Wed, Mar 2 - Holy Mass from the National Shrine

[Music] from ashes to the living font your church must journey lord baptized in grace and grace renewed by your most holy word in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen the grace of our lord jesus christ the love of god and the communion of the holy spirit be with you all and with your spirit well thank you everybody for joining us i'm father chris one of the miriam priests with the postulate joseph and brother mark and brother cannon it's nice to have everybody here with us welcome guys as we begin an incredibly important time of the year the liturgical year this is entering into lent and so we'll say a few words about the meaning of ash wednesday and on the importance of what we are about to enter into in these 40 days of fast so there is no penitential right in this mass but after the homily i will bless the ashes and then you will come forward like a communion line and if you're at home just unite yourselves with us if you are unable to physically attend mass tonight it is not a holy day of obligation but it is a good time for us to reflect on our mortality let us pray grant oh lord that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of christian service so that as we take a battle against spiritual evils we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit a god forever and ever amen a reading from the book of the prophet joel even now says the lord return to me with your whole heart with fasting and weeping and mourning run your hearts not your garments and return to the lord your god for he is gracious and merciful is he slow to anger rich in kindness and relenting and punishment perhaps he will gain re again relent and leave behind him a blessing offerings and libations for the lord your god blow the trumpet of zion proclaim a fast call and assembly gather the people notify the congregation assemble the elders gather the children and the infants at the breast let the bridegroom quit his room in the bride her chamber between the porch and the altar let the priests the ministers of the lord weep and say spare o lord your people and make not your heritage a reproach with the nations ruling over them why should they say among the peoples where is their god then the lord was stirred to concern for his land and took pity on his people the word of the lord thanks be to god [Music] lord for we have sinned have mercy on me o god in your goodness in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me for we have sinned for i acknowledge my offense and my sin is before me always against you only have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight be merciful [Music] for we have sinned a clean heart create for me o god steadfast spirit renew within me cast me not out from your presence and your holy spirit take not from me be merciful lord for we have sinned give me back the joy of your salvation and a willing spirit sustained in me o lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise for we have seen a reading from the second letter of saint paul to the corinthians brothers and sisters we are ambassadors for christ as if god were appealing through us we implore you on behalf of christ to be reconciled to god for our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin so that we might become the righteousness of god in him working together then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of god in vain for he says if in acceptable time i heard you and on the day of salvation i helped you behold now is a very acceptable time behold now is the day of salvation the word of the lord thanks be to god [Applause] praise to you lord jesus christ king of endless glory praise to you lord jesus christ king of endless glory [Music] if today you hear his voice [Music] praise to you lord jesus christ [Music] the lord be with you and with your spirit a reading from the holy gospel according to matthew glory to you o lord jesus said to his disciples take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them otherwise you will have no recompense from your heavenly father when you give alms do not blow a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others amen i say to you they have received the reward but when you give alms do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your alms giving may be in secret as your father who sees in secret will repay you when you pray do not be like the hypocrites who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them amen i say to you they have received their reward but when you pray go to your inner room close the door and pray to your father in secret and your father who sees in secret will repay you when you fast do not look gloomy like the hypocrites they neglect their appearance so that they may appear to others to be fasting amen i say to you they have received the reward but when you fast anoint your head and wash your face so that you may not appear to be fasting except to your father who is in heaven and your father who sees what isn't what is hidden will repay you the gospel of the lord praise to you lord jesus christ okay so today is one of only two days left in the whole calendar year of the church that the church has made it obligatory for fast and abstinence now tradition is there many other times that we fast or abstain from meat during the year like vigils before a marian feast or the the night before marian feast and others but today ash wednesday and good friday are the two days that we as catholics are required to fast and to abstain from meat now for the fast it's anybody from 18 years old to 59. i always laugh because when when my father turns 60 he's like oh boy i don't have to fast anymore well we don't necessarily have to look at it that way medically if you are able now there are some as i've said before with diabetes or other medical conditions the church excuses those but for those of us who are able to fast today it is an obligation now abstaining from meat is also today an obligation and that is uh for people 14 and older to that there is no age limit so even those in their 90s god bless them to not eat meat today just 14 and older now yesterday we had shrove tuesday why did we have shrove tuesday whereas tradition we serve pancakes uh the local parish here saint uh mary's and lee had a shrove tuesday dinner where they served the pancakes why do we serve pancakes the day before lent okay because in the lenten fast they used to not just be fasting from meat but even meat by-products like eggs milk and things like that so they had pancakes on fat tuesday because people would be