Preach My Psalter / Predica Mi Salterio

     According to St. Paul, in the fullness of time God sent His Son to become the Son of Man through a Woman to save human beings.  All the Gospels proclaim this Son of God to be Jesus Christ, the Son of the Virgin Mary. During His natural life as Man, He prepared the people of God through His preaching and healing ministry to believe that He was the Son of God, the Messiah, who would suffer and die for their salvation.  For this reason, He would become the Ideal or Perfect Model of human moral agency for all people, for He alone would be their Savior.

     At the same time, they could only receive salvation from Him through a faithful act of repentance for their sins. Accordingly, during His ministry, He called human beings to repent for their sins.  In the Gospel He says, “I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.” After hearing this call from Him, people guilty of particular sins repented for them.  These penitents included Levi, Zacchaeus, a sinful woman, and a woman guilty of adultery.  As a result, they received forgiveness from Jesus Christ through their repentance.  Hence, He proclaimed in His preaching, “The Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins”. Conversely, He also had the authority to retain the sins of impenitent people.  This means that He had the authority not to forgive them if they did not repent.  After all, as rational, free human beings, if they failed to repent for their sins, they would be closing their hearts to His offer of grace.  This would be their moral choice.  Consequently, Jesus would not release their sins from them through forgiveness.  On the contrary, He would retain their sins in them as a just punishment for their unrepentance.  In doing so, He prayed that this would help them open their hearts to the grace of repentance sometime during their life before they died.  For this reason, the desired end or terminus of His just punishment of these people was medicinal. He hoped that they would be moved to open their hearts to His healing mercy.  

     To this end, after His Resurrection, He appeared to His apostles and breathed the Holy Spirit upon them.  In this act, they received from Him a ministerial participation in His authority on Earth to forgive or retain the sins of the members of His Body, the Church.  He tells them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” On the one hand, through the Holy Spirit, the apostles received from Christ the faculty to forgive penitents for their sins ministerially, for they could act in the person of Christ the Head.  These penitents would be people who repented.  In doing so, they opened their hearts to receive the healing mercy of Christ.  This grace reconciled them to Christ and to His Body, the Church.  On the other hand, the apostles also received a participation in the authority of Christ to retain the sins of impenitent people as a just punishment for their unrepentance, for they closed their hearts to the mercy of Christ.  Consequently, they remained unreconciled to Christ and to His Church.  In this sense, Christ instituted Penance as a Sacrament in the Church as a means for His apostles and their successors to perpetuate His ministry of justice and mercy sacramentally on Earth through the Holy Spirit.  On this basis, in this Sacrament Christ reveals, once again, the unity of the justice and mercy of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, in His plan of salvation for all people.

     In Church Teaching, the nature of the Sacrament of Penance, as instituted by Christ Himself, contains four parts.  These four parts include the three acts of the Catholic penitent, and the single act of the priest.  According to the Church, the first part of the Sacrament is the act of the penitent called contrition.  Thus, Thomas says, “the first requirement on the part of the penitent is the will to atone…by contrition”. This means in his desire to atone, through an act of his will, the penitent is contrite or sorry for his sins from his heart.  He is sorry for his sins against God, his neighbor and himself.  As a result, his contrition moves him to hate his sins.  This is his first renouncement of sin in his heart.  For this reason, he is resolved not to sin again.  Accordingly, the Fathers of the Council of Trent teach that contrition includes sorrow and hatred for sin and the resolution not to sin again.  Moreover, in the Catholic Tradition such a resolution would also require that the penitent be resolved to avoid all the voluntary near occasions of sin such as particular persons, places and objects that would easily lead him to sin in his human fragility.  The Tradition calls these near occasions voluntary for the penitent because he can avoid them through prudential moral choices.  Therefore, he would certainly have the responsibility to avoid them as a contrite moral agent.  In doing so, he would guard himself against sin.  Finally, the Church teaches that contrition can be either perfect or imperfect in the penitent.  On the one hand, perfect contrition means that the sorrow and hatred he has in his heart for his sins proceed from his love for God as his First and Greatest Love.  As such, this perfect contrition is also called contrition of love or charity.  On the other hand, in imperfect contrition, the penitent has a sorrow and hatred for his sins for other reasons, such as a fear of eternal punishment in hell.  The goal or ideal of the penitent is certainly perfect contrition, but imperfect contrition is also acceptable. Hence, in either case, the penitent has the required contrition to receive the grace of the Sacrament.

     According to the Church, the second act of the penitent in the Sacrament of Penance is the confession of his sins.  Accordingly, Thomas teaches that through confession the penitent subjects himself to “the judgment of the priest”.  For here the priest, standing in the place of God, acts in the Person of Christ the Head, the Just and Merciful Judge.  As the Church says, Christ Himself instituted the Sacrament of Penance for the penitent to receive His judgment of justice and mercy, after Baptism, through the ministry of the priest.  In this Sacrament, the Church only recommends the Catholic penitent to confess his venial sins to the priest, but requires him to confess all his mortal sins to him.  On the one hand, his guilt for venial sin only wounds the grace of Christ in his soul. Consequently, he incurs only a debt of temporal punishment.  On the other hand, for mortal or deadly sin he incurs a stain in his soul, called spiritual death, because this sin destroys the grace of Christ in him.  Consequently, he subjects himself to the debt of eternal punishment.  The Fathers of the Council of Trent teach that these consequences or penalties proceed from the harmful “nature of sin”. After all, sin either wounds or destroys the grace of Christ in the soul of the penitent.  In this sense, through venial sin, the penitent does not lose the grace of Christ, the grace of justification, but he does lose this grace through mortal sin, including the theological virtue of charity.  Indeed, he loses all the blessings that Christ merited for him on the Cross for his salvation.  Consequently, he cannot enter Heaven spiritually dead through mortal sin. For this reason, the Catholic Church teaches that Christ instituted the Sacrament of Penance to reconcile to Himself and to His Church, the penitent guilty of mortal sin. On this basis, the penitent certainly prepares himself to receive the justice and mercy of Christ through his confession to a priest.

     In the Catholic Tradition, the third and final act for the Catholic penitent in the Sacrament of Penance is for him to do satisfaction for his sins, as the justice of God requires. According to Thomas, in satisfaction the penitent offers to God the honor due Him, the honor he had denied Him through sin.   For this reason, the penitent remains bound to satisfy, but recompense here for the penitent can proceed no further than through an act that denies himself something that belongs to him in reparation for his sin, for God can acquire nothing from him.  As such, for this to be satisfactory, Thomas says that the justice of God requires that the act of the penitent be morally good and painful or sacrificial.  The goodness of the act honors God, but the pain of the act, the sacrifice, denies or removes something from the penitent that belongs to him.  This has a medicinal nature that helps him purify himself from the remains of the sin that may be in his heart, the tendency or inclination to the particular sin.  This penitential act of satisfaction is a just punishment that pleases God, for here the penitent offers to God the honor due Him as God in reparation for the sin.  In Catholic Teaching, such an act could include prayer, fasting or almsgiving.  They all satisfy for sin, for they are all good acts honoring God that involve the penitent denying or renouncing something from himself sacrificially in atonement for sin, his material goods (alms), bodily pleasure or nourishment (fasting), and his self-will (prayer).  Accordingly, in the Sacrament of Penance, Thomas says that the penitent “atones according to the decision of the minister of God…in satisfaction”.  In this sense, as a just and merciful judge in the Tribunal of the Confessional, the priest assigns the penitent a just penance to satisfy for his sins as atonement.  As for the penitent, he subjects his will to the judgment of the priest by his faithful, moral choice to do the satisfactory penance as a just punishment for his sins.  In doing so, he receives the justice and mercy of Christ through the priest.  For the terminus or end of his just punishment is the merciful satisfaction for his sins.  In doing so, he atones for them penitentially through his participation in the merits of the satisfactory Passion of Christ. Additionally, the Fathers of the Council of Trent teach that God also calls the penitent to offer up as voluntary satisfactory penances for his sins, the trials or crucibles that he may suffer in this life, including bodily, spiritual and mental illness, injustice and persecution.  As Thomas teaches, these satisfactory penances or punishments that the penitent receives either from the priest in the Sacrament of Penance or from God in his life reestablish a balance or harmony in the order of God’s justice that was lost through the sin.

      Finally, the Church teaches that the act of the priest completes or perfects the Sacrament of Penance as a ministry of the Keys. In particular, he completes the Sacrament by his faculty to forgive the penitent of all his mortal sins, including his debt of eternal punishment, through the grace of absolution.  Indeed, after the penitent offers the required contrition and confession of his sins and subjects his will to the just satisfactory penance he receives from the judgment of the priest, the priest mercifully absolves the penitent of the stain and eternal debt of his mortal sins. As a result, he becomes sanctified as a son of God through the grace of justification he receives from Christ in the absolution.  This reconciles him to Christ and His Church.  For this reason, reestablished in the grace of Christ through the ministry of the priest, the penitent can finally atone for his sins penitentially as the justice of God requires.  As such, the judgment of the priest in the confessional is “both just and merciful.” In a sense, he punishes satisfactorily, but also absolves mercifully.  Accordingly, after the penitent receives this justice and mercy of Christ through the penance and absolution of the priest, there remains some debt of punishment for the penitent to atone for by satisfaction.  This is not the eternal debt, but the temporal debt.  For the debt of the “temporal punishment of sin remains” for the penitent to satisfy for penitentially in justice.  In this sense, after Saint Paul receives the mercy of Christ, His forgiveness, through the healing ministry of Ananias, he learns that he will also have to suffer much in this life for the Name of Christ as a just temporal punishment for his mortal sins against Christ and His Body, the Church. Thus, Paul paid this temporal debt to the justice of God through the trials, crucibles and persecutions he suffered for the Holy Name of Jesus in this life. In doing so, he made satisfaction for his sins through His participation in the satisfactory Passion of Christ, the source of all satisfaction. On this basis, the absolution of the priest mercifully cleanses or purifies the penitent of his stain and eternal debt for mortal sin, but his temporal debt remains for him to satisfy the justice of God penitentially in this life.

In Christ with Blessed Mary,

Friar Mariano D. Veliz, O.P.

INTRODUCCION

     ¡Saludos, querido amigo en Cristo! El viernes 8 de diciembre, la Solemnidad de la Inmaculada Concepción de la Santísima Virgen María, iniciaré una Cruzada Espiritual del Rosario, bajo la Patrona Materna de la Orden de Frailes Predicadores, Nuestra Señora del Santo Rosario.  Como tal, estoy invitando a todos los católicos, incluido a usted, a participar este santo apostolado.  Al hacerlo, ustedes me ayudarán a santificar, sanar, y defender al pueblo de Dios, incluidos sus familiares, contra los males espirituales y morales hoy en la sociedad, particularmente contra naciones, instituciones y personas que están actuando bajo la influencia maligna de la Serpiente y Sus ángeles caídos.  En este santo apostolado, tenemos que orar por tales naciones, instituciones y personas perdidas para que se arrepientan y se conviertan a Dios.  Solo haciendo esto, recibirán la gracia de Dios para imitar la perfecta santidad del Segundo Adán y Eva, Jesús y la Virgen María, lo cual significa vivir una vida santa, una vida de virtud.  Dios, por supuesto, ama a todos los seres humanos, incluso los pecadores, y desea su redención, pero ellos solo llegarán a ser santos en el Cielo algún día si se abren para recibir la gracia de Dios, en esta vida, por el arrepentimiento y la conversión.  Por lo tanto, espero que usted decida participar en esta Cruzada Espiritual del Santo Rosario para ayudar al pueblo de Dios, incluidos los pecadores impenitentes.

REQUISITOS

     Al mismo tiempo, habría varios requisitos para alguien, como usted, que decide participar en esta Cruzada.  Por un lado, tiene que ser católico. Por otro lado, tiene que hacerse miembro de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario.  En esta Cruzada Espiritual del Rosario, cumpliría tres devociones cada semana: el Rosario, la penitencia y la misericordia. En la Tradición, el pueblo de Dios revela su fidelidad a Dios y a sus hermanos practicando oración, penitencia y misericordia. Por eso usted está llamado a hacer lo mismo, particularmente en esta Cruzada del Rosario. Al hacerlo, ofrecería el Rosario, la penitencia, y la misericordia a Nuestra Señora del Rosario como una triple ofrenda de fe, esperanza y amor por la intención de la Cruzada, ya mencionada anteriormente. Incluiría también en esta intención a todos los miembros de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario. Ofreciendo su Rosario, unido a la penitencia y a la misericordia, por esta intención, tendrá mayor eficacia espiritual y fecundidad para usted y para el pueblo de Dios, particularmente para su familia.

