SSPX Sermons

Indulgences are understood poorly today, and many anti-Catholic polemicists falsely hold them up as licenses to sin the future or that absolution is contingent on paying the right amount of money. However, an indulgence is not the forgiveness of sin; it is rather the expiation of temporal punishment due to sin. The Church's teaching on indulgences is entirely Biblical. Yet it was Martin Luther in the 16th century who, after years of upholding the Catholic position, opted to take his his own private spiritual struggles and elevate them to the level of new doctrines that ultimately rejected indulgences and indeed the teaching that any work can assist in our salvation.

The consecration of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, originally dedicated to Christ the Savior, was first celebrated on November 9, 324 AD by Pope Sylvester I. For over 1,700 hears, this church has stood as a symbol of the Catholic Faith and the home of many historical events, including five ecumenical councils. St. John Lateran's symbolic value may be more important now than ever as the Church remains beset by modernism and a crisis of faith. This unsettling state of affairs can be seen once again in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith's recent rejection, in the name of ecumenism, of certain traditional titles for the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Bearing with one another is a struggle, but in the authentic Christian spirit we are called to do so. When we endure these sufferings of the shortcomings of others, which is part of accepting the cross, is part of uniting ourselves to Christ. We are so inclined to criticize others, regardless of our station of life. What we too often lose sight of is how much giving in to criticizing others and harboring discontent is how these poison our very souls. We quickly see the failures in others while ignoring our own.

The beatitudes are not an “extra” to the spiritual life. They are the foundation, expression, and summary of the spiritual life. There is a reason why poverty of spirit comes first, for it is where mercy, purity, justice, patience under persecution, and peace emanate from.

In the parable of the wicked servant, Our Lord appears to give a mysterious lesson. Yet upon reflection, this parable is about the law of mercy. The mercy we show others will be measured out and shown unto us. If we desire mercy for our sins, we must bestow it upon others.

The only thing certain in life is our death. We do not know when it will be or the circumstances, but it is inevitable. Yet we believed that through the virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary that we may have a good death, one that allows us to repose in the grace of God.

Without God we can do nothing good. Here, at the close of the liturgical year, we are reminded again of our dependency upon God. Even the expiation for our sins is insufficient without our Lord's mercy. Although we know in our trust that He will grant it to us, we should never presume it is owed. Rather, we should rejoice in this great gift that is bestowed upon us.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is king by both His nature as God and also by His free decision to become one of us, to lead us out of sin to salvation. Out of devotion to Our Lord's right to rule, we have the feast of Christ the King. And in this feast we not only honor Him, but reaffirm the sacrifice on Calvary, the great gift Christ has bestowed upon us through this sacrificial act, and accept the love He freely offers.

When we honor the feast of Christ the King, we follow Jesus's directive to confess Him before men. Christ is like any other king, for He chose to reign over us out of love from the Cross, conquered sin, and redeemed us. And so we must ask ourselves how can we promote Christ's kingship in our everyday lives, starting with giving up our own wills, taking up our crosses, and humbly submitting ourselves to Our Lord.

It is God's will that our very first moment of existence is one of darkness, where we dwell in our mother's womb until we come out into the light. From the moment of our birth, we begin to perceive the world around us, first very poorly and then progressively clearer. At the same time, by God's design, our first contact with reality is with our mothers; we depend on her. This natural order that Our Lord designed reflects the design of the supernatural order, where from the moment of our baptism we come into true contact with our divine mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and must remain dependent upon her.

The parable of the wedding feast made by the king for his son shows in a concrete way the mystery of the Incarnation where God the Father has united the Son to the Catholic Church. There are further layers to this mystery found in how the Son of God serves as not only the Church's bridegroom, but her caretaker and defender as well. Moreover, the parable provides sobering words on the myriad of excuses we often make for not accepting the Father's invitation to the feast to our own peril.

Why do we have faith and confidence in the great sacrament of confession? We know that our sins can only be forgiven by the power of God for our sins are an offense to Him. Moreover, Our Lord has extended this power to the Church he established out of His goodness and mercy.

