Daily Mass Sermons: 9/9 - 9/13

Daily Mass sermons, September 9 through 13: St Peter Claver, Nativity of Mary, Holy Name of Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows

The Cross as Perpetually United to Our Savior

September 14^th, Exaltation of the Holy Cross

We adore your Cross, O Lord, and we praise and glorify your holy resurrection: Behold by the wood joy has come into the whole world. (Antiphon from Morning Prayer)

The Catholic Faithful pay a special honor and veneration to the Holy Cross of our Lord. Indeed, we even speak to the Cross as though to Christ Jesus himself as we sing, Ave Crux, Spes unica! “Hail O Cross, our only Hope!”

The True Cross of our Lord, whose feast we celebrate this Sunday, is given such honor, love, and adoration by the Church on account of the marvelous union it shared with our Savior. Let us consider how the Cross was united to the Lord by comparing this union to the Hypostatic Union of Humanity and Divinity in Christ.

Mary was rational while in the womb of her mother

September 8^th, Feast of the Birth of Mary

Some may be surprised to learn that St. Alphonsus, whom the Church recognizes as the most learned and to trustworthy theologian regarding doctrine about the Blessed Virgin Mary, teaches as certain and deserving of pious belief that Our Lady had the perfect use of reason from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception. Mary was no ordinary child in the womb, nor was she a typical infant or young girl.

Rather, according to the Marian Doctor, the Blessed Mary had attained to the use of reason even while in the womb of her mother. Let us consider the reasons for holding this pious belief, and then ponder what it would take for Our Lady to be so exceptionally blessed.

Daily Sermons, August 5 and 6 -- Mother Teresa, and the Sorrowful Virgin

Friday, August 5: Blessed Mother Teresa, Love Means Giving Till It Hurts

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Saturday, August 6: Consoling the Sorrowful Heart of Mary

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Sunday Sermon, August 31 -- How Catholics Suffer Well

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Daily Sermons: September 3rd and 4th

September 3rd: Christ Knew Everything, Even You (Feast of St. Gregory the Great)

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September 4th: Why we celebrate Mass in a Sacred Place with Sacred Things

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Should the Church excommunicate anyone? Can the Pope send a man to hell?

Pope Gregory IX excommunicates Henry IV

23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

7 September 2014

Matthew 18:15-20

If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.

There can be no doubt that the power and practice of excommunication is well established both in Sacred Scripture and in the Apostolic Tradition. Not only in ancient times under the prior dispensation, but even in the New Testament, we read of men suffering the penalty of excommunication. To reject the notion of excommunication is to reject the revelation given in Scripture and Tradition, and therefore it would be a rejection of the faith itself.

And so we ask, Should the Church ever excommunicate anyone? Furthermore, considering the effects of excommunication, we ask, Can the Pope exclude someone from heaven?