TRES ROSARIOS CADA SEMANA

     En primer lugar, como miembro de la Confraternidad, usted ofrecería tres Rosarios (15 Misterios) por semana. Podría ofrecerlos todos a la vez, por separado el mismo día o por separado en varios días.  Además, los podría ofrecer de forma privada o comunitaria. Ofreciendo sus Rosarios en privado ciertamente lo perfeccionará espiritualmente, pero ofreciéndolos comunitariamente sería una mayor perfección espiritual para usted y para los demás, pues estará formando y enseñando a los miembros de su familia, especialmente a sus hijos, la santa virtud de orar juntos como familia. La familia que ora junta se perfecciona junta por la gracia de Dios. Al mismo tiempo, si usted decide no ofrecer los tres Rosarios juntos como familia, podría ofrecer al menos uno como Rosario familiar los domingos. En todo caso, ofrecer estos tres Rosarios semanalmente, ya sea de forma privada o comunitaria, es requisito para todos los miembros de la Confraternidad del Rosario.

UNA PENITENCIA POR CADA ROSARIO

     En segundo lugar, un miembro de la Confraternidad, como usted, el cual ha decidido participar en la Cruzada Espiritual del Rosario, uniría una penitencia a cada Rosario que ofrece. Ofrecería la penitencia justo antes o durante el Rosario. Por ejemplo, para su penitencia del Rosario, usted podría ofrecer su Rosario de rodillas, cantar su Rosario (o por lo menos una década de su Rosario), ayunar comiendo una comida más pequeña, ayunar de su comida o postre favorito, o negarse a sí mismo una forma de recreación que disfruta, etc.  Según la Tradición, cuando alguien une su penitencia a su Rosario, está ofreciendo no solamente las oraciones del Rosario a la Virgen Maria, sino también sus sufrimientos penitenciales. En consecuencia, su penitencia perfeccionaría espiritualmente su ofrecimiento del Rosario.

UN ACTO DE MISERICORDIA POR CADA ROSARIO

     Finalmente, después de ofrecer su penitencia antes o durante su Rosario, ofrecería un acto de misericordia por el bien de alguien, pero solo después de completar su Rosario. Por ejemplo, podría ofrecer comida o bebida a una persona hambrienta o sedienta; podría ofrecer limosna, una donación monetaria, a alguien que esté pasando por un tiempo difícil económicamente; podría visitar a una persona enferma o a alguien en la cárcel; podría aconsejar, enseñar o corregir a un familiar o amigo con prudencia y caridad; o podría perdonar a una persona por haber pecado contra usted o contra un miembro de su familia. Según la Iglesia, la oración, perfeccionada por la penitencia, le abriría a una perfección mayor, la perfección de ofrecer misericordia a las personas en su vida.

QUINCE PROMESAS

     Según la tradición Dominica, después de que la Santísima Virgen María, Nuestra Señora del Santo Rosario, encargara a Santo Domingo la propagación de su Salterio, que es su Santo Rosario, a principios del siglo XIII (1208), ella le reveló Quince Promesas a él y más tarde al Beato Alan de la Roche en el siglo XV. Al hacerlo, dijo que cumpliría estas promesas para ellos y para todos los demás católicos que ofrecieran fielmente el Rosario.

1. Cualquiera que me sirva fielmente al recitar el Rosario recibirá gracias de señal.

2. Prometo mi protección especial y las mayores gracias a todas las personas que rezan el Rosario.

3. El Rosario será una poderosa armadura contra el infierno, destruirá el vicio, disminuirá el pecado y derrotará las herejías.

4. Hará florecer las buenas obras; obtendrá para las almas la abundante misericordia de Dios; retirará los corazones de los hombres del amor del mundo y sus vanidades, y los elevará al deseo de las cosas eternas. ¡Oh, que las almas se santifiquen por este medio!

5. El alma que me recomendó recitando el Rosario no perecerá.

6. Quien recite el Rosario devotamente, aplicándose a la consideración de sus Sagrados Misterios, nunca será vencido por la desgracia. Dios no lo castigará en su justicia, no perecerá por una muerte no provista; si él es justo, permanecerá en la gracia de Dios y será digno de la Vida Eterna.

7. Quien tenga una verdadera devoción por el Rosario no morirá sin los sacramentos de la Iglesia.

8. Aquellos que sean fieles para rezar el Rosario tendrán durante su vida y a su muerte la Luz de Dios y la plenitud de Sus Gracias; en el momento de la muerte, participarán en los méritos de los santos en el paraíso.

9.Liberaré del purgatorio a los que se han dedicado al Rosario.

10. Los fieles hijos del Rosario merecerán un alto grado de Gloria en el Cielo.

11. Obtendrá todo lo que me pida recitando el Rosario.

12. Todos los que propaguen el Santo Rosario serán ayudados por mí en sus necesidades.

13. He obtenido de mi Divino Hijo que todos los defensores del Rosario tendrán para los intercesores toda la Corte Celestial durante su vida y en la hora de la muerte.

14. Todos los que rezan el Rosario son mis hijos y hermanos y hermanas de mi Hijo Jesucristo.

15. La devoción a mi rosario es una gran señal de predestinación.

BENEFICIOS

     Como miembro de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario, sería beneficiario de varias bendiciones. Son beneficios espirituales que la Orden de Frailes Predicadores les ofrece a los miembros de la Confraternidad mediante la aprobación oficial de la Iglesia.

  En primer lugar, los miembros de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario oran unos por otros, incluso por sus miembros fallecidos. Como tal, tendría muchas personas orando por usted no sólo en esta vida, sino también en la muerte.

  En segundo lugar, como miembro de la Confraternidad, sería beneficiario de los frutos de las oraciones, Rosarios, Santas Misas y ministerios apostólicos de la Orden de Frailes Predicadores.

  En tercer lugar, varias indulgencias plenarias y parciales estarían disponibles para usted como miembro de la Confraternidad. Una indulgencia es la remisión de la pena temporal debida por el pecado cuya culpa ya ha sido perdonada. Por un lado, una indulgencia parcial lo libera parcialmente del castigo temporal debido a su pecado. En cambio, una indulgencia plenaria lo libera por completo. Solo puede obtener una indulgencia plenaria una vez al día, a menos que esté cerca de la muerte.  Tanto las indulgencias parciales como las plenarias pueden aplicarse a los difuntos, pero sólo por medio del sufragio. 

  En cuarto lugar, podría recibir una indulgencia plenaria el día de su inscripción, el día de Navidad, el Domingo de Resurrección, la Fiesta de la Anunciación, la Fiesta de la Asunción, la Fiesta de Nuestra Señora del Santo Rosario, la Fiesta de la Inmaculada Concepción, y la Fiesta de la Presentación de Nuestro Señor. Además, podría recibir una indulgencia plenaria ofreciendo el Rosario: en una iglesia u oratorio, como familia, como religiosos consagrados en una capilla conventual, o como un grupo piadoso de laicos fieles.  Si no, la indulgencia sólo sería parcial. 

  Finalmente, sólo podría obtener una indulgencia plenaria en los días, antes mencionados, cumpliendo ciertas condiciones o requisitos que incluyen: recibir el Sacramento de la Confesión y la Sagrada Comunión, orar por las intenciones del Papa y estar libre de todo pecado, incluso venial. Si no está desprendido de tal pecado, o si no ha cumplido alguna de las otras condiciones, su indulgencia sólo sería parcial.

VOCACIÓN A LA PERFECTA SANTIDAD

  En la Providencia de Dios, Jesús lo llama a la perfecta santidad.  Por eso quiere que sea perfecto como Él es perfecto.  La Virgen Maria, por supuesto, cumplió perfectamente esta llamada a la santidad, pues era perfecta, espiritual y moralmente, durante toda su vida natural. 

     Por un lado, Jesús, el Hijo de Dios, es la imagen perfecta de Su Ejemplar, Dios Padre, pues, por naturaleza, procede perfectamente del Padre, en Su Divinidad, como Su Hijo perfecto.  Por eso cumplió, perfectamente, la Santa Voluntad de Su Padre.  En efecto, fue concebido y nacido como hombre perfecto. Como resultado, al madurar como hombre, vivió, sufrió, y murió perfectamente, como el Redentor de la humanidad.

  Por otro lado, la Virgen María es la imagen perfecta de su Ejemplar, Dios Hijo, porque, por la gracia, ella procede perfectamente del Hijo, en su humanidad, como Su discípula perfecta.  En este sentido, María cumplió la Santa Voluntad de su Hijo, perfectamente, porque fue concebida y nacida como mujer perfecta por la gracia de Dios.  Por lo tanto, madurando como mujer, y haciéndose Madre perfecta, por esta gracia, ella vivió, sufrió, y murió, perfectamente unida a su Hijo, el Hijo de Dios, como Madre del Redentor.

  Como tal, para una persona, llevar en sí misma la imagen perfecta de alguien significa, sobre todo, la idea de que lleva la misma perfecta santidad que esa persona.  Asi que, Jesús y la Virgen Maria, el Segundo Adán y Eva, fueron perfectos en santidad, durante toda su vida natural, porque llevaron perfectamente en sí mismos la imagen de su Ejemplar. Ésta es una santidad en ellos que todavía revelan diariamente al pueblo de Dios desde el Cielo.

  Como hijo de Dios e hijo de Maria, usted tiene la misma vocación a la perfecta santidad que Jesús y la Virgen María, el Segundo Adán y Eva.  Jesús, por la Virgen María, cumplió en usted esta vocación a la perfecta santidad, por primera vez, en el Bautismo.  En este Sacramento, el Hijo de Dios, Jesús, el Segundo Adán, lo recreó a Su santa imagen, como hijo adoptivo de Dios, ante todo, por la gracia de Su santo sí a sufrir y morir por usted como Redentor. Al mismo tiempo, Él sólo podía sufrir y morir como Redentor preparándose primero una Segunda Eva, una Virgen perfecta Hija de Dios, para ser su Compañera en la redención de la humanidad.  Por eso, como preparación para redimir a usted y a todos los hombres con Su sufrimiento y muerte, primero fue concebido y nacido como Hijo del Hombre por la gracia del santo sí de la Segunda Eva, la Virgen Maria, Su Madre.  Al ofrecer su sí a Dios, ella se convirtió en la Madre del Hijo de Dios, la Madre del Redentor. En este sentido, en la plenitud de los tiempos, el Hijo de Dios se hizo Hijo del Hombre, Hijo de la Virgen María, por naturaleza, para que todos los hombres pasarían a ser adoptados como hijos de Dios por la gracia del Bautismo. Como tal, juntos el santo sí de Jesús, el Segundo Adán, y el santo sí de la Segunda Eva, la Virgen María, prepararon a usted, prepararon a todos los hombres, para entrar en el paralelo perfecto de oposición por la gracia de la adopción en el Bautismo. Al recibir esta gracia de adopción a través del santo sí del Hijo y de la Madre, usted opuso, por primera vez, al pecado del Primer Adán y Eva, incluida la maldad de la Serpiente y de sus ángeles caídos, por su santidad. Al hacerlo, entró en el paralelo perfecto de la oposición por la gracia del Bautismo que lo santificó en el sí de Jesús por el sí de la Virgen María.