Prayer is a conversation with God. Yet we often allow our own struggles and complications to interfere with it. What we must understand is how simple it should be, so long as we make a focused effort daily to give our time and attention directly to Our Lord.

On every Marian feast, we should feel a special joy. For they are a reminder of the great love Our Blessed Mother has for us. One of the most visible signs of her love for us is the great gift of the Rosary, a devotion which has antecedents stretching back to the earliest centuries of the Church. Through it, we are promised many graces, not just for ourselves, but for those we hold in our hearts as part of our intentions.

In the midst of the crisis in society and the Church, we look for clarity and stability. This is especially true when there is a crisis of authority in the Church. But we know that all authority comes from God, which He handed onto the Apostles as the first bishops who then passed it down in succession to this very day. This is why we must pray that they, like us, hold fast to the Faith of the Church, even if there we many temptations today to deviate from it.

St. Therese is always full of surprises for the faithful. When it comes to happiness, for example, she expressed happiness at seeing herself as imperfect and in need of God's mercy at the time of death. By the world's standards, this is a twisted sentiment, but for those seeking eternity in heaven with Our Lord, it is precisely the right feeling to hold.

Tradition tells us that St. Dominic was given the Rosary by Our Lady, and it became one of the principle means for him to defeat the Albigensian heresy. Moreover, we know that it is through the power of the Rosary that victory was attained against all odds over the Muslims at the Battle of Lepanto. These are but two of the innumerable blessings received through the power of the Rosary--a great devotion that has has spread throughout Christendom over the centuries.

Holy Mother Church presents us the feast of All Saints to instruct us. For each saint has a particular virtue to teach. But the lesson we should draw from this day is that there is a quality common among all of them: a desire to love Our Lord and serve him above all else.

St. Michael is our Church's defender. And like all the angels, he also defends our children. He stands as a bulwark against the devil and evil. Even before the time of Christ, he protected those who followed God and were faithful to Him.

God should not be mocked, for He does what He says and He follows through. Yet in the world today, groups possessed by false ideologies go out of their way to mock Him. Sadly, we saw this transpire during the Jubilee Year in Rome when the so-called "LGBT" community invaded St. Peter's Basilica to spread their false beliefs in defiance of divine and natural law.

The life of man on earth is warfare against the flesh, the world, and the devil. A secret weapon in this war is offering our joys to the Lord. Joy, which is a uniquely human experience, is available to be offered to God. For in so doing, we recognize that the things in this life that bring us true joy come from God alone and it is to Him that we owe our thanks.

When we assess who a good person is, we must look beyond their natural virtues to see the extent to which they conform their life to God. For God alone is good and so we must never lose sight that it is His goodness alone that elevates us supernaturally. In the martyrs, we find an example of those who have conformed their lives to God's goodness while displaying their ultimate love for Him through their sacrifice.

The Cross is the key to understanding Our Lord, the Catholic religion, the work of redemption, and our duties. If we do not understand the mystery of the Cross, then we can understand nothing. One of the main causes of the crisis in the Church is the desire to create a new religion without the Cross at the center.

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrates the return of the Cross through the efforts of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius against the Persians. However, only when Heraclius humbled himself by removing his royal raiment was he able to bring the Cross back into Jerusalem. At the same time, this feast reminds us of the cruciform structure of many churches, the present of crosses throughout, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

By the world's wisdom, Christ's voluntary death upon the Cross was both shameful and foolish. And yet know that through the Cross, Christ attained victory over this world and the devil. When we fall short in this life through sinning and opt to quit, that is, flee the Cross of Christ, we embrace the foolishness of this world.

On the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we have the opportunity to reflect on the importance of this feast for the Society of Saint Pius X. In union with Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who Our Lady brought into the world and stood with painfully at the Cross, Mary dedicated the whole of her life for the redemption of mankind. Her designated role in our salvation as Co-Redemptrix is particularly material when we consider the Society's mission of forming holy priests who stand in persona Christi to provide sacramental grace to the faithful.

