Homily of Fr. Eduard Perrone for Quinquagesima Sunday; Notes on Ash Wednesday and Lent

This is audio of Fr. Perrone's homily from this past Sunday at the 9:30 AM Mass in the Extraordinary Form. I uploaded it to YouTube with a snapshot from a previous Sunday.  My regrets that I have not taken time to set up a site for podcasts.

Grotto's pastor explains the importance of the forthcoming 40 Days of Lent and why we need it.

Please forgive the low quality as this was taken using an iPhone from the nave where it picked up echo, and a baby or two, and a few other noises. 

If you listen to one part of this homily and not the entire thing, you might walk away with a different impression. 

ASH WEDNESDAY AND LENTEN NOTES

This is probably a good time to mention some things coming up for Lent, starting with Ash Wednesday.  There will only be two Masses, with ashes distributed at the beginning (so get there early!).  The Masses are at 7:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.

During Lent, Grotto will have it's great Fish Fry (which usually includes an option for baked fish).  In the past few years we have had talks in the gym towards the end of the dinner.  This year, Brother Esteban will be doing these.  I'll share a flyer on that in a moment. 

The Fish Fry runs from 4:30 to 6:30 PM.  The talk is at 6:00.  Now, Mass is delayed on Fridays in Lent to allow people more time to honor the Eucharistic fast after dinner. So, the Stations of the Cross are done at 7:00 p.m., and Mass follows after. 

Someone asked me today which Stations we use. In all the years I've gone, it's always been the classic St. Alphonsus Liguori version. 

Someone also asked me about Ember Days during Lent.  The 7:00 p.m. Mass on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, use the 1962 Missal (always subject to change and availability of a priest to celebrate that form).  One can always count on Ember Day Masses at the morning, 7:30 a.m. Mass at Grotto.  In any event, the spring Ember Days are the Friday and Saturday after Ash Wednesday.  I believe this will be the case this Friday morning and evening, and at 7:30 on Saturday morning.  You can always call the rectory to confirm.

Stay tuned to AssumptionGrotto.com for more news about Lent and various events coming up.

Here is the flyer.

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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church;
it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!
- Diane M. Korzeniewski

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Fr. Perrone: Disciplined behavior, meekness and love of Christ is what's needed

I had never seen statues and crucifixes covered before Palm Sunday until I got to Assumption Grotto in 2005.  I find these kinds of customs very spiritually enriching and I appreciate that my pastor and fellow parishioners take the time to make them happen.   Fr. Perrone did somewhat of an exposition on this very practice - of covering statues near the end of Lent - in his homily this past Sunday at the 9:30 AM Mass (Passion Sunday in the 1962 Missal). He focused on the last sentence at the end of the Gospel (John 8:46-59) where it says that Jesus hid Himself.  While his words transcend time and place, it seems especially applicable to the present situation we find ourselves in here in the United States.

Bringing this homily to you cost me a nickel and five Hail Mary's.  Consider adding prayers of your own for my pastor, in thanksgiving that he sent it.

It was rather customary in my youth to relate the covering of statues in the church on Passion Sunday to the closing words of the Gospel read for today: “Jesus hid Himself and exited from the temple.” Whether or not this liturgical tradition actually stemmed from those words, the fact is that the view of our beloved Lord (and His saints) has been removed from our eyes. It is the beginning of the gathering of the clouds that on Good Friday will entirely block the light of the Son from reaching the earth. Today then marks a decisive turn for us as we prepare ourselves for the dark days ahead: the time of Christ’s Passion.

Hiding Jesus from view is also symbolic of the ban against the Church and her teaching from public exposure. The jargon word is ‘marginalization’ and it well expresses the squeezing out of faith from public life. In seeing the progression of a stance adamantly antagonistic to Christianity generally and to Catholicism particularly we are discovering ourselves very much weak and ill-prepared to make a united and bold defense of what we believe and of what we have the God-given right and mandate to express and propagate to the world. The old apostolic vigor of the Church that carried the Gospel to all parts of the globe seems to have left us. Conversion and Evangelization have become clichés that apply only to personal spiritual states rather than to the universal mission of the Church to convert people and to evangelize nations. The world will always hate the Church as it has always hated Christ. This is nothing new. But the inability to muster the needed strength to combat the world and to preach Christ’s truth openly is indicative of these times when our Catholicism has lost much of its virility. The bravery of the apostles, the heroism of the martyrs, the convincing apologetics of the teachers, the disciplined witness of laity, the unshakable unity of Catholic family life, the service and educational institutions of a proud Catholic identity are–much like our covered images in church today–in hiding. Many of those who have managed to hold on tenaciously to the true faith have now retreated and insulated themselves, perhaps just in order to be able to survive in a time when they are opposed by oppressive forces from without and when they have looked about to find other Catholics standing together with them in a united witness only to discover that they stand largely alone.


It just may be (hard to say it and mean it) that opposition and even persecution is exactly what the Church needs in order to get out from under this listless and inert posture. Maybe when we’re challenged to fight we’ll summon latent powers to defend Christ and His truth. Or perhaps the Lord is permitting us to fall flat so He can show the might of His arm, as He did so many times in history when the enemy was bigger and tougher than God’s people. Yet there is one indispensable thing found in every page of the Church’s history, and that is the valor of individuals in the Church, man by man, who have trained themselves to battle the world and the devil by having first battled themselves. The old saw about “the need for personal conversion” is as so much blah-blah; we’re tired of empty platitudes. The reason for our lethargic spirit and our restlessness is the same reason we have discovered ourselves being so easily overpowered by our opponents: we have not mended our ways, individual to individual. We are one-by-one sin-sick because we don’t really want to be changed people. It’s hard to change our ways, to think differently, to curb our desires, to temper ourselves. And in this way we fall back on a benign self-comforting thought that we are, after all, only weak human creatures and that we are at least not as bad as some others. And in this way little can be done because indolence and lassitude are allowed to have their sway.


We are hiding Christ from the world because we are diminished Christians ourselves. There’s not enough of the ‘soap’ of asceticism to cleanse us. We’ve cut ourselves too much slack and forgotten that we are always under the ‘dome’ of God who hears our secret thoughts and views our most private actions. We pray to Him when we’re needy, but complaining when we have to make a holy hour, or say the rosary, or do almost any extra besides what we’re obliged to do. We simply don’t have that apostolic spirit, that winning confidence, the sure-footedness of our convictions: all because we are personally feeble Christians. We cover Jesus’ eyes and ears (or so we think) and we uncover Him only when we’re in pain or threatened or need something from Him. Fine soldiers of Christ we are! And we then wonder why we are made sport of in the world and why government is gaining an upper hand over us, and why non-Christian religion is making imposing advances in our country and in the whole world. We need to be ashamed of ourselves (the Confiteor) and not ashamed of Christ (the Credo).


So perhaps we need a good scourging to bring out the Christ in us again. God often has strange methods. For myself, I’d rather see an army of Christian witnesses rise up spiritually indefatigable than to have a lashing that will chasten us or a purging that will fortify us. But I’m certain of this much: the Church can’t be defeated and truth will always reemerge. Christ won’t stay in hiding, and in the end He will slay His enemies by the sword of His mouth, making His enemies His footstool. If all this sound like military diction, it is so in fact. But it’s first of all a summons to fight the personal battle against our own wickedness before it is a call to take on the enemy at large.


