The LORD gives food to the hungry

"Do not be afraid.... For the LORD, the God of Israel, says,
'The jar of flour shall not go empty,
nor the jug of oil run dry ....'"

The LORD ... gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free....

The fatherless and the widow he sustains ....

Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many,
will appear a second time, not to take away sin
but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.

A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.

1 Kings 17:13-14

Psalm 146:7, 9

Hebrews 9:28

The Gospel, Saint Mark 12:42

I think someone took these readings from the Novus Ordo, or post-Vatican II missal, but I really like them and feel that they're an expression of what my Christianity is-or at least should be-about.

I really love the Traditional Latin Mass and now Sunday's my favorite day of the week.

But I feel that I'm a sinner who needs salvation. I knew this for a long time, but I'm taking this fact more seriously now that that I've been attending the Latin Mass and listening to Father's homilies and guidance in the confessional.

I feel that I'm more trusting to the Lord now and the focus on whatever's been going on in my life now-that the important thing is that I'm in a state of Grace-and that the Lord is truly looking after me. And I'm sure He really appreciates the widow dropping her last two cents in the collection basket-while He wishes that many of the more fortunate-such as a millionare who drops only a 20-dollar bill in the basket each Sunday-would be more generous.

Of course, I must be honest that my faith wanes sometimes, like it has recently. I used to say quite a bit that I had "the faith of an atheist", but I have not been feeling that way during the 9 months I've been attending the Latin Mass until recently when I had a setback. I haven't been feeling well lately and been feeling like I need a little more "tender loving care" from the other human beings in my life-not just from the Lord. But they don't always choose to give it. Maybe my faith is being tested right now.

Evil=The Absence of Good, Part II

Hey, I just found the notes I had taken during Father's homily last Sunday! I'm really happy since there were some good things in the notes which I had forgotten. And I don't want to "put words in his mouth" as my dad used to say.


Father did say last Sunday that evil is the absence of good-NOT ANYTHING CREATED-and compared it to darkness being the absence of light.

Father talked about the problem that agnostics and atheists have in believing in God. They have a difficult time in understanding how all this evil is going on in the world if we have such a good God. I used to have difficulty understanding too-even if I did believe in God at the time.
These nonbelievers told me the same thing and at first I didn't know what to say. But Father did an excellent job of outlining the reasons evil exists.


God doesn't create evil; but He allows it for several reasons:
1) Moral evil is allowed so we can have free will; free will leads to true love of the Lord.
2) Physical evil can be an illness or disability-such as the absence of hearing-which can lead to God's greater good. For example God could either take someone who is deaf and give him the ability to hear-or maybe He may use the lack of hearing in some other way. (Reminds me of Jesus healing the man who was born blind, but the absence of sight or hearing could be a person's "cross" for them to bear.)
3) Evil can be a punishment for sin-such as the plagues the Egyptians were subjected to when Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Jews and used them as slaves.
4) Evil can be used to sanctify the good. Father gave the book of Job as an example of this. Job was a virtuous man whom God allowed Satan to tempt. God told Satan he could do whatever he wanted to do with Job-"except you cannot kill him." He lost his health, his wife and 10 children, his livestock, and everything else. But he was given twice as many animals and 10 more children.