Rome is the historic center of the Catholic Church where the popes through the centuries continue to profess the Faith as handed down from the Apostles. They are our models and pillars that we cling to. We do not know when the end of time will occurs, but we entrust ourselves to the Church and authentic papal teachings perpetually, while making ourselves ready for the constant struggle against the temptations of the world.

The priests are the human instruments working through the grace of the Church, as God ordained. What the angels cannot do, the priests ordained for God can. The priests carry out the same mission to the people of the world as Christ granted to St. Paul and the Apostles through His sanctification. They are entrusted not just to keep the traditions of the Church as bestowed through the teachings of the Apostles, but to perpetuate the Faith through their sacred ministry.

Our Lady's conception is the beginning of our redemption. Her coming was prefigured throughout salvation history. Throughout the Old Testament, we can see how God showed her coming as a preparation for the great coming of His Son, Christ Our Lord.

The parable of the Good Samaritan represents how we have been stripped of all that God has given us. Ignorance, malice, concupiscence, and weakness are the wounds we remain inflicted with, even after the grace of baptism. This is why Our Lord reaches out to us, to heal these wounds, and draw us close to Him. We may resist this act of love from God, but His grace conquers all.

As much as we can speak about the life of St. Pius X, we must also reflect on the life he led for Christ. He dedicated his life for Christ and committed himself to living poor and dying poor. He was a model an icon of humility that remains a model for us to this very day.

In a relay race, a series of runners must take a baton, pass it on between each other, and get it to the finish line without dropping it lest they be disqualified. This sporting event can be seen as an image of human history whereby each generation is a runner and the baton they pass on to subsequent generations (runners) is the Catholic Faith until the end of recorded time. This image of receiving and passing on the Faith is as old as Christianity itself, as seen in St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians.

Sinners who draw close to Our Lord know that they will not be rejected by Him. For as the Gospel tells us, Christ came to save sinners; everything He does is for our salvation. Moreover, Our Lord knows our sinfulness and need to be pardoned. This is why He asks us continually to draw near to Him.

In the Sundays following Pentecost, Holy Mother Church provides us with instructions through the Collects at Mass on how to think about God and pray rightly to Him. One of the central themes of these prayers is God's overflowing goodness and His love for us. Indeed, Our Lord's love is so abundant that He will forgive our sins if we ask with the right disposition, so that we may have eternity with Him in heaven.

There are three moments in Our Lady's life that are integral to her privileged role in assisting us in our salvation: The Immaculate Conception; the Annunciation; and the Crucifixion. All of them show in a unique way how God set Mary apart from her very existence up through the death of her Divine Son in a manner not granted to any other mortal. God the Father prepared for heaven to come down to earth through the person of Mary while also offering us the unique grace of her intercession before her Son for our salvation.

God is goodness in Himself. The miracle of creation is a manifestation of His goodness. In this parable, we are called to recognize that our salvation is not by our our means. Indeed, we cannot redeem ourselves. All we can do is recognize our own sinfulness and beseech God for the grace to assist us in this life. He owes us nothing.

The Mass is the heart of the Catholic Faith. It also animates us with a truly Christian spirit. It is the most important means by which Our Lord draws us closer to Himself and a perpetual expression of God's inexhaustible love for us.

The Temple in Jerusalem as an image of our own soul; it is now the place where God dwells. Yet like those in Jerusalem old old, we divorce ourselves from God through mortal sin and seeking after those things that have nothing to do with the supernatural life. To bring us back into the life of grace, God has sent saints into the world to serve as models of holiness and repentance, including Ss. John Vianney, Lawrence, and Philomena.

In modern parlance, we use the term "chaos" to refer to disorder. Indeed, this is how the ancient Greeks conceived of the universe before the formation of the cosmos, which brought forth order and objective beauty. From this order and beauty that we experience in the world, our minds are elevated quickly to Almighty God, from Whom the goodness of creation flows. We, too, can reflect this order and thereby draw closer to God through the virtue of modesty, which includes regulating our inner tendencies and subduing the chaos in our own souls.

