Deus, qui beatam Margaritam reginam eximia in pauperes caritate mirabilem effecisti: da, ut ejus intercessione et exemplo, tua in cordibus nostris caritas jegiter augeanostris caritas jugiter augeatur. Per Dominum nostrum.

O God, Who didst make the blessed Queen Margaret wonderful for her surpoassing charity to the poor: grant that by her intercession and example, Thy love may ever grow in our hearts. Through our Lord.

Fac nos, quaesumus, Domine, sanctorum Martyrum tuorum Primi et Feliciani sempeer fest sectari: quorum suffragiis protectionis tuae dona sentiamus. Per Dominum nostrum.

Ever make us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, honor the festival of Thy holy Martyrs Primus and Felician: and through their prayers may we obtain the gift of Thy protection. Through our Lord.

That is precisely what we hear in the first reading when we hear about Wisdom. Remember, as we heard the other day, Saint Paul tells us that Jesus is the Wisdom of God. So we are talking here about the Second Person of the Trinity, the Wisdom of God, and it says, At first, Wisdom walks with him as a stranger. In other words, initially they are not fully aware of Who the Lord is. But then it says, She puts him to the test; fear and dread she brings upon him and tries him with discipline. We have all experienced how that works if we are going to walk with the Lord, and how there are going to be various trials and problems and difficulties.

The devil in his wily ways has convinced many people who call upon the Lord that by doing so there will be no trials; there will be no problems. It is what they call “The Gospel of Health and Wealth,” that as long as you believe in Jesus you are going to be wealthy and everything is going to be great and you will have no problem. Well, when we hear that the Lord is going to test us and He is going to try our souls and He is going to put us into fear and dread to see if we are going to remain faithful, you start out with people who already believe that there will be no suffering if they believe in Jesus, and they are not open to the truth. They are not open to be able to be formed by the Wisdom of God.

So it is imperative for us not to begin with any kind of preconceived notion of what things ought to be. Even for people who know they are going to suffer when they take up the spiritual life, they assume they are going to suffer in the way that they ought to. That is pure foolishness. You are not going to be able to tell God how you ought to do things. God, with His infinite imagination, is certainly not going to do it your way – and He has lots of interesting ways to test us. We simply have to understand, if we are going to do the work of the Lord, that we have to allow Him to be in charge, that we have to allow Him to purify us, that He is going to test us, not according to the way that we think we ought to be tested, but according to the way that He knows we truly need. As it says, She tries him with discipline, tries him by her laws to trust his soul, and then goes on to say, Then she comes back to him. The soul feels abandoned by God in the most severe trials. God is nowhere to be found, or so it seems, because He will not allow Himself to be felt. Yet if we remain faithful and we continue to grow in love, that is when all of the gifts will be given: the happiness and the secrets and the treasures of knowledge and the understanding of justice, as Sirach talks about. But that is only after things have been purified.

And so if we are going to walk with the Lord, as Sirach warned us yesterday, prepare yourself for trials. But do not try to assume what trials they are going to be because they will never be the ones that you expect. Let God lead and do not assume that because things are difficult that God hates you, that He is angry with you, that He has abandoned you, or anything else; nothing could be further from the truth. If you are going to try to do His Will, He is so grateful to you and He loves you so much – and it is because He loves you and He wants you to love even more than what you already do – that He tries you and He purifies you so that you can be perfect, so that you can fully do the Will of God in all things. That is why these things happen.

What we need to do simply is pray that God will take away all of our preconceived notions and ideas; that He will take away all of our fears; that He will give us the grace to do His Will and to truly desire the fullness of the Wisdom of God, which is union with Jesus Christ; and that we will accept whatever it takes to get there because that requires the trials, the discipline, and the difficulties that will come, but then it will bring about its fruit – which is peace of soul and union with Jesus Christ.

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier, Wednesday, May 18, 2005, Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Reading (Sirach 4:11-19) Gospel (St. Mark 9:38-40).

We have the Supreme Court of Canada a week ago telling us that it is now permissible for homosexuals to get married. And then we have the United States Supreme Court just a couple of days ago saying that it is perfectly permissible for people to sodomize one another. This is precisely why the town of Sodom was destroyed. Those who want to practice this unfortunate sort of thing have tried to suggest that Sodom was not destroyed because of its debased way of life, but rather because of a lack of hospitality, that they were not hospitable when the visitors came and that is why the Lord destroyed them. It is made very clear earlier on that that is not the case. If you want to see it completely clearly, if there is any doubt, read the Letter of Jude in the New Testament. It is made very clear why Sodom was destroyed.

