Vol 13 Issue 41 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
October 10, 2020 ~ Saint Francis Borjia, opn!

1.     What is the Holy Eucharist
2.     Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
3.     Divine Maternity
4.     Family and Marriage
5.     Articles and notices
Dear Reader:

In praying the Rosary as a family there is always the aspect of either the children or the husband’s involvement that makes it easier or harder. For if the husband takes upon himself the leadership of the family in prayer, there seems to be the natural submission of the family to join. If the husband does not take upon himself the leadership, the wife seems—in asking the children to pray with her—to be opposed to the husband in acting without him and the Rosary becomes especially difficult for her to bring the children under her authority for it naturally belongs to the husband. This is when the husband is not legitimately absent; for children intuitively recognize the mother as regent when a father is away or is deceased. Mothers should take up their responsibility to assume the double role in these situations because the children need this as a sign of security and direction. I pray the father will understand his obligation to lead the family even in prayer.

There is still the difficulty of the children as the Rosary may become something it is not to be: a punishment or boring. The first point is never use the Rosary as a punishment. If the children, because the parents have, even before the children come into being, prayed the Rosary together, the Rosary becomes part of their life and a habit that is not even noticed—such as waiting to have breakfast, lunch and dinner as a family, or going to church as a family, and other consistent activities one does as a family. If, after the children begin to be grown the parents introduce the Rosary, it may be more difficult, but not impossible—and always the parents should pray for their children to have the grace to desire to pray the Rosary. Here it is best to pray a decade and increase until all five decades are reached with no additional prayers. The realization that it only takes a few minutes makes it easier for the children to accept. There should be a reward also, an expectation that motivates them—just as on Sunday for going to Mass something special should be provided. Remember, they are children and generally need motivation.

To overcome the boredom, parents should have pictures of the Rosary Scenes, have children also lead a decade, show movies of the life of Christ and Mary, talk about thoughts they can consider while saying the Rosary and provide benefits of praying the Rosary. Movies like the The Miracle of Fatima and The Song of Bernadette show children and a teenager also praying the Rosary and are inspirational. You may have to remind your children Saint Bernadette was fourteen. Asking if they want to kneel or stand in praying, or what Mysteries they want to pray (even though there is a custom of praying certain Mysteries on certain days, it is not an obligation). Ask the older children what should be the intention or reason for praying the Rosary—for someone who is sick, someone who is travelling, safe return of those serving in the military, or the conversion of someone. This gives them an investment in praying the Rosary.

As to the real little ones who may fuss and want to play, it may take patience, but you are forming the child and in time even the little one learns this is when the whole family prays together. The worse example would be to play with the infant or let one of its siblings play with the infant during this time. Structure and self-control need to be learned and it is easier in the beginning when the child is pliable than when it is set in its ways.

These few notes are to assist our families in praying the Rosary, a prayer, as said last week, necessary in our times and promulgated by Our Lady in her apparitions at Lourdes and Fatima.

As always, enjoy the readings provided for your benefit.—The Editor

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WHAT IS THE HOLY EUCHARIST

By Rev. Courtney Edward Krier

Part IV

Offered: Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Tradition, be it Scripture or Doctrine, holds the Holy Eucharist to be a Sacrifice

In the New Testament the words of Institution expressly indicate that a Sacrifice is being offered. This is expressly pointed out by Joseph Pohle, who takes three themes expressed in the words employed by Christ:

(1) That Christ, when He spoke of shedding His Blood, did not refer to the Sacrifice which He was about to offer on the Cross, but to the sacrifice He was then and there offering at the Last Supper, is evident from the following considerations:

a) The verb is used throughout in the form of the present participle, ἐκχυννόμενον. If the Vulgate employs the future tense, it is no doubt to signify that the Sacrifice of the Last Supper is a merely relative sacrifice, based upon and intrinsically related to that of the Cross. Many ancient codices more correctly employ the present, “effunditur.”^l

b) The Greek language hardly offers an example of the use of the present participle in a future sense, especially when the finite verb is also used in the present, as here: Τοῦτό ἐστιν . . . ἐκχυννόμενον.

