1. Lec # 21- Bautismo del Señor- 13 de enero de 2019- p. Bresowar

    Hermanos y hermanas, como siempre, es bueno estar aquí con ustedes hoy para celebrar la última fiesta de la temporada de Navidad, el Bautismo de nuestro Señor.

    En el Evangelio de Lucas de hoy, leemos acerca de un evento muy importante, el bautismo de Jesús en el río Jordán por su primo Juan.

    Esto marca el comienzo del ministerio público de Jesús, y durante los próximos meses, escucharemos en la santa misa, muchas de las señales y enseñanzas de Jesús durante su ministerio. Tiene sentido, entonces, que esta fiesta termine la temporada de Navidad, el nacimiento y los años más jóvenes de Jesús, y comience la temporada del tiempo ordinario, su ministerio adulto.

    Entonces, ¿qué es el bautismo? Todos sabemos que es importante que nos bauticemos. Mis padres me bautizaron diecisiete días después de mi nacimiento. Tan pronto como podamos, traemos a nuestros hijos a la iglesia para ser bautizados, pero ¿por qué?

    ¡El bautismo es donde recibimos la presencia de Dios en nuestras almas y la esperanza de salvación! ¡No hay nada mejor que podamos hacer como padres que bautizar a nuestros hijos tan pronto como sea posible!

     El nombre "Emmanuel" significa "Dios está con nosotros", y cuando recibimos el bautismo, recibimos a Emmanuel. Dios está con nosotros sin importar lo que suceda después de nuestro bautismo, y si Dios está con nosotros, ¿quién puede estar en contra de nosotros?

    También llevamos a nuestros hijos a recibir el bautismo porque las aguas del bautismo nos limpian del pecado original, el pecado de Adán y Eva en el Jardín del Edén. Ese pecado, que heredamos, destruyó la amistad que teníamos con Dios, pero Dios la restaura en su hijo Jesús. Jesús no necesitó ser bautizado porque Él es Dios….. sino que…. entró en las aguas y su presencia en el agua bendice el agua para que, mediante Su bautismo, seamos limpiados por las aguas bendecidas por Dios a través de Sus ministros ordenados, y tenemos nuestra amistad con Él restaurada.

    La palabra bautismo proviene de la palabra griega “baptizo” y significa “sumergirse”. Entonces, cuando Jesús entró en las aguas, esta sumersión representa su muerte, y cuando sale, representa su resurrección a una nueva vida. Entonces, cuando nos bautizamos, entramos literalmente en la muerte y resurrección de Jesús, y somos salvos por Su acto de salvación, su sacrificio en la cruz por nuestros pecados.

    También vemos en el Evangelio que Dios el Padre y el Espíritu Santo están presentes con Jesús el Hijo, y tambien en aquellos que son bautizados en Su bautismo. La voz del Padre nos anima al decirnos lo complacido que está con su Hijo y que debemos escucharlo y que el Espíritu Santo venga, aparece como una paloma que representa que Jesús trae paz y los dones del Espíritu Santo.

    El bautismo de Juan, el primo de Jesus, fue importante, pero no pudo salvarnos, fue una señal de arrepentimiento y alejarse del pecado, pero el bautismo que Jesús trae es mucho más significativo porque cambia nuestras almas y recibimos un sello o carácter especial. Después del bautismo somos diferentes, estamos marcados con el Espíritu Santo y Dios el Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo ahora habitan dentro de nosotros. Tenemos gracias del Espiritu Santo para que podamos perseverar en esta vida con esperanza, paz, amor y fe, y podamos crecer en sabiduría y entendimiento y convertirnos en soldados para Cristo en esta batalla contra el diablo que intenta destruir nuestra esperanza.

    En el día de nuestro juicio después de nuestra muerte, es porque hemos sido bautizados con Jesús, que Dios verá a Su Hijo en cada uno de nosotros. Jesús actúa como nuestro mediador, y debido a que Dios ve a Su Hijo en nosotros, nos recibe en el Cielo siempre que no muramos en un estado de pecado mortal, que es un pecado grave sin arrepentimiento que nos separa de la gracia salvadora de Dios.

    Hermanos y Hermanas, llevamos a nuestros hijos a ser bautizados lo antes posible porque entendemos cuán importante es el bautismo para nuestra salvación y para nuestro viaje en esta vida, un viaje que es extremadamente difícil e imposible de hacer solo, separado de Dios y su cuerpo su Iglesia. Hacemos esto porque amamos a nuestros hijos y queremos darles el mejor regalo que podemos darles, la vida de gracia en sus almas y el regalo de la vida eterna.

    Dios siempre está con nosotros en el sacramento del bautismo. Cuando nos sentimos solos, o luchamos contra el pecado, o sufrimos, siempre tenemos la gracia del bautismo para ayudarnos si lo pedimos, y Dios nunca nos abandona a pesar de que nos permite ser puestos a prueba.