  Esta gracia de entrar en el paralelo perfecto de oposición por el Bautismo, por supuesto, no significa que usted ha cumplido perfectamente su vocación a la perfecta santidad a lo largo de su vida, como lo cumplió Jesús y la Virgen María.  Por el contrario, en este paralelo de oposición, Dios lo llama sólo a abrirse a la gracia de la perfectibilidad para que pueda madurar, durante su vida, hasta la plena perfección, a imagen del Segundo Adán y Eva, Jesús y la Virgen María. Para usted, esta llamada a la perfección comienza en esta vida, pero sólo podrá completarla en el Cielo. Al decir sí a esta llamada, por una vida santa, ya se opone al pecado del Primer Adán y Eva, incluida la maldad de la Serpiente y de los ángeles caídos. En consecuencia, espero que diga sí a hacerse miembro de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario para participar en la Cruzada Espiritual del Rosario.  Haciendo esto, madurará a la perfecta santidad, a imagen de Jesús y la Virgen María. Como le he dicho, esto significaría ofrecer obras de oración, penitencia y misericordia a Jesús, por la Virgen María, para que ella interceda ante Su Hijo en su nombre para su bien y el bien del pueblo de Dios. Al hacerlo, usted está diciendo sí al plan de redención de Dios.  Este es el plan en el cual el Segundo Adán y Eva, Jesús y la Virgen María, trabajan juntos, como Madre e Hijo, para redimir los descendientes del Primer Adán y Eva de todo mal.  En efecto, por su santo sí a este plan, participaría en el aplastamiento de la cabeza de la Serpiente y de Sus ángeles caídos, por Jesús y María, para salvar a estos descendientes del pecado.  Esta es su llamada a la perfecta santidad. 

  Para usted, todos los requisitos, promesas, y beneficios de hacerse miembro de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario, y participar en la Cruzada Espiritual del Rosario, lo preparan a cumplir su vocación a la perfecta santidad ayudándole a santificar, sanar, y defender al pueblo de Dios de todo mal por la gracia de Dios.  Al hacerlo, usted entra en el paralelo perfecto de oposición, más plenamente, uniéndose aún más a la perfecta santidad de Jesús y la Virgen María, el Segundo Adán y Eva.  En este perfecto paralelo de oposición, como lo revela Dios en la Sagrada Escritura y la Tradición, el Segundo Adán y Eva, Jesús y la Virgen María, por su vocación a la perfecta santidad, se oponen completa y perfectamente a la pecaminosidad del Primer Adán y Eva, incluida la maldad de la Serpiente y Su descendencia espiritual, los ángeles caídos.  Sobre esta base, ellos lo están llamando a hacer lo mismo a lo largo de su vida. 

REGISTRACIÓN

     Amigo, después de haber leído y considerado todos los requisitos, promesas, y beneficios de hacerse miembro de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario, ¿está usted listo a unirse a mi en este santo apostolado?  Si es así, estaría preparado a participar en la Cruzada Espiritual del Rosario.  Al hacerlo, entraría en el paralelo perfecto de oposición, más plenamente, al ayudarme, en esta Cruzada, a santificar, sanar, y defender al pueblo de Dios, incluida su familia, contra el mal, por la oración, la penitencia, y la misericordia.  Como tal, si ha decidido unirse a mí en este santo apostolado, por favor envíeme un mensaje por correo electrónico para decírmelo. Al mismo tiempo, lo entendería si decidiera no hacerlo en este momento.  Puede que usted no esté disponible debido a otras responsabilidades. En ese caso, espero que se una a mí cuando tenga tiempo en el futuro.  La inscripción para este santo apostolado permanecerá abierta.  Esto significa que podría registrarse en cualquier momento.  En este sentido, usted no tiene fecha límite para hacerse miembro de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario, y para participar en la Cruzada Espiritual del Rosario.  Además, si usted ya se ha unido a la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario en el pasado, por favor NO vuelva a registrarse.  Su registro es válido por toda su vida.  Si piensa hacerse miembro de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario para participar en la Cruzada Espiritual, regístrese por su Provincia Dominica local. 

     Primeramente, si usted vive en la Provincia de San Martín de Porres, particularmente en el área de Hammond, Louisiana, o cerca, yo mismo puedo registrarlo en el registro fácilmente, como fraile local. Si ese es el caso, por favor envíame un mensaje para pedirme que lo registre.

     En segundo lugar, si vive usted en cualquiera de los otros estados de la Provincia de San Martín de Porres, incluidos Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina y North Carolina, por favor regístrese por la página provincial de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario: https://dominicanconfraternidad.org/enroll.

  Finalmente, si vive en otra Provincia de los Estados Unidos (u otro país), por favor regístrese por la Provincia local en la que vive. Puede visitar la página de registración de su Provincia Dominica local en los Estados Unidos para registrarse en la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario. Aquí están las páginas de registración para las otras tres Provincias Dominicas en los Estados Unidos. Visite la página correspondiente para registrarse localmente.

Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús  (Oeste)

https://rosarycenter.org/enroll-in-the-rosary-confraternity

Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Oregon

Provincia de San Alberto Magno (Central)

https://www.therosarian.org/enrolling

Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Provincia de San Jose (Este):

https://rosaryconfraternity.org/the-confraternity/enroll-in-the-confraternity/

Ohio, Kentucky, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island

  Amigo, gracias por haber leído y considerado todo lo que he escrito en este artículo. Espero que me envíe un mensaje para decirme que sí quiere hacerse miembro de la Confraternidad del Santo Rosario para participar en la Cruzada Espiritual del Rosario.  Este apostolado ciertamente le ayudaría a cumplir su vocación a la perfecta santidad.  Dios me lo bendiga, amigo.

En Cristo con María Santísima,

Fray Mariano D. Véliz, O.P.

frmarianovelizop@preachmypsalter.com

Amigos, el domingo pasado celebramos el primer domingo de Adviento, donde comienza el primer día del año litúrgico de la Iglesia. En la enseñanza de la Iglesia, el Adviento es un tiempo de preparación para la venida de Cristo. Por lo cual, en el evangelio de hoy, Jesús les recuerda a sus discípulos la parabola del amo que deja a sus sirvientes a cuidar de su casa, y que estos sólo pueden prepararse para el retorno de su amo, su venida, teniendo asi que permanecer vigilantes para ese momento. Según Jesús, esta vigilancia implica cumplir con el trabajo que su maestro les ha asignado en su casa para la preparación de su venida. Como dice Jesús, no saben ni el día ni la hora en que regresará su maestro. Puede regresar en cualquier momento: por la mañana, por la tarde,  o por la noche. Al mismo tiempo, si han hecho todo el trabajo que su señor les ha asignado en su casa, como sirvientes vigilantes, seguramente estarán listos para recibirlo cuando venga.

      Aquí, Jesús llama a sus discípulos a estar vigilantes, espiritual y moralmente, viviendo una vida santa, una vida de virtud. Lo significa no hacer su voluntad, sino hacer Su voluntad, la voluntad de su Maestro. Al hacerlo, se preparan para Su venida, primero en Navidad y finalmente en el Día Postrero. Como tal, para los discípulos, una preparación vigilante para la venida de Cristo durante el Adviento implicaría hacer la voluntad de Dios. Esto significa, ante todo, entrar en el tiempo litúrgico de Adviento mediante la oración y la contemplación. Sólo orando y contemplando la Palabra de Dios en Adviento puede el pueblo de Dios comenzar a vivir la vida santa, la vida de virtud, que su Maestro, Jesucristo, los llama a vivir. De hecho, después de orar y contemplar la Palabra de Dios, reciben la gracia de vivir esa Palabra diariamente a través de la santa virtud.

      De todos modos, durante este tiempo litúrgico de Adviento, algunos católicos pasan por alto el Adviento por completo para celebrar la Navidad prematuramente. Esta práctica, llamada Relativismo Litúrgico, malforma espiritual y litúrgicamente al pueblo de Dios, incluyendo a sus hijos. En esta falsa liturgia, cualquiera puede decidir subjetivamente celebrar cualquier tiempo litúrgico que desee a lo largo del Calendario Litúrgico. Esto ocasiona un gran problema en la Iglesia, especialmente durante el Adviento. De hecho, muchos católicos creen y practican esta forma de relativismo, El Relativismo Litúrgico, celebrando fiestas navideñas seculares, comidas navideñas, recaudación de fondos navideños, obras de teatro y bailes navideños, rituales de oración navideña y decorando sus hogares para la Navidad prematuramente durante el Adviento. Al hacerlo, afirman que subjetivamente pueden decidir celebrar la Navidad durante el Adviento, ya que se trata de hacer su voluntad, no la voluntad de Dios.

      Desafortunadamente, estos católicos no se dan cuenta de que, de hecho, están descuidando y dañando la integridad, la santidad y el propósito del tiempo de Adviento. Aquí no están siendo vigilantes al utilizar el Adviento, como Dios lo propuso, como un tiempo de preparación. De hecho, para la Iglesia el Adviento, tradicionalmente, tiene un carácter penitencial. Por eso, se usa el violeta o morado, que es signo de penitencia, ese es el color del Adviento. De hecho, en la Tradición de la Iglesia, a veces ella ha llamado al Adviento la “Pequeña Cuaresma”, porque es un tiempo de preparación real y penitencial para recibir la Navidad. Aun así, muchos católicos afirman que subjetivamente pueden decidir celebrar la Navidad durante el Adviento. Este relativismo litúrgico, en realidad, no tiene ningún fundamento en la liturgia de la Iglesia. Al contrario, es una práctica secular que se introdujo en la Iglesia hace muchos años, particularmente durante el Adviento.

Los factores que han propiciado esta Navidad secular en la Iglesia católica incluyen, en primer lugar, la influencia de muchas iglesias protestantes que no celebran el Adviento. Para ellos, la Navidad comienza inmediatamente después del Día de Acción de Gracias y concluye al final del día de Navidad. En la práctica, esta es su temporada navideña. Por otro lado, para la Iglesia Católica, la Navidad comienza en Nochebuena y continúa durante toda la temporada navideña hasta el Bautismo del Señor, pero tradicionalmente hasta la Fiesta de la Candelaria. En segundo lugar, otro factor que ha llevado a la celebración prematura de la Navidad durante el Adviento es el beneficio económico. Muchas personas, grupos, empresas e iglesias se benefician económicamente al celebrar la Navidad durante la temporada de Adviento. El tercer factor que ha llevado a la celebración de la Navidad, una Navidad secular, durante el Adviento es El Relativismo Moral. En este sentido, celebrar la Navidad secular durante el Adviento realmente tiene una base en El Relativismo Moral. Por esta razón se le llama con razón Relativismo Litúrgico, hijo del Relativismo Moral. Según la Iglesia, el Relativismo Moral es gravemente inmoral. Esta falacia afirma que no hay verdades objetivas y universales de Dios, sino sólo verdades subjetivas y particulares que cada persona tiene derecho a crear por sí misma. Así, lo que es cierto para un ser humano puede no serlo ni para su hermano ni para su hermana. Aquí cada uno define subjetivamente el significado de su verdad, lo que cree que es moralmente bueno o malo sólo para él. Sobre esta base, las personas que creen y practican el Relativismo Moral argumentan que los actos de masturbación, fornicación, homosexualidad y transgenerismo son moralmente verdaderos y buenos para cualquiera que desee practicarlos. De todos modos, en la enseñanza de la Iglesia, todos estos actos se definen como intrínsecamente malos, malos por naturaleza, lo que significa que no son ordenados por Dios, porque son objetiva y universalmente malos, independientemente de las intenciones, sentimientos o circunstancias de una persona. En consecuencia, nadie puede redefinir moralmente tales actos malos como verdaderos o buenos simplemente por un acto subjetivo de su voluntad. Estos actos sólo dañan a la persona espiritual y moralmente como un ser humano, particularmente si es católico. De manera similar, nadie puede, por un acto subjetivo de su voluntad, redefinir litúrgicamente el Adviento como Navidad. Esto sería contrario a la comprensión que la Iglesia tiene del Adviento. Definitivamente, esta práctica tiene consecuencias morales. La gente se vuelve deforme. Por eso, el celebrar la Navidad durante el Adviento no sólo es malo espiritual y litúrgicamente, sino también moralmente.