c) It is a rule of New Testament Greek that when the present tense is used both in the participle and the finite verb, as is the case here, the time denoted is not the distant or near future, but strictly the present. This rule does not apply to other constructions of the present tense, as when Christ says (John XIII, 27): “That which thou dost (ποιεῖς), do quickly,” or (John XIV, 12): “I go (πορεύομαι) to the Father.” That the participle greek; has a future meaning, is due to the notion expressed therein of coming. Cfr. James V, 1: “Miseriae venturae (greek).” Matth. XXVI, 25: ὁ παραδιδοὺς αὐτὸν εἶπεν, forms no exception, because ὁ παραδιδοὺ is used substantively for “traitor” and the verb is not in the present.

d) The above interpretation is rendered certain by the wording of St. Luke, who expressly speaks of the shedding of the blood as taking place in the Chalice, and not on the Cross. He does not say: τὸ ποτήριον ἐν τῷ αἵματί ἐκχυννόμενῳ, but: τὸ ποτήριον ἐν τῷ αἵματί τὸ ἐκχυννόμενον,—i. e. the Blood of Christ is shed for you in so far as it is present in the Chalice. Though the Blood in the Chalice was later also shed on the Cross, it would be inaccurate to say that the Chalice of the Blood was shed on the Cross as it was shed at the Last Supper. Since St. Luke, for such a good reason, refers the shedding of the Blood to the present, the participle ἐκχυννόμενον in the Gospels of SS. Matthew and Mark must also be interpreted strictly in the present tense.

(2) Even those comparatively few Protestants who, like the Anglicans, hold that the Sacrifice of the Cross was a true sacrifice, readily admit that the phrase, “to shed one’s blood for others unto the remission of sins,” is not only genuinely Biblical language relating to a sacrifice, but also designates in particular the sacrifice of expiation; only they refer this sacrifice to what took place not at the Last Supper, but at the Crucifixion. We maintain that the shedding of Christ’s Blood in the Chalice is as truly a sacrifice as the shedding of it on the Cross, and that our Lord wished to solemnize the Last Supper not merely as a Sacrament, but also as a Eucharistic sacrifice. In other words, the effusio calicis signifies not merely a making present of the true Blood of Christ for the purpose of sacramental reception,  but likewise a true, though unbloody offering thereof “for many unto remission of sins.” If the “pouring out of the Chalice” meant nothing more than the sacramental drinking of the Blood, we should have an intolerable tautology: “Drink ye all of this, for this is my Blood, which is being drunk.” However, since the text reads: “Drink ye all of this, for this is my Blood, which is shed for many unto remission of sins,” the double character of the rite as a Sacrament and as a sacrifice is unmistakable. The Sacrament is shown forth in the “drinking,” the sacrifice in the “shedding of the blood.”² The “Blood of the New Testament,” moreover, of which all four passages speak, has its exact parallel in the analogous institution of the Old Testament through Moses.

(3) The Sacrifice of the Mass was intended to be a permanent institution in the Church. This is made evident by our Saviour’s command: “This do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration. of me.” (Pohle, 307-310)

It is necessary to present this explanation in its entirety to demonstrate, as Bl. Edmund Campion did before his martyrdom, that Protestant theologians (and today, neo-Modernists), interpret Scripture not according as it is written, but how they want it to be through the blatant inaccuracies of their translations. This was evidenced by the Conciliarists who translated pro multis (for many) as for all despite all evidence being against such a translation.

History gives evidence that the Church has always held that Holy Mass is a Sacrifice. Every ancient, that is, apostolic, liturgy, still holds that Holy Mass is a sacrifice. In the Epistle of Saint Clement to the Corinthians (before 96 AD), there is formulated that which pertains to the ministers (bishops, presbyters, deacons) as follows:

Chapter 42. The Order of Ministers in the Church.

The apostles have preached the gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so] from God. Christ therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and established in the word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first fruits [of their labours], having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe. Nor was this any new thing, since indeed many ages before it was written concerning bishops and deacons. For thus says the Scripture in a certain place, I will appoint their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in faith.

Chapter 43. Moses of Old Stilled the Contention Which Arose

Concerning the Priestly Dignity.