    Padres, abuelos, padrinos, si bautizaron a sus hijos, recuerden esto si están desanimados de que no están practicandos sus fe. La gracia está allí para ellos, y Dios es misericordioso hasta el final.

    Para aquellos que viven en pecado mortal, los aliento a que invocen la gracia de su bautismo y le pidan al Espíritu Santo que le dé la disciplina que necesita para confesarse y que esa gracia sea restaurada en su alma, para vivir en la luz de la verdad y para alentar a los demás con el perdón y la esperanza y el amor que han recibido. Estamos todos juntos en esto, y somos fuertes cuando estamos unidos por la gracia salvadora de nuestro bautismo en la vida de Jesucristo.

    Dios los bendiga a todos y continuemos nuestro viaje hacia la vida eterna al ser alimentados por su cuerpo y sangre en la liturgia de la eucaristía.


  2. Lec # 21- Baptism of the Lord- Jan 13, 2019- Fr. Bresowar

    Brothers and sisters, as always, it is good to be here with you today to celebrate the last feast of the Christmas season, the Baptism of our Lord.

    In the Gospel of Luke today, we read of an important event of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River by his cousin John. 

    This marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, and over the next few months, we will be hearing in the holy Mass, many of the signs and teachings of Jesus during His ministry. It makes sense then that this feast ends the Christmas season, the birth and younger years of Jesus, and starts the season of ordinary time, his adult ministry. 

    So, what is Baptism? All of us know that is important for us to be baptized. My parents had me baptized seventeen days after my birth. As soon as we are able, we bring our children to the church to be baptized but why? 

    Baptism is where we receive the presence of the God in our souls and hope of salvation! There is nothing better we can do as parents than to have our children baptized as soon as possible!

     The name “Emmanuel” means “God is with us,” and when we receive baptism, we receive Emmanuel. God is always with us no matter what after our baptism, and if God is with us, who can be against us? 

    We also bring our children to receive baptism because the waters of baptism clean us of original sin, the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. That sin, which we inherited, destroyed the friendship we had with God, but God restores it in His son Jesus. Jesus didn’t need to be baptized because He is God, but He went into the waters and his presence in the water blesses the water so that by His baptism, we are made clean by the waters which are blessed by God through His ordained ministers, and we have our friendship with Him restored. 

    The word Baptism comes from the Greek word “Baptizo” and it means “to immerse.” So when Jesus went into the waters, this immersion represents His death, and when He comes out, this represents His resurrection to new life. So, when we are baptized, we literally enter into the death and resurrection of Jesus, and we are saved by His saving act, his sacrifice on the cross for our sins. 

    We also see in the Gospel that God the Father and the Holy Spirit are present with Jesus the Son, and in those who are baptized in His baptism. The voice of the Father encourages us by telling us how pleased he is with His Son and that we should listen to Him and the Holy Spirit comes appears as a dove which represents that Jesus brings peace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

    The baptism of John was important but it could not save us, it was a sign of repentance and turning away from sin, but the baptism which Jesus brings is much more significant because it changes our souls and we receive a special seal or character. After baptism we are different, we are marked with the Holy Spirit and God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are now dwelling inside of us. We have graces so that we can persevere in this life with hope, and peace, and love, and faith, and we can grow in wisdom and understanding and become soldiers for Christ in this battle against the devil who is trying to destroy our hope.  

    On the day of our judgment after our death, it is because we have been baptized with Jesus, that God will see His Son in each of us. Jesus acts as our mediator, and because God sees His Son in us, He welcomes us into Heaven so long as we do not die in a state of mortal sin, which is unrepented serious sin that cuts us off from God’s saving grace. 

    We bring our children to be baptized as soon as possible because we understand how important baptism is for our salvation and for our journey in this life, a journey which is extremely difficult and impossible to do alone, separated from God and His Church. We do this because we love our children and we want to give them the greatest gift that we can give them, the life of grace in their souls and the gift of everlasting life. 

    God is always with us in the sacrament of baptism. When we feel alone, or we are struggling with sin, or we are suffering, we always have the grace of baptism to helps us if we ask for it, and God never abandons us even though he allows us to be put to the test. 

    Parents, grandparents, godparents, if you had your children baptized, remember this if you are discouraged that they are not practising their faith. The grace is there for them, and God is merciful to the very end. 

    For those who are living in mortal sin, I encourage you to call upon the grace of your baptism and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the discipline you need to go to confession and have that grace restored in your soul, to live in the light of truth and to encourage others with forgiveness and hope and love which you have received. We are all in this together, and we are strong when we are united by the saving grace of our baptism in the life of Jesus Christ. 

    God Bless you all and let us now continue in our journey towards Eternal life by being nourished by His Body and Blood in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. 