cleaning out their cupboards of meat byproducts not just the meat but the byproducts like milk and eggs and and and cheese and things like that so what we had was a preparation this season is preparation to join our lord in the cross this is what we have now ash wins as you know is the first day of lent a time of fasting and prayers we just said now what's interesting is that the lent is not 40 days lent is actually 46 days the reason we say it's 40 days in lent is because those are the fasting days yes people used to fast all 40 days in that during the lenten time but the six sundays that are in there are not days of fast so we really have 46 days because we have the traditional 40 days where wherever we're giving up something for instance but yet the six sundays are not days of fast those are even within lent days that we don't fast and so actually lent excuse me ash wednesday occurs 46 days before easter so interesting right it can fall anywhere between february 4th and march 10th and it's not though a holy day of obligation um you know this is great that everybody's here we welcome everybody get to your parish tonight if you can but don't put today's service ahead of sunday mass every ash wednesday is important this kicks off lent we should come to church we should prepare ourselves but it's technically not a holy day of obligation yet every sunday is now i know people who will drive 50 miles to come to an ash wednesday service but they won't go two miles down the road to go to sunday mass so we might have not missed that point there all right where does bash wednesday come from it comes from the ancient jewish tradition of penance and fasting and even jesus talks about it he talks a lot about fasting but he talks about ashes remember he said if these mighty works had been done in you had been done in tyre and sidon they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes all right the ash is what they symbolize the dust from which god make made us so the ashes are a sacramental not a sacrament okay a sacrament has real actual grace like the eucharist but the ashes are sacramentals which means they're symbols now non-catholics believe that the eucharist is just a symbol that would make it a sacramental the eucharist is a sacrament it actually has the real grace the ash is a sacramental it's a symbol it's a symbol that we are from dust and to dust we will return so our foreheads are marked with ashes to remind us that life passes away and so this is what we say as we put the ashes on your forehead remember you are dust and onto dust you shall return all right a little bit about this it's interesting ash wednesday goes all the way back it was officially made by pope urban in 1091 so it's over a thousand it's a thousand years old almost but it goes before that we have writings all the way to the 2nd century that refer to wearing ashes as a sign of penance and the bible does too so this really is a tradition we know christ right spent 40 days fasting in the desert moses did it to repent of the golden calf and so it follows those examples plus the ninevites remember jonah when jonah went to the ninevites they did pennants and sackcloth and ashes all right so later in christianity people who had committed grave sins had to do public penance we have it really easy today and people still don't go to confession listen to this now on ash wednesday the bishop will sprinkle ashes made from the palms from the previous year all right so palm sunday palms were burned from last year and here's how they used to do it think about how easy it is now the penitents were removed from the church because of their sins why did they do that because it was like adam and eve being kicked out of the garden so the penitents because of their sin were removed from the church nobody claimed you hurt my feelings nobody started in that i'm offended nobody started in this was they looked at it as a sign of this was an opportunity for me to repent and change that's jesus calling saying listen to this message because this was an opportunity for people to repent to change so like adam and eve thrown out of the garden the grave sinners were removed from the church all right now they did not enter the church again until after 40 days of penance and confession now we would be mortified by that today well let's at least get to confession you won't be thrown out of church anymore but you should be wanting to be thrown into confession let our lord clean us up now even non-christians surprisingly and excommunicated people can receive these ashes right they can be traced on the forehead or even sprinkled which is more traditional sprinkled on the head this is in some diocese they've mandated going back to the sprinkling of the head i don't know if it's for covet or what but but anyway the catholic church does not limit this to inside churches some priests actually take the ashes out into the streets in new york city i saw a priest at the bus stop doing this and so um in fact you don't even have to be a priest according to the right to distribute lay people can distribute these ashes but be careful you really don't want to make a bad witness to being a catholic today okay why we do keep our ashes on this is traditional i made the point the other day on my saturday talk that if you are catching yourself tonight out at a bar and you're watching a ball game and you're up screaming at the tv and unfortunately something comes out of your mouth it shouldn't you really shouldn't be keeping those ashes on your head they really should be washed off so think about that before dining out or getting worked up over a ball game or something like that so anyway it's not required that you keep them on all day they may be or they may be washed off um this is again um up to you now to finish ash wednesday as i said before um in in good friday are days that we really need to do what we can so what is a fast what is a fast according to the church it's not that difficult a fast is one sensible meal now not splurging at the smorgasbord but one sensible meal and two small meals or two snacks that together don't equal a meal so it's not too difficult now on ash wednesday and good friday as we mentioned before these are days that we really have to follow this um you know fasting is a way as we mentioned before that usually along with prayer and almsgiving is what we do in lent by fasting why do we fast because in fasting we control the passions of the body the bible tells us that if your flesh controls your spirit you're not making it to heaven you've got to be cleaned up thank god for purgatory the spirit