If memory serves us right, we began to distribute ACU Classic homilies one year ago this week. With the liturgical year about to end, we will continue releasing classic homilies on the recurring celebratory dates, but because Fr. Llorente left us multiple homilies for each celebration, we are appending the language and year in which the homily was preached, in order to keep them all organized. We are exploring new “deep fake” technology to see if we can deliver Fr. Llorente’s homilies in English and with video, too.

Fr. Llorente Todos Los Santos homily from 1998 is on tap for you today, liturgy celebrated by the Church this past Tuesday, November 1 Solemnity of All Saints, the reality of our Church Triumphant. Fr. Llorente’s preaching and pedagogy in full display. Enjoy and profit from it.

On Saturday, October 15, 2022, the Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint Teresa de Jesus (Avila), Virgin and Doctor of the Church. Anyone that did Spiritual Exercises with Fr. Amando Llorente will know that she was, most certainly, his favorite Saint, excepting the Immaculate Virgin Mary and St. Ignatius of Loyola of course, the two Patron Saints of the ACU. It is the first Classic ACU homily we have released this liturgical year, soon coming to an end, in which Fr. Llorente extends his preaching beyond his own self-imposed 20 minutes. It is wonderful.

Here’s one of a handful of homilies of Fr. Llorente on Our Lady of the Rosary that were saved through the efforts of agrupados that volunteered for an apostolate of outreach to agrupados away from the Miami House, recording the guardias on cassette tapes (before the days of the Internet) and circulating them among the various houses. This one is from October 1998 and is named, "El Rosario y Nuestra Señora-Batalla de Lepanto.” Nevertheless, in his inimitable style, he works in the history of the memorial, that is the battle of Lepanto, the ACU heroes and martyrs of Guajaybón, Bishop Fulton Sheen and Dr. Carlos Finlay, discoverer of the yellow fever.

This week we surprise with a slightly different format, a peek at what the Canonization Commission is striving towards with respect to the cause in favor of Fr. Llorente. Among the documentation (on paper, electronic format is not acceptable) required for a cause are all the writings of the candidate for beatification. There are very few writings of Fr. Llorente in the ACU files, but there are hundreds of homilies. We contend that these are his “writings” — the homilies of a masterful preacher. So, this week, we offer two homilies preached thirty years apart on the same liturgical Feast, that of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The homily, of course, is in Spanish and was the first Fr. Llorente homily recorded following the ACU’s exile. It dates from September 3 1962. We also include the homily for the sage liturgical Feast, dated September 18, 1991. Additionally, we include the transcription and its translation into English. As explained earlier, this is one of the goals of the Commission.

A Homily by Fr. Amando Llorente, SJ on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The liturgical calendar offers two Solemnities and one Memorial this week, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (Thursday), the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (Friday), and the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary Saturday), respectively. As the Church considers Solemnities, more important that Feasts, which in turn, are considered more important than Memorials, we offer the two Memorials at once. The first from June of 1999, and the second from June of 1997.

We dare to omit a homily on the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary for sake of brevity and because, in any case, Fr. Llorente weaves the Blessed Virgin Mary into the first of the two included homilies.

Anticipating this coming Sunday’s celebration of THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (Corpus Christi), we searched ACU’s historic archives and found this May 1989 Fr. Llorente homily on this Solemnity, touching on faith vs. miracles, Protestant vs. Catholic beliefs, on related experiences in his English seminary, on the value pf the Eucharist to us, on St. Teresa of Avila’s views, and much more. Enjoy!

As we complete the Easter liturgical season and near the return to Ordinary Time, we reach back to 1993 to present Fr. Llorente’s homily for Pentecost Sunday. We know you will enjoy and profit from it.

This Thursday or coming Sunday (depending on your location) the Church in the USA will celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. Here is a 1998 (dedicated to the Holy Spirit by the Catholic Church, in anticipation of the new millennium). ACU records include at least 5 other homilies by Fr. Llorente on this celebration, in this one he includes some Spanish history on the monasteries of Burgos and of Silos, and on Santo Domingo de Guzmán and Santo Domingo de Silos, on his way to delivering the main points of the homily.