  3. Lec # 134- 25thSunday of OT- Sept 23rd, 2018- Fr. Bresowar

    Brothers and sisters,

    Last week I reflected on the reality that if we tried to walk in the path of righteousness and reject the ways of the world in favor of the ways of God, that it would necessarily mean that we would be rejected by those who live only for the world. 

    Suffering persecution for living the truth of Jesus Christ is part of our journey. I also stated that this rejection often times comes from those closest to us. It isn’t necessary that a persecution come from outside, but it often can come from in our own homes and families, even within this church. 

    This week, we see in the readings this same theme. There have been many people who have changed their lives and tried to walk in the light instead of the darkness. Yet many people are surprised that to walk in the light is sometimes harder than walking in darkness. 

    There are reasons for this. To walk in sin, in addiction, to live for the world and only for her pleasures, leads to suffering and in many ways. But at the same time, these ways come more naturally to us. It is easier to choose to feed our flesh and it requires discipline to take up our cross, reject the temptations that the world offers, and give ourselves over to Christ. 

    Jesus says that the road that leads to destruction is widely travelled. This is because it is easier. And an undisciplined person will easily fall onto that path, causing destruction along the way for himself and those around him. 

    Many of the people in this church know what it is to suffer because of the people around them, both here and in foreign lands. In fact, many people had to leave their own countries to come here because men were choosing to live for the world and causing great harm and violence, making it almost impossible to stay in their own land and survive. 

    Yet, when they arrived here, they found that many of the same types of undisciplined people that existed in their home country also exist here. This is the reality of the world. It can even exist in our own marriages.

    It’s the same reality that Jesus entered into. 

    In the book of Wisdom, which we read in the first reading, we hear of the plan of those who are wicked. The goal of the enemies of God, those who live only for themselves and worldly pleasures, is to destroy the righteous person. Following Satan, they choose to abuse, insult, dominate and eventually kill anyone who would go against them. They kill by destroying the spirit of those who are trying to walk in the path of goodness. 

    In the letter of St. James, we heard, “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,there is disorder and every foul practice.” How often do feelings of jealousy towards others act as a poison in our own lives. How often have we sought to solve a problem by doing or thinking of solutions that are evil?

    Jesus, who is the righteous son of God, the one who came into the world to save us from this evil, told his disciples that He would be rejected and killed. 

    They were afraid to ask him about this and instead discussed amongst themselves which one of them would be the greatest. 

    Here we see the weakness of men and women without God, always seeking the world, and never seeking the kingdom of God. 

    Although the evil of the world is all around us and affects us in many ways, and even though sometimes we are the ones that cause that evil and seek the things that we do not need to seek, God does not abandon us. 

    The darkness is everywhere but, in the end, it will not defeat those who choose to walk in the light. 

    On the day Jesus died, almost everyone had abandoned him, and it appeared that evil had won. But that was only an appearance, reality was very different. While the men who seek to destroy and live only for themselves thought they had destroyed goodness and light, they were actually being destroyed themselves by the death of Jesus. 

    God chooses to enter into the darkness to overcome it and he did this by allowing himself to be rejected, mocked, beaten and spit upon and finally crucified so that he could destroy the darkness and manifest the victory of righteousness over evil.

    Three days after his death, he rose from the dead. And he didn’t just rise, he burst forth from the tomb with the light of Heaven and showed the world that the light will never be overcome by the darkness. In this, he changed how we think about suffering, how we think about death, and how we understand the power of God vs the power of the devil and evil men and women. 

    He also showed us how to overcome the darkness in our own lives and how to persevere on the path of goodness. He came to convert our hearts and forgive us our sins. He came to lead us to everlasting victory. 

    In the end, we will be judged on our choices, did we choose to walk in the light of truth and reject the darkness or did we choose the pleasures of the world and our own selves, our own plans for our own redemption, over the plan of God and the cross of our salvation. 

    Jesus says if we want to be great, we must be humble and obedient and persevere, carry our cross and be servants to all. We must reject the darkness and the temptations to jealousy and anger. We must, or else those dark realities will be our end. Life is short, we are either going to live forever in the light or forever in the darkness. The choice is ours. Forgiveness and perseverance are from God, hatred and despair are from the devil. 

    Let us follow Christ and be obedient to his commandments and carry our cross, seeking to serve others and not ourselves. Then we will be victorious not only in this life but more importantly, forever in the kingdom of God. 

    No matter what happens to us in this life, we can win if we always choose the light and the ways of righteousness, following Jesus. 



  4. Lec # 8- 3rd Sunday of Advent- Dec 17, 2017- Fr. Bresowar

    Today we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent. During this season of preparation the Church gives us a special Sunday, denoted by the color of Rose, to reflect on the theme of joy.

    Henri Nouwen described a difference between joy and happiness, he said “While happiness is dependent on external conditions, joy is "the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing -- sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death -- can take that love away.”  Thus joy can be present even in the midst of sadness.