And what wonder is it if those in Christ who were entrusted with such a duty by God, appointed those [ministers] before mentioned, when the blessed Moses also, a faithful servant in all his house, noted down in the sacred books all the injunctions which were given him, and when the other prophets also followed him, bearing witness with one consent to the ordinances which he had appointed? For, when rivalry arose concerning the priesthood, and the tribes were contending among themselves as to which of them should be adorned with that glorious title, he commanded the twelve princes of the tribes to bring him their rods, each one being inscribed with the name of the tribe. And he took them and bound them [together], and sealed them with the rings of the princes of the tribes, and laid them up in the tabernacle of witness on the table of God. And having shut the doors of the tabernacle, he sealed the keys, as he had done the rods, and said to them, Men and brethren, the tribe whose rod shall blossom has God chosen to fulfil the office of the priesthood, and to minister unto Him. And when the morning had come, he assembled all Israel, six hundred thousand men, and showed the seals to the princes of the tribes, and opened the tabernacle of witness, and brought forth the rods. And the rod of Aaron was found not only to have blossomed, but to bear fruit upon it. What think ye, beloved? Did not Moses know beforehand that this would happen? Undoubtedly he knew; but he acted thus, that there might be no sedition in Israel, and that the name of the true and only God might be glorified; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Chapter 44. The Ordinances of the Apostles, that There Might Be No Contention

 Respecting the Priestly Office.

Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect fore-knowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry. We are of opinion, therefore, that those appointed by them, or afterwards by other eminent men, with the consent of the whole church, and who have blamelessly served the flock of Christ, in a humble, peaceable, and disinterested spirit, and have for a long time possessed the good opinion of all, cannot be justly dismissed from the ministry. For our sin will not be small, if we eject from the episcopate those who have blamelessly and holily fulfilled its duties. Blessed are those presbyters who, having finished their course before now, have obtained a fruitful and perfect departure [from this world]; for they have no fear lest any one deprive them of the place now appointed them. But we see that you have removed some men of excellent behaviour from the ministry, which they fulfilled blamelessly and with honour.

And the Apostolic Constitution (cir. First Century) has this prayer for the Consecration of a Bishop:

O You the great Being, O Lord God Almighty, who alone art unbegotten, and ruled over by none; who always is, and was before the world; who stands in need of nothing, and art above all cause and beginning; who only art true, who only art wise; who alone art the most high; who art by nature invisible; whose knowledge is without beginning; who only art good, and beyond compare; who know all things before they are; who art acquainted with the most secret things; who art inaccessible, and without a superior; the God and Father of Your only begotten Son, of our God and Saviour; the Creator of the whole world by Him; whose providence provides for and takes the care of all; the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation; 2 Corinthians 1:3 who dwellest in the highest heavens, and yet lookest down on things below: You who appointed the rules of the Church, by the coming of Your Christ in the flesh; of which the Holy Ghost is the witness, by Your apostles, and by us the bishops, who by Your grace are here present; who hast fore-ordained priests from the beginning for the government of Your people— Abel in the first place, Seth and Enos, and Enoch and Noah, and Melchisedec and Job; who appointed Abraham, and the rest of the patriarchs, with Your faithful servants Moses and Aaron, and Eleazar and Phineas; who chose from among them rulers and priests in the tabernacle of Your testimony; who chose Samuel for a priest and a prophet; who did not leave Your sanctuary without ministers; who delighted in those whom You chose to be glorified in. Pour down, by us, the influence of Your free Spirit, through the mediation of Your Christ, which is committed to Your beloved Son Jesus Christ; which He bestowed according to Your will on the holy apostles of You the eternal God. Grant by Your name, O God, who search the hearts, that this Your servant, whom You have chosen to be a bishop, may feed Your holy flock, and discharge the office of an high priest to You, and minister to You, unblameably night and day; that he may appease You, and gather together the number of those that shall be saved, and may offer to You the gifts of Your holy Church. Grant to him, O Lord Almighty, through Your Christ, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, that so he may have power to remit sins according to Your command; to give forth lots according to Your command; to loose every bond, according to the power which You gave the apostles; that he may please You in meekness and a pure heart, with a steadfast, unblameable, and unreprovable mind; to offer to You a pure and unbloody sacrifice, which by Your Christ You have appointed as the mystery of the new covenant, for a sweet savour, through Your holy child Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour, through whom glory, honour, and worship be to You in the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for all ages. And when he has prayed for these things, let the rest of the priests add, Amen; and together with them all the people. And after the prayer let one of the bishops elevate the sacrifice upon the hands of him that is ordained, and early in the morning let him be placed in his throne, in a place set apart for him among the rest of the bishops, they all giving him the kiss in the Lord. And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, and our Epistles, and Acts, and the Gospels, let him that is ordained salute the Church, saying, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , the love of God and the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all; and let them all answer, And with Your Spirit. And after these words let him speak to the people the words of exhortation; and when he has ended his word of doctrine (I Andrew the brother of Peter speak), all standing up, let the deacon ascend upon some high seat, and proclaim, Let none of the hearers, let none of the unbelievers stay; and silence being made, let him say:— (Apostolic Constitutions, VIII, 2, 5)

