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Show O Lord, Thy way to me, and teach me Thy parts.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.

Amen.

.

My dear brethren, there's possibly a- a bit of a disconnect in the way we approach our holy faith, and I hope that, uh, we will, from today, think at least on this subject a little more deeply, because there's need to th- there's need to think on it.

It's not particularly, uh, part of the trends, but it's important for us to know these things.

We've had the month of November, the Holy Souls.

We've got the box here of the names of our Holy Souls on the altar.

And in one way, although we love them, in one way we've got to see there's a bit of a disconnect, because we believe in the Holy Souls.

We believe that We believe in purgatory.

There's a bit of a disconnect because we tend to act as though there's no- nothing to pay for our sins.

We tend to act as though once we've confessed them they're over, and that's good and we carry on.

And yet, you know, even if we leave them there in the confessional, it's not completely the end of the story.

Yes, our soul, if it was in mortal sin, is brought back to life.

But imagine, for example, you've been in a motorbike accident.

Imagine you're brought back to life, practically.

H- How will you look?

How will you look after it?

You've probably got a- a whopping big scar somewhere.

That's us.

One mortal sin, so though you've been going to confession, so you've been brought back to life, your soul's been brought back to life from something like a- a motorbike accident.

And if you make it, if we do and we please God, we're living the faith, we make it to the end of our lives in a state of grace, what must our face look like, so to speak, after so many mortal sins, so many wounds on the soul?

Healed indeed, brought back to life through the grace of a sacrament, but what state are we in?

And what's the point of our Holy Souls?

It's because during life, love them as we did, we probably admit they didn't do the penance that their sins deserved.

They didn't.

You know, well, she was a great person.

Boy, she had that problem.

She was this and that.

Did she do Penance is one thing from the confessional, and it's called imperfect contrition because it saves us from the fires of hell, right?

Good, brought back to life.

But it's not the whole thing.

We need perfect contrition.

And perfect contrition means a complete, complete separation between myself and sin and the roots of sin, wherever they go to in my soul.

Otherwise, I've got scars.

Otherwise, I've got impediments to this perfect union between myself and God.

And so we call purgatory a place of expiation.

The ex in it means perfect, and the piation part means perfect Being brought to perfect loyalty, devotion, and faithfulness to God.

In other words, there's things between us and God that have not been worked out.

And that's what we're w- looking for, is perfect contrition.

And in this life, either I punish my sins myself or God punishes them.

Either we punish them- punish them partially and purgatory does the rest.

But we have to come to the point where there's nothing between our soul and God, and that we have this perfect union.

And all the scars, so to speak, of my past mortal sins are all taken away from my soul so that my soul is beautiful again in the sight of God.

When Saint Vincent Ferrer was preaching in France, a young man of a most dissolute life went to him and made the confession to him of his many disorders while weeping a torrent of tears.

The saint gave him a stiff penance of seven years.

That means during seven years, on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, he would have to fast on bread and water.

The saint gave him a stiff penance of seven years.

What, Father, said the penitent, To a sinner such as I, only seven years' penance?

I will not go until you increase the penance.

The saint, seeing such lively penance, curtailed it immediately and reduced it to three days, saying, Go, my son, God is too good to you.

You will do but three days of penance.

You, um.

It was then that the sobs and tears of this fervent penitent redoubled themselves.

'Oh, it is just this, Father, because I ha- because a God so good has been so unworthily outraged by me that I merit great penance.' Ah, in this case, said the holy confessor, seeing such extraordinary contrition, content yourself in reciting three Our Fathers, three Hail Marys, and may God bless you.' Oh, then was the sorrow of the young man so intense he could no longer endure it.

His heart broke, and he fell dead at the feet of the saint, who witnessed his beautiful soul take its flight directly to paradise without touching purgatory.

What a beautiful story.

You know?

Here was a soul who understood that he needed to give back to God, that he had wounded our Lord.

