July 28, 2024 Homily: Fr Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02the church draws her life from the
2. 0:06Eucharist it is the constant fulfillment
3. 0:09of the Lord's promise to remain with us
4. 0:13until the very end of
5. 0:15time those were the are the first words
6. 0:19of St John Paul II in one of his major
7. 0:22pastoral letters on the Blessed
8. 0:25Sacrament the church draws her life from
9. 0:28the Eucharist
10. 0:30let that sink
11. 0:32in and it is the perfect reflection for
12. 0:35us to make today as we begin reading
13. 0:38from the Gospel of
14. 0:40John as I mentioned at the beginning of
15. 0:42mass today we're taking a break from
16. 0:44Reading from Mark's
17. 0:48gospel for the next five weeks we will
18. 0:50hear from the Gospel of
19. 0:53John specifically we'll be reading from
20. 0:55the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John
21. 0:59it is where we get our theology on the
22. 1:03Eucharist it's filled with the most
23. 1:06profound teaching on the Holy
24. 1:10Eucharist the other gospels Matthew Mark
25. 1:12and Luke each present the Eucharist
26. 1:14during the account of the Last Supper
27. 1:17when Jesus instituted this great
28. 1:19Sacrament on the night before his
29. 1:23crucifixion John does things a little
30. 1:26differently he presents the Eucharist
31. 1:28here in chapter 6 beginning with Jesus's
32. 1:31multiplication of the Loaves and what
33. 1:33has has been called the bread of life
34. 1:37discourse from which we'll be reading
35. 1:39from for the next five
36. 1:43weeks well pray for me because it's not
37. 1:46easy to preach on the same topic for
38. 1:49five
39. 1:50weeks but we will do our best but I want
40. 1:53you to do your part as well and I'm
41. 1:55going to give you homework I don't often
42. 1:57give you homework but I'm giving you
43. 1:59homework
44. 2:00I want you to read John chapter
45. 2:036 do it this week or the next because I
46. 2:06want you to have a clear
47. 2:09idea of what we're talking about at mass
48. 2:11for the next five
49. 2:13weeks and how truly radical this
50. 2:16teaching was for the time what a gift
51. 2:19the Holy Eucharist is for all of
52. 2:22us and indeed we'll be using this
53. 2:25chapter to remind ourselves exactly what
54. 2:27we believe what do we believe is
55. 2:29Catholic
56. 2:31what do we believe about the Eucharist
57. 2:33and how is it that it is the central
58. 2:36importance of our Catholic
59. 2:39faith to help us set the stage of this
60. 2:42Central teaching I want to tell you a
61. 2:44story about the great St John
62. 2:48Bosco for about 60 years St John BOS
63. 2:52received remarkable dreams or
64. 2:56visions one of these Visions he shares
65. 3:00and it's probably one of the best
66. 3:01remembered it's probably one of the ones
67. 3:02that he spoke about the most and it's a
68. 3:05dream a vision of the church in the form
69. 3:08of a very large vessel very large ship a
70. 3:12ship that's sailing on the
71. 3:16sea as the ship as this ship of the
72. 3:20church sailed through the waters St John
73. 3:23bosc saw many other smaller ships
74. 3:26converging on it doing battle against
75. 3:29the ship which he understood to be the
76. 3:31many enemies of the church and how the
77. 3:34church was
78. 3:36persecuted and how she suffered from sin
79. 3:39and
80. 3:40error on the
81. 3:42horizon protruding from the sea were
82. 3:45these two enormous columns and they were
83. 3:48set off in the
84. 3:50distance on top of one of the columns
85. 3:54was the Statue of the Blessed Virgin
86. 3:56Mary and there was an inscription on the
87. 3:58bottom of that
88. 4:00column which said The Help of
89. 4:04Christians The Help of Christians on the
90. 4:07top of the other column was the sacred
91. 4:11host the most holy Eucharist with the
92. 4:13inscription that said salvation of the
93. 4:19faithful the captain of the ship was the
94. 4:21pope and he was doing everything he
95. 4:24could to steer the ship between these
96. 4:26two
97. 4:28columns all the enemy enemies moved to
98. 4:30attack and at times St John bosc saw
99. 4:33great holes that would appear on the
100. 4:35side of the big ship as a church was
101. 4:38wounded by her enemies by persecution
102. 4:41and by
103. 4:42sin but when she was
104. 4:45wounded a gentle breeze would come would
105. 4:49blow and they would blow from the Twin
106. 4:52pillars and the holes would be
107. 4:56repaired but the battle progressed the
108. 4:59pope of overcame all obstacles and the
109. 5:01enemies were finally guided and and we
110. 5:06were the pope was able to overcome the
111. 5:08obstacles and enemies and finally was
112. 5:11able to guide this big ship right
113. 5:14between the two columns and fasten onto
