My dear brothers, what do you ask of God and his holy church?
Let us ask the Lord who has chosen you to bless you and to walk with us in the newness
of life.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Every year for the birthday of Our Blessed Lady we read this long genealogy of Our Lord
and Saviour and we see how Our Lord's life is placed firmly within history.
Our Lord became one of us, born of our race.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
This genealogy is taken from the line of Abraham to whom God made his promise.
And in reading all of these names, many of whom, perhaps even most of whom, most of us
don't even know or remember from Scripture, unfortunately, because we're Catholics.
We don't have as much familiarity with the Scriptures as probably we should.
We find that this long, lengthy recounting of sacred history reminds us that God is faithful
to his promises.
Our brothers, this evening, have been called after a year of intense formation
in religious life to make their promise to God.
They have been called to make this promise.
Jesus, who is faithful to his promises, sometimes gives individuals a special call to follow
him in a sacrificial way of life.
All of life is supposed to be sacrificial.
We're supposed to give God the best that we have.
Whoever we are, give him the first fruits.
But some he calls to live apart from the world and to dedicate themselves completely to his
service in poverty, chastity, and obedience.
It's a supernatural calling.
It's nothing that we would ever choose because we thought it was a good idea or because we
figured that it would be nice to do.
We do it because Jesus has asked us to do it.
We do it because Jesus has asked us to do it.
We do it because Jesus has asked us to do it.
We do it because Jesus has asked us to do it.
We do it because Jesus has asked us to give up things in this world and to have something
better, communion with him.
And again, all of us are called to that.
All of us have to leave things behind in order to pursue the Lord.
But tonight, we see the church, in a certain way, sort of decked out in all her glory as
we see these young men who are willing.
to sort of pour everything out
like the woman Mary
who broke the vial of nard
and balsam over our Lord's feet
and Judas complained
because it was a waste
that the money could have been given
to the poor
but our Lord accepted the offering
and said no it's not a waste
she's anointing me for burial
we're supposed to give Jesus
the best that we have
not the scraps
not what's left over
but the very very best
he wants our hearts
more than anything else
and everything
I've been telling the brothers
and the new novices
that everything in religious life
all the structure and the habit
and what we do
in a very visual
way tonight
with the new part of the habits
that they will receive
and they're kneeling
in front of everyone
the whole church
to make their profession before God
all of these external things
are meant to be internalized
if we give God our hearts
then all of the external things
crosses that we endure
circumstances of life
sickness
whatever it might be
has value
it's pleasing to God
it'll get us to heaven
and it'll help the church
become the bride
that she is meant to be
if we don't
give God our hearts
then everything else is just a sham
as St. Paul says
it may make a lot of noise
like a banging gong
but without charity
we are nothing
and we are nothing
and so in a particular way
our brothers profess
in addition to the three evangelical councils
of poverty, chastity, and obedience
they profess
what we call the Marian vow
which is
devotion to the Blessed Mother
consecration of the Blessed Mother
after the example of St. Maximilian Kolbe
and our founders
Fr. Stefano Minelli
and Fr. Gabriel Pelletieri
consecration of the Blessed Mother
raised to the level of a public vow
so they
give themselves completely to her
and they allow themselves
to be used by her
in the context of religious obedience
so they can be sent to the missions
they can
be asked to make
great sacrifices
for the Lord
and for the extension of his kingdom
throughout the world
another way of looking at this Marian vow
is that we think about
our consecration to God
in terms of that which our Blessed Lady made
we try to imitate
her poverty, chastity, and obedience
we, like St. Maximilian, pray
that she might live
and act through us
that she might
take full possession of our hearts
and
purify them
make them pleasing
to God
and help us
to make our offering
perfect
to make it
heroic
and
imp Jade
and
ḥ
she diddas
Saint Maximillian was
a saint of our times
a patron of our difficult age
founded his movement of consecration
to our Blessed Lady in 1917
during
the First World War and
to the devotion that Our Lady was sent by God to ask for at Fatima.
And he faced the evils of his day, not only the war,
but he saw the persecution of the church by the Freemasons in Rome.
He had to deal with, when he was sick in Poland,
he went to a place to recuperate, a kind of hospital,
where he would encounter many people without faith,
sometimes Russian communists, agnostic Jews,
all kinds of different people who had all kinds of strange philosophies
and weren't interested in Christ,
and most especially not interested in the Catholic Church.
And he was a...
He was a light.
If he couldn't do anything else, he would give them miraculous metal.
And many were converted, brought many people to baptism
because he was an instrument of Our Lady.
And that really is a great prophetic grace of our age,
emphasized very much by John Paul II.
It continues to be emphasized by our present Holy Father
that Our Lady is calling us to...
to follow Jesus' command to welcome her into our home
and to allow her to change our lives.
It is the grace of the moment.
It's the grace of our times.
Our culture and our society, which is on the brink in many ways,
needs conversion.
And it has to begin with an act of humility,
that humility by which Jesus became...
Emmanuel.
God is with us.
He became Emmanuel by emptying himself and taking the form of a slave,
by practicing the first commandment.
St. Paul says that in the fullness of time,
Jesus was born of a woman,
born under the law to redeem those who are under the law.
Jesus practiced the fourth commandment towards his Blessed Mother and still does.
Our Lady is there in heaven and Jesus is there in heaven.
And...
Our Lord still has his sacred humanity
that he received from our Blessed Lady.
And he still loves her as a mother.
And there's a reason for all of that.
God wants us to humble ourselves.
He wants us to give him our hearts.
One way or another, that's what we need to do.
And he's giving us the grace.
And it's a blessing from God.
And so we count our blessings.
We count our blessings this evening.
Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate
are blessed to have four, three new religious friars, brothers.
And we thank the families, the parents, especially of these young men
that they have given their son to our Blessed Mother and to Jesus.
And we promise to take good care of them.
In the heart of our Blessed Mother.
We also acknowledge the renewal of profession of our other three brothers
who continue in their desire to persevere to solemn profession.
Because the whole point of all of this is a permanent, perpetual profession.
You know, that we give our life completely to the Lord
for the good of the Church.
And for the salvation of souls.
So we are blessed.
And I like to remind the parents, the families, that you are also blessed.
As difficult as your sacrifice is.
And it is a sacrifice on your part as well.
And as your son receives a grace, so you receive graces and blessings from God.
Because our Lord acknowledges the sacrifice that you make.
And you know, the scriptures tell us, the Psalms tell us that
precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.
Every time we offer something to God, we die a little.
And we make it holy in the blood of Christ.
We give it to God as we receive Jesus in the Eucharist.
That's the life of the friars.
We have the privilege of living with our Lord under the same roof.
And receive him daily in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
And this consecration of Jesus,
consecration of our brothers tonight,
reminds all of us about that to which we are called.
And we beg that blessing upon each and every one of you this evening.
There is grace in this offering.
And it is a grace for the whole church.
It's a grace for these brothers individually.
But a religious vocation is a grace for the whole church.
The body of Christ is raised up and rebuilt.
It's our vocation as Franciscans to rebuild the church.
And we invoke that grace upon all of you, all of us, this evening.
And so we pray for our brothers as they make this offering.
And we rejoice with them in the heart of the Blessed Mother.
Amen.
Amen.