The commemoration of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a great opportunity to talk about the brown scapular. To Simon Stock, who is now a canonized saint, the Blessed Virgin said: “Take, beloved son, this scapular of thy Order as a badge of my confraternity, and for thee and for all Carmelites, a sign of grace. Whoever dies in this garment will not suffer everlasting fire. It is a sign of salvation, a safeguard in dangers, a pledge of peace and of the covenant.”

Two of the three deceivers of mankind are encompassed in the word "flesh" as used by St. Paul today (Romans 8:12) - they are the world and our own actual flesh. We should use material goods as a means to an end, tools for getting us to Heaven. So why does Holy Mother church put these two readings together today in this Mass - "Be not debtors to the flesh" (Romans 8:12-17) and the "Children of Mammon" (Luke 16 1-9)? Because our Lord's point is the same thing in the parable today - to use our material goods wisely. 'Make friends with the mammon of iniquity' means use your material treasures, especially your ill-gotten gains or that which is an occasion of sin, to make friends with those who will save your soul. Thus the Catechism of the Council of Trent holds out for our moral lesson today the church's teaching on restitution. What do we do with these ill-gotten gains?

We all find negative things easier than positive things. Can't we spend a fraction of that time promoting good things, too? We have to remember while hating evil that we must also love the good.

God commands us to hate evil. We hate that which displeases God. But why should we hate what God hates? We don't just hate what God hates because we love God. We hate evil because of what it costs.

It's for us to try to remember where we are when we come to Mass. This is the sacrifice of Calvary. We really offer to the Eternal Father His own Divine Son for the sins of the world.

In this Mother's Day sermon, we are reminded that Mary does not take us on as some troublesome burden. Rather, she takes us on as her own children. We, for whom her Son died, are still here, and her care for us is the care that only a mother can have. She is immeasurably happy to be with her children, to teach them and to form them to be like her natural Son.

Mary as our model - what does that mean? Can we learn from a better teacher than Mary? The mother is the first and best teacher for the children.

The reason for penance, the reason for prayer, the reason for all that our holy religion gives us, in the end, is about Heaven and Hell - eternal bliss, or eternal torment. This sermon is taken from writings in the book titled 'The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life' by Fr. Charles Arminjon.

Think about a dance. If only one of the partners knows how to dance, or dance well, the dance is clumsy and awkward. It's not edifying and it's not enjoyable. If someone is really out of shape or does not know how to pay attention to the music or to their partner's signals and cues, there's going to be a problem. The dance is like our relationship with God - it is intimate, and it should flow smoothly and be peaceful and delightful, two flowing in harmony with one mind and one heart.

Lent is not just a time to do something extra and then going back to the way we were when Lent is over. It's a time to take a huge step forward in our preparation for heaven. In Lent we are called to add another degree of perfection, to make an improvement that will last. And the season of septuagesima is a prelude to Lent, kind of a "pre-penance", to get used to the idea that we are going to make some real sacrifices, to mentally prepare for making that change.