Sung Mass continues at STM, Toronto
12:30 noon on Sundays.
All are welcome as we continue to
observe provincial regulations
re. Covid.
In the large church building that we share with St. Vincent's parish this means that we can easily accommodate everyone.
Mary, Mother of God
January 1, 2022 STM, TORONTO
The Apostles together with the Blessed Virgin Mary, formed the Church, an indissoluble group surrounding the human life of Jesus.
Mary’s fiat, her “yes” to God, is the foundation, the undergirding and the sustaining grace of the Church which emanates from Jesus Christ, her Son. The Church finds her personal centre in Mary. Her faith response to the Divine Bridegroom complements the masculine principle and together they bear the fruit of Christ’s love for the world.
Knowing that all people are envisaged in God's plan, the Church can humbly know herself as the chosen representative of mankind before God in faith, prayer, and sacrifice, in hope for all and, still more, in love for all.
The highest priority of the Church belongs to our readiness to serve the divine love. Our “Yes” has no other purpose. Yet, this response to God appears senseless in a world caught up in what is thought to be urgent, reasonable and individualistic. This is a society in thrall to the dictatorship of relativism, the plague of self-referential gender fluidity and the mania for unlimited choice. Society slouches towards Sodom.
St. Thomas Aquinas, in discussing Mary's fiat, saw that it was necessary to show the spiritual marriage between the Son of God and human nature. Mary's "yes" stands for all God's people; making it possible for every person to pronounce their own personal fiat – Yes to God’s love.
Mary’s Immaculate Conception locates her personal existence between Heaven and human life in its fallen state. This is because her Immaculate Conception has freed her from any influence of sin.
Yet, Blessed Mary lived her human existence in this broken world of sin. Her personal life is situated at the passageway between the Old Covenant of Law and Sin and the New Covenant of Grace and Spirit.
Blessed Mary stands in direct continuity with the generations who descend from Abraham. As Virgin Mother, who became pregnant by her consent to the overshadowing Spirit; she signifies a new beginning.
Finally, her existence lies in the tension between time and eternity. Although she herself has regained Paradise in her Assumption, as Mother of all the living, she gives birth to the Messiah in the birth-pangs of the Cross.
Mary's dramatic role emerges both from her centre – as Jesus’ Mother, the Mother of God and from the whole range of her being, which embraces fallen and redeemed humanity. Her role is universal.
Two thousand years of Christian tradition bear witness to the abiding presence of the Mother of God at the heart and centre of the Church.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
Many will no doubt have heard that as of Friday June 11th, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Ontario will move into "Phase 1" of the civil government's pandemic plan. This means that limits on indoor religious gatherings will be increased to 15% of the building's occupancy from the current hard limit of 10 people. The 15% limit means that STM can accommodate around 80 people this Sunday. We are NOT requiring registration, however we will obey the regulations imposed by the government, so seating is first come first seated.
What the civil government has done is to officially classify religious
worship as a non-essential service" therefore linking our
capacity limits in the next phases of reopening to those of non-essential
services. This is not something to celebrate or be thankful
for; this is a sign of things to come, of how future government will
treat those of faith. We should mourn
the fact that the worship of God is now officially considered by our
government to be less important than buying hallucinogenic drugs, or a
new barbecue, or pool toys. We should fear God's
judgement upon our city, our province, our nation, and indeed on Western
civilization. There are few things that need to be said. Indeed, which
cannot be left unsaid. This is NOT a victory, or a magnanimous gesture
for which we should humiliate ourselves by groveling in
gratitude.
It may be no coincidence that this pyrrhic victory, the "permission" to worship our God, falls on the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart this Friday. While we should be grateful to GOD that He faithfully waits to strengthen us in the sacraments, we should also make reparation for the outrages committed against Him and His Sacred Heart by those in authority. To this end, St. Thomas More will make available free of charge and to anyone who wants it, a devotional booklet on devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We encourage you to say the litany (p. 33) every day in June, and end it with the act of reparation (p. 37). The book will be available after Mass.
Please click here for a list of our Sunday
Bulletins
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, animated with a desire to repair
the outrages unceasingly offered to Thee, we prostrate before Thy throne
of mercy, and in the name of all mankind, pledge our love and fidelity to
Thee!
The more Thy mysteries are blasphemed, the more firmly we shall believe
them, O Sacred heart of Jesus! The more impiety endeavors to extinguish
our hopes of immortality, the more we shall trust in Thy Heart, sole hope of mankind! The more hearts resist Thy Divine attractions, the more we
shall love the, O infinitely amiable Heart of Jesus! The more unbelief
attacks Thy Divinity, the more humbly and profoundly we shall adore it, O
Divine Heart of Jesus! The more thy sacraments are despised and
abandoned, the more frequently we shall receive them with love and
reverence, O most generous Heart of Jesus! The more the imitation of Thy
virtues is neglected and forgotten, the more we shall endeavour to
practice them, O Heart, model of every virtue! The more the devil labours
to destroy souls, the more we shall be inflamed by the desire to save
them, O Heart of Jesus, zealous lover of Souls! The more sin and impurity
destroy the image of God in man, the more we shall try by purity of life
to be a living temple of the Holy Ghost, O Heart of Jesus!
The more thy Church is despised, the more we shall endeavour to be her
faithful children, O Sweet Heart of Jesus! The more Thy Vicar on earth is
persecuted, the more we will honour him as the infallible head of Thy
Holy Church, show our fidelity, and pray for him, O Kingly Heart of
Jesus!
O Sacred Heart, through Thy powerful grace, may we become The apostles in
the midst of a corrupted world, and be thy crown in the kingdom of
heaven. Amen.