Adrian Fortescue discusses a parallel between Clement’s Letter to the Corinthians and the Apostolic Constitution (cf. Fortescue, 61ff). One can only refer to that prayer of Our Lord found in John 17:

Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee.

I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to me thou gavest them; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known, that all things which thou hast given me, are from thee: Because the words which thou gavest me, I have given to them; and they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine: And all my things are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou has given me; that they may be one, as we also are. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest me have I kept; and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the scripture may be fulfilled. And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy filled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil.

They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me;

That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me. Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me; that they may see my glory which thou hast given me, because thou hast loved me before the creation of the world. Just Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee: and these have known that thou hast sent me.

And I have made known thy name to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them.

It would be understood that this, the action and words Christ performed the evening before His death,  was the basis for the prayer of the Mass (cf. do this in commemoration of me, Luke 22:19; also, 1 Cor. 11: 24)—that the words of institution and the prayer would be repeated in some form corresponding to what Our Lord taught just as the Our Father, in which Christ said to His disciples.

(To be continued)

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The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers

M. F. Toal

THE GOSPEL OF THE SUNDAY

MATTHEW xxii, l-14

At that time: Jesus spoke to the chief priests and Pharisees in a parable, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man, a king, who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage; and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell them that were invited, Behold I have prepared my dinner; my beeves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: Come ye to the marriage.

But they neglected and went their ways, one to his farm and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants and, having treated them contumeliously, put them to death. But, when the king had heard of it, he was angry; and sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city.

Then he saith to his servants: The marriage indeed is ready; but they that were invited were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways; and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage. And his servants, going forth into the ways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good; and the marriage was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests; and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he saith to him: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment? But he was silent.

Then the king said to the waiters: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

EXPOSITION FROM THE CATENA AUREA

V.13. Then the king said to the waiters: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

GREGORY: Then by the severe sentence of Judgement, his feet and hands are bound who refused to be bound from evil works by the amendment of his life; or punishment will then bind those whom sin has now bound from good works. AUGUSTINE, The Trinity, XI, 6: The entanglement of evil and of distorted desires are the fetters which bind him who so acts that he is cast into exterior darkness. GREGORY: We call blindness of heart, interior darkness; exterior darkness, the eternal night of damnation.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM: Or, by this is meant the diversity of torments inflicted on sinners. For first there is exterior darkness, interior, which is lesser, then the lowest hell (Deut. xxxii. 22). There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. JEROME: The greatness of these torments is shown by a metaphor taken from our bodily members; in the weeping of the eyes, and the gnashing of the teeth. See also in the binding of hands and feet, in the weeping of the eyes, and in the gnashing of teeth, a proof of the truth of the resurrection of the body.

GREGORY: So that there teeth may gnash which here took delight in gluttony; there eyes shall weep which here turned hither and thither in unlawful desire: for each single member shall suffer punishment for the sins in which they served as instruments. JEROME: And since in the marriage feast it is not the beginning that concerns us, but the end: there is added:

V.14. For many are called, but few are chosen.