114. 5:19them once firmly ensconced between them
115. 5:23a great wind blew and all of the church
116. 5:26enemies were scattered and broken to
117. 5:28pieces and these smaller ships all sank
118. 5:31to the Bottom of the
119. 5:33Sea the church was safe she was guarded
120. 5:37by the Blessed Mother The Help of
121. 5:39Christians on one side and the Holy
122. 5:41Eucharist the salvation of the faithful
123. 5:44on the other
124. 5:45side so the meaning behind the dream
125. 5:48this Vision was
126. 5:50clear that as long as we remain close to
127. 5:53the Blessed Sacrament the Blessed Mother
128. 5:57to Jesus in The Blessed Sacrament we the
129. 5:59church are safe safe from our enemies
130. 6:02safe from error and
131. 6:05sin what a great lesson that alone
132. 6:08teaches
133. 6:10us I always look forward to speaking and
134. 6:13teaching and preaching about the Blessed
135. 6:15Mother I have a huge Devotion to the
136. 6:17Blessed
137. 6:18Mother and I myself am spurred on to
138. 6:21deeper devotion hopefully but for the
139. 6:24next five weeks have I've been
140. 6:25mentioning we will follow the readings
141. 6:27of John chapter 6 and focus on the other
142. 6:31pillar the Holy Eucharist the salvation
143. 6:34of the faithful the most priceless
144. 6:36treasure and the most precious
145. 6:38possession that we as Christians
146. 6:42have when people ask me about various
147. 6:46devotions or about things they can do to
148. 6:49strengthen or deepen their spirituality
149. 6:52or deepen their faith I typically like
150. 6:55to mention a several things and two of
151. 6:59them have to do with the
152. 7:01Eucharist one is daily mass I encourage
153. 7:04people if you want to deepen your faith
154. 7:06you want to a a closer relationship with
155. 7:09the Lord daily mass is a good way to do
156. 7:12that and the second thing is going to
157. 7:14adoration in the Blessed
158. 7:16Sacrament fortunately we have both here
159. 7:19at St Augustine's we have mass every day
160. 7:22at 8:00 a.m. and at
161. 7:2512:05 and I'm always happy to recommend
162. 7:27it as a perfect way to begin your day
163. 7:29day or to come right before
164. 7:32lunch consider taking 25 30 minutes to
165. 7:35come to daily mass once or twice a week
166. 7:38or every
167. 7:40day also as you know the Adoration
168. 7:43Chapel is open for prayer for
169. 7:44Eucharistic adoration and I'm so
170. 7:47gratified to see the people come in and
171. 7:50pray the chapel throughout the day some
172. 7:52come for an hour some come for a half an
173. 7:55hour some even for 5 or 10 minutes but
174. 7:57that's exactly what it's for
175. 8:01I'm happy to recommend that as well
176. 8:04these two devotions daily mass and
177. 8:06adoration before the Blessed Sacrament I
178. 8:10consider both of those devotions to be
179. 8:13lifechanging it's like trying your it's
180. 8:15like tying your ship to the
181. 8:20pillar the church draws her life from
182. 8:22the
183. 8:23Eucharist it is the constant fulfillment
184. 8:26of the Lord's promise to remain with us
185. 8:28until the end of time once again that
186. 8:32quote from St John Paul II reminds us of
187. 8:35the centrality of the ukar to our
188. 8:38Catholic
189. 8:40faith the opening uh the last week was
190. 8:44the closing mass for the Eucharistic
191. 8:48Revival I if you haven't had a chance to
192. 8:51see some of the talks or the music or
193. 8:53the Adoration I would recommend that you
194. 8:55do that they were
195. 8:56excellent you could look it up on their
196. 8:59we ite or you can find it on
197. 9:02YouTube was incredible to see 50,000
198. 9:06Catholics from all over the United
199. 9:07States to gather in adoration of Our
200. 9:12Lord in contrast contrast that to this
201. 9:16past Friday night the opening ceremony
202. 9:18for the
203. 9:20Olympics a gross disgusting mockery of
204. 9:24the Last
205. 9:26Supper the very center of our faith
206. 9:31it is at the Last Supper that Jesus
207. 9:33instituted the
208. 9:35Eucharist make no mistake about it our
209. 9:39Christian faith is under attack in this
210. 9:41country and around the world and it was
211. 9:43on full display at the Olympics on
212. 9:46Friday
213. 9:48night we need to be closer to the
214. 9:51Lord we need to draw our strength from
215. 9:54the
216. 9:56Eucharist for the next five weeks we'll
217. 9:58be hearing from John chap 6 and refresh
218. 10:01our understanding about the Eucharist
219. 10:04and what it means to us as
220. 10:07Catholics I pray these weeks will stir
221. 10:10up in all of us an increased faith and
222. 10:13Devotion to Christ and to the Blessed
223. 10:16Sacrament which is God's greatest gift
224. 10:19to all of us amen am