Did you hear a good point or, perhaps, more than one point in your Sunday sermon?
What was it?
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The priest, who I have imagined is a little on the left side of things, announced that they would be spending this and the next four weeks going explaining the changes in the new Roman Missal. He was really energized about it and talked about how the liturgy should be about encountering God, that every aspect of it is set up to show how we relate to God and to lead us to a deeper encounter with him, and that, by observing the changes and understanding why they were made, we could better understand the Mass and, therefore, Catholic theology, and deepen our relationship with God.
Ordinarily, the cheery, jump-up-and-down, perhaps a bit gimmicky, attention grabbing style of the sermon would have been contrary to my preferences… but, he got people’s attention, and made the changes sound exciting (I even saw a lot of people reading the printouts about the new translation), and started what looks to be a very educational series of sermons.
I’ve just recently started going to this parish, and I had to remind myself to keep an open mind about the priest after my first time there. I’m glad I did…seeing someone at Mass this week so excited to actually teach the faith was pretty cool.
St John the Baptist Co-Cathedral in Malta celebrated the Feast of the Dedication of the Cathedral, which happened in 1581, if I heard it correctly. The most memorable comment in the sermon, which was basically a history of the (formerly the Conventual Church of the Knights) Cathedral and a plea for restoration money, was that the Knights of St. John were dedicated to the cousin of Jesus, a great example of faithfulness to the Truth. This is the second week the sermon has either alluded to or been blatantly about martyrdom.
P.S. By the way, my father, who is still living, would quiz us kids at the breakfast table after Sunday morning Mass, as to the contents of the sermon. My (one of three) brother, who was not known for paying attention, would ask me for a few points beforehand. I did this with my son, as well, having him comment on the sermon on the way home in the car. We also developed a game called, “heresy watch”. It was not meant to be disrespectful but to create a discerning ear in him for the Truth. He is going to be a priest someday, so I guess such listening skills were helpful one way or the other.
Our Youngest is in First communion catechesis, they are encouraged to go to 11am mass, + a parent, Ordinary form , a bit messy modern church ,4 pews wide, first 3-4 rows packed with kids , + plenty babes in arms & toddlers in pews behind (Which btw there IS that HUSH at consecration! It may be hard for kids to learn to keep STILL at mass , but they can learn to not make a noise, at least some of the time!- I enjoyed hearing the priest say to the precomunion classes to sing in silence during everyone’s communion! )
Sorry Fr’s point was the sermon: intended to be pitched for kids, plenty of examples of humility (helping with the washing up without making a scene etc) but I wa s particularly struck by the point he mad about the word humility coming from “humus”, the earth, the trodden on and silent , but what you get sacks of for potting and bedding and makes grow what you notice, the flowers, fruit and veg.
I wondered later if the kids, 99% citydwellers in flats, and the modern kid thinks everything grows in packadging on the supermarket shelves, got that part, they sure got the household chores!
First I was a little taken aback when the priest asked sister to come up and speak. She started off well and was a very polished speaker but she lost me when she recited a poem from Buddha. That’s all that stuck in my head after that.
Well, I don’t have any, seeing as I couldn’t attend Mass. I wasn’t able to get a ride due to power lines and trees in the road (I live in New England and we just had a HUGE snowstorm). I hope I can get to Mass tomorrow for All Saints.
A few startlements during the homily:
1. The pastor re-read the current translation opening prayer and the corrected translation. He had a different take on “hasten without stumbling” than I had read at WDTPRS earlier, but the corrected translation is so rich, there are many valid points.
2. The pastor discussed the dynamic equivalence theory of translation and some of its flaws.
3. He mentioned that the new Roman Missal was much thicker than the book we have been using and noted that it contained lots of music. He said that this book took seriously something mentioned forty years ago about how we begin Mass. (I was hopeful that he was going to say we were going to start using entrance antiphons instead of a “gathering song”, but he didn’t.) He mentioned that the dialogues between priest and assembly were to be sung and that we would be adopting that practice, though not as soon as the first week of Advent.