HILARY: To invite all without distinction is a refinement of public benevolence. To be chosen from among the invited, or called, will depend on the worth of our merits. GREGORY: For there are some who do not even begin to do good; and some do not continue in the good they begin. The less therefore each man knows what is to come, the more must he look with fear to himself.

PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM: Or again: As often as God tries His Church, He goes in to it, to see the guests. And should He find one not having on a wedding garment, He asks him: Why did you become a Christian, if you neglect these works? Christ then delivers such a one to His ministers; that is, to certain masters of seduction; and they bind his hands, that is, his good works, and his feet, that is, the movements of his soul; and they cast him into exterior darkness; that is, amid the errors of the Gentiles, or of the Jews, or into heresy. The nearer darkness is that of the Gentiles; for they have not heard the truth they reject. The exterior darkness is that of the Jews, who have heard but have not believed. But the outermost darkness is that of heretics, who have both heard and learned the truth.

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OCTOBER 11

The Motherhood of Our Lady

1. Fifteen hundred years have passed since Nestorius, in Constantinople, dared to assert that the humanity of Christ is independent of His divinity, and to teach that there are two persons in Him. To teach, further, that Mary conceived only the human person, the man Christ, and was therefore not Mother of God, not God-bearer, but merely mother of a man in whom God dwelt as in a temple. In the year 431 the Council of Ephesus took a clear stand against Nestorius. It formulated the Catholic doctrine thus: In Christ there is only one person and that a divine person. Therefore Mary gave birth to the Son of God, and she is God-bearer, Theotokos. We joyfully endorse this confession of faith. In memory of the Council of Ephesus Pope Pius XI introduced the feast of the Motherhood of Our Lady on the Council’s fifteen hundredth anniversary, in 1931.

2. Mary is the Mother of Christ. We accept the prophecy of Isaias: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel” (Introit). The Gospel of the feast relates that, after Mary and Joseph had taken their Child on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem and “set about their return home, the boy Jesus, unknown to his parents, continued to stay in Jerusalem.” Sorrowing, they sought the child, and after three days found Him in the Temple. “My son, why hast thou treated us so? Think, what anguish of mind thy father and I have endured, searching for thee.” Mary is the mother of Him who had no earthly father; Joseph is his foster father. Jesus testified that His real Father is in heaven: “Could you not tell that I must needs be in the place which belongs to my Father?” The Child of Mary is conceived of the Holy Spirit. In the Communion antiphon we proclaim: “Blessed be the womb in which the virgin Mary bore the eternal Father’s Son.” Blessed art thou, holy Mother, for thou didst bear the Son of God in the most intimate spiritual and bodily union: Thou His Mother; He the fruit of thy womb. “The Lord is with thee!”

Mary is our Mother, “no vine ever yielded fruit so fragrant; the enjoyment of honor and riches is the fruit I bear” (Lesson). Mary did not keep the Savior of mankind to herself, but gave Him to us at Bethlehem, at the Presentation in the Temple, and on Golgotha. She accepted His testament from the Cross: “Woman, this is thy son” (John 19:26). In John He intended all of us to be adopted. Amid the anguished sorrow that she suffered at the feet of her dying Son she became our Mother. From the Cross our Savior spoke to all of us in John: “This is thy Mother.” She gave us Christ, and, in Him, supernatural life. She is concerned about us and extends her love for Jesus over to us. Happy we who have such a Mother—the best and truest ever! The fact that Mary is truly the Mother of Christ is the best pledge that she is truly our Mother and exercises a mother’s care over us. We must thank her for that.

3. Full of faith, we repeat the invocations of the Litany of Loreto: “Mother of divine grace, pray for us. Thou purest, most chaste, immaculate, lovely, wonderful Mother, pray for us,” Mary is mother of mercy, all-powerful with her Son, full of goodness and love toward us. All this because she is the Mother of God.

“Hither turn your steps, all you that learned to long for me; take your fill of the increase I yield” of Jesus Christ, my Son, today, in the Holy Sacrifice, in Holy Communion. Just as God the Father “gave him up for us all” so has Mary given us everything with her Child. We believe this; we are grateful for it; we consider ourselves fortunate indeed.