    This past week I heard many confessions and was present to the reality that many people suffer from their own sins and the sins of others. Even a few days ago a child came to me in tears because it was his birthday and his father had promised to remain sober, but could not keep his promise. I’ve seen women and children abused time and time again by the disease of alcoholism. It’s terrible, and yet we must understand that addiction is a disease and like many diseases it takes time to overcome.

    I’ve seen terrible afflictions fall upon many people in many different circumstances, from families and loved ones experiencing the death of a child, to a good friend of mine suddenly losing his mother with no time to prepare. Illnesses, addictions to drugs, alcohol, and sex; a lack of forgiveness, fighting between husbands and wives, abuse, sin and darkness. These are the realities that so often are the culprits which affect our happiness.

    The reality is that while sin exist in the world, there will always be injustices all around us. Our happiness will always be under attack in some form or manner. Some will be caused by our own struggles and others will be caused by the struggles of those we care deeply about.

    God never promised that we would always be happy. In fact, his very life showed us that this life would be a constant struggle. Many people heard the message of Jesus and walked away, others hated him for it, and some plotted to kill him and eventually they succeeded.

    John the Baptist preached a message of repentance and eventually they killed him. Mary said yes to God’s plan and as soon as the child was born she received a prophesy of suffering and then had to leave to Egypt. Eventually she would walk with her son along his path to the cross and would hold her dead son in her arms.

    As Henry Nouwan stated so elegantly, happiness is affected by external conditions. Yet Joy, Joy is something altogether different.

    While happiness can be there or not, Christian Joy is something which if one has it, even if terrible injustices occur, it can never be taken away.
    While individuals tried to kill her son Jesus, while she walked with him in his passion, Mary never despaired, although she was not happy about what was happening, she kept inside of her the joy of knowing that her son was the savior of the world and that his death was not the end.

    John the Baptist, while maybe at times he had doubts, knew interiorly that Jesus was the Lamb of God, and no matter what happens, if he kept God’s commands and completed the work he had been called to do, nothing could take this joy from him.

    Joy is what keeps us going despite the pain. Joy is something which exist in those who have true faith.

    The more we pray, the more we stay close to the sacraments and receive the Holy Spirit, the more our joy is increased.

    St. Maximillian Kolbe was a prisoner of the Nazi’s and he was condemned to die. While he set in his prison he would inspire those around him with singing songs and hymns of hope, to remind those who were to share his fate, that this suffering was only temporary.

    St. Ignatius of Antioch refused to be saved from being killed by lions. These saints and so many more had a joy which enabled them to overcome fear.

    If we only knew what God has prepared for those who truly love him, and if we would walk by faith, then we too would always be filled with great hope and joy as were the Saints, even though they also knew many times of sadness and pain.

    Joy is knowing that we are loved and that this love cannot be taken away from us. We may have to suffer a little while longer, but this is so that our faith may be made pure and our joy may be made more manifest. Jesus Christ is on the way, the hope of the world is coming. His victory over sin and death will be made manifest in all who choose to believe and follow.

    May God Bless you, and may each of us do what is necessary to obtain the unending joy of the Word made Flesh so as to never lose it.




  5. Lec # 132- 24th Sun of OT- 17 Sept 2017- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sister,

    No one that I know enjoys being hurt by another person. And yet so often we are hurt in some way, by words and by actions.

    My parents had five children, and as any parent knows who has multiple children, there is a lot competition for attention. My brother and my sisters and I would often fight with each other and say horrible things to each other. We didn’t really mean it, we just wanted the attention, and we wanted to feel good about ourselves. So when we had a negative feeling, we would often times try to make each other feel negative. Then we would fight over something small, say something mean to each other or hit each other, begin to cry, and then run and tell on each other to our parents.

    We usually would run to our mom because my dad would put us to work if we came to him complaining. But my mother had a different solution. Both solutions were good. She never really overreacted to our fighting, however, so long as it wasn’t very serious which it rarely was, she would tell to hug each other, and tell each other that we love each other.

    This wasn’t satisfying when we were trying to get our sibling in trouble, and yet I heard many times in my life, the command to tell my brother or sisters that I loved them after we were fighting.

    We did love each other, we just didn’t always get along and my mom was trying to teach us to forgive each other quickly.

    As adults, all of us often times continue our childlike tendencies to hurt each other and we still have our feelings hurt.

    All of us have our own pride, and sometimes that pride is wounded. And yet other times we hurt each other in a much more serious way.

    And while it may not always be appropriate to give each other hugs and tell each other we love each other, it is always appropriate to seek forgiveness.

    If someone asks for forgiveness, our Lord Jesus tells us that we must forgive and forgive and forgive more, as He has forgiven us over and over and over.

    That doesn’t mean that we continue to submit ourselves to violence or danger, but rather, that we do not hang on to hatred in our hearts.

