If you signed up to receive Contra Mundum by mail, you should receive your October 2020 issue soon. You can also read it here on our website as well as all of the back issues.

Our parish paper provides updates on upcoming events and news for our our combined congregation and community. It also contains articles and writings by contemporary and classic authors:

• “They Have Each Other’s Number,” a sermon preached by Father Bradford based on  St Luke 18:9-14
• “Your Life Reflects Your Faith,” prayer composed by a Japanese co-worker of St Teresa of Calcutta in the spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi
• “Seeing Christianity in a Concrete Form,” an article on Dorothy Day by John Janaro, associate professor emeritus of theology in Christendom College, Front Royal, Va
• “An Informed Electorate” by Father Bradford
• “When Lack of Love Peeps Out,” an excerpt is from Spiritual Letters by Sister Wendy Beckett
• “Captured by Christ,” sermon preached in the English College in Rome by Saint John Paul II, Supreme Pontiff
• “The Month of the Holy Rosary,” an excerpt from an article by the Provost in The Oratory Parish Magazine
• “Walk in His Ways” by Saint John the Serene

Here is the sermon that Father Bradford preached on the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, September 27, 2020, at our 11:30 AM Mass at St Lawrence Church. 

As Father said, “So blessed be God, in Whose covenant with us there is room for repentance, and the grace promised for the amendment of our ways.“

Father Bradford’s sermons back to 2014 are here.

Here is the sermon that Father Bradford preached on the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, September 20, 2020, at our 11:30 AM Mass at St Lawrence Church. 

As Father said, “It makes no difference to Him whether this is early or late in the day. That, says Our Lord Jesus, is Divine generosity. And if some people misunderstand what God has revealed, perhaps they are headed for a different place.“

Father Bradford’s sermons back to 2014 are here.

Here is the sermon that Father Bradford preached on the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, September 13, 2020, at our 11:30 AM Mass at St Lawrence Church. 

As Father said, “At the very heart of the Lord’s Prayer Jesus describes the intimate connection between overlooking offences in others and having our offences overlooked. In giving us this prayer we call the “Our Father” Our Blessed Lord was inviting you and me to imitate the generosity with which Almighty God Himself forgives. And after His Ascension into Heaven, and 500 years later, and even in 2020, this gospel standard remains as high as the Lord Jesus has set it.“

Father Bradford’s sermons back to 2014 are here.

Here is the sermon that Father Bradford preached on the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, September 6, 2020, at our 11:30 AM Mass at St Lawrence Church. 

As Father said, “We owe everything to Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We must pray for the teaching office of Christ’s Church, that she will always reflect that same combination of zeal for truth and gentleness of approach which are characteristic of God’s Own Son. In the family of God He is both our Elder Brother, and Head of the Church.”

Father Bradford’s sermons back to 2014 are here.

Here is the sermon that Father Bradford preached on the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, August 30, 2020, at our 11:30 AM Mass at St Lawrence Church. 

As Father said, “It is St John of the Cross who reminds us, ‘One who does not seek the Cross of Jesus is not seeking the glory of Christ’.”

Father Bradford’s sermons back to 2014 are here.

If you signed up to receive Contra Mundum by mail, you should receive your September 2020 issue soon. You can also read it here on our website as well as all of the back issues.

Our parish paper brings you up to date on upcoming events and news for our our combined congregation and community. It also contains articles and writings by contemporary and classic authors.

This month’s issue includes updates on the COVID-19 directives and the following:

• “The Holy Cross”  by Father Alban Butler, an English Catholic priest and author of The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, originally published in 1756
• “Keeping the Oil of Glory Within Our Conscience” by Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
• “A Report from our Business Manager” by Rick Timmerman
• “The God of Inclusivity” by Eugene Genovese, an American historian who joined the Communist Party, but later embraced traditional conservatism and returned to Catholicism
• “The Value of Suffering” by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop OF, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne; she was a convert to Catholicism and foundress of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne
• “The Most Holy Name of Mary” by Father Richard Bradford
• “God Created Two Excellent Types of Creatures,” an excerpt from Summa of the Christian Life by Venerable Father Louis of Granada, OP, a noted theologian, writer, and preacher

Here is the sermon that Father Bradford preached on the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, August 23, 2020, at our 11:30 AM Mass at St Lawrence Church. 

As Father said, “And what followed brought Peter’s heart to his voice with those wonderful words: ‘Lord, save me.’ Those words should never be very far from anybody’s lips. Remember: only one answer is correct. There is only One Who can save. The Son of God knew what He was doing. He did not make mistakes, not with Peter, and not with you and me. And in the end, it will be as He says.”

Father Bradford’s sermons back to 2014 are here.

Here is the sermon that Father Bradford preached on the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, August 16, 2020, at our 11:30 AM Mass at St Lawrence Church. 

As Father said of the Syro-Phoenician woman who entreated Jesus, “Her declaration of faith was so eloquent that it became included in our sacred story. Her faith, and she who had it, would live forever.”

Father Bradford’s sermons back to 2014 are here.

On September 1, 2020 I will have a new title: “Senior Priest in the Archdiocese of Boston.” Senior priest status is conferred either for health reasons or at the attainment of age 75. I turned 75 on my birthday this past February.

Becoming a senior priest marks the end of my twenty-two-year term as Parochial Vicar in St Theresa of Avila Church, West Roxbury. But it does not change my appointment as Chaplain of The Congregation of Saint Athanasius nor the status of the congregation. I have sent notice of these forthcoming arrangements to The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.

My intention is to continue to be available for ministry in St Theresa’s Church and plan to continue maintaining an office in the St Theresa Rectory.

A fuller notice of these developments will be included in the September issue of Contra mundum.