St. Clelia Barbieri, who promised her dying sisters never to abandon them and whose voice is still heard singing the Divine Office with them, shows that in the true worship of God heaven and earth come together, as the Epistle to the Hebrews says: we come to the heavenly Jerusalem, innumerable angels, and the sprinkled blood that speaks better than Abel's. Since every saint is made through the liturgy, the purgative and illuminative ways are explained, and the faithful are urged to sing the Sanctus at Mass, joining the angels' hymn to the holiness of God.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

On the feast of St. Michael, the war in heaven of the Apocalypse is shown to have been fought over the God-man, and the Church militant now stands in that same battle with St. Michael as the prince of her army and two-thirds of the angels on her side. From Joshua loosing his shoes before the prince of the host of the Lord, to Daniel, St. Joan of Arc and the Angel of Peace at Fatima, the archangel purges and matures souls in reverence, then sets them on fire with the love of God.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

On the Sunday when Christ drives the money changers from the Temple, Herod's gold-plated sanctuary of white marble, as Josephus describes it, is seen as built in God's providence for the God-man, the first house of His Real Presence, which should move us to honor our own churches where He dwells in the tabernacle. On their feast day, the sixteen Carmelite martyrs of Compiègne, who offered their lives to end the Terror, go to the guillotine singing, each asking, "Permission to die, Mother?"Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

On the feast of All Saints, the death-row prisoners of Turin whom St. Joseph Cafasso prepared for the scaffold show that holiness is within reach, for, as St. Alphonsus teaches, accepting death in perfect conformity to God's will earns a merit like that of the martyrs. The Church's teaching on beatification and canonization is then explained: in canonizing, the Church infallibly declares that the soul died in grace and now enjoys the beatific vision, so we can keep our eyes on the goal of joining our elder brothers and sisters in heaven.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

With the Gospel of the Transfiguration, when Christ led Peter, James and John up a high mountain apart, silence is shown to be the condition for hearing God, as the desert of St. Anthony, the hidden years at Nazareth and the forty days in the wilderness all teach. Exterior silence serves interior silence of the imagination and memory, so we must guard the cloister of the soul against the images we let in, fill it with holy ones, and lift the mind to God in the small pauses of a busy day.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, hierarchy, which means "sacred order," is shown to be set by God in the universe, the Church and the family, reflecting the order among the Divine Persons, who are equal in dignity and nature; flattening it, as the Protestant denial of Holy Orders and the French Revolution set out to do, brings not equality but disorder. St. Paul, though the more gifted, submitted to St. Peter, for humility is knowing our place and taking it, and we honor those set over us for the sake of their office.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

Closing the mission, the Holy Mass is shown to be the means by which Christ the King conquers, reigns and commands (Christus vincit, regnat, imperat): it holds back the powers of evil, shields the world from divine justice, and won pagan Rome and the New World for Christ. The faithful are urged to honor the King at Mass through modest dress, fasting, confession, reverent Communion and thanksgiving, choosing His peace rather than the crushing burden of Atlas or the hidden ruin of Dorian Gray.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

In 1917, as Russia fell to atheistic revolution, Our Lady of Fatima gave the remedy for peace (the daily Rosary, penance for sinners, and consecration to her Immaculate Heart), confirmed by the Miracle of the Sun before 70,000 witnesses. Because Mary, Mother of the King, shares as Queen in His reign and stands in lasting enmity with the serpent, the triumph of her Immaculate Heart is the reign of Christ the King, and the Rosary is the chain that binds the enemy and the ladder that lifts souls to heaven.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

From St. Helena's finding of the True Cross and Constantine's "In this sign you shall conquer," the Cross is shown to be the banner and throne of Christ the King, the weapon by which He defeated sin, death and Satan, now hidden from public life by a new paganism. Every Christian must take up his own cross (illness, sorrow, duty, even the consequences of his own sins, beginning with a good confession) and wield it, like the martyrs, as the key to heaven, and proudly display the crucifix at home and in public.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, the hidden portrait of a soul rotting behind a pleasant facade, is set against the image of the Sacred Heart, whose love is displayed for all to see and who promised St. Margaret Mary to bless and bring peace to every home where His image is honored. Since the renewal of society begins in the family, every household is urged to enthrone the Sacred Heart as Father Mateo taught, letting Christ the King reform its whole life, as the ruler in today's Gospel "believed, and his whole house."Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