He loved our Lord.

He'd wounded our Lord.

He knew that his mortal sins were wounding our Lord.

And he wanted to be part of the, the punishment that our Lord took for him on the cross, he wanted to be somehow part of it.

And so he felt he needed a greater penance.

But that was the whole work.

If he wanted to do all of that, if he really would have wanted longer than seven years' penance, he already had perfect contrition.

And perfect contrition, which is our goal, perfect contrition unites the soul so much to God that it's as if it came out of the baptismal font.

That's the reason for penance.

I mean, look, speeding along, get a speeding ticket.

You get a really big speeding ticket, you're gonna say, Well, I'm not doing that again.

And there's a definite separation between you and speed, because it costs too much.

That's the point of these penances they do, and the penance, the penance for us.

If I did a penance for the sins I committed that was really a real penance, it would put a distance between me and my sin.

Perfect contrition, that's what we are seeking.

Why does Jesus demand it of me?

Because mortal sin is a rebellion against God.

It's a wounding of our Blessed Lord.

And it makes salvation impossible.

Only true sorrow, perfect contrition can destroy the rebellion of my soul against God.

By mortal sin, I've taken myself away from God, and I've attached myself to such pleasures that are sinful.

And God demands that we return to Him the way we left Him, which was in a state where, the way we came out of the baptismal font, which is in a state of grace and beauty.

And that's brought about by penance.

In mortal sin, my heart was overflowing with criminal joys.

And God commands that I straighten myself out, that I come to my senses, and that I afflict myself with salutary sadness, holy sadness for my sins.

God doesn't hate any- anybody.

Nothing He makes, all that He makes, He loves.

He loves man.

And penance is our way after baptism, because baptism makes us innocent.

One mortal sin destroys that innocence that we had.

And the only way back is through contrition, is putting that barrier again between me and the sins I have committed.

And so Bernadette at Lourdes turns around to the crowd, and from Our Lady she gives out the words, Penance, penance, penance.

Why?

Because people aren't doing it.

Too many souls are lining up for purgatory.

Thinking, Well, I'll do it in purgatory.

Well, don't.

Whatever we should be doing, we should be doing everything possible to come to perfect contrition, which is a hatred of sin for the love of our Lord.

Not only because I could go to hell, 'cause I can, but for the love of our Lord.

For the love of Jesus who was on the cross, for the love of Jesus who died for me, for the love of Jesus who's coming at Christmas.

Hold the little baby in your arms and think, Would I do that to this little child?

I'm so sorry.

And mean it.

And if you get to that stage, it'll put a, a barrier between sin and you.

And that's what we want.

We want to return to innocence.

If we've lost our innocence, we must find our innocence again by penitence.

That's the work that we have on Earth.

And Our Lady at Lourdes, Penance, penance, penance.

Our Lady at Fatima, Penance of the state of your life.

Don't have to look for, very far to do penance, do you?

We're, we're It's all around us if we want it, you know.

It's putting up with this.

It's putting up with something else.

In the spirit of penance, not putting up because I have to, but putting up with it because, you know, I want to return to the state of innocence and the love of our Lord.

And this is where, to help us, there's a structure to help us.

And here it is here on the, on the, on the wall.

It's the holy face of Jesus.

1845, our blessed la- our blessed Lord appeared to S- told Sister Marie de Sainte Michelle in France.

1845, in Tour, the Carmelite nun, he gave the image of His holy face and He said These are beautiful words.

According to the care you will w- a- according to the care that you will make reparation for my face disfigured by blasphemy Think of our faces disfigured by mortal sin, right?

my face disfigured by blasphemy, will I take care of your soul disfigured by sin.

I will re-imprint my likeness upon it and make your soul as beautiful as when it came out of the baptismal font.So, in other words, if you will have an attitude of making reparations the Holy Face, that face of our Lord.

Look, His hair's ripped out, His beard's knocked around, blood coming from His face and out of His mouth.