      En conclusión, creo que para los católicos cualquier práctica litúrgica secular  que tenga una base en el cristianismo secular, el mercantilismo y la falacia del relativismo moral, especialmente la celebración prematura de la Navidad durante el Adviento, sólo descuida y daña la integridad, la santidad y el propósito del tiempo litúrgico del Adviento. Para los católicos, esto es muy malo tanto espiritual como litúrgicamente. Por esta razón, celebrar la Navidad prematuramente no ayuda a los católicos a estar atentos en preparación de la venida de Cristo. A su juicio, al menos en la práctica, no se les requiere ninguna preparación porque Cristo ya está aquí. Como resultado, celebran la Navidad durante todo el tiempo de Adviento. Por lo que  aquí, el Adviento no tiene ninguna relevancia real para ellos. Por esta razón, oro para que cada vez más católicos digan NO a la celebración de la Navidad secular durante el Adviento, es decir, el Relativismo Litúrgico, la falsa enseñanza de que los católicos pueden decidir subjetivamente cuando celebrar cualquier tiempo litúrgico, incluidos el Adviento y la Navidad, no según la voluntad de Dios. tal como son recibidos y proclamados en la Tradición Litúrgica de la Iglesia, sino según su voluntad humana.

En Cristo con María Santísima,

Fray Mariano D. Véliz, O.P.

INTRODUCTION

     Greetings, dear friend in Christ! On Friday, December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I will begin a Rosary Spiritual Crusade, under the Maternal Patroness of the Order of Friar Preachers, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.  As such, I am inviting all Catholics, including yourself, to join me in this holy apostolate. In doing so, all of you will help sanctify, heal, and defend God’s people, including your families, against the spiritual and moral evils in society today, particularly against nations, groups and persons acting under the evil influence of the Serpent and His fallen angels.  This will involve praying for these lost people to repent and convert to God.  If they do, they will certainly receive God’s grace to imitate the holiness of the Second Adam and Eve, Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary, by living a holy life, a life of virtue. God, of course, loves all human beings, including sinners, but they will only be redeemed by Him, and become saints in Heaven someday, if they open their hearts to receive God’s grace, in this life, through repentance and conversion. For this reason, I hope that you decide to join me in this Rosary Spiritual Crusade to help the people of God, including unrepentant sinners.

REQUIREMENTS

     At the same time, there would be various requirements for someone, such as yourself, who decides to participate in this Crusade.  On the one hand, you would have to be Catholic. On the other hand, you would also have to become a member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary.  Moreover, in this Rosary Spiritual Crusade, you would also be required to fulfill three devotions each week: the Rosary, penance, and mercy.  In Tradition, the people of God reveal their fidelity to God and to their brothers by practicing prayer, penance and mercy. For this reason, God calls you to do the same, particularly in this Rosary Crusade. In doing so, you would offer the Rosary, penance, and mercy to Jesus, through Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, as a threefold offering of faith, hope and love for the intention of the Crusade, already mentioned above.  You would also include, in this intention, all the members of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. By offering your Rosary, united to penance and mercy, for this intention, you will have greater spiritual efficacy and fruitfulness for yourself and for the people of God, particularly for your family.

THREE ROSARIES PER WEEK

     First of all, as a member of the Confraternity of the Rosary, you would offer three Rosaries (15 Mysteries) per week. You can offer them all at once, separately on the same day, or separately on multiple days.  In addition, you can offer them privately or communally.  Offering your Rosaries privately will certainly perfect you spiritually, but offering them communally will be a greater spiritual perfection for you and for others, for you will be forming and teaching your family members, especially your children, the holy virtue of praying together as a family. The family that prays together is perfected together by the grace of God. At the same time, if you decide not to pray all three Rosaries together as a family, you could offer at least one Rosary together as a family on Sundays.  In any case, offering these three Rosaries every week, whether privately or communally, is a requirement of all the members of the Confraternity of the Rosary.

ONE PENANCE FOR EACH ROSARY

     Secondly, as a member of the Rosary Confraternity, who decides to participate in the Rosary Spiritual Crusade, you would unite one penance to each Rosary you offer.  You would offer your penance right before or during your Rosary. For example, for your Rosary penance, you could offer your Rosary on your knees, sing your Rosary (or at least one decade of your Rosary), fast by eating a smaller meal, fast from your favorite food or dessert, or deny yourself a form of recreation or entertainment that you enjoy, etc.  According to Tradition, by joining your penance to your Rosary, your would be offering to Jesus, through Mary, not only the prayers of the Rosary, but also your penitential sufferings from the penance. Consequently, your penance would spiritually perfect your Rosary offering.

ONE ACT OF MERCY FOR EACH ROSARY

     Finally, after offering your penance before or during your Rosary, you would then offer an act of mercy for the good of someone, but only after completing your Rosary. For example, you could offer a meal to a hungry person; you could offer alms to a poor person to help him financially; you could visit a person suffering from an illness, disease or injury at home or in the hospital; you could counsel, teach or correct a family member or friend prudently and charitably; or you could forgive a person for sinning against you or against your family member. According to the Church, prayer, perfected by penance, would open you to a greater perfection, the perfection of offering mercy to the people in your life.

PROMISES

     According to Dominican Tradition, after the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, commissioned St. Dominic to propagate her Psalter, her Holy Rosary, in the early 13^th Century (1208), she revealed Fifteen Promises to him and later to Blessed Alan de la Roche in the 15^th Century. In doing so, she said that she would fulfill these promises for them, and all other Catholics, who faithfully pray the Rosary.

  1. Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.

  2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all people who recite the Rosary.

  3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.

  4. It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for Eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means!

  5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.

  6. Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.

  7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Holy Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.

  8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.

  9. I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.

  10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.

  11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary.

  12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.

  13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Holy Rosary shall have for intercessors the full Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of their death.

  14. All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my Son Jesus Christ.

  15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

BENEFITS

     As a member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, you would be the beneficiary of various blessings. They are spiritual benefits that the Order of Friars Preachers offers to the members of the Confraternity through the approval of the Church.

     First of all, the members of the Rosary Confraternity in this life pray for each other, including for their deceased members. As such, you would have many people praying for you not only in life, but also in death.

     Secondly, as a member of the Confraternity, you would also be a beneficiary of the fruits of the prayers, Rosaries, Holy Masses and apostolic ministries of the Order of Friar Preachers.

     Thirdly, various plenary and partial indulgences would be available to you as a member of the Confraternity. An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment due for the sin whose guilt has already been forgiven. On the one hand, a partial indulgence partially frees you from the temporal punishment due for your sin.  On the other hand, a plenary indulgence frees you completely. You can only obtain a plenary indulgence once per day, unless you are near death. Both partial and plenary indulgences can be applied to the deceased, but only through suffrage.

     Fourthly, you could receive a plenary indulgence on the day of your registration, Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, the Feast of the Annunciation, the Feast of the Assumption, the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord.  You could also receive a plenary indulgence by praying the Rosary in a church or oratory, by praying it as a family, or by praying it as consecrated religious brothers or sisters in a priory or convent chapel, or by praying it as a pious group of the lay faithful. If not, the indulgence would only be partial.

     Finally, you would only receive a plenary indulgence on the aforementioned days by fulfilling certain conditions or requirements that include: receiving the Sacrament of Confession and Holy Communion, praying for the intentions of the Pope and being free from all sin, even venial.  If you are not free from sin, or if you have not fulfilled any of the other conditions, your indulgence would only be partial.

VOCATION TO PERFECT HOLINESS

     In the Providence of God, Jesus calls you to perfect holiness. For this reason, He wants you to be perfect as He is perfect.  The Virgin Mary, of course, perfectly fulfilled this call to holiness by her perfect sanctity, for she was perfect, spiritually and morally, throughout her life. 

 On the one hand, Jesus, the Son of God, is the perfect image of God the Father, for, by nature, He proceeds perfectly from the Father, in His Divinity, as His perfect Son.  In doing so, He fulfilled, perfectly, the holy Will of His Father. Indeed, He became the perfect man from conception and birth. For this reason, as He matured perfectly as man, He lived, suffered and died perfectly, as the Redeemer of humanity.

 On the other hand, the Virgin Mary is the perfect image of God the Son, for, by grace, she proceeds perfectly from the Son, in her humanity, as His perfect disciple.  Indeed, she fulfilled His holy Will, perfectly, for she was conceived and born as the perfect woman. Accordingly, as she matured as a human being, and became a Mother, she lived, suffered and died perfectly, united to her Son, the Son of God, as the Mother of the Redeemer.

 As such, a person who bears the image of someone perfectly means, first and foremost, that he has the same perfect holiness as the person he images. In this sense, Jesus and the Virgin Mary had a perfect holiness, during their natural life, because they perfectly bore the image of their Exemplar. This is a holiness in them that they still reveal daily to the people of God from Heaven.

     As a son of God and a son of Mary, you have the same vocation to perfect holiness as Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Second Adam and Eve.  This vocation to perfect holiness was first fulfilled in you by your Baptism.  In this Sacrament, the Son of God, Jesus, the Second Adam, recreated you in His holy image, as an adopted son of God, first and foremost, by the grace of His holy yes to suffer and die for you as Redeemer. At the same time, He could only suffer and die as a Redeemer by first preparing a Second Eve, a perfect Virgin Daughter of God, to be His Helpmate in the redemption of humanity.  Accordingly, in preparation to redeem you and all people by His suffering and death, He was first conceived and born as the Son of Man by the grace of the holy yes of the Second Eve, the Virgin Mary, His Mother.  By saying yes, She became His Mother, the Mother of the Redeemer.  In this sense, in the fullness of time, the Son of God became the Son of Man, Son of the Virgin Mary, by nature, that all people would become sons and daughters of God by the grace of adoption. As such, together the holy yes of Jesus, the Second Adam, and the holy yes of the Second Eve, the Virgin Mary, prepared you, prepared all people, to enter into the perfect parallel of opposition by the grace of Baptism. By receiving this grace of adoption through the holy yes of the Son and the Mother, you opposed, for the first time, the sin of the First Adam and Eve, including the evil of the Serpent and His fallen angels, by your holiness. In doing so, you entered the perfect parallel of opposition through the grace of Baptism that sanctified you in the yes of Jesus through the yes of the Virgin Mary.

     This grace of entering the perfect parallel of opposition by Baptism, of course, does not mean that you have perfectly fulfilled your vocation to perfect holiness throughout your life, as Jesus and the Virgin Mary did.  On the contrary, in this perfect parallel of opposition, God calls you only to open yourself to the grace of perfectibility that you may mature to full perfection, throughout your life, in the image of the Second Adam and Eve, Jesus and the Virgin Mary.  For you, this call to perfection begins in this life, but will only be completed in Heaven.  For this reason, by saying yes to your call to live a holy life, you already oppose the sin of the First Adam and Eve, including the evil of the Serpent and His fallen angels. Accordingly, I hope that you will say yes to joining me in the Rosary Spiritual Crusade as a member of the Holy Rosary Confraternity. In doing so, you will mature to perfect holiness, after the image of the Second Adam and Eve, Jesus and the Virgin Mary.  As I have said, this will involve offering acts of prayer, penance and mercy to Jesus, through the Virgin Mary, that she may intercede to Him on your behalf for your good and for the good of God’s people.  In doing so, you are saying yes to God’s plan of redemption. This is the plan in which the Second Adam and Eve, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, work together as Mother and Son, to redeem the descendants of the First Adam and Eve from all evil.  In fact, by your yes, you participate in their crushing of the head of the Serpent and His fallen angels to free the descendants of Adam and Eve from all evil.  This is your vocation to perfect holiness.

     For you, all the requirements, promises, and benefits of becoming a member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, and participating in the Rosary Spiritual Crusade, prepare you to fulfill your vocation to perfect holiness by helping you sanctify, heal, and defend God’s people from all evil by the grace of God. In doing so, you enter the perfect parallel of opposition, more fully, by uniting yourself all the more to the perfect holiness of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Second Adam and Eve. In this perfect parallel of opposition, as revealed by God in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, the Second Adam and Eve, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, by their vocation to perfect holiness, are completely and perfectly opposed to the sinfulness of the First Adam and Eve, including the evil of the Serpent and His spiritual offspring, the fallen angels.  On this basis, they are calling you to do the same throughout your life.