Do not be distracted from the fundamental reform that is needed and become all enthused about the emerging conservatism in politics, or even in the Church. Talk is cheap, as they say. Disciplined behavior, meekness and love of Christ is what’s needed.


Let’s take Christ out of hiding by making Him alive in our own selves and then Christ-in-us will emerge the Victor, having conquered the world.

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Fr. Perrone proposes an interesting New Years resolution

In his January 1, 2012 column, Fr. Eduard Perrone, pastor of Assumption Grotto, pitched a rather interesting resolution for 2012 to parishioners. His pastoral guidance, spoken from the heart of a shepherd, helps those burdened with various worries these days. He puts before us a spiritual response to adversity that is time-tested and one familiar to the saints.   You can read it here, copied from the Pastor's Descant column in the Grotto News for January 1, 2012.

Listening in on many a tabletalk conversation in recent weeks I’ve noted some apprehension over the prospects for this new year. Though there are
indications that there may be an economic upturn (calculated just in time
to sway votes) there is concern over what may befall us in the aftermath of
that surge. (I speak here about economics, a subject I would best keep
silence about, no doubt.) The fears I hear expressed however have not so much to do with financial security as with things of greater concern. While there has always been talk of how deserving we are of God’s chastisements–doubtless true–there is worry that we now may be reaching the limits of God’s patience and headed for a time of real trial.


I have never been a proponent of panic, of conspiracy, or of the immanent consummation of the world. The reasons for my reticence to advocate such positions are reasonableness and confidence in Divine Providence. It’s clear however that we, as a people, seem to be ever more capable of outdoing ourselves in wickedness. For those who delight in being at peace it’s not a good time to be living. There’s altogether too much to cause us to be disturbed. The agitation of the world is threatening to invade the serenity of our souls. Being deeply grounded in faith and hope, with a solid spiritual regimen of life, is the way to counteract these unsettling menaces to our Christian life.

There is a proposal I would like to make to you this new year. Being your pastor, your spiritual guide, I should protect you, teach you and give you goods for your souls. I therefore would like you to take on a practice this new year as a means of imploring God’s blessing on our parish and on you, my parishioners. It is this: that everyone elect to do one act of penance every week during the year 2012–an act in addition to any penitential acts which may already be one’s practice or which the season (viz., Lent) may dictate. This would mean that, if everyone cooperated, there would be fifty-two penitential deeds done by each person in the parish by the end of the year. The motive for these would be exactly what they have always been historically: to avert God’s punishments and to obtain the divine favor.

What I mean here is not that everyone should do some strenuous, excessive penance (which would appeal subtly to pride and thus be harmful), but something every week that may be rather simple but yet pleasing to God. I’m thinking of something of the kind of making a one hour adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every week; or, of eating at one meal during the week only half portions; or, of denying oneself the purchase of something, directing the savings as alms. I have in mind acts that are of their nature penitential, that is, which cause a little voluntary discomfort, rather than some other good deeds, because the purpose of these is to be spared of what our sins rightly deserve. Also, I am not asking that in every week the same penitential deed needs be done. There’s a great variety of these which can vary on different weeks, and they could be done on a different day of the week, from one week to the next.


You may recall that when the people of Nineveh, from the rulers down to the beasts, did penance God was favorably disposed to them and averted the punishment He had intended to inflict on them. The biblical expression is that God “repented” of the evil He had planned to do to them. Our Lord Himself admonished us, saying that if we would not do penance we would perish. These words suggest to me the program I am asking all my parishioners to adopt this new year.

But, can I bind you, that is, obligate you to do this? I can bind you–to borrow Saint Paul’s expression–only by the bounds of charity, that is, by the pastoral concern I have for your good. I do not want to impose on you any obligation other than to work diligently for the salvation of your soul. What I am suggesting is a means to that end. But I have a hunch that since I, your pastor, am the one doing the asking, it carries the weight, if not of strict obligation, of serious deliberation.


In brief: I am asking every parishioner to do some one secret thing (speaking about it would rob it of merit) every week for this entire new year in reparation for sin–something in addition to whatever disciplines he may ordinarily observe. The reason for this is to beseech the Almighty to protect us, each and every one, this new year and to withhold His “avenging hand” (that too is a biblical expression) from meting out to us what our sins deserve. Will you be “with the program”?


Happy New Year!


Fr. Perrone

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Detroit Free Press: Assumption Grotto pastor creates music for mass, lifts spirits at vulnerable parish

Fr. Perrone conducts a Mass his wrote, at the dress rehearsal before Christmas
Photo: Jarrad Henderson/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press reporter, Niraj Warikoo, and photographer, Jarrad Henderson, paid a visit to Assumption Grotto on the Wednesday before Christmas as the dress rehearsal was going on for the orchestral Mass, composed and conducted by Fr. Eudard Perrone, the pastor.

I was quoted a few times in the article.  Tomorrow, I will elaborate on what I was  quoted on to give it greater context than could be made in this excellent feature story about Fr. Perrone's Mass.   I've added one note, bracketed in gold (since my link color is red - LOL).

Assumption Grotto: Pastor creates music for mass, lifts spirits at vulnerable parish

The Rev. Eduard Perrone, while on vacation last summer at his mother's home in Warren, awoke from an afternoon nap with a melody in his head. He scribbled it down before he forgot it.


Over the next few days, more musical ideas popped into his mind, often after he woke up.


That was the start of what has turned into a full orchestral piece for Catholic mass, a 30-minute composition being performed for the first time this holiday season. It's rare for a full-time priest to compose his own music for mass, but for Perrone, 63, it fit well with his role as pastor at Assumption Grotto, a historic Detroit church with a rich musical history.


Called "Fountain of Beauty," Perrone's composition is dedicated to the mother of Jesus.


"It's my belief that the Virgin Mary is the most beautiful of all God's creatures," Perrone said.


Divided into six parts, the piece is written for a 65-member choir and 38 musicians, some of whom are professionals with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Michigan Opera Theatre. On Dec. 21, it was performed for the first time with the full orchestra during a rehearsal under the neo-Gothic arches of the majestic church.


"That was stunning, Father," Diane Korzeniewski, a choir member and member of the church, said after the rehearsal.


Unifying the parish


Born to parents who were both musicians, Perrone learned music at Cass Tech High School and at a now-closed school in the Detroit archdiocese that taught church music [Fr. Perrone was referring to the famed Palestrina School]. He learned piano, organ and Gregorian chanting.


But his heart was set on a higher calling.

Read the rest at the Detroit Free Press... 

You can read a letter Fr. Perrone provided to the choir with details about his newly composed Mass. 

The article goes on to quote me a few more times as I spoke with Niraj after the interview with Fr. Perrone.  Tomorrow, I will elaborate. 


MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO HEAR THE MUSIC

If you are wanting to hear this beautiful music in the context of holy Mass, there are two more opportunities:  January 1, 2012 at 9:30 AM and at the noon Mass on January 8th.  Prelude music begins 15 minutes before Mass.  Parking and seating will not be a problem if you get there earlier.
 

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Fr. Eduard Perrone composes his first orchestral Mass...

Update: Poster with Orchestral Mass Schedule click here  and full Christmas Season Mass & Confession Schedule click here, with additional info about Orchestral Masses.

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There are orchestral Masses several times yearl at Assumption Grotto, the Christmas season no exception.  What is exceptional this season, is that Grotto's pastor has composed his first Mass for choir, soloists, and orchestra.  It will be heard at midnight Mass for Christmas (and midnight Mass is always at midnight at Assumption Grotto).  You can see the Mass schedule for the season and the three opportunities to hear it in the context of holy Mass, in this post.

This past Wednesday, Fr. Perrone gave some notes to the choir about the composition.  I asked him if I could share it with my readership.  Yesterday, I received the electronic version with permission to upload.  Here is that letter to the choir.  I have added one link to the bio of Paul Paray, whom he mentions. 

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December 7, 2011
Vigil of the Immaculate Conception


Dear Choir Members:


I wanted to jot down some thoughts about the Mass I composed during my July vacation because I think that understanding the music better will help you in performing it.


Let me say first that composing an orchestral Mass is a daunting project in view of the illustrious composers who have written in this form. I decided to have a hand at it for two reasons: from the encouragement given by some people and by my desire to give something to honor the Mother of God, like the offering made by the juggler before the image of Notre Dame. It’s my belief that the Virgin Mary is the most beautiful of all God’s creatures in view of the fact that God chose Her for the Incarnation of His Son. All created beauty, in my view, must then be a participation in Her unparalleled beauty which is reflected in the many great works of art which Her beauty has inspired. I wanted therefore to make my own contribution, however small, to this vast cultural treasure. For this reason I dedicated it to Her under the title Fountain of Beauty.

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KYRIE ELEISON
The musical idea for writing this movement came several years ago. I jotted the opening theme down at once and later tried (unsuccessfully) to develop it. I then abandoned it, though that melody stayed with me. There are the two climactic moments, at bars 34 and again at 41. Paul Paray gave me the idea of having the orchestra play the opening melody of the Kyrie (following the Christe section) while the choir sings a descant over it. I wanted this movement to be as lovely an offering as I could make for the Virgin Mary.


GLORIA
The opening of the Gloria is grandiose, rather like music for an epic film, in order to depict the glory of God. The et in terra pax theme is decidedly Italian romantic music, Puccini-like. The sunny gratias agimus music recalls Paray’s Mass even though it is not a copy of it. The character of the piece changes considerably from bars 100 and following because it is the recognition of our sins which plead for Christ’s mercy. You may note that the plaintive melody of the flute here (and later of the clarinet) is the tune of the opening Gloria but in a minor mode, as if to indicate that sin detracts from God’s glory. Quoniam tu solus is an abrupt shift, extolling Christ as the Lord. The Trinitarian fugue of the Cum Sancto recalls Bach somewhat (in the contrapuntal writing of the music) with some modern harmonies. This section of the Gloria has the most involved orchestral writing and promises to be a real challenge for us in rehearsal. At 215-220 there is only one monotonous chord, driving the piece to a somewhat frenzied breakout of praise at 221. The closing fanfare for the orchestra uses the fugue theme in a brief canon.

CREDO
The music is straightforward, befitting a profession of belief, for which reason also it is formulaic so that many of its musical phrases are similar. There’s only a little word painting in invisibilium (where the music becomes soft) and the descending line for the descendit music for the coming down of God in the Incarnation. The et incarnatus, at the heart of the Credo has music which is tender, in contrast to the relentless tug of the opening music. The tone darkens appropriately at the mention of the crucifixion and burial of Christ. The et resurrexit and last judgment music is triumphal. The concluding section returns to the creedal declaration of the opening, and there is a perfunctory Amen, omitting the customary fugue for the et vitam text.


SANCTUS
Two ideas are set forth in this music: it addresses the Lord of Armies (the meaning of Sabaoth). This then is martial music but with an insistent drive that portrays the fullness (pleni sunt) of heaven and earth in the singing. The fugue is meant to give the idea of the whole universe involved in the acclamation.


BENEDICTUS
This movement is basically a duet for soprano and tenor, the idea being derived from Paray’s Mass. This is unabashedly romantic music to convey the idea of the blessedness (benedictus) of Christ who has come in the Holy Eucharist.


AGNUS DEI
This text setting follows in the path of Gounod, Fauré, and Paray in that the Agnus Dei is a plea for mercy but in a loving appeal to the Lamb of God. The music is generally serene though with a strong and subtle underlying rhythm. There are moments when the pleading becomes more intense (miserere) but the original, serene mood always returns. The brief reprise of the Gloria music for bars 95 and following refers to the word ‘peace’ which is found in both movements (the promised peace–pax–in the Gloria, and its delivery by Christ in the Mass–the pacem of the Agnus Dei). This device also serves to unify the music of the Mass.


I hope these few comments will increase your understanding of this music.


Fr. Perrone

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Prevenient grace? Fr. Perrone explains...

The new translation of the Roman Missal had us hearing the words "prevenient grace" at the Offertory on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.  It was a perfect opportunity to catechize the faithful during the homily and Fr. Perrone did just that.  In the process, we broadened our vocabulary and didn't lose any self-esteem because we had to be taught it's meaning. I'm sure I wasn't the only one feeling pretty glad that he saw the opportunity and seized it.

Below is that homily by Assumption Grotto's pastor, given at 6:30 AM today - December 8, 2011.  I had to work and could not go to the 9:30 am "Tridentine", so I opted for the early-bird Mass, which is the ordinary form, in English.  It was the perfect opportunity for me to experience the new translation.  The ceiling didn't fall and I didn't see anyone go into a grand mal seizure. 

While the word "consubstantial" was not unknown to me because of the teachings at my parish, it was the first time my ears heard the words, "prevenient grace".  I wondered if I had heard Fr. Perrone correctly, and he said it more than once in his homily.  Whatever does it mean? 

Here is the full text of the homily.

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Homily of Rev. Eduard Perrone, Immaculate Conception 2011

File photo from August 15, 2011.
The beautiful Assumption Day
chasuble was worn today for
the solemnity.

The splendid new English texts of the Roman Missal which we put into use two weeks ago contain a great deal of theological richness that had been, for reasons one cannot fathom, withheld from the English speaking Church. The formularies for today’s Mass are good examples of the depth of meaning which the original Latin texts have wanted us to know about and pray about but which were not previously communicated. Before examining these, I note that the subtitle of the feast given in the priest’s edition of the American altar missal. It says, The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, patronal feastday of the United States of America. This is a reminder that our country has been claimed, and long ago, by wise and foreseeing bishops–claimed in being given over to the care of our Lady under this title. Just as She Herself was wrapped in the robe of salvation by the overflowing of God’s grace, so we American Catholics are clothed by Her merits and protected by Her intercession.


