Father Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea church in San Francisco, gave a 14-minute homily on Sunday, August 28.

Father Illo made note that the 28th was the anniversary of St. Augustine’s death. And the day before had been the feast of Augustine’s mother, St. Monica.

“She prayed for him, she wept for him. He tried to escape her. He lied to her at one point…. A good bishop told her, ‘It cannot be that the son of so many tears would perish.’ And in fact he did convert in the year 387….

“Rome was sacked in 410. Augustine saw Western Civilization collapsing around him…. He looked at history as an old man and said nothing will last but the word of God. I mention this because it’s very important to know history. We live in a time that rejects history, that anything before 1970 is dismissed….

“Tradition is essential to the human race and to the Church….

“We’re probably the most traditional parish is San Francisco. We offer Mass in the modern and traditional forms

“Tradition is essentially good. But tradition can devolve into traditionalism. Traditionalism is a deformation. A distrust of human reason and any historical development. It was condemned by the First Vatican Council.

“St. Augustine developed many doctrines – the doctrine of original sin, the Holy Trinity, free will, just war. Applying human reason to Divine Revelation.

“Thomas Aquinas developed doctrines, transubstantiation, for example. Applying Aristotelian metaphysics to the teachings of Jesus in the Bible.

“Traditionalists rejected Augustine and Aquinas.

“Let’s consider our own situation. The Vatican seems to be rejecting the traditional form of the Mass.

“We do both forms ad orientem, facing the altar.

15-second excerpt:

“We try to avoid both  traditionalism – which rejects change and development – but also rejecting  progressivism, which rejects tradition and history.”