Collect: O God, who didst decree that, at the angel’s message, Thy Word should take flesh in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary, grant to us, Thy suppliants, that we who believe her to be indeed the mother of God may be helped by her intercession with Thee. Amen.

(Benedict Baur)

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Good Morning,

Boys and Girls!

REV. THOMAS J. HOSTY, M.A., S.T.B.

(1952)

THE SNOW MAN

GOOD MORNING, BOYS AND GIRLS!

It’s really hot out today, so I’ve decided to tell you about something that will help you cool off a little. You’d never guess in a million years what I’m going to talk about, so I’ll tell you, before you melt away in this heat. I’m going to speak about a snow man this morning.

Remember how much fun you had last winter building a snow man? It really wasn’t work at all, was it? I saw some dandy ones around the neighborhood—I even saw one that looked a little bit like me! The snow men looked so big and strong, you’d think that they would last a long time, but they’re all gone now. Who will tell me what happened to them?

That’s right! They melted away. The rays of the sun beat down on them, and they lost weight faster than a fat man on a blazing summer day. Finally, after the sun continued to work upon them, there was nothing left but a pool of water, to mark the spot where a proud snow man once stood.

How different it is, though, with the big statue of George Washington in our park! Even in the cold winter days and in the blazing summer heat, that statue continues to stand and to defy all the attempts of the weather to destroy it. Of course, you know what the difference is between the snow man and the bronze statue of Washington. One is made of material that looks beautiful but cannot stand up under the fierce rays of the sun. The other is made of bronze which is guaranteed to resist extreme heat and cold. If you wanted a statue to last a long time, you certainly would not build it out of snow. No sir! You’d make it out of some lasting material like bronze.

Do you know why I’m telling you this? It’s not because I expect any of you to go into the business of making statues, but because you can learn a very important lesson, if you do a little thinking.

Some boys and girls build snow men and snow women when it comes to forming their character. Instead of doing things according to the laws of God and His Church, they do them simply because other people do them. And because they are constantly being thrown in with different people, they’re always changing their way of living. For boys and girls of this type, good conduct does not result from good character, but from the lack of a chance to do wrong.

Let me give you a few examples of what I mean. Some youngsters go to Mass on Sunday, not because God’s law demands that they publicly thank Him every Sunday, but because everyone else in the school goes to Mass on that day. Besides, they don’t want to get bawled out by the Sister on Monday morning. What happens to boys and girls like that, during the summer vacation, if they get in with a group of boys and girls who don’t get up for church on Sunday morning? They don’t get up for Mass, either—and, as a result, they commit a serious sin.

Let’s apply the same thought to stealing. Some boys and girls don’t steal, not because it’s against the seventh commandment, but because they’re afraid they might be seen, or they might be caught. What happens to a youngster like that when he gets a chance to snatch something without being seen or without being caught? He steals—and he commits a serious sin.

Let’s take just one more example. Some boys and girls won’t do anything impure, not because it’s against the law of Almighty God, but because they’re afraid they might be seen by someone else or because they might be punished if they’re caught. What happens when youngsters like that feel sure they won’t be seen or won’t be caught? They go ahead and do the impure action—and commit a serious sin.

Boys and girls, you must learn to act only for good reasons. You must do certain things and avoid other things, not because of what other people might think, but because of the laws of God and His Church. If you learn to do that, you will be building your character out of material that will stand all the stress and strain that the world, the flesh, and the devil can apply to it. But if you regulate your life and your conduct only by what other people think of you, you’re going to have a character like a snow man. As soon as the blazing sun of temptation starts to beat down on you, your will power is going to fold up and melt away, like a snow man on a hot day.

Next week you start your summer vacation. For over ten weeks you’ll have plenty of chance to test yourself, to see if you’re a snow man or not. One sure way to keep from becoming a snow man is to get to confession as often as you can, and to get to Holy Communion at least every Sunday. Try to govern all your actions during the summer months by the laws of God and His Church. I hope and pray that when this summer is over, we won’t have a single snow man in our whole school!

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Father Krier will be in Eureka, Nevada, October 15 and Pahrump, Nevada, October 22.

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