    God wants to free us from the traps and tortures of anger and a lack forgiveness.  He wants us to learn how to forgive quickly so that we may live the beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.”

    We disagree with each other often times, but that doesn’t mean that we need to hang on to grudges or wait for people to agree with us, we must forgive and forgive quickly, even if we don’t get the desired outcome we hoped for, just like my mother tried to teach us as children. Forgiveness, like love, is unconditional.

    It has helped me as an adult because I don’t like being angry with anyone. I don’t like holding onto grudges. If I have offended someone I seek to make it right as soon as I can, or if someone has offended me, I try to forgive them even if they don’t recognize they have offended me.

    Why? I do this because of the lessons my parents taught me at a young age, and because of the grace God has given me so many times in the sacrament of confession.

    If we want to learn how to forgive quickly, then we should go to confession frequently. The more we recognize how much and often God has forgiven us, the easier it is to forgive others. In confession we learn humility, we recognize we are broken, and we receive forgiveness, so that when others offend us, we are quick to forgive them.

    Lastly, if we struggle forgiving some past offense, even if it was a very serious offense, or we struggle with forgiving even now, then we need to ask God to help us. God wants to help us be free from anger and hurt. He wants to heal us. He wants to help us with our tempers, and help us learn to let things go faster. Prayer, humility, confession, love of neighbor, charity, all of these are very affective in helping us forgive. God’s grace can do what seems impossible for us.

    May God Bless you always and may we all be quick to forgive each other as God has and continues to forgive us.





  6. This Tuesday is July 4th, and our country will celebrate its 241st birthday. In the year 1776, the founding fathers of this country signed the declaration of Independence in the city of Philadelphia on the fourth of July. On that day, the United States of America was born. Originally, the United States was made up of 13 colonies. These colonies were settled by the British in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Before that, the United States was not a country, but rather it was land that was occupied by pagan-indigenous of different tribes, who would later become known as Native-Americans in a single ethnicity.

    The country that we celebrate on the Fourth of July was founded principally by individuals who descended from the country of England. Why did they come? In the 16th century, England broke away from the Catholic Church and created a new Church called the Church of England. Everyone in England had to belong to that new church or they were persecuted and often killed.

    Not wanting to be killed or persecuted, a group of puritan separatists, individuals who had broken away from the Church of England, set sail on the famous ship called the May Flower in the year 1620.

    They landed in what is now the state of Massachusetts, after a very harsh journey, in a place they called Plymouth. There, they established the first settlement of Europeans, and they governed themselves under a document called the Mayflower Compact; women were not allowed to participate in government at that time. The puritans practiced a very strict form of Protestantism, that was even more anti-Catholic than the Church of England. In fact, they left England to escape persecution from the King, only to reform the version of the Church in England to be more pure and free from the influence of Catholicism which they thought had too much influence on the Church of England.

    Sadly, this led them to a very strict interpretation of the bible which pushed them father away from the Christianity practiced and passed down from the Apostles. There is a very small number of puritans that remain today. Their influence is seen more in fundamentalist versions of Christianity and is still important in understanding our history.

    Eventually, more and more people came from England for many reasons, but chief among them was to be able to practice religion in ways that were different than what was allowed in England.

    By the time the founders signed the declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies were made up mostly of Protestants individuals who did not want the government to tell them what Church they could or could not belong to.

    In fact, the citizens of the colonies were tired of England altogether, especially the practice of taxing them without allowing them to have any representation in the British Parliament. So, they set up a new form of government, a Democratic Republic, which would be based upon certain principles, mainly that all men and women were created equal under God, endowed with certain God-given rights, principally the right to pursue happiness without the over-burdening practices of a federal government. This government was meant to be by the people, and for the people, at the service of a free country. The founders of the United States wanted to make sure that religious practice was protected and allowed to grow without the threat of persecution.

    That was their intent. There was a great war between the colonists and England, but in the end, the idea of America won and the constitution of the United States was put into practice. Of course, that document has been tested in many ways in our history, and still is today.

    As time passed, more individuals came into this country from various parts of the world. Although there were a small number of Catholics from England in the time of the settlements, the biggest influence of Catholicism in the United States didn’t happen until large numbers of immigrants came from Spain, and France, and later Italy and Ireland, and other parts of Europe during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  

    Spain had great influence on colonizing the indigenous of Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, California as well as Florida, while the French had a great influence on Mobile and New Orleans and surrounding areas. This is why those areas have large numbers of Catholics, because immigrants and missionaries from those countries brought the Catholic faith to those lands. The Catholics that came into New York and spread throughout New England and across the Midwest were largely from Ireland and Italy, France and Germany, Russia, Poland, and Austria.