REGISTRATION

     Friend, after reading and considering all the requirements, promises, and benefits of joining this holy apostolate, are you ready to join?  Are you prepared to enter the perfect parallel of opposition, more fully, by joining the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary?  If so, you would be ready for the Rosary Spiritual Crusade.  Indeed, you would be ready to help sanctify, heal, and defend the people of God, including your family, against evil, through prayer, penance and mercy.  As such, if you have decided to join this holy apostolate, please send me an email to inform me of your decision.  At the same time, I understand if you decide not to join at this time.  You may not be available due to other responsibilities.  If that is the case, perhaps you would consider joining at another time.  That would be great.  The registration for this holy apostolate will remain open.  This means that you may register yourself at any time.  In this sense, you have no deadline for joining.  Moreover, if you have already joined the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary in the past, please do not register again.  Your registration in the Confraternity is good for life. If you plan to join the Confraternity, please register through your local Dominican Province. 

  First of all, if you live in the Province of St. Martin de Porres (Southern Province), particularly in the Hammond, Louisiana area, or nearby, I can easily register you myself, as a local friar, by adding your name to the registry. If that is the case, just send me a message to tell me to register you.

  Secondly, if you live in any of the other states in the Province of St. Martin de Porres, including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina or North Carolina, please register through the Confraternity page of the St. Martin Province: https://dominicanconfraternidad.org/enroll.

  Finally, if you live in another Province in the United States (or another country), please register through the local Province in which you live. You can visit the registration page of your local Dominican Province in the United States to register for the Holy Rosary Confraternity online.  Here are the registration pages for the other three Dominican Provinces in the United States.  Please visit the relevant page to register locally.

Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus ​​(West): https://rosarycenter.org/enroll-in-the-rosary-confraternity

Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Oregon

Province of St. Albert the Great (Central): https://www.therosarian.org/enrolling

Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Province of St. Joseph (East): https://rosaryconfraternity.org/the-confraternity/enroll-in-the-confraternity/

Ohio, Kentucky, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island

     Friend, thank you for reading about and considering my offer for you to join this holy apostolate. I hope you will say yes.  If so, please send me a message to tell me that you do want to join.  As a member of the Rosary Confraternity, you would be prepared for the Rosary Spiritual Crusade.  This holy apostolate would certainly help you fulfill your vocation to perfect holiness.  May God bless you.

In Christ with Blessed Mary,

Friar Mariano D. Veliz, O.P.

frmarianovelizop@preachmypsalter.com

     Friends, today, the First Sunday of Advent, is the First Day of the Church’s Liturgical Year.  In Church teaching, Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. For this reason, in today’s Gospel Jesus reminds his disciples that after a master leaves his servants to tend to his househould, they can only prepare themselves for their master’s coming, his return, by remaining vigilant for him. According to Jesus, this vigilance involves fulfilling the work their master has assigned to them in his household to do in preparation for his coming.  As Jesus says, they know neither the day nor the hour when their master will return.  He can return anytime: in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, or at night.  At the same time, if they have done all the work their master has assigned to them in his household, as vigilant servants, they will certainly ready for him whenever he comes.

     Here Jesus calls His disciples to be vigilant, spiritually and morally, by living a holy life, a life of virtue.  This means not doing their will, but doing His will, the will of their Master. In doing so, they prepare themselves for His coming, first on Christmas and finally on the Last Day.  As such, for the disciples, a vigilant preparation for the coming of Christ during Advent would involve doing God’s will.  This means, first and foremost, entering the liturgical season of Advent by prayer and contemplation.  Only by praying and contemplating God’s Word in Advent can the people of God begin to live the holy life, the life of virtue, their Master, Jesus Christ, calls them to live.  Indeed, after praying and contemplating the Word of God, they receive the grace to live that Word daily through holy virtue. 

     All the same, during this liturgical season of Advent, some Catholics bypass Advent altogether to celebrate Christmas prematurely.  This practice, called liturgical relativism, malforms the people of God spiritually and liturgically, including their children.  In this false liturgy, anyone may subjectively decide to celebrate any liturgical season they desire throughout the liturgical calendar.  This is a problem in the Church, especially during Advent. Indeed, many Catholics believe and practice this form of relativism, liturgical relativism, by celebrating secular Christmas parties, Christmas meals, Christmas fundraisers, Christmas plays and dances, Christmas prayer rituals, and by decorating their homes for Christmas prematurely during Advent.  In doing so, they claim that they may subjectively decide to celebrate Christmas during Advent, for it is all about doing their will, not the will of God.

     Unfortunately, these Catholics fail to see that they are, in fact, neglecting and harming the integrity, the sanctity, and the purpose of  the season of Advent. Here they are not being vigilant by using Advent, as intended by God, as a time of preparation.  In fact, for the Church, Advent, traditionally, has a penitential nature. For this reason, violet or purple, a sign of penance, is the color for Advent. In fact, in the Church’s Tradition, she has sometimes called Advent the “Little Lent”, for it is a time of real, penitential preparation for Christmas.  Still, many Catholics claim that they may subjectively decide to celebrate Christmas during Advent.  This liturgical relativism, of course, does not have any basis in the Church’s liturgy whatsoever. On the contrary, it is a secular practice that was introduced into the Church many years ago, particularly during Advent.  

     The factors that have led to this secular Christmas in the Catholic Church include, first of all, the influence of the many Protestant churches that do not celebrate Advent. For them, Christmas begins right after Thanksgiving and concludes at the end of Christmas Day.  In practice, this is their Christmas season.  For the Catholic Church, on the other hand, Christmas begins on Christmas eve and continues for a full Christmas season until the Baptism of the Lord, but traditionally until the Feast of Candlemas.  Secondly, another factor that has led to the premature celebration of Christmas during Advent is for financial profit.  Many people, groups, businesses, and churches benefit financially from celebrating Christmas throughout the Advent season.  The third factor that has led to the celebration of Christmas, a secular Christmas, during Advent is moral relativism.  In this sense, celebrating secular Christmas during Advent certainly has a basis in moral relativism. For this reason, it is rightly called liturgical relativism, a daughter of moral relativism. According to the Church, moral relativism is gravely immoral. This fallacy claims that there are no objective, universal truths from God, but only subjective, particular truths that each person has a right to create for himself.  As such, what is true for one human being may not true be for either his brother or sister. Here each person defines for himself the meaning of his truth subjectively, what he believes is morally good or bad for him alone. On this basis, people who believe and practice moral relativism argue that the acts of masturbation, fornication, homosexuality, and transgenderism are morally true and good for anyone who desires to practice them.  All the same, in Church teaching, all these acts are defined as intrinsically evil, evil by nature, meaning they are not ordainable to God, for they are both objectively and universally evil, regardless of a person’s intentions, feelings, or circumstances. Consequently, nobody can morally redefine such evil acts as true or good merely by a subjective act of his will.  These acts only harm a person spiritually and morally as a human being, particularly as a Catholic. Similarly, neither can anyone, by a subjective act of his will, liturgically redefine Advent as Christmas. This would be contrary to the Church’s understanding of Advent. There are certainly moral consequences for this practice. People become malformed. On this basis, celebrating Christmas during Advent is not just bad spiritually and liturgically, but also morally.

     In conclusion, I believe any secular liturgical practice for Catholics that has a basis in secular Christianity, commercialism, and the fallacy of moral relativism, particularly the premature celebration of Christmas during Advent, only neglects and harms the integrity, the sanctity, and the purpose of the liturgical season of Advent.  As such, this is bad, spiritually and liturgically, for Catholics.  For this reason, celebrating Christmas prematurely does not help  Catholics to be vigilant in preparation for the coming of Christ.  In their judgment, at least in practice, no preparation is required for them because Christ is already here. As a result, they celebrate Christmas all through the season of Advent.  In this sense, here Advent has no real relevance for them.  Accordingly, I pray that more and more Catholics will say NO to celebrating secular Christmas during Advent, meaning liturgical relativism, the false teaching that Catholics may subjectively decide to celebrate any liturgical season, including Advent and Christmas, not according to the will of God, as received and proclaimed in the Church’s liturgical Tradition, but according to their human will.

In Christ with Blessed Mary,

Friar Mariano D. Veliz, O.P.

frmarianovelizop@preachmypsalter.com

Happy Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary! On this day (November 21), the Church commemorates the presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to God in the Temple of Jerusalem at the age of 3 by her parents, St. Joachim and St. Ann. In doing so, they fulfilled their promise to God that if they received from Him the gift of a child in their old age, after years of being childless, they would offer their child as a gift to Him. This means that their child, Mary, would be consecrated to God by the Temple priests at the presentation.

According to Tradition, as a girl, Mary would be trained under the guidance of the holy virgins of the Temple to fulfill various ministries that would help the priests in their liturgy. On the day her parents presented her in the Temple for consecration to God, she vowed her herself to perpetual virginity through a singular grace of God by her first rational, free act as a human being. In this sense, under God’s inspiration, Mary believed and professed that she was called by God to offer herself completely to Him as a consecrated virgin for the duration of her natural life on earth.

At the same time, a Temple virgin, such as Mary, would not remain at the Temple in Jerusalem all her life. On the contrary, she would only remain there until she was about 12 years old. The Temple ritual laws prohibited a girl from remaining there during her menstruation. For this reason, she had to leave the Temple beforehand. As such, Mary only remained at the Temple for 10 years.

After completing her time there at about the age of 12, God revealed His will to the priests for St. Joseph to become the spousal guardian or custodian of the Virgin of the Lord, particularly her perpetual virginity. As a result, she was betrothed to him in Marriage for this reason in God’s providential plan. He was to guard her perpetual virginity in Matrimony. The betrothal was the first year of Marriage. Accordingly, here Mary was not engaged to St. Joseph. She was fully married to him in the betrothal stage, but they did not live together in this first year of Marriage. They lived separately. Mary lived in her family home, and St. Joseph lived in his home. Mary certainly believed that her Marriage to St. Joseph would be a virginal Marriage.

All the same, after the angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation revealing to her at her home that she would conceive and bear a child, the Son of God, in Marriage, she did not readily or fully understand this revelation because she had already vowed herself to perpetual virginity years earlier. “How can this be? I am not to know man.” In saying that she is not to know man, she is using a euphemism in Hebrew and Aramaic that means that she is not to know man sexually. The Church Fathers, such as Augustine, teach that Mary’s response to the angel’s revelation here indicates that Mary fully intended to remain a virgin for life, but she also believed the angel’s message that she would become a mother. “How can this be?” “How can this end be fulfilled in me?” “How can I remain a virgin if I am to become a mother?” She understands the end, but does not understand the means to the end, not until the angel reveals that she will conceive and bear a Son virginally by the Holy Spirit.

On this feast day in which the Church recalls the presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple, she also remembers Mary’s full offering of herself to God as a consecrated virgin for life. May the perfect virginal chastity of the Ever-Virgin Mary be an inspiration for all people, including single persons, religious, married spouses and priests to be chaste in their vocations as holy sons and daughters of Mary.

In Christ with Blessed Mary,

Friar Mariano D. Veliz, O.P.

     Dear friends, in the four Gospels, Jesus, the Master, teaches His disciples about the virtues of being faithful children of God.  On the one hand, He teaches them that their first and greatest virtue is the primacy of their love for God.  Indeed, He calls them to love God above everyone and everything.  For Jesus, this means using their full human nature, including their mind, their will, their passions, their body and their soul, and also the grace of God, to love God fully as their First and Highest Good.  In doing so, they honor God rightly. 

     On the other hand, Jesus also teaches His disciples that their second greatest virtue as God’s children is to love their neighbor.  As human beings, the disciples, of course, would be readily inclined and prepared to love their neighbor in good circumstances, in circumstances that would be easy. As desirable as that would be for the disciples, for all people, that is not what Jesus is calling them to do in today’s Gospel reading.  Here He is not telling them to love their neighbor in good and easy circumstances.  On the contrary, He is calling them to love their neighbor in bad circumstances, in circumstances that are difficult.  The question is: What are those bad circumstances that Jesus is referring to in today’s Gospel?  What are those circumstances in which His disciples would have a difficult time loving their neighbor?