Drawing on St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle and Pius XI's Quas Primas, the soul of the baptized is presented as the castle of Christ the King, where intellect, will, memory, passions and body must each submit to Him in right order, guided by a conscience formed by God's law and the teaching of the Church. The saints' "double vision" (one eye on God, the other on the day of judgment) is then applied to Sunday Mass, marriages outside the Church, temptations against purity and forgiving our enemies, always asking: "What is this to all eternity?"Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

The martyrdom of Blessed Miguel Pro, who died crying "Viva Cristo Rey!", opens a reflection on St. Augustine's two cities: one built on love of self to the contempt of God, the other on love of God to the contempt of self. Recalling Pius XI's Quas Primas and Leo XIII's teaching that the state must acknowledge God, the conference calls Catholics to rebuild a Christian order beginning in their own hearts and homes through the enthronement of the Sacred Heart, after the example of Ecuador's Catholic president Gabriel García Moreno.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

Christ the King will come again to judge the living and the dead, and on that day every creature in heaven, on earth and under the earth will acknowledge His kingship. Following St. Thomas Aquinas, the general judgment is needed so that the far-reaching effects of every deed are seen, the false judgments of history are corrected, and God's providence is vindicated; we prepare for it by leaving nothing unconfessed, rejecting human respect, and praying the Rosary daily.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

The aged scribe Eleazar, who chose martyrdom rather than even pretend to eat forbidden meat, is set against Catholics in public life who keep the faith "in private" while promoting abortion and denying Christ any place in law and government. Drawing on Pius XI's teaching on the social reign of Christ the King and St. Paul's warning of the apostasy and the man of sin, the conference describes the Antichrist as Satan's counterfeit messiah and closes with St. Patrick's vision of the faith rekindled after a time of darkness.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

Opening a parish mission on the First Sunday of Lent, the straining statue of Atlas at Rockefeller Center is contrasted with the Infant of Prague, who holds the whole world easily in His hand as true God and true man. Modern man, following Descartes in making himself the measure of all things, has forgotten God and set the rights of man above the rights of God; the remedy is to return to Christ the King, enthrone Him in our hearts and homes, and make a good confession.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

St. Paul's exhortation to walk worthy of our calling "with all humility and meekness, with patience, bearing with one another in love" is joined to the two great commandments, and St. Leo the Great's words about seeing "the glory of the cross shining over heaven and earth" show what that calling demands. A heart that truly sees the cross is humble and grateful, not proud: it judges sin as sin but loves the sinner, and like the Good Samaritan it binds its neighbor's wounds, praying and doing penance for others' sins as though they were its own.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

At Covadonga in 722, Don Pelayo and a small Christian remnant took refuge in Our Lady's cave and begged her protection, and they were saved when the arrows turned back and a storm brought the mountain down on the Moorish army, which began the long reconquest of Spain. On Gaudete Sunday this becomes an image of Advent: God kept faithful remnants through every age of Satan's tyranny, and the true Conqueror began His reconquest in the cave of Bethlehem, where we too must take refuge, for if one outpost of faith remains in a soul, He can win it all back.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

Just as a living clump of grass ranks higher than all the stars, and a man higher than an elk, sanctifying grace gives a new and supernatural life, a created share in God's own life, so that we become adopted sons and partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), raised farther above our natural state than a man stands above a rock. With St. Alphonsus, St. Bridget and St. Catherine of Siena, we consider the beauty of a soul in grace, the disaster of losing it by mortal sin, and the Holy Mass as the one worthy thanksgiving for so great a gift.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

The canon of Scripture is the Church's authoritative list of inspired books: the Old Testament used by Our Lord and the Apostles, the Greek Septuagint with its 46 books, was received by the Church and confirmed with the New Testament by Pope St. Damasus and the Councils of Hippo and Carthage, and the list was closed by Pope St. Innocent I. Since only the Church's authority assures us which books are the Word of God, it is a contradiction to accept the Bible while rejecting her teaching office; as St. Augustine said, he would not believe the Gospels unless the authority of the Catholic Church moved him to.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast

On Gaudete Sunday and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange's teaching on the four ends of the Holy Sacrifice, adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and petition, shows that Christ's intercession continues in the Eucharist after Mass, and that prayer united to it for the Church, her bishops and priests, sinners and the peace of nations is certain to bear fruit. With St. Louis de Montfort's teaching that prayer in common is an army attacking the devil, like a bundle of sticks that cannot be broken, the parish is called to pray together right after Holy Communion, while Our Lord is still present within us.Listen with the full transcriptGo to episodeSermon of the Day podcast