    While it was not always peaceful, and certainly the history of this country has had some ugly moments to say the least, especially during the time of slavery, the idea of America has always been that people could come here seeking freedom and a better way of life. As time has passed, women, African-Americans, Native-Americans, immigrants from all over have seen their rights grow, and that has been a good thing, and needs to continue. We must respect each other, and allow growth, while still maintaining a proper understanding of morality and human dignity created under and defined by God. We must if we are to remain a civil society and keep the ideal of America.

    We are a great mixture of different cultures, nationalities and religions, and what makes us great, when we are at our best, is our acceptance of each other’s ethnicities, cultures and religions.

    Together, we form an American Culture, and every generation of immigrants that has come here, from England to Africa, South America, Middle America, and beyond, has brought with it practices which make up an American Culture as one. We are not Mexican, or Japanese, we are not Irish, we are not British or Spanish, we are Americans. At the same time, we come from those heritages and we should not reject where we come from or throw it all away. Those heritages, native and foreign, are what make this country great.  At our best, we welcome all to share in the American dream, and be free to practice their faith as they see fit, so long as it respects the laws of the land and the abilities of individuals to be able to do so. At our best, we are all one as Americans.

    However, the United States of America is not the perfect ideal. It has flaws of course. Only Heaven is the perfect ideal, because Heaven is what endures forever, the Kingdom of God. But to live in peace and to prosper, we must be free to do so. America has given us that chance to be free when she keeps to her principles. We must reflect in an imperfect way, the perfection of Heaven, where all are one in Christ Jesus, who is freedoms perfect reality, who loves everyone regardless of where they come from or what language they speak.


    God Bless each of you, and may God Bless our country and may we always defend her even despite our differences, and may we pray for the United States and especially for those who we elect to govern us under the constitution, that we may all be free to grow in virtue no matter where we come from, in the pursuit of happiness, in love of God and our neighbor, and may this country continue to be a beacon of light and charity for the world. Amen.
  7. Image result for time is running out jesus
    Lec # 94 – 12th Sunday of OT – June 25, 2017- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters, it is very good to be here with you to celebrate the Holy Mass. Jesus Christ is Lord, He is God and King, He is our salvation and our only Hope. He is the prince of peace, the Lord of Lords. He is the mighty one, the victor over death, He has conquered sin and the devil. By his sacrifice on the cross, we are healed. By His grace, we are saved. There is no other name in Heaven and on Earth by which we are saved. Every knee will bend at his name.

    The time is coming soon, where every man and woman will give an account for their lives. In the Gospel, our Lord tells us that those who acknowledge Him before others, he will acknowledge us before His father on our judgment day. And he warns that those who deny him, he will also deny before Our Father. That day is going to be terrible for some, and glorious for others.  

    He then tells us, as he does throughout the Gospel, to not be afraid of the rulers of the world. The world is passing away, we are here one day, and gone the next. He does not want us to fear the ones that can hurt us here, but only the one who can kill the soul and the body forever in Gahanna, which is another word for Hell. This is the devil or Satan.

    My brothers and sisters, why does Jesus tell us to fear the devil? This is a question we should think about.

    Many people do not fear Hell or the devil, they mistakenly think that they can continue to live in sin, being disobedient to our God, and that so long as they believe in God, they have nothing to worry about. This is a grave mistake.

    Jesus never said that all we have to do is believe and we can continue to live in sin. He never said that at all.  He told us to not be afraid of earthly persecutions and struggles, but he never told us to be comfortable or complacent in our faith. Our world, our culture, our country is what Jesus is calling us to leave out of. He says no man can love his live in this world and in the next at the same time, he will either love his life here and hate it in the next, or he will hate his live here and love it in the next.

    And the ruler of the world is Satan. Satan has dominion for now over the world, and those who try to save their lives here are following the devil, and we can see evidence of this everywhere. The devil hates God, and everything God creates. So he sets out to convince men to be their own gods, and to distort the Truth. He wants that which is beautiful to be distorted and ugly. He wants to destroy marriage, sex, the priesthood, family, life, nature, you, me, everything. He distorts sex through pornography and lust, trying to get us to commit mortal sin through fornication or self-abuse. He seeks to kill the most innocent and pure through abortion, murder and rape. He destroys marriages through infidelity and contraception, anger and jealousy. He corrupts the youth through bad music, drugs, alcohol, pornography and fornication. He wants us to worship pleasure in the flesh, yet he, the devil, fears those who walk in the light of Christ, those who go to confession regularly and receive the Eucharist. He fears those who are living in the sacraments of marriage in the Church as God wants us to live it, and priesthood of Jesus Christ. He fears those who reject the false allurements of the world. He fears them, because they have Jesus Christ living in them. He fears the blessed mother Mary the most, and so when we pray the rosary, he really fears us if we are living in grace, because he is afraid of her. She crushes his head with her humility.

    The devil is a loser. He is not going to win. He is a murderer and a liar. A fallen angel, He has already lost. And yet he still wages war against us every day by tempting us to reject God and to choose sin.