     First of all, in today’s Gospel, Jesus is not calling His disciples to love just any neighbor.  He is not telling them to love a Gentile or Pagan, or some other non-believer, who does not belong to their group of disciples.  On the contrary, in today’s Gospel, He is calling His disciples to love their brother in the faith, their spiritual brother, a member of their group of disciples, who has sinned against them.  As human beings, the disciples of Jesus, would naturally have a greater difficulty loving such a neighbor, a brother disciple, who has sinned against them, sinned against their brotherhood.  They certainly would love their brother in their hearts, but would still have a difficult time loving him in their moral actions, considering that he sinned against their brotherhood. In this sense, for the disciples of Jesus, for all people, in general, the closer the relationship to the sinner, the greater the love they have for the sinner in their hearts, the greater their suffering.  Consequently, in this suffering, they would have a more difficult time loving someone close to them, morally, such as their brother, who has sinned against them, than they would someone else who has done the same to them.  As such, the difficulty for the disciples, for anyone, would be, first and foremost, learning to love their brother, morally, in their actions, after he has sinned against them, against their brotherhood.

     In today’s Gospel, the particular form of love that Jesus calls His disciples to offer their brother in the faith is called fraternal correction.  Indeed, He calls them to correct their brother in the faith, who has sinned against them. In doing so, they offer their brother a remedy for removing his moral evil, his sin, from himself.  As such, for the disciples of Jesus, correcting their brother’s sin means procuring their brother’s spiritual good.  In this sense, as an act of love, fraternal correction is directed to the amendment of the sinner that he may repent, reform his life, and prepare himself for eternity.

     In the teaching of St. Thomas, as he comments on the subject of today’s Gospel, fraternal correction, in 8 articles of question 33 of the Secunda Secundae Partis of the Summa Theologiae, he offers some guidelines to the Roman Catholic for correcting a brother virtuously as an act of love.  According to him, as I read him, before offering fraternal correction to a brother in the faith, there are various questions for the Roman Catholic to consider first. These questions will help guide him that he may act rightly in addressing the sin of his brother.  Here I offer you my reading of the mainlines of the teaching of St. Thomas on the subject of fraternal correction as an act of charity.

     For St. Thomas, the first question that a Roman Catholic will have to consider concerns himself, not the brother who has sinned against him.  As such, the question is this: As a Roman Catholic, can he form the right judgments about his brother to offer him fraternal correction virtuously? In other words, does he have the proper formation or education, intellectually, in Catholic faith and morals to judge rightly here? Unfortunately, many times Catholics falsely believe that a Catholic may not judge anyone.  They base this fallacy on a misreading of Jesus in the Gospel.  Yes, Jesus does say “do not judge”, but that Gospel verse has to be read in light of the rest of the passage and also in light of all His teachings in the Gospel.  For instance, for Jesus, no disciple, no Roman Catholic, may judge the heart of his brother, nor may he judge that his brother is condemned by God in this life, nor may he form a judgment that his deceased brother is in Hell in the afterlife.  All of these judgments by a Roman Catholic would be sinful, for they would be presumptuous about his brother. Indeed, they would contravene the natural and supernatural limits of a Roman Catholic’s natural reason, his Cardinal Virtue of Prudence, and his Theological Virtue of Faith.

     On the other hand, for St. Thomas, Christ calls the Catholic to form right judgments, prudential judgments, about the object of the moral action of his brother. He may rightly judge, on the basis of this object, that his brother has sinned. The object here is the physical or material action.  This is the first moral determinant of the act, the matter of the act.  According to St. Thomas, Christ calls the Roman Catholic to use his natural reason to properly judge the material object of his brother’s act as reasonable or not.  If it is reasonable, meaning good materially, it would be ordainable to God, morally. This would perfect his brother as moral agent. Conversely, if it is unreasonable, evil materially, it would be harmful to him. As a consequence, it would not be morally ordainable to God, for it would be intrinsically evil, evil by nature.  In this sense, for St. Thomas, a properly formed Roman Catholic is called by Christ to rightly judge the matter of his brother’s act, the first moral determinant, as either good or evil. For instance, he would rightly judge that his brother’s material act of profanity is evil, materially. Similarly, he would also form the proper judgment that his brother’s material act of adultery is evil, materially.  Finally, a properly formed Catholic would also rightly judge his brother’s material act of child abuse as materially evil.  In doing so, he forms the right judgment that such actions would be morally evil, for they would be evil by nature, materially.  This means that they would be sinful.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls His disciples to correct their brother for his sin, but such a correction presupposes and requires a right judgment about their brother’s sin, about what their brother did materially.  On this basis, the first question the Roman Catholic has to consider is this: Can he form the right judgments to correct his brother’s sin properly?

     According to St. Thomas, the second question that the Roman Catholic has to consider is this: Is his brother in the faith, the Roman Catholic who has sinned against him, ready to receive the fraternal correction? In this sense, does the sinner have the proper maturity to receive the correction fruitfully?  He may or may not have this maturity.  If he does not, he would not have the capacity to receive the correction properly as desired.  After all, as St. Thomas teaches, a person can only receive what he is prepared to receive; he cannot receive what he is not ready to receive. For this reason, the Roman Catholic first has to consider the maturity or readiness of the sinner, before offering any correction. If the sinner is not ready or mature enough, the Catholic would have to delay or defer the correction for another time, for the right time. For St. Thomas, the consequence of correcting the sinner prematurely before he is ready or mature enough to receive the correction fruitfully, is that he would be harmed spiritually, mentally and emotionally. If the sinner is not ready, the Catholic would just pray for him, offer penance for him and be a model of virtue for him.  In doing so, he would plant the seeds of God’s Word in the sinner’s heart that would help prepare him to fully amend himself someday by the grace of God.  On the other hand, if the sinner has the proper maturity to receive the correction fruitfully, then the Catholic would correct him.

     The third question a Roman Catholic has to consider before offering any correction to his brother is this: Who is the right person to offer the correction to the sinner?  Is he the right person, or is someone else?  Yes, his brother has sinned against him, but he may not be the right person to correct him.  Consider this: What if he also sinned against this brother in the past?  What if his brother has never forgiven him?  What if he is still angry at him or hates him?  In these circumstances, he would not be right person to offer correction to his brother.  His brother would certainly not be open to receive any correction from him.  For this reason, if he did correct him, he would only harm him and cause a greater problem. On this basis, if the Catholic is not the right person to offer the correction to his brother, he would then have to form a proper judgment about who that person would be.  The person could be his brother’s grandmother, uncle, or friend.

     Fourthly, a Roman Catholic also has to consider this question: Why does he want to offer the correction to his brother?  Is it for the right reason?  For St. Thomas, there is only one reason to correct a brother. The Catholic corrects his brother to help him amend himself by removing the moral evil from his life that he may prepare himself to become a saint in Heaven someday.  In doing so, he helps him procure his spiritual good.

     Finally, if the Roman Catholic judges that he is the right person to correct his brother for the right reason, for his spiritual good, he would also have to form a right judgment about the proper means to correct him prudently and charitably.  This would certainly involve correcting him privately in a friendly demeanor and tone.

     I hope, dear friends, that you will love your brother virtuously by first considering the aforementioned questions before offering him any fraternal correction.  If you judge that either you or another Catholic is the right person to correct your brother, I pray that you will do it for the right reason, at the right time, and in the right manner for his salvation.  May God bless you.

In Christ with Blessed Mary,

Friar Mariano D. Veliz, O.P.

frmarianovelizop@preachmypsalter.com

COMO IMAGEN PERFECTA DEL PADRE, ASI JESÚS AMA PERFECTAMENTE A SU HIJO

Queridos amigos, si tienen un hijo, especialmente un hijo pródigo o perdido, que tiene una orientación homosexual, recuerden que Dios lo ama. Como proclama el evangelista san Juan: “Dios es amor”. Este Amor, Dios mismo, se revela en la persona del Hijo de Dios, Jesucristo. De hecho, San Juan nos recuerda que Jesús dijo que no puede haber  amor mas grande que de aquel que ofrecer su vida en sacrificio por sus amigos. Este es el amor fiel, el amor sacrificial, el que Él ofrece al Padre por sus amigos haciéndose hombre, sufriendo y muriendo para salvarlos. En este amor fiel, Jesús se revela como la imagen perfecta del amor del Padre, lo que significa que ama a Sus amigos perfectamente como los ama el Padre. Además, en la parábola del hijo pródigo, Jesús describe el amor fiel y perfecto de Dios Padre a través de la fidelidad del padre para con el hijo pródigo. Por muy pecador que sea el hijo pródigo, por muy mal que haya vivido su vida, su fiel padre lo ama perfectamente. Por lo que en esta parábola, Jesús está llamando al pueblo de Dios, especialmente a los padres, a amar fielmente a su hijo pródigo o perdido, como lo hace Dios Padre. Para Jesús, este amor fiel implica ofrecer misericordia al hijo perdido. De hecho, Él revela fielmente este amor misericordioso a los demás, especialmente a los perdidos, a lo largo de Su vida y ministerio. Por eso, como imagen perfecta del Padre, sabemos que El ama fielmente a su hijo,. Por el contrario, si Jesús, la imagen perfecta del Padre, no amara perfectamente a su hijo, como lo hace, no representaría perfectamente el amor del Padre. Sino que Él sólo imaginaría al Padre de manera imperfecta a través de un amor imperfecto. Y esto, por supuesto, sería completamente falso. Ya que, como Hijo perfecto del Padre, Él, de hecho, ama a su hijo perfectamente, como lo hace el Padre, por toda la eternidad, porque Él procede eternamente del Padre como Su imagen perfecta.

EL AMOR QUE JESUS, EL HIJO PERFECTO DE DIOS, TIENE POR SU HIJO ES INMUTABLE

Como resultado, el amor que Jesús tiene por su hijo nunca aumentará ni disminuirá ni cesará. Lo amará perfectamente para siempre. Esto significa que Él como Hijo del Padre es inmutable. Por un lado, Él es inmutable, porque no pasa de la potencia al acto, de una imagen imperfecta a una imagen perfecta del Padre. Por el contrario, Él ya es plenamente actual y perfecto en sí mismo. Por esta razón, como imagen perfecta del Padre, Él no está sujeto a la perfectibilidad, al hacerse perfecto asi mismo mediante la maduración. En este sentido, Él no tiene ninguna potencialidad en Él. Él es actus purus, pura actualidad. Por eso, Él no tiene que aprender nunca a amar perfectamente a su hijo, porque ya lo hace desde toda la eternidad. Por otro lado, como imagen perfecta del Padre, Él tampoco cambia, por corrupción, es decir, no está sujeto a volverse malo o imperfecto en sí mismo por corruptibilidad espiritual o moral. Como tal, Él nunca pecará al no amar perfectamente a su hijo. Por el contrario, como actus purus, acto puro, Él es incorruptible en Su amor, espiritual y moralmente, es decir, que como Hijo perfecto del Padre El  amará a su hijo perfectamente por toda la eternidad. Por tanto, Jesús, imagen perfecta del Padre, es inmutable como amante, porque es inmutable como Dios. No puede ser perfeccionado ni corrompido. Basandonos en eso, nunca cuestione ni dude del amor perfecto e inmutable de Dios por su hijo. Puede que tenga una orientación homosexual, pero Dios todavía lo ama perfectamente. Siempre tendrá un amor perfecto por él.

COMO PADRES, ESTÁN LLAMADOS A IMITAR EL AMOR PERFECTO DE DIOS POR SU HIJO

Como padres, creados a imagen de Dios, ustedes están llamados a reflejar el amor perfecto de Dios por su hijo todos los días, amándolo fielmente a través de una vida de santidad. Este llamado a la fidelidad en el amor requerirá que maduren diariamente en su amor a Dios y a su hijo. Por supuesto, esto sólo se puede lograr profesando y viviendo el depósito pleno de la fe y la moral católicas, en particular la enseñanza de la Iglesia sobre la sagrada dignidad de la persona humana como imagen de Dios, incluyendo su llamado a vivir una vida santa y virtuosa. Al hacerlo, Dios los llama a ser prudentes, pacientes, misericordiosos y amorosos mientras enseñan y forman a su hijo para que viva su vida virtuosamente, como Dios quiere, a través de su testimonio, incluidas sus palabras y acciones. Esto implicará mucha oración, contemplación y penitencia. De hecho, Dios los llama a orar por la gracia de ser padres fieles y amorosos, pero también desea que oren por su hijo para que aprenda a ser fiel y amoroso.