The story of Holy Scripture is the story of how Our Lord wants to save our souls and direct our lives according to His plan. To facilitate the transmission of Scripture's message, and indeed the Catholic Faith as a whole, God selects certain persons through history to serve as priests and religious in the Church. These designated persons are the ones who keep the Church alive and growing through their dedication, prayer, and sacrifice.

Our Lord came to earth to save mankind from damnation. While Christ is primarily concerns with our souls, He is not indifferent to our physical and psychological maladies. He heals our souls through the seven sacraments. However, He also allows the Church to identify physical things and even words that can help sanctify our souls, which we call sacramentals.

Everything we are has been given to us by God. This extends far beyond our material goods. Our very life, that is, our talents, abilities, qualities, and graces all come from Our Lord. And so when we dispense what God has given to us, we do it not only for the benefit of others, but to ensure our eternal reward with Him in heaven.

We must trust that God will take care of us no matter what during our journey on this earth. Trusting in God's providence is not always easy, particularly when we know we have to raise a good family and save our souls while confronting an increasingly godless world. But we should never lose that God in Heaven is our Father: capable, loving, and good.

By their fruits you shall know them. This is the criterion given by Our Lord to discern false prophets and others who claim to carry out works or spread messages through divine guidance, yet the results are far from what Scripture and Tradition tell us are good and true. But we also must be on guard against those false prophets that lie within us who continually tempt us to pursue base and false ends under the guise that it would be pleasing to God to do so.

St. Anne is a model for all mothers. She demonstrates what it means to make children into living tabernacles of the Holy Spirit. The degree of dedication it takes a carpenter or other craftsman to build a tabernacle is radically less than the commitment, care, and charity that all mothers are called upon to shape genuinely Catholic children. She is also a model of prayer and a witness to how God works in our lives to form our children with genuine Catholic virtues.

Every day presents an opportunity for us to draw closer to God. In this sermon, we hear a hypothetical tale of a man who commits himself daily to strengthen himself in Christ. It is a reminder that we are called to order our lives well and draw our strength from God to live an authentically Catholic life.

Forgiveness is not a recommendation. Our Lord commands it. We are directed to offer it without regard for the response. As Christians, we are not called upon to forgive in hopes of attaining a reward or another earthly benefit. We forgive because it is what God commands us to do, without regard to any personal benefit.

As our devotion increases, so too does our hunger for spiritual gifts. Yet for many of us, there are disorders present in our spiritual life, be it a lack of devotion to Our Lady or an overly rationalistic approach to the Faith. We see that the spiritual life demands mortification and renunciation, so we shrink from it. The solution, however, is not to give up, but rather to focus on our hunger, that is, our need for God so that we may pursue holiness with greater zeal.

The state of the world often instills in us a sense that God has abandoned us; we begin to lose hope. Yet the message of the Gospel is that Our Lord cares deeply for us, as evidenced in both the small signs of His compassion such as the feeding of the multitudes and the great sacrifice He made for us on Calvary. Reflecting on our own lives, we can see daily how God provides for us not just materially, but above all spiritually.

St. Felicity was a Roman citizen of noble birth. She reared her seven sons in the Faith despite the persistence of persecution and falsehood. When pressured to make pagan sacrifices to idols, St. Felicity, along with her children, solemnly refused, thus bringing torture and death upon themselves. In St. Felicity we find a model of Christian heroism, for she placed the Faith above earthly suffering.

God's Fifth Command—Thou shalt not kill—does not merely forbid extreme acts of violence such as murder. Rather, it addresses a whole disposition of soul that can result in this degree of wickedness. Anger is a distorted disposition that opens the door to violence, hatred, and a desire to take revenge on others. This vice, which often arises out of self-love, is an affront to charity and must be resisted at all costs.