The One selected to become the Mother of God was given a unique kind of preservative so that She would not be in any way contaminated and thus unfit for Her divine maternity. This intervention of God, this reaching out into history to interrupt the normal flow of the ‘bug’ of original sin is given its precise theological name in the prayer that I will say after the Offertory; the name for it “prevenient grace.” I dare say that the word ‘grace’ alone is a word that, while common enough in our language, is little understood by the majority of Catholic people. When one adds to that the rare word ‘prevenient’ many will not have a clue to the meaning. And while this usage of some uncommon terminology was one of the major criticisms of the new English text (it is supposed to be too lofty for the comprehension of the lay people), one cannot on that account omit or dismiss the realities such theological words signify. ‘Prevenient grace’ is a gift that God gives ‘before’ or ‘in anticipation of’ some benefit. In this case, God gave to Mary beforehand the gift of sanctifying grace which was not yet given to the rest of humanity until Christ’s redeeming death on the cross. In this Mary was ‘ahead’ of us all in having this preview of the benefits of redemption. (The astounding thing to think about is that it would be by means of Her own Son, yet to be born, that She already received this gift.) Yet the Virgin Mary was not only the first one to be graced since the original human couple, but She was in a state of grace always, even at the instant She was conceived in Her Mother’s womb. There is that prevenient action of God, withholding the contamination of original sin from touching Her.


She was kept pure for Christ’s sake certainly, but also for ours. Other prayers in the missal express that thought. Through the sinlessness of Mary we are helped to be kept from committing sin. Her symbolic robe of purity and grace are placed on us as a protection and also as a gift so that we share in what She had been given. Mary, in other words, is not only a protective parent who shields uS from dangers but a provident parent who shares with us what She had been given by God. She is a distributor of grace, a channel of God’s benefits. It’s of no concern to us that God might have done without Her mediating role in that regard. God can act upon us without any intermediary. The point is that God did not will to deal with us in that direct way. He rather set up various means of go-betweens. The reason for this is that we are not worthy of direct dealings with God (although He has often made exceptions to this) and so He established intervening links in a chain of agencies from Himself down to us as His ordinary manner of communicating with us. For this reason you have priests as middle men between God and yourselves; you have angel messengers performing in a similar capacity; you have sacraments of the Church as things which transmit God’s power; you have saints who make special pleadings on your behalf, though you might seem to be perfectly well capable of speaking for yourselves. Mary is one of those divinely made and divinely willed middle agents between God and ourselves. We have no competency or right to discard the ways of God and suggest to Him alternative methods for His dealing with us.


There is another aspect of our celebration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary that needs to be recognized. This is the fact that not only was She protected from sin at the start of Her life (something only God could do for Her) but that She avoided every possible sin that was offered to Her all life long. There is something else to marvel about. Not even a venial sin crept into Her Immaculate Heart. ‘Entirely focused,’ we might say today, on God. We surely have some experience with that since all of us have, from time to time but not always, refused to commit a sin. On our part however, these refusals often came with a struggle because of the fact that we have an internal disorder that makes us gravitate towards sin. Holy Mary did not have this nagging drive to contend with. This does not mean that She had an easier life than we. Far from it. Her battles were with the archenemy of mankind–the devil–and She, with Her Son, made war on all sin. The proof of Her heroism was Her privileged participation in Christ’s passion. Nowhere more than there did She show Her maternal love for us than to consent to the torture and killing of Her own Son. There’s a valor in the heart of the Virgin Mary, a strength that is superhuman; it is in fact supernatural; it is the power of grace.


So for us, we need the medicine of God’s healing grace while Mary had the preventive medicine of grace all Her life long. She has this healing remedy in Her hands and She is all too happy to distribute it to us for the asking. For this reason we turn to Her today and beg that by Her privileged position and by the merits of Her sinless life She obtain what we need to be saved and to become holy ourselves.


May Holy Mary watch over us, protect us and clean us up as a shining follow-up to Her Immaculate Conception.
Note: Painting at top is by Spanish artist Jose Antolinez and is circa 1672.

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Fr. Perrone: Greatest danger isn't attack from the world, but accommodation to it

As the world already celebrates it's secular "christmas", completely bi-passing Advent, Fr. Perrone encourages us to reflect on some spiritual realities that can easily be overlooked.  This is his homily for last Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent, and it was delivered at the 9:30 am Mass using the 1962 Missal.

1st Sunday of Advent 2011

Two words that define Advent appear and reappear in the liturgy of this Mass: the first is the verb ‘to await’ (expectare) and the second is the verb ‘to draw near’ (appropinquare). Advent is so short a season that we cannot afford to dillydally and slowly get ourselves acclimated to the season. Before you know it, it will be gone and it would be a shame and a great disadvantage to us if we were to forfeit its advantages. The Epistle is, in the literal sense, a wake up call, like the sounding of an alarm over someone asleep. The disturbance of being roused from slumber is for good purpose: the Lord is near (one of the two words I mentioned). In order for Advent to be especially useful to us we need to enter into its spirit in a way like that of Christians of the early times. They were not awaiting the day of Christmas with its holiday delights; they were awaiting the second coming of the Judge and Savior, Christ. Not only will He certainly come again but, in the liturgy, He is summoned to come soon: “stir up Your power”–we address Him thus in the Collect–“and come.” We are in the mode of ‘waiting’ (the other word of the day) for His arrival as the all-Just Rewarder and Punisher. Our living in anticipation of the final day of the world (that ‘awaiting’) can bring two different responses: one is waiting in hope for redemption and the other is the frightful anticipation of punishment. Both things are indeed coming, and the Church is trying to prepare us to meet them.

The nearness of the coming of Christ is often not taken with the urgency that we find expressed in the New Testament and in the Church’s liturgy. We don’t live ‘on the edge’ as if Christ might drop down upon us at any moment. And while we may rightly be amused over some Christian sects for their calculations and recalculations about the day of Christ’s return, we ought to admire and emulate them for the vigilance over themselves which ought to be the accompaniment of Christian hope. We are not meant so to settle ourselves in this world as to be made friends with it. We Catholic Christians are always in a precarious relationship to the world. It simply hates us and must do so necessarily since God’s word condemns its pursuits and purposes. The danger that we face every day is not so much the attack from the world (although this is happening ever more as the Church is being throttled by social pressures and by government strictures). The danger for us is accommodation to the world, that cozy alliance with the world whose spirit is antithetical, opposed and aggressive, towards Christ. The ‘nearness’ of Christ’s advent is not to be taken only in terms of time, of years, but of proximity of His Presence. It is our nearness to Him through decent living (the subject of the Epistle, that ‘sobriety’ mentioned by St. Paul) that should characterize our daily life. This is a manner of living in the world that keeps us distant from its charms and seductions. It’s a sequestering of ourselves from the noxiousness of sins which are indeed attractive. These are the concupiscences, the lusts, the “draws” of the world from which we must run away, close the eyes and ears and keep jealously enclosed within us our innocence. That’s what it means to be ‘expecting’ the coming of the Lord. It is a vigilance over ourselves, keeping guard over the movement of our senses, the curiosities of our lower nature. “No one who waits for You will be confounded” we say in this Mass. We need that wakefulness of mind, that quickness of recognition that there are dangers we have to avoid: first, by being keenly aware of their menace and their attractiveness. The moment we let down our guard, we are lost and the comforting bath of the world’s filth will find agreement with our lower nature.