We need to recognize that if we are going to be followers of Christ we have to stand for the truth. Now the Church makes a clear distinction that we must uphold. There is a difference between a homosexual orientation and a homosexual act. The orientation is that someone may be attracted to persons of their same sex. This is an objective disorder, but it is not a sin. We need to be very clear about that. To say it is an objective disorder means something is not right. God obviously made us to be attracted to persons of the opposite sex. That is quite evident if one just simply looks at all the various elements of the human person. To be attracted to someone of one’s own sex just does not make sense, and so it is a disorder. There is something that is out of order if that is the case. But it is not a sin, just simply something disordered. If we think about it on the physical level, those of us, for instance, who wear glasses have an objective physical disorder. The eyes do not work the way they are supposed to. There is nothing sinful about it, but it is an objective disorder. One could look at any of the other things. If you have a leg that is an inch shorter than the other, if you are color blind, if there is any kind of physical disorder, it is simply not the way it is supposed to be. This is an objective moral disorder. It is not the way it is supposed to be.

It becomes immoral when one acts upon this disorder. And so one of the problems is that we have lots of people saying today, “Because I have this attraction to someone of the same sex, I have a right to act upon it.” No one has such a right. That would be just as if someone who were heterosexual were to say, “Because I am attracted to persons of the opposite sex, I have a right to act upon it with anyone, anytime.” No, you do not. Sexuality is something that is reserved for two persons within marriage. Because the two purposes of marriage are union and procreation and because two persons of the same sex cannot procreate, they cannot be married. It does not matter what the Supreme Court says in Canada, or as Justice Scalia made very clear, it is just one step away in the United States. And if anyone thinks that this particular decision that our Supreme Court made last week is somehow separate from homosexual marriage, you have got another thing coming – because that will be their next attempt.

We are going the way of Sodom and Gomorrah. Tomorrow’s reading will tell us all about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and perhaps the fact that the last fully approved apparition of Our Lady told us that things are going to happen by fire falling from the sky and destroying the greater part of humanity. Considering that a number of European nations have already allowed homosexuality, Canada has, America is doing so, maybe this is why fire is going to fall from the sky. It happened once because of this, perhaps this is the reason it will happen again; we do not know that. But what we do know is that we must stand firmly for the truth. It has become a politically correct sort of thing to accept homosexual behavior. I am told that you can hardly turn on any kind of sitcom now on primetime TV because that is all you see. It is one homosexual thing after the next. What is happening is that people’s minds are being twisted. The media is doing exactly what they want and they are deforming the consciences of the people of America to make us try to accept things that are intrinsically evil.

As Catholics, we must stand up for the truth. It is wrong to kill babies; it wrong to act on homosexual desires; it wrong to commit adultery – all of these things that the Church has always taught and will teach until the end. But we begin to see very clearly what Our Lord said. We need to look at Him now and ask, “Do I really want to follow Christ? Because if I do, there will be no place to lay my head, there will be no place where I am going to be accepted if I am going to be a true Catholic.” Praise God! It is about time, but that is not a politically easy thing to do. We need to throw away political correctness and we need to stand for the truth. That is the choice we have to make. Do we want to go with the tide of America and other countries? Or do we want to stand with Jesus Christ? We know that if we are going to stand with Christ we are going to stand apart, but that is what it means to be consecrated. Each one of us has already been consecrated in Baptism, and we have been consecrated for the truth. Now we have a choice to make. Are we going to stand for that truth? Are we going to live the truth? Are we going to be willing to be ostracized for that truth? Jesus Christ was, and He made very clear what the conditions of following Him would be: We will have no place to lay our head. That is where the Catholic Church stands right now and that is a great gift from God. Now we need to make the choice. Are we going to remain faithful or are we going to waffle? Are we going to follow Jesus Christ and be set apart from the ways of this world?

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier, Monday June 30, 2003, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Reading (Genesis 18:16-33) Gospel (St. Matthew 8:18-22).

