Excerpt from Homily to Introduce CFP Retreat Theme 2006, given by Fr. Dominic Mary Garner, MFVA

 “ .. . We are going to cover the Beatitudes. That is going to be the main focus here as we focus on Jesus Christ, and His relationship to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and also to the seven main virtues that we usually talk about which are faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. As Catholics we should know what those virtues are, and what their definition is, and we are going to cover those and all the connections between them. . . . “

 Excerpt from Homily by Father Dominic Mary Garner, MFVA, Confraternity of Penitents Retreat 2006

 “ . . . The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus’ preaching. We find the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. Many saints throughout the history of the Church consider that, if Jesus Christ had to preach one sermon, what would He preach? The Sermon on the Mount. We can condense the Gospel into the Sermon on the Mount, saints like Saint Augustine tell us. We have some authors, Franciscans in fact, who are very good theologians, who will say that, if you had to take a part of the Sermon on the Mount, and condense all of the Sermon on the Mount further into part of the Sermon on the Mount, what would that be? The Beatitudes. So what are we doing? We are going to take the Gospel, the Word of God, and condense it down to the Sermon on the Mount, condense it down to the Beatitudes, and then, what we’re going to see when we cover the first Beatitude, that it appears that St. Francis condensed the Beatitudes down into ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’”

 Excerpt from Talk 1: Life in Christ, Life in the Spirit, Fr. Dominic Mary Garner. MFVA, Confraternity of Penitents Retreat 2006

 “Whoever wishes to be my follower must deny his very self, take up his cross and follow Me.” He spoke of the importance of denying our self-will. That verse is going to our flag-ship verse. Luke 9:23. . . . . From there, we are going to go at light speed. “Christian, recognize your dignity.” We live in an age in which not only one heresy exists, but they all exist at the same time. . . .”

 Excerpt from Talk 2, Life in Christ, Life in the Spirit, Fr. Dominic Mary Garner. MFVA, Confraternity of Penitents Retreat 2006

 “. . .. The connection between the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Virtues, and the Beatitudes. Human beings, if they are alive, have two things—a body and soul. What are the faculties of the soul? Intellect and Will, and depending on what saint or doctor of the Church you take after, they are also going to include the memory and imagination. . . . When we are baptized, what do we receive with baptism? Sanctifying grace. And what comes with that? Original sin is washed away—we still suffer from the effects—but what comes with sanctifying grace? The Holy Spirit and we receive the infused virtues of faith, hope, and charity, and we also receive in seed form the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So basically we covered about two years of seminary course work in about three minutes. . . .”.

 Excerpt from Talk 3, Life in Christ, Life in the Spirit, Fr. Dominic Mary Garner. MFVA, Confraternity of Penitents Retreat 2006

 “. . . I have a new saint, a new Blessed. On November 6, 2005, Blessed Eurosia Fabris is a Third Order Franciscan. Her name was Mother Rosa. Pope Benedict XVI was with a bishop and they beatified her. “Mother Rosa,” he said, “represents a model of sanctity accessible to everyone because, as a wife and mother, she lived with the commitment of evangelical simplicity, the Gospel simplicity, a daily family life, accepting its pains and sufferings and the constant search for the Will of God.” So, all these Third Orders produce a lot of saints, so, if you are professed in the Rule, you have a good chance of becoming a saint—maybe!” . .

 Excerpt from Talk 4, Life in Christ, Life in the Spirit, Fr. Dominic Mary Garner. MFVA, Confraternity of Penitents Retreat 2006

“ . . . There are four stages (of lectio divina). The first stage is lectio. It consists of reading and re-reading a passage from Sacred Scripture and taking in the main elements. This is from the Gospel of Saint John, chapter ten, verse eleven. “I am the good shepherd who is willing to die for the sheep.” “I am the good shepherd who is willing to die for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd who is willing to die for the sheep.” Now, in another place, Pope Benedict said that you could read and re-read that for up to five to ten minutes. Now, some people will read a longer passage, but I’m just taking one, one little verse of Scripture. .. . “

 Excerpt from Talk 5, Life in Christ, Life in the Spirit, Fr. Dominic Mary Garner. MFVA, Confraternity of Penitents Retreat 2006

 “ . . . Poverty renounces self; meekness holds poverty to her promise. If I am going to be meek, then I should certainly be held accountable for my poverty. Poverty makes us realize our nothingness before God. Meekness keeps that realization constantly before our eyes, if I am going to be meek. I’ve talked about this several times. Self-knowledge is an absolute key to our growth and perfection. We have to know ourselves. . . . “ 

Excerpt from Talk 6, Life in Christ, Life in the Spirit, Fr. Dominic Mary Garner. MFVA, Confraternity of Penitents Retreat 2006

“. . . From the book of the prophet Ezekial, Chapter 9: Then he cried aloud for me to hear, ‘Come, you scourges of the city.’ With that I saw six men coming from the upper gate, each with a destroying weapon in his hand. In their midst was a man dressed in linen with a writer’s case at his waist. They entered and stood beside the bronze altar. Then he called to the man dressed in linen with the writer’s case at his waist, saying to him, ‘Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and mark a Tau . . “The Bible here has a capital X, but the X is literally the Hebrew letter Tau which had the form of a cross. So basically  you could say, ‘Pass through the city of Jerusalem and mark an X on the foreheads of those who moan and groan over the abominations that are practiced within it.’ We could say, “Mark a Tau” which would be approximately an equivalent. . . . “

 Excerpt from How Mary Got a Face, by Karen Sadock, Third Year Novice with the Confraternity of Penitents, CFP Retreat 2006

“. . . How did Mary get a face? Searching for an answer to that question took me all over the Middle East, to Rome, and I hope you ready to go with me as I retrace my journey in search of how Mary got a face. Once you ask how Mary got a face, you start asking where she got it, when she got it, and why she needed it. After all, Christianity grew out of Judaism which at least, since the Maccabean period, had a strong resistance to the use of images of any kind.  .  . . “ 

Excerpt from talk on the Miraculous Medal by Bob Boczek, Life Pledged member of the Confraternity of Penitents, CFP Retreat 2006

“ . . I’ll talk about the Miraculous Medal, and everybody knows about that, too, but I’m going to tell you some things you probably don’t know. Saint Catherine Laboure came from a family of seventeen children of whom eleven survived. She was born May 2, 1806. As a child she was very stringent. She fasted. She did severe penances. And she was only about eight or nine years old. . . . “

 Excerpt from talk on Our Lady of Akita by Patricia Drapeau-Boynton, Third Year Novice with the Confraternity of Penitents, CFP Retreat 2006

“ . . .One day, shortly after her entrance into the community, Sister Agnes was given permission to open the doors of the tabernacle during her private time of adoration. And inside the tabernacle, the Sacred Host was housed in a little, small monstrance so that, when the doors were opened, the sisters could then just adore. When she opened the doors of the tabernacle, she was overwhelmed by a very bright light which came streaming from the tabernacle. . . “

 Excerpt from talk on Living Penance by Madeline Pecora Nugent, Minister General of the Confraternity of Penitents Retreat 2006 (painting of St. Francis holding up the Lateran Basilica, as dreamed by Pope Innocent III, painting detail by Giotto di Bondone, 1300)