has to control the flesh and fasting is a way for the spirit the will to overcome the desires of the flesh of the body so when we refrain from eating it's a good way to do alms giving because we free up money that we would have spent on food to give back to the poor that's true almsgiving and so the practicing in our catholic faith is prayer fasting and almsgiving and remember you can fast it doesn't just have to be from food you can fast from your tv program that you normally watch you can fast from desserts or you can fast from maybe a particular activity or your cell phone there's a novel idea right all right so anyway refraining from food isn't a bad thing food is not sinful but when we give up the lesser things it helps us focus on things that are greater such as god and that doesn't mean that your cell phone is sinful but next to god it's much lesser so give up those thoughts on the lesser things the focus on the lesser things and focus what means more which is god and so this is a beautiful gift that we have and by the way you know lent ends up being 10 of the calendar year people always ask us father as catholics do we have to tithe do we have to tithe 10 percent church teaching is yes you have to give what you can but the church doesn't prescribe under penalty of sin mortal sin that you have to tie 10 of your gross income what the catholic church says is you tithe what you can when you can in time treasure and talent what a beautiful way to tithe ten percent of your time give this lent to god let him be number one put him as the priority food as i said is is is needed to live but if we let the spirit be controlled by the flesh we're not doing justice and so anyway have a great lent everybody you know pope francis asked us today to offer up our fasting for peace he asked us on this ash wednesday that which is a day that we needed to be fasting anyway and that we offer up our fast for the situation in the ukraine and we fast and offer it up for peace in the world um i mentioned that we have 21 mirians in the ukraine we have 17 priests and brothers we have four men in formation and i've been trying to find out if we've reached them we're going to be brother mark and i will be talking to rome later today i'll give you an update we pray they're okay as of the last couple days we weren't able to reach them but i heard one of our priests in washington father gabe was able to reach one of them i haven't reached out to him yet so i don't know the status but we do know whatever their status is the situation needs prayer so please join us in prayer as we follow the recommendation of our holy father to pray on this ash wednesday to fast on this ash wednesday for peace in the world then we can mortify ourselves through fasting and prayer to be prepared to join christ in his passion but then the glory of the resurrection bring the ashes ashes dear brothers and sisters let us humbly ask god our father that he be pleased to bless with the abundance of his grace these ashes which we will put on our heads in penitence oh god who are moved by acts of humility and respond with forgiveness to works of penance lend your merciful ear to our prayers and in your kindness pour out the grace of your blessing on your servants who are marked with these ashes that as they follow the lenten observances they may be worthy to come with minds made pure to celebrate the paschal mystery of your son through christ our lord amen and i bless these ashes in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen at this time we may come forward as we do in holy communion to receive the blessing of the ashes [Music] [Music] remember you are dust and not too dust you shall return remember you are dusted to dust you shall return remember you are dust and too dust you shall return repent and believe in the gospel repent and believe in the gospel repent and believe in the gospel repent and believe in the gospel repent and believe in the gospel repent and believe in the gospel repent repent [Music] you should [Music] foreign [Music] in [Music] what oh yes sorry blessed are you lord god of all creation for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you fruit of the earth and work of human hands it will become for us the bread of life blessed be god forever by the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of christ humbled himself to share in our humanity pray brethren that my sacrifice excuse me blessed are you lord god of all creation for through your goodness we have received the wine we offer you fruit of the vine and work of human hands it will become our spiritual drink blessed be god forever pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to god the almighty father may the lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name for our good and the good of all his holy church may the sacrament as you humbly offer or we humbly offer the annual sacrifice for the beginning of lent we entreat you o lord that through works of penance and charity we may turn away from harmful pleasures and cleanse from our sins may become worthy to celebrate devoutly the passion of your son who lives and reigns forever and ever amen the lord be with you and with yours lift up your hearts we lift them up to the lord let us give thanks to the lord our god it is right it is truly right and just our duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give you thanks lord holy father almighty and eternal god for through bodily fasting you restrain our faults raise up our minds and bestow both virtue and its rewards through christ our lord through him the angels praise your majesty dominions adore and powers tremble before you heaven and the virtues of heaven and the blessed seraphim worship together without with exaltation may our voices we pray join with theirs in humble praise as we acclaim [Music] are full of your glory [Music] is [Music] so [Music] you are indeed holy o lord the fount of all holiness make holy therefore these gifts we pray by sending down your spirit upon them like the dewfall that they may become for us the body and blood of our lord jesus christ at the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his passion he took bread and giving thanks broke it and gave it to his disciples saying take this all of you and eat of it for this is my body which will be given up for and you god my lord and my god my lord and my god in a similar way when supper was ended he took the chalice and once more giving thanks he gave it to his disciples saying take this all of you and drink from it for this is the chalice of my blood the blood of the new and eternal