Slinking into this worldly and sensual life requires a seduction of the mind, that is to say, a deception. There must be a plausible, attractive invitation to abandon all one’s upbringing and training to convince one that it’s alright to be accommodating to the spirit of the age, to the lure of the times. It is in this regard that I want to read for you a few passages often overlooked in the New Testament epistles that are fair warning about these sly suggestions that would carry us away from Christ and from salvation.

The first Pope, Saint Peter, wrote his epistles with a view of tipping us off in regard to being duped. He tells us that in being Christians we have “fled a world corrupted by lust” so that we might share God’s nature. The difficulty is not only that there is this evil in the world, but that there are teachers in the Church those who ‘smuggle in’ false teachings. And the secret to their success in convincing people towards sin is this: “their lustful ways will lure many away.” Heresy, in other words, comes out of lustful passion and not from mere intellectual mistakes.

I continue to quote him: “Through these false teachers, the true ‘way’ will be subject to contempt. (That is to say, that Catholic truth will be ridiculed, and its followers will be belittled for holding to its truth.) Saint Peter is speaking about men who (quote) “live for the flesh in their desire for whatever corrupts and who despise authority. They pour abuse on things of which they are ignorant. They act like creatures of instinct, brute animals born to be caught and destroyed. They too will be destroyed, suffering the reward of their wickedness. Thinking daytime revelry a delight, they are a stain and defilement as they share in your feasts in a spirit of seduction...Theirs is a never-ending search for sin. They lure the weaker types. Their hearts are trained in greed. An accursed lot they are!These men are waterless springs, mists whipped up by the gale. The darkest gloom has been reserved for them. They talk empty bombast while baiting their hooks with passion, with the lustful ways of the flesh, to catch those who have just come free of a life of errors. They promise freedom though they themselves are slaves of corruption. .. When men have fled a polluted world by recognizing the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then are caught up and overcome in pollution once more, their last condition is worse than their first. It would have been better for them not to have recognized the road to holiness than to have turned their backs on the holy law handed on to them, once they had known it. How well the proverb fits them: 'The dog returns to its vomit’ and ‘A sow bathes by wallowing in the mire.’”

This is all from the Second Epistle of Saint Peter. Though I have quoted him at some length, he is not yet finished speaking in this vein. Certainly you will have recognized how relevant his words are to us who have had to contend not only with our own weakness in being inclined towards sin, but have had the scandals of heresies and sin served to us by those in positions of authority, even in the holy Church of God, things which have tended to destablize us and make us questioning!

And so, the Apostle continues, so relevant to our day as to his: “In the last days, mocking, sneering men who are ruled by their passions will arrive on the scene. They will ask: ‘Where is that promised coming (the advent) of Christ? Everything stays just as it is.’ This point must not be overlooked... The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and on that day the heavens will vanish with a ro (an echo of our Lord words in today’s Gospel); the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its deeds will be made manifest. Since everything is to be destroyed in this way, what sort of men must you not be! How holy your conduct and devotion, looking for the coming of the day of God and trying to hasten it! So, while waiting for this, make every effort to be found without stain or defilement, and at peace in His sight. You are forewarned, beloved brothers. Be on your guard lest you be led astray by the error of the wicked, and forfeit the security you enjoy. Grow rather in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Better words could not be found for an Advent sermon than these by Saint Peter. They alert you to false guides in the Church, they show you how to identify them by their impure ways, and they goad you to keep on the original way of the Catholic faith in all its integrity. The Lord will come again and give everybody exactly what he deserves.

Two words: waiting and nearness. We are awaiting the justice of God while we are conscious of just how near He is.

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Fr. Perrone on the Dies Irae and divine wrath

Here is last week's homily heard at the 9:30 am Mass (1962 Missal). It's a theme rarely heard in this "tell me something good" era. While God's love and mercy are a reality, so is God's justice. Here, Fr. Perrone looks closer at the Dies Irae and divine wrath.

We've been told repeatedly how much God loves us. But ought we not love Him back and if so, how? Hold that thought...

24th Sunday after Pentecost, 2011

This lengthy, difficult and frightening Gospel is fittingly selected by Holy Church as its final word on the final Sunday of the liturgical year. “Doom” may be the right word to express its theme: the terrible day that is to come at the end of time. As a reference point for this, our Lord first spoke about a calamity that was more imminent: the fall of Jerusalem, the city sacred to the Jews. This event, here foretold, was a divine punishment inflicted upon the city for the Jews’ disbelief in Christ and for the underlying cause of their rejection of Him: the endemic perversity of the people of those times. The connection between vice and unbelief should be evident: indulging in sinful conduct leads to the denial of God if only as to hide oneself from His face.

After speaking about this approaching ravaging of the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, our Lord nearly imperceptibly shifts His discourse to the end of the world, an appropriate juxtaposition since both events manifest God’s wrath, that is, His just anger due to those who will not relinquish their sins and who will not repent of their erring ways.

The divine wrath is a subject unheard nowadays, the very silence of which may be a clue to our greater nearness to the end of time. Fashioning God according to our own wish has stripped Him of His justice and made Him appear weak, permissive and unconcerned over things He was once so bold as to forbid us from doing. This caricature of the Almighty is surely insulting to Him who has clearly revealed the truth about Himself. When so many blithely go about fooling themselves into believing in a non-judgmental deity and in their own immunity from punishments, I need to remind you parishioners from time to time not to be taken-in by the attractive parody of an impotent God. As an antidote to this religious virus, I’d like to read for you and comment upon verses of the hymn Dies iræ which the Church has for centuries used as the Sequence in the traditional funeral Mass. Its theme is very close to this Gospel and will clarify how the justice and the mercy of God is in reality rather than in an evasive fantasy.

This great hymn of the Dies Iræ opens with the evocation of the final day of wrath when the earth will be destroyed in ashes, the day on which the Judge will come, when the Angel will sound his trumpet announcing the judgment, when all tombs will be opened and everyone will stand astonished and trembling before God. The symbolic book will be brought forth and the divine Judge will be seated: nothing will be hidden from His scrutiny.

Following this accurate, biblical depiction of the final judgment, the poem shifts to the first person singular, the self-questioning ‘I.’ ’What shall I, a wretch, say then? Who will speak for me as an advocate, when scarcely a just man stands secure?’ Then follows an appeal to the Lord: “O King of tremendous majesty, save me, O Fountain of compassion! Remember, O compassionate Jesus, because I am the reason for your coming; remember, lest you lose me on that day. When seeking me, You sank down tired; You redeemed me in suffering the cross: May so great a labor not be in vain! (See here how the sinner attempts to broker with God by appealing to His Passion: a stratagem known to the saints.) And since we have not yet arrived at the judgment, it is wise to plead ahead of the time, anticipating the day: “Just Judge of vengeance, grant me the gift of forgiveness before the day of reckoning. Like a criminal, my face blushes with guilt; be sparing to this suppliant, O God. You who absolved Mary Magdalene and heard the thief on the cross: You have given me hope as well. My prayers are not worthy, but You, being good, kindly grant them, lest I burn in the eternal fire. Grant me a place among the sheep, and separate me from the goats, placing me at your right side. After confounding the accursed, condemning them to the lively flames, call me over to the Blessed.” And then, since all depends on how one will end his life, the sinner pleads: “I pray suppliantly, bowed down, my heart as if ashes: take care of the end of my life.”

