Author: Father Albert

Daily Collection: Timothy & Titus

Posted on by Father Albert
Collect taken from the memorial of Sts. Timothy & Titus Collect: O God, who adorned Saints Timothy and Titus with apostolic virtues, grant through the intercession of them both, that, living justly and devoutly in this present age, we may merit to reach our heavenly homeland. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son "O God, who adorned Saints Timothy and Titus with apostolic virtues" - As always, we start our prayer by calling to mind the good that God has done. In this case, it is the virtues found in these two men who served as the first generation of leaders immediately...Read More

Men, Memory, Monuments, and Meaning

Posted on by Father Albert
Heyo! After floating around the ether of the Internet for a while, I began to wonder where it all came from. Pondering on the history of the internet left me with a kind of homesickness for a place I've never been, so I decided to go there. What I'm saying is that I decided to take a pilgrimage to the place it all began... Al Gore's Brain! ... ... Alright, not really. It's hard to pin down a single "birthplace," but with the help of a "tour guide" of sorts, I was able to see how it all began... I...Read More

Daily Collection: St. Hilary of Poitiers

Posted on by Father Albert
Collect from the optional memorial of St. Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop and Doctor Collect: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we may rightly understand and truthfully profess the divinity of your Son, which the Bishop Saint Hilary taught with such constancy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son... "Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we may rightly understand and truthfully profess the divinity of your Son" - Jesus Christ is God and every generation has had trouble accepting this fact, so the Church prays for us to not only accept it, but actually profess it in the face of worldly denial. "which...Read More

Shall we drink?

Posted on by Father Albert
Tue 1st week OT, Year II Alexander Albert Notre Dame Seminary “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” I don’t know about you, but I often wonder whether my preaching would produce more converts if I could just throw down a miracle when I needed to make a point. I often wonder about this as a pray with the New Testament stories of the miracles of the Apostles. Healings, exorcisms, supernatural knowledge, speaking new languages… Me, I’ve never seen… much less performed an outright miracle. This sometimes pains me and I...Read More

Daily Collection: The First Day of Ordinary Time

Posted on by Father Albert
Collect taken from the mass of the day, Monday of the First Week of Ordinary Time  Collect: Attend to the pleas of your people with heavenly care, O Lord, we pray, that they may see what must be done and gain strength to do what they have seen. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son... "Attend to the pleas of your people with heavenly care, O Lord, we pray" -Short and to the point, the Church begs of God to hear us and care for us. Yet, the request the Church is about to make of us is not for our own...Read More

Daily Collection: December 23

Posted on by Father Albert
Collect taken from the mass of the day. Collect: Almighty ever-living God, as we see how the Nativity of your Son according to the flesh draws near, we pray that to us, your servants, mercy may flow from your Word, who chose to become flesh of the Virgin Mary and establish among us his dwelling, Jesus Christ out Lord. Who lives and reigns... "Almighty ever-living God, as we see how the Nativity of your Son according to the flesh draws near" - We know that Christ is also the eternal son of God, so the Church is careful to recall that Christmas...Read More

Episode VII: The Call of the Force?

Posted on by Father Albert
{Spoiler Alert} May the Force be with you! And with your spirit! The long awaited return of the franchise has finally arrived and our journey through the Star Wars movies is complete, for now. Now the whole world can debate whether or not our beloved Star Wars will do well in the hands of Mickey Mouse and companions. I have some thoughts on that subject, but that's not the point of this blog so I'll leave that to reviewers and fans and stick to my own task. First of all, thank goodness that Luke still serves the light. This avoids casting shadows...Read More

Episode VI: Evangelization of the Jedi

Posted on by Father Albert
I can sense his presence... Episode VII is near and I must go to face him! But first, I must complete my training with the first six episodes. Last time, we left off at Luke's poor decision and failure to actually help anyone. Return of the Jedi fast forwards a bit and lets the viewer assume that Luke returned Dagobah to complete his training with Yoda. The first scene involves the whole crew working to save Han Solo. In "A New Hope," we saw that Han Solo had some development a something of a conversion. Here we see the completion of that conversion...Read More

Episode V: The Impulse Strikes Back

Posted on by Father Albert
{Spoilers (as always)} Welcome back to my journey through Star Wars. Last time I took a look at the hope we had for Han Solo and Darth Vader. Now I'm taking a look at Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Just two things come to mind in this movie before we move on to the next: First, Lando betrayed his friend because he was afraid of Darth Vader and wanted to keep his business running. His first impulse was to protect what he had, but in the end, he very nearly loses something much more valuable. From a worldly point of view, its...Read More

Episode IV: A New Hope, but for Whom?

Posted on by Father Albert
A long time ago  On a Blog not that far away The Ephesian began his journey through Star Wars His path has taken him through temptation and the value of confession. Today we join him on that journey where he meets Luke Skywalker and discovers that it really is possible for people to change, that there is hope after all. {Spoiler Alert for IV, V, & VI} A New Hope! Who exactly is finding new hope? The movie suggests that it is the rebels who find a new hope, but I want to suggest a slightly different take: Han Solo and Darth...Read More