covenant which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins do this in memory of me my jesus mercy my jesus mercy my jesus mercy the mystery of we faith this bread and drink that is [Music] until you come again therefore as we celebrate the memorial of his death and resurrection we offer you lord the bread of life and the chalice of salvation giving thanks that you have held us worthy to be in your presence administered to you humbly we pray that partaking of the body and blood of christ we may be gathered into one by the holy spirit remember lord your church spread throughout the world and bring her to the fullness of charity together with francis our pope and william our bishop and all the clergy remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have died in your mercy welcome them into the light of your face have mercy on us all we pray that with the blessed virgin mary mother of god with blessed joseph her spouse with the blessed apostles with saint faustina and all the saints who have pleased you throughout the ages we may merit to be coheirs to eternal life and may praise and glorify you through your son jesus christ through him and with him and in him oh god almighty father and the unity of the holy spirit all glory and honor is yours forever and ever amen at the savior's command and formed by divine teaching we dare to say our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from people deliver us lord we pray from every evil graciously grant peace in our days and by the help of your mercy we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our savior jesus christ lord jesus christ you said to your apostles peace i leave you my peace i give you look not on our sins but on the faith of your church and graciously grant her peace and in peace grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will who live and reign forever and ever amen the peace of the lord be with you always and with your [Music] spirit you take away the sins of the world have mercy on us of god you take away the sins of the world have mercy on [Music] you take away the sins of the world [Music] behold the lamb of god behold him who takes away the sins of the world blessed are those called to the supper of the lamb lord i am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word my soul shall body of christ yeah okay [Music] so [Music] an act of spiritual communion my jesus i believe that you are present in the most blessed sacrament i love you above all things and i desire to receive you into my soul since i cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally commently spiritually into my heart i embrace you as if you are already there unite myself holy to you never permit me to be separated from you paragraph 931 from the diary of saint faustina today is ash wednesday during holy mass i felt for a short time the passion of jesus and my members lent is a very special time for the work of priests we should assist them in rescuing souls [Applause] let us pray may the sacrament we have received sustain us o lord that our lenten fast may be pleasing to you and be for us a healing remedy through christ our lord amen well god bless all of you please have a very fruitful lent preparation for the glory of easter and divine mercy sunday just a quick couple quick announcements please join us uh we will be doing an hour of prayer uh for the ukraine and the situation with russia and the ukraine for first friday at 8 00 p.m this week uh that so the day after tomorrow and on first saturday at 11 please join us i've been working with some theologians putting together a talk on the meaning of fatima and what is happening in the ukraine today and the more i dig into this the more amazed i am so we're going to have a talk about the meaning of russia and what's happening in the ukraine and fatima will be this saturday for first saturdays at 11. it'll be about a half hour to 40 minutes and then after that please join us for the devotions of first saturday then please join us tonight as on the ewtn show living divine mercy it's normally 6 30 p.m tonight special time will be 5 30 p.m where we will begin talking about ash wednesday today we have an incredible story about a ministry out of buffalo and that is tonight on living divine mercy and then the next five weeks we have a special series with vinnie flynn and we'll talk about the five devotional aspects of divine mercy the feast the image the novena the chaplet and the hour of mercy so please join us it's a great opportunity to learn even more about our faith so we can love it more but the bottom line today is use this day this day of prayer and penance and fasting to be able to offer and unite yourself with christ on the cross the lord be with you and with yours may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen go forth the mass is ended thanks be to god see michael the archangel defend us in battle be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil may god rebuke him we humbly pray and do thou o prince of the heavenly host by the power of god cast into hell satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the rune of souls amen may the divine assistance remain always with us and may the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of god rest in peace amen have a very very good lent god bless you [Music] living font your church must journey still through cross and tomb to easter joy in spirit fire fulfilled [Music] sister faustina was chosen by god to pass on to the whole world new forms of devotion to divine mercy we call them new forms because divine mercy has been with us from the very beginning it has been revealed in scripture taught by the magisterium past in tradition celebrated in liturgy but now this devotion is something that god wants to remind us of because we have somehow forgotten it and that's why the first of this form is the image of divine mercy [Music] jesus is god and he promises complete forgiveness of sins and punishment to those who will approach the fount of mercy to those who will receive him in holy communion [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Keywords: Divine Mercy, Divine, Mercy, Divine Mercy Official, Shrine of Divine Mercy, National Shrine of Divine Mercy, Shrine, Mass, Holy Mass, Mass today, Holy Mass today, Catholic, God, Jesus, Christ, Mary, Mother of God, St. Faustina, Faustina, Marian, Marians, Immaculate Conception, priest, catholic teaching, spiritual, spirituality, eternity, live, life, grace, pray, prays, praying

Id: -zm1-v5CeKA

Length: 52min 15sec (3135 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2022