To conclude, the text returns to its initial theme: ‘Tearful (lacrimosa) will be that infamous day when the guilty man will arise from the ashes to be judged: Be sparing to Him, O God!’The final stanza is the now-famous text of the Pie Jesu: “O Compassionate Jesus Lord, grant them rest. Amen.”


I have taken the trouble to quote this magnificent, if frightening, liturgical poem to you, on this last day of the Church year to have you realize that, admit it or not, you will someday see the very things described in this text. In presenting it to you, it’s not a matter of being negative, or showing a preference for fire and brimstone over sweetness and mercy, but it is a matter of truth. Should canonized saints be the only ones who always meditate on what we call the four last things (their own death and judgment, heaven and hell) while we, far more wicked than they, banish these subjects from our thoughts? Where’s the prudence in that? Of course, we know that there are people emotionally oversensitive to any mention of God’s judgments, and so we need to speak to such with a greater delicacy than to others of a lesser sensibility. But we need also admit that there are many people of an acute obtuseness who need to listen to the forecast of the dreadful future that will certainly and inevitably await them unless they grieve over their sins, beseech the mercy of God, confess them and be absolved. And who among us is so sure that we (those called ‘wretched’ in the Dies Iræ text) have nothing to be concerned about in regard to our own future existence when (again, from the poem) even the just man is scarcely secure?

We should emerge from this final day of the year somewhat chastened by the
warnings Christ uttered out of merciful pity for people of His own creating and redeeming. God does not want us to perish but to have eternal life. For this He admonishes, warns and–yes–threatens us to stay on the narrow way that leads to eternal life, lest we be lost. Let us not scorn these divine censures, scoldings, rebukes, reprimands, reproaches, but rather make prudent use of them to recondition and redirect our all-too facile tendency to exempt ourselves from them and invoke a factitious amnesty for our unrepentant ways.

I'm going to take this opportunity to point out that Assumption Grotto will be having a 4 day mission for Advent on December 1-4.  Thursday and Friday it will be held in the parish church following the 7:00 pm Mass. Saturday and Sunday it will be in the lounge.  More to follow.

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Photos: Fr. Perrone conducting at Dress Rehearsal for All Souls Day Solemn High Mass

After the 7 pm Mass for All Saints at Assumption Grotto, Fr. Perrone held dress rehearsal for the choir and orchestra on the Faure Requiem which will be heard Wednesday evening for All Souls. There is a little surpise in the form of a pint-sized soloist.    It begins with a Solemn  High Mass (1962 Missal) at 7:00 pm, and there will be a catafalque.  Read Fr. Perrone's column from this past Sunday in a previous post.

Here are a few pics of Fr. Perrone conducting.  Usually I am singing and cannot take photos.  However, I did not rejoin the choir until this was well underway and decided to sit it out.  These photos will lack clarity and/or look grainy because it was dark and I didn't dare distract anyone with flash.  I had to go all the way to 1600 ISO.  I did not bring my tripod in with me.  The lights were on for the first few photos, and in the last one, the whole front of the church was dark.

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Fr. Perrone: Don't Make God only an object of study

This homily was delivered by Fr. Perrone at the 9:30 am Mass on October 9, 2011 which was the 17th Sunday after Pentecost in the 1962 Missal.  He speaks about loving God with our whole heart, soul and mind.

I’ve been waiting for two long years to preach a sermon on the 17th Sunday after Pentecost. When it came round last year I did not have the Tridentine Mass. The reason for my zeal to have a word about it was the reading of Saint Bernard’s Commentary on the Song of Songs which was my spiritual book at the time. In the final chapter of the first volume there’s found the Saint’s thoughts on three key words of the Gospel today: heart, soul and mind. The greatest commandment, in the words of our Lord, is to “love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind.” His second commandment, as is well-known, is “to love thy neighbor as thyself.” Sermons easily gravitate towards the latter commandment but less frequently explain the primary one. I thought it wise to share my enthusiasm for Saint Bernard’s thoughts with you since the ‘greatest commandment’ is so often slighted in preaching.


These three words of Christ–heart, soul, mind–have a distinctively Hebraic ring to them. By this I mean that they would probably have been received by Jewish ears as synonyms, as three words meaning basically the same thing, their repetition lending intensification or emphasis, just as when we say that the summer’s weather is “hot, muggy, and uncomfortable.” Thus, to love God with the whole of one’s heart, soul and mind would have amounted to saying “with all you’ve got.” Yet one cannot so easily exhaust the divine word of God in this way. As commentators over the centuries have pondered the meaning of every syllable uttered by Christ, they have uncovered shades of meaning and divine intentions not so facilely suspected upon first hearing. And so we come to the Commentary of Saint Bernard ready to learn from his mind so well immersed in the word of God.


To begin with, let us review that anyone who does not love the Lord is accursed, according to the teaching of Saint Paul. Indeed, we ought to love the One through whom we have our being, our life, and our ability to know. If we are ungrateful to God, we are unworthy of Him. We were created for the express purpose of Himself, and so, whoever lives for himself and not for God is as nothing. The other motivation that arouses in us the love for Christ is the chalice of suffering that He drank to the full in His passion and death in order to win the salvation of our souls. This should add a sweetness to our love for Him since He labored so hard in us, whereas in creating us He merely spoke His word, effortlessly.


I turn now to a consideration of those three words–heart, soul, mind–which express the qualities of our love for God. We learn from Christ how it is that we ought to love Him. We can’t allow the undeniably attractive things of the world or the pleasures of the flesh to lead us astray. Christ is a greater good than the deceits that beguile so many. There is this threefold love commanded by our Lord: The love of the heart refers (according to Saint Bernard) to the warmth of affection. The love of soul relates to the judgment of reason. The love of strength to our constancy and vigor of spirit. Accordingly, one should love God will the full and deep affection of his heart. One should love Him with a mind fully alert; and one should love Him with such strength so as not to fear even to die for love of Him.


The Saint deepens his insights. Your affection for your Lord Jesus, the love of the heart, should be both tender and intimate. In this way it will be able to oppose the sweet enticements of the sensual life. This is how one sweetness can conquer another sweetness, just as the way one nail drives out another. Loving Christ with your mind means that He is the guiding light of your thoughts, not only by your rejection of false religion and heretical beliefs, but even by shaping of the words of your conversations. The strength and constancy of that love means that one need have no fear at the sometimes hard-work there is in Christian living. In sum then, one should love Christ affectionately, wisely and intensely. All three are needed: affection without reason can be carried astray in emotional fantasy; a wise love is good but alone it is too fragile without the added strength.