Now it is not that God wants certain things to happen. Obviously, He does not want us to be killing 4,000 babies a day – He does not want us to be killing any babies ever – yet at the same time He certainly is allowing these things to happen. When there are things in our lives that are not good that take place, we have to understand it is part of God’s providence for us. If somebody does not like us, if something very unfortunate occurs, that is part of God’s Will and providence in our lives. That does not necessarily imply that God wanted the other person to do something to us, especially when it is something sinful, yet God, knowing the free will of the other person, allows these things to happen. It is in fact His Will for us that these things occur. The reason for that is because it is something we need in order to grow in virtue.

This, again, is difficult for people to understand. But the reality, and we all know from our own experience, is that the only way we are going to grow is when we have to deal with difficult things. How are you going to grow in patience unless there is somebody who makes you impatient? How are you going to grow in meekness unless there is somebody who makes you angry? How are you going to grow in charity unless there is somebody whom you would rather be uncharitable toward and you have to practice the charity? On and on the list could go of all the different things.

We even see in the Gospel reading that Our Lord is telling Saint John the Baptist’s disciples, The blind see, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, lepers are cleansed, and so on. Those people could not have been healed unless they already had the ailment. It is just like the blind man about whom the apostles asked, “Whose fault is it that this man is blind? Is it his parents’ or his own?” And the Lord said, It is for the glory of God. That is the understanding we need when things happen in our lives: It is for the glory of God.

Now sometimes the things that occur we can look at and say, “Well, it’s my own fault that it happened. If I hadn’t done this or that or the other thing, these things wouldn’t have occurred.” The reality is that they are occurring and God is allowing them. He will bring about a good from them and all of it is part of His providence. This is something that is difficult for us to accept. It is hard to grapple with in our own lives, and yet it is a reality that all of us have to deal with. Absolutely nothing occurs in this world and absolutely nothing occurs in our own individual lives without God willing it. So as we struggle through the difficulties and problems in our lives, what we have to try to do is bring these things back to prayer and we have to ask the question, “Why are You allowing it? What is the purpose?” It is there in order to bring about a good. The thing that we always have to try to discern is what the good is. Sometimes we are not going to understand it until even years after the thing is over, when we can look back at it and begin to understand why the Lord was allowing it. But everything that happens is part of God’s providence.

And so, again, it is something we have to individually try to struggle with. Why does God allow Satan even to exist, let alone to give us trouble? Why does God allow us to sin? Why does God allow painful and even bad things to happen in people’s lives? This is a mystery, and a very difficult mystery for us to deal with; yet, in all of our lives it is a reality. But if we can begin to understand that He is allowing this so we can become saints, that often times as we grow in holiness it is the very worst thing we have ever done that often times becomes the greatest means for humility and for fidelity to God, that when we realize just how awful we can be, it is that which actually helps us to get on track and to stay there because we know what we are capable of. When we see how God brings good out of all the evil that we ourselves give into, it is then that we can understand how He allows these things; not because He wants them, but because these are the means by which we will become saints. They actually become the means by which we can serve Him better when we repent of what we have done or when we accept the evil that falls upon us. It is in accepting those things that we are able to serve Him better, with greater virtue and with greater holiness.

When we see the injustice and the evil, and we wonder why, all we need to do is look at the Cross. Look at, from a human perspective, the greatest injustice and the greatest evil ever done; and yet, from God’s perspective, see the greatest act of love, the greatest act of justice, the greatest act of good that has ever been performed for humanity. And when we wonder why, the answer is on the Cross.

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier, Wednesday December 15, 2004, Third Week of Advent, Reading (Isaiah 45:6c-8, 18, 21c-25), Gospel (St. Luke 7:18b-23).

Prayer for our suffering:

Dear Lord,
Help me to remember in these troubled times
The cross you carried for my sake,
So that I may better carry mine
And to help others do the same,
As I offer up (whatever your concern or problem here) to you
For the conversion of sinners
For the forgiveness of sins
In reparation for sins
And for the salvation of souls. Amen.

A prayer for confusion, doubt and/or despair:

Dear Lord,
During this trial,
I offer up to you my confusion
Give me clarity
I offer up to you my despair
Give me hope
I offer up to you my weakness
Give me strength
I offer up to you my pettiness
Give me generosity of spirit.
I offer up to you all my
Negative thoughts from Satan
So that when he asks ‘Where is Your God now?”
I may respond “Right here with me, giving me His grace
As a Heavenly beam of light penetrating your darkness!” Amen.

From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.