COMO PADRES, DIOS DESEA QUE SU AMOR POR SU HIJO SEA INFORMADO Y GUIADO POR LA ENSEÑANZA DE LA IGLESIA

Al mismo tiempo, como ya se sugirió anteriormente, su llamado a amar fielmente a su hijo según la imagen del amor perfecto de Dios significa que su amor por él tendrá que estar informado y guiado intelectual y moralmente por las enseñanzas de la Iglesia sobre la orientación y actividad homosexual. La Iglesia enseña que la orientación homosexual en el ser humano no es un movimiento natural en él, pues no lo mueve ni lo inclina al bien y propio telos o fin de su verdadera felicidad humana, como imagen de Dios, ya sea natural o sobrenatural. Por el contrario, su orientación es un movimiento antinatural del apetito concupiscible que lo malforma e inclina en sus pasiones, su intelecto y su voluntad hacia un fin u objeto malo. De todos modos, este movimiento o inclinación antinatural precede a un acto moral de su voluntad, a una elección moral de su parte. En este sentido, la Iglesia no define la orientación homosexual como un mal moral, un mal acto de su voluntad, per se, sino simplemente como un movimiento que lo inclina de manera antinatural hacia un fin u objeto moral maligno. En particular, ese fin sería un acto homosexual que involucrara a otro hombre. Para la Iglesia, tal acto sería intrínsecamente malo, malo por naturaleza, porque iría contra la recta razón y la naturaleza, incluidas la gracia y la revelación divinas. Por lo que, bajo ninguna circunstancia un ser humano, incluido su hijo, puede actuar según su orientación homosexual mediante un acto maligno de su voluntad. Si lo hiciera, estaría actuando en contra de la voluntad de Dios. Además, no amarían fielmente a su hijo, como Dios quiere, si lo malforman con enseñanzas falsas, particularmente diciéndole la mentira de que vivir una vida homosexual esta bien o es moralmente bueno. Sobre esta base, Dios desea que su amor, como padres, esté debidamente informado y guiado por las enseñanzas de la Iglesia sobre la orientación y actividad homosexual.

LA ORIENTACIÓN HOMOSEXUAL DE SU HIJO ES UNA CONSECUENCIA DEL PECADO ORIGINAL, NO UNA CUALIDAD NATURAL DE LA CREACIÓN

Cuando Dios creó a su hijo, ciertamente no recibió su orientación homosexual de Dios como una cualidad natural o inclinación de su naturaleza humana . Dios no lo creó para ser homosexual. Por el contrario, la orientación homosexual de un hombre, incluida la de su hijo, es consecuencia del pecado original de nuestros primeros padres, Adán y Eva. Esta es una forma de concupiscencia. Por supuesto, aquí no hay  ninguna culpa moral personal. Por eso, no puede ser juzgado ni definido correctamente como pecador, simplemente porque tiene una orientación homosexual. Después de todo, su orientación homosexual no es ni un acto moral ni un pecado. Por consiguiente, sólo sería moralmente culpable de un pecado homosexual si actuara voluntariamente de acuerdo con su orientación homosexual.

LA SAGRADA DIGNIDAD PLENA DE SU HIJO NO PUEDE REDUCIRSE A SU ORIENTACIÓN HOMOSEXUAL

Además, para la Iglesia, la persona humana, especialmente su hijo, tiene una dignidad plena que no puede reducirse única o principalmente a su orientación homosexual. Él mismo no es una orientación. Él es mucho más que una orientación. En efecto, ha recibido de Dios una dignidad sagrada plena, la dignidad de la imagen divina de Dios, como persona racional y libre. Por esta razón, por su racionalidad y libertad, tiene capacidad para Dios como imagen divina de Dios, lo que significa que puede conocer a Dios, amar a Dios y servir a Dios mediante sus buenas decisiones morales. Al hacerlo, se abre a la gracia de Dios para perfeccionar sobrenaturalmente su naturaleza humana. En este sentido, él no se perfecciona como ser humano por su orientación, sino por la gracia de sus buenas elecciones morales. Esta vida de gracia implicaría practicar plenamente las virtudes teologales y morales y los dones del Espíritu Santo, incluida la castidad, como hijo de Dios. Esto lo formaría y rectificaría intelectual, espiritual y moralmente para que pueda responder virtuosamente al movimiento antinatural de su orientación homosexual. Sólo esto lo prepararía para cumplir el fin último o la perfección de su plena dignidad sagrada como imagen de Dios: que seria llegar algún día a ser un santo en el Cielo.

NO SOLO EL AMOR PERFECTO DE DIOS BASTA PARA SALVARÁ A SU HIJO

Por muy grandioso que eso sería para su hijo, antes de que pueda llegar a ser santo o virtuoso, y eventualmente santo en el Cielo, primero tendría que aprender a amar a Dios como su Primer y Más Grande Amor. Por ello, está llamado a madurar en su amor a Dios, a lo largo de su vida, hasta alcanzar finalmente la plena perfección en el Cielo. Nadie puede llegar al Cielo solo porque Dios lo ama perfectamente. Tan perfectamente como Dios ama a su hijo, tan perfectamente como Dios amará a su hijo por toda la eternidad, su hijo nunca llegará al Cielo como un pecador mortal impenitente. Al contrario, sólo llegará al cielo si permanece en el amor de Dios. Como dice Jesús en el Evangelio: “Permanece en mi amor. Si permanece en mi amor, dará mucho fruto”. Sólo en el amor de Dios su hijo vivirá y morirá fructíferamente en preparación para ir al Cielo. Esta preparación implica también el abrir su corazón para recibir la justicia y la misericordia de Dios a través del arrepentimiento, si peca al actuar según su orientación homosexual. Esto quiere decir que la justicia y la misericordia de Dios estarán disponibles para él durante toda su vida, pero esto no es una licencia para actuar inmoralmente. Amar a Dios primero lo impulsará a prepararse para la bienaventuranza celestial mediante el arrepentimiento y una vida santa y virtuosa. Esta es la verdadera libertad, una libertad para la felicidad que lo perfeccionará en Cristo, imagen perfecta del Padre.

Finalmente, al prepararse para el cielo, Dios llama a su hijo a amar virtuosamente a su prójimo como a sí mismo en esta vida. ¿Está dispuesto a hacer esto? ¿Está dispuesto a aprender a amar y a sacrificarse, como el mismo Jesús, a través de la santa castidad? Esto implicará que su hijo evite las ocasiones cercanas de pecar con sus amistades haciendo elecciones morales buenas y prudentes que lo ayudarán espiritual y moralmente. Ruego a Dios para que esté preparado para hacer esto, pero ciertamente va a necesitar la ayuda de Dios, incluyendo la suya, para ser casto en el amor al prójimo, como todos.

En Cristo con María Santísima,

Fray Mariano D. Véliz, O.P.

In the Old Testament, God reveals, through the prophets, that His plan of salvation for human beings includes saving, first of all, the people of Israel, and, secondly, the Gentiles.  For this reason, the prophets begin preaching this message to Israel and only later offer the same message to the Gentiles. In this sense, in the Old Testament, God reveals His plan in stages; the first stage involves His people, Israel, and the second stage, the Gentiles.  This means that His plan of salvation has an ordering.  In this ordering, Israel has primacy, as the first receivers or beneficiaries of God’s Word, for they are the people God first chose for Himself.  As such, from the people of Israel God would raise up for Himself a son of Israel from the Tribe of Judah, a son of David, who would become the Messiah Savior of Israel.  In this Messiah alone would all people be offered salvation, first the people of Israel, and only later the Gentiles.       

In this plan of salvation, particularly by establishing Israel as His covenant people on mount Sinai, God Himself becomes the Go’el of Israel, meaning He becomes a family member of Israel, a Godfather, who will redeem them from whatever they suffer.  This ministry of the go’el was traditionally practiced by a son of Israel for the redemption of his family members.  Here the go’el would redeem his family members from various difficult circumstances, including debt, poverty, threats, captivity, injustice, and the loss of the family’s inheritance of land.  In doing so, he would offer a solution for the price of redemption required to free his family members from their circumstances.  This was his legal responsibility as the go’el.  As such, here God Himself, by becoming a member of the family of Israel, assumes the office of the Go’el by beginning the ministry of redeeming Israel.  In God’s plan of salvation, the ministry of the Go’el will begin in Israel, but will also include the Gentiles, particularly those Gentiles prepared to receive this ministry from the Go’el.

In the Old Testament and also in the New Testament, particularly in the Gospels and in St. Paul, the inspired authors mention a particular group or class of Gentiles, God-fearers, who professed a belief in the God of the people of Israel. Indeed, they believed in the promises and prophecies that God revealed through the prophets.  These God-fearing Gentiles, believers in the faith of Israel, would be prepared to receive the ministry of redemption from the Go’el of Israel. They certainly heard the prophets proclaim God’s plan to save not only the people of Israel, but also the Gentiles.  In fact, in today’s first reading, God proclaims this message through the prophet Isaiah.  At the same time, only the God-fearing Gentiles would be prepared to receive the redemption from the Go’el of Israel.        

In the Gospel today, the inspired author recalls a story about a member of this group or class of God-fearing Gentiles, a Canaanite woman, who professed a belief in the God of Israel, particularly the belief that Israel’s God would raise up a Go’el or Redeemer of Israel from the House of David, a Messiah Savior, who would redeem not only the people of Israel, but also the Gentiles.  As a God-fearing Gentile, the Canaanite woman reveals a true faith in the God of Israel in today’s Gospel.  As Jesus travels through the region of Tyre and Sidon, this Gentile, a Canaanite woman, approaches Him pleading for Him to save her daughter from a demon.  As she continues calling out to Jesus for help, she begins bothering the disciples of Jesus. As a result, they tell Jesus to send her away.  After all, in their mind, she is not a daughter of Israel; she is a Gentile. She is, indeed, a Gentile, a God-fearing Gentile, who desires salvation from Jesus, the Go’el of Israel, particularly for her daughter. 

All the same, in God’s plan, as recounted in Scripture, the people of Israel, including the Gentiles, could only receive this salvation from the Go’el, the Redeemer, after He tested them for their fidelity and they passed the test as a people of faith. As such, in today’s Gospel, this would certainly be true of the God-fearing Canaanite woman.  Jesus, the Go’el of Israel, tests her three times for her fidelity.  Only if she passes the test, as a woman of faith, would she receive from the Go’el the salvation she desires for her daughter.  The temptation, of course, during the test, especially during a difficult test, is to lose faith, particularly by fleeing from the test or by avoiding the test altogether.  In the case of the Canaanite woman, does she respond faithfully to the three tests that she receives from Jesus, the Go’el of Israel?       

First of all, after hearing this Canaanite woman repeatedly call out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!”, Jesus tests her by not saying a word to her.  He remains silent.  Oftentimes in life, Jesus does not offer a word to people as they call out to Him in prayer. The test for them, including the Canaanite woman, is to remain faithful to Him in prayer, to continue praying to Him faithfully, especially during times when He remains silent.  Here there may be a temptation for them to stop praying.  They may be tempted to lose faith in praying to Him during the silence, but if they remain faithful to Him, He will, eventually, offer them a word in the silence.  In the Gospel, the Canaanite woman does not stop calling out to Jesus in prayer during the silence.  For this reason, she passes this first test, as a woman of faith. 

Secondly, after Jesus finally responds to the Canaanite woman, He reminds her that during this first stage of God’s plan of salvation, He has been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  This is the second test.  Will she remain faithful in prayer to Jesus, the Go’el of Israel, after hearing from Him that the people of Israel, the people that God first chose for Himself, have primacy in the ordering of God’s plan of salvation, not the Gentiles?  Many times people can be tempted to stop praying to Jesus in faith, if they are not God’s first choice. In the Gospel, after the Canaanite woman  hears Jesus tell her that the Gentiles do not have primacy in God’s plan, she could have easily stopped calling out to Jesus in prayer, but she does not.  On the contrary, she prays to Him in faith, all the more, faithfully pleading to Him, “Lord, help me!”  In doing so, she passes the second test, as a woman of faith.       

