In Hebrew tradition, a name signifies the very essence of a thing. It's a statement about not just who someone is, but about what they are. And what does the name Jesus signify? It means literally, "Yahweh is Savior". It doesn't mean that everyone in the bible with the name Yeshua is supposed to be some sort of savior. But it is certainly right that someone who is the savior would have this name.

"The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen. ... For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace. "(Isaiah 9:2, 6)

The Lord God, He is creator and ruler of all things. The government is upon His shoulder, the burden of command is His. We must trust Him. He cannot be wrong, he cannot make a mistake, he cannot fail. He will rule by peace and love and mercy if we will have him, or by might and justice and judgement over our eternal souls if we will not.

A child is born who can stop the hand of God, who can overthrow the power of the maker of this world and free the slaves of sin. No mere child could be so powerful unless that child was also God. And how has He stopped the hand of wrath, overturned the death sentence of the whole human race and empowered man to resist the might of the devil and his cohorts? By becoming weak, by taking on our nature. He empowered our nature by subjecting Himself to our sentence, not just of death but of misery as a frail mortal. He knows what it is to be one of us. The Eternal Word, being strong, became weak.

In the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the lesson of the last petition of the Lord's prayer ("But deliver us from evil") states, "This Petition with which the Son of God concludes this divine prayer embodies the substance of all the other Petitions. To show its force and importance our Lord made use of this Petition when, on the eve of His Passion, He prayed to God His Father for the salvation of mankind. I pray, He said, that thou keep them from evil. In this Petition, then, which He not only commanded us to use, but made use of Himself, He has epitomised, as it were, the meaning and spirit of all the other Petitions. For if we obtain what this Petition asks, that is, the protection of God against evil, which enables us to stand secure and safe against the machinations of the world and the devil, then, as St. Cyprian remarks, nothing more remains to be asked."

Today we look at some practical details about the sacrament of Confession. Confession is so important that we should be intent on getting it right, and so sacred that we should be cautious to approach this sacrament with reverence. And yet it is so common that we often slip into error. In addition, many people were never taught correctly about how to go to confession.

The point of the sermon is not to make people scrupulous about if they are doing all things right in the confessional, but to help people be a little more efficient and more fruitful. That way we can be a little more analytical about sins so that we can know ourselves better and we can make better confessions.

"After this I saw a great multitude which no man could number ... clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands: And they cried with a loud voice, saying: Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb." [Apocalypse 7:9-10] That's what the saints are all about - giving honor and glory to God. And that vast crowd that no man could number, that's us. That's what we're made for.

When meditating on the maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first thing we think of is Our Lord. She is His mother, which is the source and summit of all of her honors, dignities, and power. But we know that she is our mother as well. So although our first thought - and rightly so - when we hear Maternity of the Blessed Virgin is of Our Lord, today we will think a little bit about her as our mother, for this feast includes that.

Today we celebrate the External Solemnity of the Feast of the Holy Rosary. There is a lot of attention paid to Mary and the Rosary during the month of October, so it is worth taking an extra look at why we do that. As Christians, we are called to be imitators of Christ. And, of course, the Lord loves his Mother.

Do we properly love ourselves? Are we genuinely doing our best for our soul? How do we get to an active love of neighbor - not acting for merely physical good at the expense of our spiritual good? We must walk in the spirit so that we can truly love our neighbor, and can love ourselves as we ought, so that we are free to love God. Without discipline, none of that will ever happen.

The things talked about in today's Epistle and Gospel, they can be troubling. We read, "Walk in the spirit", and "If you are led by the spirit". These things sound all well and good - lofty ideals, beautiful things. But we often feel sometimes like we're the only one in the room who doesn't understand what this means, because people just throw that out there and keep talking, like we all "get it". Don't worry - you're not the only one who's lost. So what does it mean to "Walk in the Spirit"?