And you'd like to make reparation to that?

Look at the sorry state His face is in.

But look at the sorry state people die in, th- the scars on their faces.

And we don't want to die with scars all over our faces.

We want to die, r- r- spiritually speaking, we want to, ah, die in such a state that we're already united with love for our Lord.

So he says, Make reparations Holy Face, and I will make your soul as beautiful as when it came out of the baptism font.

Meaning what?

By the time you die you'll have perfect contrition for your sins.

And, like that young man, you'll go to heaven without even touching purgatory.

So it's a beautiful devotion.

It only requires for us to open ourselves up to the desire of doing penance, doing penance for the love of our Lord.

And we do penance because we don't want to go to hell, of course.

That's part of the sacrament of confession.

That's imperfect penance.

That's imperfect contrition.

But we're not aiming at that.

And our Lord will not accept that in heaven because nothing impure can get into heaven.

And so, the saints say to us, It would be so beautiful if we kindle in our hearts a real sorrow for our sins, true sorrow, great fervor.

And, uh, therefore, when alone in our occupations, we should, during this time of, of, of Advent, make acts of contrition.

Not acts of contrition like << Da-da-da, da-da-da, da-da-da >>.

No, but like, Sweet Jesus, you know, You're coming at Christmas.

I'm sorry for my sins.

And I want to be completely united to Thee.

Things like that.

You know, just ex corde, out of your heart, just speak to Our Lord and tell Him how much you love Him.

And that will unite you.

That will take the scars from the s- from your soul.

That will unite you and bring you closer and closer to Our Lord in what we call perfect contrition, which is what we want, and it's the only thing God will, in the end, accept.

If we die without, if we d- if we die without perfect contrition, we must go to purgatory, and we must make expiation, which is perf- ex is the perfect part, expiation, made perfectly faithful and united to Him through the pains that we didn't want to suffer while we were here on Earth.

So make acts of contrition.

And to you who are making your first Holy Communion, well, thanks be to God.

And it makes, it would be a wonderful thing if you never fell into mortal sin.

That's what everybody hopes for you because we look at you all dressed in white, and all looking beautiful, and we hope that you'll remain that way for the rest of your lives.

And there's a way, perhaps your parents can help you with it.

But there is a way.

It's an old way but a beautiful way.

A man, when he was 75, wrote this, I'm 75 years old, Father, he said.

I've had many pains in my life.

And I've been exposed to many dangers where others have suffered shipwreck of their souls by committing mortal sin.

But in my old age, I have the sweet confidence of never having committed a single mortal sin since my first Holy Communion.

Of that unforgettable day, day never forgotten, my mother held me tight to her bosom for a long while, then asked me to promise her, my earthly mother, and to Mary, my Heavenly Mother, to faithfully say every day three Hail Marys, morning and night.

That's beautiful.

A mother held her child, Make me the promise to say every morning and every night, three Hail Nothing big.

Not saying, My child, say, you know, I want you to start now with the 15 Decайт's.

Hmm.

That won't last.

Ask too much, you get nothing.

Say every morning, say every night, three Hail Marys, for me, your earthly mother, and to Our Lady, your Heavenly Mother.

And here's what he says.

I made the promise, and by God's grace, I was faithful to my promise.

The memory of my mother, the thought of my first Holy Communion, the protection of Mary, to these, I attribute this great grace and happiness.

So now, you have a lovely day today because Jesus comes into your soul and makes Himself completely united with you.

Not just The host is small.

Host is small.

It's, it's God.

And Jesus was once a baby.

Jesus was once this big in His mother's womb.

Jesus is this big now in the host.

But it's Him.

It's Jesus.

And He completely unites Himself with you in Holy Communion so that He takes from you and you take from Him.

This is the great mystery of Holy Communion.

So you'll be united to Our Blessed Lord.

And we wish you every possible grace.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Amen.