Finally, Jesus tests the Canaanite woman a third and final time in this Gospel reading.  In doing so, He tells her that using the food of the children to feed the dogs is not right.  The children, of course, refer to God’s children, the people of Israel; and the dogs refer to the Gentiles, particularly to the Canaanite woman and her daughter.  Conversely, the food refers to the grace of salvation that the master of the household, the Go’el of Israel, Jesus Christ, will offer to all people at the proper time according to the ordering of God’s plan. 

On the one hand, by calling the people of Israel the “children” of God, Jesus is alluding to their status as members of God’s family.  As you recall, through the covenant on mount Sinai, the people of Israel became members of the family of God.  Indeed, they became His children; and He became their Father, their Go’el, who would redeem them. In becoming the son of man, God the Son, Jesus Christ, would fulfill the office of the Go’el of Israel perfectly for their redemption.  In this Gospel reading, He is, once again, reminding the Canaanite woman of the primacy of the people of Israel in God’s plan of salvation, by calling them the children of God.  After all, a father has a moral duty, first and foremost, to help his children, before helping others. As a result, as the Go’el of Israel, Jesus, the Son of God, first offers His family, the people of Israel, God’s children, the grace of redemption as food.  This is the ordering of God’s plan.

On the other hand, Jesus calls the Gentile Canaanite woman and her daughter “dogs”.  What could he mean here?  For many people, this term can seem derogatory, but this is certainly not what Jesus intends.  During the time of Jesus, as today, people could refer to dogs either as feral and filthy animals, or as domesticated pets, such as puppies.  The first group of dogs, the feral and filthy dogs, had no human master or household, but the second group, the domesticated dogs, did have a human master, including a household. 

The people, during the time of Jesus, would use these terms for dogs metaphorically.  In doing so, they would sometimes use the first term for dogs, meaning feral and filthy animals, to refer to Gentiles derogatorily.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus, of course, does not do that.  On the contrary, He uses the second term for dogs, domesticated pets or puppies, to refer to Gentiles.  In this sense, here He is saying that these domesticated dogs, the Gentiles, have a household, including a master, the Go’el of Israel, who will feed them at the proper time, but only after the children of the household, the children of the master, have received their food from Him.  In this sense, for Jesus, the Gentiles would be fed, but not before Israel.  For this reason, He initially tells the Canaanite woman that for Him to use the food that belongs, first and foremost, to the children of Israel to feed the Gentiles, prematurely, before the children eat, is not right, for this would not be the proper ordering of salvation for Israel and the Gentiles in God’s plan.  As such, for Jesus, the children of Israel eat first in the plan of God, and the Gentiles only after.  In the Gospel, after the Canaanite woman hears what Jesus says, she, once again, passes the test, as a woman of faith.  According to her, she does not want the food that belongs to the children of Israel, the table food, but only the leftovers that fall from the master’s table, after the children have eaten.  Here the Canaanite woman remains faithful to the ordering of God’s plan in her prayer to Jesus.  Accordingly, Jesus honors her prayer by healing her daughter.       

The question is this: Will you remain faithful to Jesus, the Go’el of Israel, as He tests you, as difficult as those tests may be for you, in God’s plan of salvation?  Indeed, will you imitate the faithfulness of the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel reading?  Jesus, the Go’el of Israel, certainly desires your fidelity to Him, as a person of faith.  Only by remaining faithful to Him in this life will you merit the grace of salvation in the afterlife.

In Christ with Blessed Mary,

Friar Mariano D. Veliz, O.P.

frmarianovelizop@preachmypsalter.com

AS THE PERFECT IMAGE OF THE FATHER, JESUS LOVES YOUR SON PERFECTLY

Dear friends, if you have a son, particularly a prodigal or lost son, who has a homosexual orientation, remember that God loves him. As the Evangelist, St. John, proclaims, “God is Love.”  This Love, God Himself, is revealed in the person the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  In fact, St. John recalls Jesus saying that a person can have no greater love than to offer his life sacrificially for his friends.  This is the faithful love, the sacrificial love, that He offers to the Father for His friends by becoming man, suffering and dying to save them. In this faithful love, Jesus reveals Himself as the perfect image of the Father’s love, meaning He loves His friends perfectly as the Father does.  Moreover, in the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus describes the faithful and perfect love of God the Father through the fidelity of the prodigal son’s father. As sinful as the prodigal son is, as badly as he has lived his life, his faithful father loves him perfectly. Accordingly, in this parable, Jesus is calling the people of God, particularly parents, to love their prodigal or lost son faithfully, as God the Father does. For Jesus, of course, this faithful love involves offering mercy to the lost son. Indeed, He faithfully reveals this merciful love to others, especially to the lost, throughout His life and ministry. For this reason, He certainly loves your son faithfully, as the perfect image of the Father. Conversely, if Jesus, the perfect image of the Father, did not love your son perfectly, as He does, He would not image the Father’s love perfectly. On the contrary, He would image the Father only imperfectly through an imperfect love.  This, of course, would be completely false.  After all, as the perfect Son of the Father, He does, in fact, love your son perfectly, as the Father does, for all eternity, because He proceeds eternally from the Father as His perfect image. 

THE LOVE THAT JESUS, THE PERFECT SON OF GOD, HAS FOR YOUR SON IS UNCHANGEABLE

As a result, the love that Jesus has for your son will never increase nor decrease nor cease.  He will love him perfectly forever. This means He is unchangeable, as the Son of the Father.  On the one hand, He is unchangeable, for He does not move from potency to act, from an imperfect image to a perfect image of the Father. On the contrary, He is already fully actual or perfect in Himself.  For this reason, as the perfect image of the Father, He is not subject to perfectibility by becoming perfect in Himself through maturation.  In this sense, He has no potentiality in Him. He is actus purus, pure actuality. In this sense, He does not ever have to learn to love your son perfectly, because He already does from all eternity.  On the other hand, as the perfect image of the Father, He also does not change, by corruption, meaning He is not subject to becoming evil or imperfect in Himself by spiritual or moral corruptibility. As such, He will never sin by failing to love your son perfectly.  On the contrary, as actus purus, pure act, He is incorruptible in His love, spiritually and morally, meaning He will forever love your son perfectly, as the perfect Son of the Father.  Accordingly, Jesus, the perfect image of the Father, is unchangeable as a lover, because He is unchangeable as God.  He can neither be perfected nor corrupted.  On this basis, do not ever question or doubt God’s perfect, unchangeable love for your son. He may have a homosexual orientation, but God still loves him perfectly.  He will forever have a perfect love for him.

AS PARENTS, YOU ARE CALLED TO IMAGE GOD’S PERFECT LOVE FOR YOUR SON

As parents, created in God’s image, you are called to image God’s perfect love for your son each and every day by loving him faithfully through a life of holiness. This call to fidelity in love will require you to mature daily in your love for God and for your son. You can only do this, of course, by professing and living the full deposit of Catholic faith and morals, particularly the Church’s teaching about the human person’s sacred dignity as image of God, including his call to live a holy life of virtue. In doing so, God calls you to be prudent, patient, merciful and loving as you teach and form your son to live his life virtuously, as God wills, through your witness, including your words and actions. This will involve much prayer, contemplation and penance. Indeed, God calls you to pray for the grace to be faithful and loving parents, but He also desires you to pray for your son that he may learn to be faithful and loving.

AS PARENTS, GOD DESIRES THAT YOUR LOVE FOR YOUR SON BE INFORMED AND GUIDED BY CHURCH TEACHING

At the same time, as already suggested above, your call to love your son faithfully after the image of God’s perfect love means that your love for him will have to be informed and guided intellectually and morally by the Church’s teaching about the homosexual orientation and activity. The Church teaches that the homosexual orientation in a human being is not a natural movement in him, for it does not move or incline him to the good and proper telos or end of his true human happiness, as image of God, either naturally or supernaturally. On the contrary, his orientation is an unnatural movement of the concupiscible appetite that malforms and inclines him in his passions, his intellect, and his will to an evil end or object.  All the same, this unnatural movement, or inclination, precedes a moral act of his will, a moral choice on his part.  In this sense, the Church does not define the homosexual orientation as a moral evil, an evil act of his will, per se, but merely as a movement that inclines him unnaturally to an evil moral end or object.  In particular, that end would be a homosexual act involving another man.  For the Church, such an act would be intrinsically evil, evil by nature, for it would be against right reason and nature, including divine grace and revelation. Consequently, under no circumstances may a human being, including your son, act on his homosexual orientation through an evil act of his will.  If he did, he would be acting against God’s will.  Moreover, you would not be loving your son faithfully, as God wills, if you malformed him by false teaching, particularly by telling him the lie that living a homosexual life was fine, or morally good. On this basis, God desires that your love, as parents, be properly informed and guided by the Church’s teaching about the homosexual orientation and activity.

YOUR SON’S HOMOSEXUAL ORIENTATION IS A CONSEQUENCE OF ORIGINAL SIN, NOT A NATURAL QUALITY OF HIS CREATION BY GOD AS A HUMAN BEING

Your son certainly did not receive his homosexual orientation from God as a natural quality or inclination of his human nature when God created him.  God did not create him to be homosexual.  On the contrary, a man’s homosexual orientation, including your son’s, is a consequence of the original sin of his first parents, Adam and Eve.  This is a form of concupiscence.  Of course, he has no personal moral guilt here.  As such, he cannot be rightly judged or defined as a sinner, merely because he has a homosexual orientation.  After all, his homosexual orientation is neither a moral act nor a sin.  Accordingly, he would only be morally guilty of a homosexual sin, if he acted voluntarily on his homosexual orientation.

YOUR SON’S FULL SACRED DIGNITY CANNOT BE REDUCED TO HIS HOMOSEXUAL ORIENTATION

Moreover, for the Church, the human person, particularly your son, has a full dignity that cannot be reduced merely or primarily to his homosexual orientation. He, himself, is not an orientation.  He is much more than an orientation.  Indeed, he has received from God a full sacred dignity, the dignity of the divine image of God, as a rational and free person.  For this reason, by his rationality and freedom, he has a capacity for God as God’s divine image, meaning he can know God, love God and serve God by his good moral choices.  In doing so, he opens himself for the grace of God to perfect his human nature supernaturally. In this sense, he is not perfected as a human being through his orientation, but through the grace of his good moral choices. This life of grace would involve fully practicing the theological and moral virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, including chastity, as a son of God.  This would form and rectify him intellectually, spiritually and morally that he may respond virtuously to the unnatural movement of his homosexual orientation.  This alone would prepare him to fulfill the final end or perfection of his full sacred dignity as image of God: becoming a saint in Heaven someday.

GOD’S PERFECT LOVE ALONE WILL NOT SAVE YOUR SON

As great as that would be for your son, before he could ever become holy, or virtuous, and eventually a saint in Heaven, he would first have to learn to love God as his First and Greatest Love. For this reason, he is called to mature in his love for God, throughout his life, until he finally reaches full perfection in Heaven. In this sense, he will not reach Heaven merely because God loves him perfectly.  As perfectly as God loves your son, as perfectly as He will love your son forever, your son will never reach Heaven as an unrepentant mortal sinner. On the contrary, he will only reach heaven by remaining in the love of God.  As Jesus says in the Gospel, “Remain in my love.  If you remain in my love, you will bear much fruit.”  Only in the love of God will your son live and die fruitfully in preparation for Heaven.  This preparation would also involve opening his heart to receive the justice and mercy of God through repentance, if he sins by acting on his homosexual orientation. As such, God’s justice and mercy will be available to him throughout his life, but this is not a license for him to act immorally. Loving God first will move him to prepare himself for Heavenly beatitude through repentance and a holy life of virtue. This is true freedom, a freedom for happiness that will perfect him in Christ, the perfect image of the Father.

Finally, in preparing himself for heaven, God calls your son to love his neighbor virtuously as himself in this life. Is he willing to do this? Is he willing to learn to love sacrificially, as Jesus Himself, through holy chastity.  This will involve your son avoiding the near occasions to sin in his friendships by good and prudent moral choices that will help him spiritually and morally.  I pray that he is prepared to do this, but he will certainly require the help of God, including your help, to be chaste in his love of neighbor, just as everyone does.

In Christ with Blessed Mary,

Friar Mariano D. Veliz, O.P.

frmarianovelizop@preachmypsalter.com