Modernism, to destroy the Catholic Church. This vigilant and good pastor won the Church perhaps 50 years of external peace and glory, but with the death of the last Pius, everything collapsed almost overnight.
But bit by bit, “brick by brick” as some neocons like to say, we will realize the motto of St. Pius X: “to restore all things in Christ.” There were five Confirmations in Albuquerque last Sunday, and Bishop Sanborn probably had as many or more in Krakow, Poland, as well as a fruitful meeting with several former Pius X priests in Germany. These are the ones who are carrying out this great pope’s program, not those who return to modernist Rome this month, seeking a deal. His Excellency is giving a conference, confirming, and celebrating Mass in Budapest, Hungary, today. There is talk again of organizing another mission for the English, so diffident they almost have to be force-fed the strong bread of doctrine.
Along the same lines, St. Pius X was a great pontiff for good church music. Would you like to sing in the choir (first practice Wednesday evening) or in the men’s chant schola (regular practice every Saturday morning)? Today we have our first Sunday Catechism classes. Welcome back! Thank you for making classes and choirs possible. Tomorrow a Solemn Mass marks Mary’s birthday, and all of our dear children are invited to the celebration, which includes the blessing of seeds and little flowers for the children to take home and plant, as well as a birthday cake for the Blessed Mother. Use the envelopes in the pews to give us your intentions for a Triduum of Marian High Masses this month, as well as to pray for protection against the Mohammedan foe.
Thank you for your “reparation participation” in the First Friday / First Saturday Holy Communion, adoration and devotions. Don’t forget our September Fatima Rosary Procession for Peace this Saturday morning at 11:00 AM. The unusual day and time may make it easy to omit, but I hope you’ll do your bit to holding back the beheading Mohammedan hordes and the secret manipulators of wars, by praying publicly this powerful and heaven-sent devotion. Please note that the second Mass this Saturday will be celebrated at 9:00 AM rather 8:10 as usual, in case you want to begin your prayer with the perfect prayer of the Mass. Breakfast is on offer as well. Such a deal!
Good Dr. John Powell, so faithful for so long at such a distance (Brown County, Ohio) and a much-esteemed former teacher at our school, died on St. Augustine’s day. His dear wife, Diane, died on St. Monica’s day two years before. Thanks to those who gave up their “last day of vacation” for his Solemn Requiem, his burial, and even to feed the mourners. May God reward you, and the dear deceased, whose steady if suffering presence all these years at the 11:30 will surely be missed. He was a poet as well, and we’ll be publishing some of his work.
Fr. Lehtoranta did a good job taking care of the cats during my absence, and I am grateful. I have the impression they missed me, but it may have been only the preferred cat food and general cosseting. In any case, they made a point to spend some extra quality time indoors when I returned, before departing early this morning into the fog, a dreaded bunny having been sighted in the distance. Duty calls. They will spend hours hunting the foe before stopping a bit for rest and refreshment. Would we all could learn the lesson.
Hot, humid days often accompany early September in the Ohio Valley and this year seems no exception. I hope, though, for crisp Autumn soon, for the cats are not the only ones around here who are busy. Our school year is well begun, and it is a delight to introduce so many to daily Mass.
God bless you. May Our Lady, born so sweetly for us these days, guard your children and faith and family.
– Bishop Dolan