    We must reject Satan, we must reject sin. I hate sin, and yet it is so easy to fall into sin. When we do sin, we must repent immediately.

    When we repent, and do penance, we have no reason to fear. Christ has given us His victory through the cross for those who repent and believe.

    Many people know they are living in sin and do nothing to change it. Others sin, but they repent of it and try not to sin anymore. Why? Because by God’s grace, they see how damaging it is, how horribly it hurts us. They love what God loves. God loves us so much that he doesn’t want us to hurt ourselves through sin.  

    Those who repent and change their lives have great reason to rejoice, as the angels rejoice in Heaven, because although death came into the world through the sin of man, Life has been restored through the obedience of Christ.

    The sacraments are where the real power is. Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Marriage, Priesthood, the anointing of the sick, confession. Living in the grace of the sacraments gives us what we need to be holy married couples, to be holy priests, to be holy Christians, to evangelize the truth, to be witnesses of Christ before others.

    Without the grace in the sacraments, even if we pray and ask God to fix everything here, even if we try to live good lives, even if we do everything we think we are supposed to do, we will be denied, because only grace is what saves us, only grace is what answers our prayers.

    Jesus says we must acknowledge him before others, and we do this when we confess our sins regularly, and we eat his body and drink his blood, and when we are obedient to God’s law, when we live in the sacraments which he reveals in Sacred Scripture and gives us through his Holy Church.

    If we do this, then we really have nothing to fear. It is difficult, it requires discipline. Our Lord says that many people choose Hell, the road is wide that leads to damnation, over Heaven, because of they don’t want to be obedient. They fall into the easy traps of the devil who tells us, like he told Adam and Eve, that we don’t have to do it God’s way.

    Let us not be one of them. Let us choose Heaven and do whatever is necessary to live in the grace of God. It is our choice, no one is going to make us repent and believe and be obedient to the Catholic Church, which is the exact same as obedience to Jesus, because Christ and the Church are one. He has given all authority in Heaven to His Church. He has bound Himself to His bride, His Church. 

    Despair has no place in our lives, the time for excuses is way past us, now is the time to repent, pray for each other, acknowledge Jesus to our families and friends and even strangers, and walk by faith and hope and love, until the day which will come very soon, when we will stand before God and give an account of our lives.

    God Bless you, please pray for me; I really need your prayers, and I will pray for you.


  8. Today we gaze upon the humility of God. Our relationship had been shattered when we sinned against him, so God fixes it by sending his only Son to die.

    What an incredible humility.

    Someone mentioned to me recently that it would be like one of us dying on behalf of the billions of ants that wonder around on the ground.

    I said it is much greater than that. God is so much bigger than us that when He came here it was such a condescension that we really cannot understand it.

    It would be like us becoming a small micro-organism which one cannot even see with the human eye. But even that doesn’t compare. So great was the humility of Him taking on our flesh.

    But not only did he do that, he then allowed himself to be brutally tortured by us.  

    Christianity is the only religion in the world which proclaims that God died for love of us.

    All other religions have a god or gods which would never take the guilt of our sins on his shoulders, but our God, the one true God, loves us so much that he allowed himself to be crucified for our indifference, our pride, our selfishness, our vanities, our lusts, our greed.

    So that we might understand the price of our rejection of God, he submitted himself to a brutal crucifixion. He became the sacrificial lamb and we must eat this lamb and drink of this chalice too. Our suffering is His suffering, and His suffering is ours.

    This is a love which we can only begin to understand here and will perfectly understand when we are in His presence in His Kingdom.

    Look at the humility of God. Look at our savior hung and nailed to a cross for our salvation. If he didn’t do this, then we would have no hope of redemption. But He did this, he made the cross our only hope.

    We kiss it because it is by the cross we are saved.

    Let us also remember that Mary suffered too. She held Jesus as a baby, she fled to Egypt with Joseph, she felt frightened when she thought she had lost him in the temple, she raised him, laughed with him in his joys, cried with him when he was hurt, she marveled at the miracles he performed and the saving words he spoke, and she felt his rejection when no one seemed to care.

    When his friends abandoned Him in his hour of need, she stayed with him by his side, walking with him as they beat him, spit on him, mocked and insulted him, and as they nailed him to the cross. She was there when he said, “It is finished,” and she died with him right there as she held her bloodied son in her arms.

    We tell Jesus we are sorry for what we have done to him, but we need to tell Mary we are sorry too. For because of our sins, our mother had to watch her only son be killed, and it was our fault.

    And yet, she knew that what he was doing he did for love of us, a perfect act of love, the greatest love we will ever know.

    Jesus help us to not be indifferent anymore. Take away our shame from the grace that comes from the cross and teach us to be humble as you are humble. We are sorry for what we have done, and we apologize to your mother too.