Loving Christ with the heart means being touched by His every word, by His sacred humanity. The soul at prayer, says the Saint, should have before it a sacred image of the God-man, in His birth or infancy, or as He was teaching, or dying on the cross, or rising or ascending into heaven. This image of Christ helps bind one’s soul with the love of virtue and helps it expel impure vices, eliminate temptations, and quiet the raging desires of the flesh. Bernard himself believes that this may have been the principal reason why the invisible God wished to come and to be seen in the flesh and to converse with men who would have been unable to love Him in any other way than by first drawing them to His own humanity and then gradually to raise them to a deeper spiritual love. The measure of our love for Christ can easily be calculated by whether we prefer Him to someone else, or to some sensual pleasure. This would prove in us a love divided. As He said, however, “whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” To love with the whole heart means to put love of His sacred humanity before everything that may tempt us, either from within or without.

While there is a good deal more to the teaching of Saint Bernard on this subject, I inject here a reflection of my own. There is a huge danger in proposing the Catholic faith without a tender affection for Christ. A number of things have leagued together to create an affective vacuum in our spirituality: one of which has been the removal of uplifting sacred images from our churches, the scarcity of printed holy cards, crucifixes and absence of pious images form our homes. Another has been making Christ’s words a source of didactic instruction without any corresponding love for them. It’s wholly significant, I think, that Christ did not say that we are to know or to learn about God with our whole heart, soul and mind but rather that we must love Him so. Religion can be a pretty chilly exercise of the mind and will when piety is removed from it. Such a religion would be, I think, incapable of shunning the sinful attractions everywhere proposed to us and would fail to make us ascend unto sanctity of life. The Lord once uttered a provocative word when He asked whether upon His return to earth the love of God in men’s hearts would have become cold. The spiritual atmosphere has certainly cooled in recent years and there is little left to make us devout Christiansother than discovering, or rediscovering, the love of Christ through affection for His sacred humanity: through His Sacred Heart, through the Divine Mercy, through His cross. This is the very Christ who comes to us in Holy Communion: His obstinately faithful way of proving His love.

People easily err today in regard to religion by making it too much a cerebral thing, making God only an object of study. As a consequence, many feel spiritually disengaged and think they are losing their faith, when in fact that may indeed be the case. Re-enkindling the love of Christ is the remedy for recurring sinfulness and for waning devotion. That totality which Christ speaks of–the whole heart, soul and mind–is the goal of anyone aspiring to eternal life. Catholics have much to relearn about the love of God that comes to us through the sacred humanity of God-become-man in Christ.

Given on the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, 2011 - October 9, 2011 (1962 Missal)

Photo note:  Fr. Perrone meditating at the organ during readings at the Noon Mass on Easter Sunday, 2006.  He had conducted an orchestra Mass at 9:30 am, and assisted with singing at the Noon Mass, filling in at the organ.

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Fr. Perrone: Don’t cheapen your faith; don’t sell God short

Fr. Perrone carries the Blessed Sacrament on August 15, 2011 following benediction in the Grotto area

Don’t cheapen your faith; don’t sell God short by making the trappings of religion

or religious good feeling the focus of your faith.

Fr. Perrone, September 18, 2011

+ + + + + + +

I was captivated by the homily this past Sunday, of Fr. Eduard Perrone, the pastor of Assumption Grotto Parish.  I have known him since May of 2005.  While he is a diocesan priest, he is also a secular Carmelite, and this comes out often in his talks and homilies.  Those who have seriously studied the works of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila may sense that, especially in this homily.  I can tell you that he makes it a point to address these kinds of issues at least once or twice yearly.  I have heard this advice from him before, but I can't say he ever packaged it as well as he did in this homily.

These are very wise words that come from a priest who is deeply, and visibly, devoted to the Holy Eucharist, and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

Clerics and seminarians may want to take a close look at how to discuss a particular kind of sensitive matter in a way that is mindful of everyone's dignity.

Like all homilies, we should be inspired to look inward, not at all those other people, whomever they may be. I think there is something here for everybody.

I had to add white space with line breaks in longer paragraphs to make reading easier.

Non-believers have drawn the line that divides truth from falsehood as the separation of what we can see and demonstrate as real from the fictional world proposed by religious faith. For such people, God and heaven, and all things we believe in are ‘make-believe’ while the visible world and the emotional responses we experience are real. A lot of people have taken up that side of things nowadays as secularism gains momentum and as the number of religious people declines. From our point of view, there is indeed a line that should be drawn between the real and the unreal, but it’s not at the same place. On the real side is both the physical-emotional and the religious, and the phoney is false religion which is, paradoxically, also very popular in our time.


Here I am thinking not only of the whole host of new age religious beliefs (which are really nothing but updated forms of old superstitions) but also of certain distortions of the real faith which attach themselves to genuine religion. These too are forms of superstition and I’m afraid that many of our devout Catholic people fall prey to them. I’m thinking about those who are always looking out for impressive signs or phenomena which sometimes accompany religious belief. Although at least some of these things may indeed be real, they are on the margin of faith rather than in the main text.


The easy tendency can be for religious-minded people to make these sidebars the main feature of their faith and thus divert the focus from the essential thing about believing. And what is the essential thing about believing? It is simply the firm, unyielding, obstinate adherence to things that cannot be seen or proved by physical signs. That’s real faith. Thus, the believer asserts and maintains (without having any demonstration to back it up) that there is a Supreme Being who is God⁽¹⁾, that there is heaven and a hell, that there are angels, that there is sin and grace and that there are the many things that our Catholic faith teaches us which are revealed by God and to which we assent wholeheartedly and completely without compromise or equivocation: these are things such as the belief that Jesus is physically and divinely there in the Communion Host; that the Pope has the ability to speak to us infallibly (i.e. without error), that the Mother of our Lord is at the same time Virgin and Mother, and that Her body as well as Her pure soul is now already in heaven. (This is just a sampling of such beliefs.)


What’s my point? We have Catholic people who are not content with holding
tenaciously to these beliefs but who are always on the watch for signs of belief to wonder about. Thus we have the search for Communion Hosts that bleed or that turn to visible flesh or that visibly show the face of Christ on it; or, we have the great fascination over physical cures resulting from visiting special places and shrines; or, the yearning to consult someone who claims that God reveals to him upcoming events.


Now certainly these and like things have happened and it is certain that their source can indeed be from the good Lord who, from time to time, breaks the laws of nature to do what is beyond its ordinary powers. I would never dispute the possibility and indeed the reality of these occurrences. What I’m warning about here is the displacement of faith from the certainty of these invisible realities to those peripheral or secondary things which sometimes accompany the faith.


Allow me to give specific examples. We should firmly believe that Christ is present in the Holy Eucharist without feeling the need to run to a place where the Lord’s body has become visible in a Host. Or, we should be secure in the interest the Blessed Mother has in us and the assistance afforded us by Her without needing to touch a weeping statue of Her. And we should seek to do the will of God without hoping to hear voices directing us nor should we expect visible signs to be shown us to indicate the way we should decide a particular matter. What we should seek is the reality of grace: that is, invisible and non-demonstrable divine working. It is there that our Lord wants us to put our whole trust. And the reason why this is so crucial is that it may be less worthy for us to believe in the things of faith when signs are indicated or emotionally consolations are felt than when they are not.