4. He gave a very fine exegesis of the corrected usage in the Sanctus “Lord God of hosts”.
On the Feast of Christ the King, we heard a sermon about Our Lord’s Kingship, and about how ONLY through His Reign will true peace come about in this world. Peace will not be obtained through political power, nor through international treaties nor through the efforts of other religions. There is no religion on earth which can bring about peace except the religion established by Jesus in the Roman Catholic Church. All other efforts will fail. Reading between the lines, I’m guessing this was a response to the recent gathering at Assisi…
One point we heard was that a sense of humility helps us to order our relationships with one another in terms of the sacred and holy.
What MarkJ said, along with, in a nut shell, when society turns virtues into vices, and vices into virtues, in the long run it doesn’t work out, societies fail, and it blows up in your face. I’m paraphrasing, of course, but that, along with what MarkJ said is the gist of it. Father’s been making mini-sermons on things during the announcements, which seem to stick better than some of these sermons lately.
Ordinary Form, 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time.
Our very orthodox Transitional Deacon from the Archdiocesan seminary gave the Homily.
1. OT reading #1, Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10: protestants take out of context verse 10, must include other verses to refocus around their out of context exhortation against calling priests Fathers. To read things our own way is not true.
NT Reading #2, 1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13: Saint Paul found working among those who were true to the faith
Gospel, Mt 23:1-12: Jesus furious with Pharisees with good reason.
2. Pharisees were into the worst form of idolatry self-idolatry
(A discussion on how this was so and then many examples of how we do this in “our world today”
3. Relativistic justifications for “I am a good guy” do not match up whith our call to put God first and this is also self-idolatry to think we know better than God–attending Mass, Eucharistic reception, lack of sense of sin and penance, etc.
4. All of our sins are idolatry as we take our eyes, ears, and minds off of God and violate the first three Commandments. Lot’s of great analogies and great spiritual direction given.
5. God 1st above all, friends, family, work, etc. All things! God is to be first.
6. Discussed 1st-last/last-1st and humility and need to live by word and deed. Not for us, but for God according to His will.
7. Closed with “Praised be Jesus Christ” and I replied, “now and forever, Amen.”
Mike Cliffson – LOVE that! Thank you for relaying what your wonderful priest taught you. I LOVE things like that! :) Brilliant! Immediately made me think of how St. Faustina would beg God to make her as a flower, trodden beneath the feet of those who would mistreat her, all so the suffering she endured would waft up as perfume up to Heaven, known only to God.
Such is the beauty of humility! Thank you for that again, Mike. Much appreciated. :)
As for my notes:
My pastor is seriously awesome. I love, love, love him! He made a brilliant point about Halloween, connecting it to the readings.
He said, “Ya know, Halloween is a great time for kids to pretend, for a day, to be anyone they want to be. It sparks their creativity, and creativity is a blessing from God. Sometimes, though, us adults forget that Halloween is for kids. We dress ourselves up in Catholic movements, we speak a good Catholic game, but when it comes down to brass tacks, we don’t always act with true Christian love in our hearts. We put on the mask of Christianity, and tell ourselves that we’re better than we are. We lack humility, just as the Pharisees did. We exalt ourselves in public, we look for praise and respect.
But God sees through those masks to the heart of who we are. He sees what is in our hearts. There’s no tricking God. The best we can do is lay bare our souls to Him and strive to live by His Gospel every day.”
I really, REALLY liked that analogy. We really do tend to ignore (or make excuses for) our sins while picking apart those of others. Instead, may we open our eyes to the truth, and own up to our faults so we can better correct them. Let’s leave the pretending to the children… if we’re claiming to be Catholic, let’s TRULY be Catholic (that means YOU, Cafeteria Catholics!!!).
Seriously – Fr. P. is the best. :) We are so blessed to have him at our parish. :)
We had the Feast of Christ The King at our TLM chapel. I don’t remember a lot about the sermon, but the priest started out with a story about King Alfred The Great and his kindness to his subjects.
Our ‘tiny choir’ sang for the Mass and for Benediction afterwards. The recessional was sort of a rouser: ‘For Christ The King’ by Father Daniel Lord, SJ. Loved it-it’s been running in my head since yesterday.
I was very blessed to spend Priesthood Sunday with one of my favorite priests – a newly ordained priest from the Diocese of Lincoln.
Father started his homily by speaking of the movie The Princess Bride. He spoke about how the sick grandson was so upset that his grandpa brought him a OLD book as a present – one that didn’t even have any sports information in it. Then, by the end of the movie, the grandson saw the book with new eyes – through his grandpa’s perspective.