    We offer our hearts to you for it is all we have to give. Take us and do with us as you will.  

  9. Jesus asks his disciples, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”

    He wasn’t just speaking about washing their feet. It was much more than that. He has overcome sin and open the gates of Heaven.

    Like them, we don’t completely understand, which is why we need a reminder. A reminder to help us remember to be thankful. Our Lord knows that we need this so what does he do?

    He takes bread and transforms it into his body, and he takes wine and transform it into his blood. And he commands us do this as a reminder! As often as you offer this Holy Mass, you make present my sacrifice which takes away your sins.

    This meal is called the Eucharist. The word Eucharist means “Thanksgiving.”

    When we join together for mass, we are participating in a meal of thanksgiving which lasts forever. Heaven is an eternal thanksgiving. But not only that, we are eating the fruit of his sacrifice.

    When we eat his body, and drink his blood, we are one with Him, body, blood, soul and divinity. We become what we eat. We become what we drink. We enter into His sacrifice with Him, and this is acceptable to His Father. Only this is acceptable, nothing we can do can save us except participate in this sacrifice. By His wounds, we are healed. It is by this that we are saved. We become what we eat and drink.  

    Saint Paul states that it is No longer I, but Christ who lives in me. So the Father no longer sees us when we eat and drink the Eucharist, He sees His son Jesus living in us.

    If we do this with the proper attitude and not just as an insignificant obligation amongst others, how can we be anything but thankful?


    My brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is here with us in this Eucharist. He is present in the bread and wine which becomes His body and blood. He has done this for us so that we might be with Him. Let us be thankful, and put aside our worldly problems for love is here tonight. Love has taken our sins upon Himself, and has left us a memorial which will last forever. Love has destroyed death and sin. Love is here. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest mystery of love we possess. Thank you Jesus for everything, but most of all, for your body and your blood, poured out for each of us and given so that we might have the food that gives us eternal life.

  10. My brothers and sisters, at this sacred Mass we are celebrating the special feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

    Forty days after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary, with Jesus, presented themselves at the temple as was the custom under the Jewish Law. This was done because Mary was considered uncleaned for forty days after Jesus’ birth. This is a ritual impurity and does not mean that she was with sin, or that something was wrong with her. In the Jewish Law, because of the blood that is part of the birthing process, women are considered ritually impure for forty days after the birth of a male son, and 70 days after a female child. The law doesn’t say why it is longer for females, but some have speculated because females were considered more holy in that they were able to bare life. I’m not exactly sure. While we believe that the conception and birth of Jesus was miraculous, as he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and the virginity of the Blessed Mother was not broken during the birthing process, still, Mary and Joseph were obedient Jews who followed the law. Therefore, they went to the temple so that Mary could bathe in the pool and thus be ritually cleansed.

    This would have been the custom for all Jewish women who gave birth in the times when Jesus lived.
    Also the law prescribed that an animal sacrifice was made in the form of two turtle doves or two pigeons for those with little money, as an act of consecrating the child to the Lord.

    This explains why Joseph and Mary were at the temple forty days after the birth of Jesus. This would be normal and perhaps not written about in the bible if not for what happened while they were there.

    In the early Church this feast day was called the “encounter.” It marked the official end of the Christmas season all the way up until 1969 when the Church changed the liturgical calendar. Now, the end of Christmas season is the Epiphany of the Lord where Christ is revealed as the light of the world, and the Magi present the gifts to Jesus. However, the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is an epiphany as well. Jesus is proclaimed by the righteous man Simeon to be the light of the nations, the salvation of the world, Hence the blessing and procession of candles on this day. In the Middle Ages this feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or 'Candlemas,' was of great importance.

    Mary also received a prophecy that a sword would pierce her heart revealing to her and to all of us that Mary shares in a unique way in the glory and the passion of her son. She will live with him, follow him, share in his passion, and then in His glory in Heaven in a way which no human ever has or ever will.

    Both Simeon and Anna were holy and righteous people, accustomed to fasting and prayer. They spent much time praying in the temple of the Lord and were persons of great wisdom. Thus they were properly disposed to be able to recognize the Messiah, the savior of the world as he entered the temple as a baby.

    When we fast and pray frequently, we too are more disposed to recognize the miraculous things God does around us all the time. We too are more ready to trust him and to believe the good news, and we too are ready to follow the light in the midst of darkness.

    Jesus is God become flesh. The temple he entered is His temple. He is the one the Jews worshiped since the beginning although they did not recognize Him. He is the one who God has sent, His only Son, to save the world from sin and to be a light in the darkness. His body then becomes the new temple as he fulfills the old testament. Christ is our light, let us follow him, take up our cross, share in his passion, and then receive our reward in Heaven.





About Me
About Me
I am a Catholic Priest in the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama. This blog is where I post my homilies from time to time. May God bless you always!
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