Take for example the case of someone who is enthused over an apparition of the face of Christ. Is that image (supposing here that it’s really from God) a greater reality than the face attached to the Person of Jesus’ glorious body in heaven? In fact, it would be at best an assumed likeness or reflection of the reality of the face of Christ which is elsewhere (in heaven). Or, consider the miraculous cures that take place at Lourdes. Surely it’s a blest place and many go there in the hope for special favors. But the Virgin Mary is as much available to any other person anywhere by the simple addressing of prayer to Her as She is there. She will hear your rosary as much in this church as any place in the world. If you go to see a certain person reputed to be holy because of wonderful words or signs he does, or because of scents he produces, are you not perhaps more taken with those phenomenal things than with the God who (reputedly) is the cause of them? And how must this look from God’s side, so to speak? Is He supposed to be pleased because someone believes in Him and His truth only because of such things?


Your credit balance with God is much greater for believing without seeing, smelling or touching anything. Faith enters your soul through the truth your ears pick up when it’s told you what God has revealed. A fully believing Catholic is the person of faith, and not one who is fixated on the appendages of religion. It’s important to keep your focus and to be fixed on the essentials.


Today’s scriptures offer some of those essentials:


• Seek the Lord while He may be found;
• To me, life is Christ;
• Conduct yourselves in a way worthy of Christ;
• and our Lord’s rewards are given according to our work.


Here your concentration should be. Don’t cheapen your faith; don’t sell God short by making the trappings of religion or religious good feeling the focus of your faith.


Believe, and be pious. Leave the rest up to the good Lord who, in pitying human weakness, has from time to time, given little condiments to faith which have sometimes been mistaken for the main course.

Live by faith, and believe with all your mind and heart everything that the Catholic Church has taught you.


Footnote: (1) The existence of God, however, can certainly be proved by human reason, though that is not the point being made here.

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Fr. Perrone: The Church is right to demand faithful participation in Mass every Sunday

Fr. Perrone's homily from this past Sunday is a worthy read whether you are following the 1962 Missal or the new Mass.

[Some paragraphs are broken into smaller paragraphs to make it easier to read on the web. An (*) denotes that the text was part of the previous paragraph in the original.]

13th Sunday after Pentecost 2011 (1962 Missal)


There is a dynamic operative in the drama of our Christian lives which is played out every Sunday, and even every day, by our coming to church. There surely were strong reasons why the Church made it a precept binding under mortal sin that requires every Catholic to assist at Mass on all Sundays and holy days of obligation. Of course, the third Commandment gave us the more general law of observing the Sabbath day; it was only for the Church to specify how that obligation could be satisfied through the discipline of the Sunday Mass attendance.


Yet looking at the ‘dynamic’ (as I call it) of Mass-going from another point of view one can be struck by the thing that happens here in this church (among others) on a Sunday morning. People enter the church after a week of being out in the world – a term redolent with evil connotations–and come into the dwelling place of the Most High. What has happened to them throughout the week is the risky encounter with all the evils proffered by the world. And while there may have been moments in the intervening week that were good and holy through prayer, yet the contact with all that is profane in the world tends to disorient the religious man and, often enough, to sully him. The result is that our naturally propensity towards sin, our native weakness, finds a ready outlet in that span from Sunday Mass to Sunday Mass for succumbing to the lure of sin. And so, we notice a kind of cyclical activity which is the makeup of the Catholic life. We come here to be sanctified, to be uplifted, to elevate our minds towards God, to readjust our spiritual sensitivities towards what is righteous, to receive the most holy Eucharist–God Himself–and we emerge from the church as a renovated people.


*There is a real joy in this change that ought to have taken place within us every Sunday when we come forth from holy Mass (rightly celebrated, of course). Like Moses, we will have come down from the mountain heights, having seen God and heard His voice. It is a transforming experience, and it is meant to fortify us against the lurking contagion of the world which we must inevitably face throughout the approaching week. This process (to abbreviate the picture) looks like this: We come to Sunday Mass after fighting off the snares of the world, the flesh and the devil, and after perhaps having received some damaging blows and falls into the ditches of the world. And then we enter into God’s holy dwelling place to get a cleaning, a realignment of our thinking, and a spiritual rebuilding. We leave the church repaired, stronger and radiant with the graces of God. And if – at this church anyway–we have come for confession before holy Mass, this process is realized yet more fully.


*We are here absolved, released from the bonds, healed of the wounds and bruises caused by our sins, restored to spiritual health and nourished with the heavenly manna of God’s instruction (His word) and His most holy Sacrament. ¿Is not this / a truly wonderful phenomenon that takes place in this church Sunday after Sunday (or even daily for those who come during the week)?


The sad but inevitable truth is that in this present life there is ordinarily this recurring cycle of sin and grace. Even if it not necessarily be mortal sin and a reconversion every week, it is a least a matter of purification after contamination. And then follows the return to the familiar haunts of sinful opportunities which lie in wait for us upon returning to our weekly routine. Again, to get the view of this from another perspective–from God’s–it may look something like this. God rectifies and builds us up on Sunday, like a physician to his sick patient, and then we emerge from Mass to do injury to ourselves once again, only to make the return visit for another Sunday corrective and fortifying dose of grace. Even though this may not necessarily be a literal cycle of sin and grace, there is surely this underlaying process of the weekly refurbishing of our souls which takes place within the confines of these walls every Sunday.


One may regard this process with resignation and one may even feel somewhat defeated by the predictability. We are, after all, not meant to be going about in endless circles but in making progress, however slowly, towards perfection. We are headed towards a goal, a destination that requires not only that we die at the ‘right’ moment (being in a state of grace), but that we die better off in having profited from the wrong moves we have made and from all the grace that have been accorded us, so that we can have a high place with God. Should anyone ever challenge the Catholic precept of being obliged to assist at Mass every Sunday under pain of mortal sin, we should respond to him that besides the more fundamental obligation to adore God (which is primary), we have the human necessity of returning to God’s healing and nutritive work in our souls. We realize that the Church is absolutely right in demanding our faithful participation in Mass every Sunday.


In this holy Gospel, the ten lepers were only among many whom our Lord had healed.


The Scriptures indicate that there was an ongoing procession of such persons. More important than all these was their spiritual rehabilitation through the forgiveness of their sins. The moral lesson with which the passage concludes is a reminder for us to render thanks to the Lord for His mercies and compassion, a thing easily overlooked.


And this indicates that there is yet another reason among the many for our being participants in the Mass. This is the only way we can return a thanks to God that is commensurate to His bounty since the Mass is a thing of His own making.


You have a real need to be here for the celebration of the divine liturgy. The Church offers you a service you cannot obtain elsewhere. On it depends your spiritual welfare.


You are blest if you know this; you are more blest for having been made right and holy by it through the cleaning and upbuilding grace imparted to you through the weekly offering of the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

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