Father discussed how to many of us, the new translation is the same way. We may not be excited about different words, but we should be excited about the opportunity to learn more. Father said that as Catholics, many of us can’t quote Scripture like our Protestant brothers and sisters, but we know the stories – even if it’s just because of our experience in Mass. The new translation is supposed to call to mind these stories we know and love and bring us closer to God.
Father said that many people think the new translation is repeats praise too often to God. He then said that when you love someone, you state it many times. Spouses don’t throw penalty flags when their spouses kiss them more than once a day – that’s crazy.
Father did an excellent job preparing his congregation for the new missal – I was so blessed to hear his perspective!
On the feast of Christ the King, the priest spoke of the priesthood since the celebrant (not the priest who gave the sermon) was having his 25th anniversary of the priesthood. He spoke of the many trials that priests undergo, and why they are very much deserving of our prayers.
The one point that stood out to me was this: “Without priests, there would be no roadblocks on the road to damnation.”
How true! In the days when I went to the NO, I remember the occasional sermon calling sin a roadblock to salvation. How wrong. This WORLD is a roadblock to salvation! We are born with original sin; that is not a roadblock, that is the battle we have to fight. Priests are the ones who, through the institution of the sacraments, stave off the effects of sin on our lives through, most prominently, the sacrament of Penance.
The priest went on to make similar points about how necessary the priesthood is to our salvation, but that one quote stood out.
The sermon rambled a bit but then Fr wasn’t well – bad head cold! What did stick in my mind was the necessity to aim for Heaven but to recognise we might end up in Purgatory and therefore to pray for the Holy Souls. Not a bad lesson to bring away from a Sunday sermon.
First, not this past Sunday but two weeks ago, my folks attended St. Joan of Arc in Kokomo, IN (not their usual parish) where they heard a very on-the-ball, new priest discuss the new translation and new music. Mother was refreshed by his straight-arrowness and his orthodox, educational approach. I hope someone in the Hoosier Heartland can communicate this fact to him. Ma says he was a really young-looking guy; she looks forward to the day when his ilk are running things! Keep it up!
I think-but am not sure-if the announcements before the Sunday sermon at Holy Innocents in NYC were making fun of the Boethius book club or not (haha). (The note didn’t mention that the club is only reading the first 2 sections of the consolation of philosophy. This info is also at goodreads.com and in the bulletin.)
I learned new info about the history of Christ the King-I didn’t know what era this feast came from.
The best thing I heard at Mass was “since Tuesday is All Saints’ Day & a holy day of obligation, *which means missing Mass is a mortal sin*, we will have five Masses available to try to ensure you can get to one. For those who don’t know, missing Sunday Mass is a mortal sin as well. In addition, for All Souls’ Day on Wednesday, we will have three Masses, one of which will be *in Latin*”!! :oD
(for anyone in the Charlotte diocese, it will be the noon Mass Wed. at Sacred Heart in Salisbury…I’d love to fill the pews to show support for the OF in Latin, please come if you can!)
OF Mass — the admonition from Christ to call no man Master or Father is an instruction for us to remember that God is our true Master and Father. Our teachers (“rabbi” that the Sanhedrin hoped to be called) do teach, and a Master of Science degree is not anti-Christian, and what are we to call our natural fathers other than “Father”? But we must remember that each of these is good only insofar as he/she reflects the perfection of God in those roles, for God made science, and made learning, and made the natural world. As long as we remember this in our daily lives and strive to get ever closer to the true Teacher, Master, and Father, we will be obeying Christ’s command.
And he made it sound far more accessible and even simple, like “Duh”, than I can.
Father had a wonderful sermon about how we can help make known the Kingship on Christ on Earth by making Him the King of our lives. The practical point he emphasized was bringing back the custom of greeting people with “Praised be Jesus Christ” with the response “Forever and ever, Amen,” especially in the home, and especially to one’s children.
I can’t recall all that our priest said, as I was chasing my two year old through the basement of the church. But I do remember he was explaining why the Traditional Calendar retains the last Sunday in October as CHrist the KIng rather than at the end of the “ordinary time”. How it makes more sense that it should be before All Saints, since He is the KIng of all, here and now not just at the end of time. It was much deeper and better stated than that but it made so much sense. He was referring a lot to a Papal letter, I think of Pius IV(maybe).