Did you hear something really good from your Sunday sermon?
Share the sermon… point by point.
Fr. Z’s Podcasts RSS Feed
About this blog…
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Thank you Fr Z. Then there’s the scene of Pope Francis violently ripping his hand away from the faithful attempting…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: ““That’s just a remanent of an imperial court…” Sold! I’ll take a double order, please!”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Beautiful post Fr.The poem is wonderful.I am 71 yrs of age and i thank God for the Latin Mass.You write…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: ““Liberals accuse traditionalists of clinging to the useless bowing and scraping of ancient court practices. They won’t kneel! No! They’ve…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “When you got to “Sounds like a ritual to me,” it reminded me of the wonderful book by Thomas Edward…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “I agree with the above sentiments, given that our government seems hell-bent (literally) on starting a war with Russia over…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “Fr Z I agree with MaternalView above. The world situation is shaky and a trip to Poland… next to Ukraine…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “I‘ll assume black goes „upward“ and down left is h8. 1. f5+ forcing gf6 (xf5 e. p.) 2. h5+ forcing…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Lori announced massive parish closings, along with the suppression of the Latin Mass in diocese. Sure suicide by cutting off…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “I think people have lost confidence in all manner of things, airplane manufacturers, airlines, FAA, government agencies who are supposed…”
- on Wednesday after the 2nd Sunday after Easter – traditional Solemnity of ST. JOSEPH! – Terror of demons, Protector of Holy Church!: “Aw, dear St. Joseph. I love him so much. I was blessed to go to a mass of this feast…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “1. . . . . .. . . . . . . h7-h5+ 2. g5-h6(×h5) . f7-f5+ 3. K-g5 .…”
- on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Dear Masked Chicken, thank you for pointing me to your post of 22 March, which which I largely agree. My…”
ABORTION PILL RESCUE NETWORK
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
Federated Computer… your safe and private alternative to big biz corporations that hate us while taking our money and mining our data. Have an online presence large or small? Catholic DIOCESE? Cottage industry? See what Federated has to offer. Save money and gain peace of mind.
Polls
Loading ...Use FATHERZ10 at checkout for 10% off
Donate using VENMO
GREAT BEER from Traditional Benedictine Monks in Italy
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
A Daily Prayer for Priests
NEW OPPORTUNITY – 10% off with code: FATHERZ10
Fr. Z’s VOICEMAIL
Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265
This REALLY helps! And it’s great coffee (and tea)
I use this when I travel both in these USA and abroad. Very useful. Fast enough for Zoom. I connect my DMR (ham radio) through it. If you use my link, they give me more data. A GREAT back up.
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful. Zelle and Wise are better, but PayPal is convenient.
A monthly subscription donation means I have steady income I can plan on. I put you my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I often say Holy Mass.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT comBe a “Zed-Head”!
PLEASE RESPOND. Pretty pleeeease?
Loading ...This is really useful when travelling… and also when you aren’t and you need backup internet NOW! I use this for my DMR “Zednet” hotspot when I’m mobile. It’s a ham radio thing.
If you travel internationally, this is a super useful gizmo for your mobile internet data. I use one. If you get one through my link, I get data rewards.
WDTPRS POLL
Loading ...Fr. Z’s stuff is everywhere
Help support Fr. Z’s Gospel of Life work at no cost to you. Do you need a Real Estate Agent? Calling these people is the FIRST thing you should do!
They find you a pro-life agent in your area who commits to giving a portion of the fee to a pro-life group!
GREAT causes to support
Help Monks in Wyoming (coffee – UPDATED LINK) and Norcia (beer) and the wonderful "Soap Sisters" of Summit, NJ!
Please follow me on Twitter!
Loading ...
No, not necessarily heard anything from the sermon. But! We did have a priest say the EF for his first time, low Mass, and it was beautiful. So nice to have another priest available to say Mass for our EF Community. Deo Gratias!
Today, since I was staying over the weekend, I went to my local university Catholic center for Mass.
The “reflection”-ist spoke about how the images and paintings of Christ enthroned in heaven with the angels were simply and only “symbolic.” Instead, we are to find Him in the Mass in the “sacred bread and wine” and among us.
Did I mention that it was a lay woman who was sharing her “reflections”?
Paraphrasing:
1. Like Samuel, we are all called (vocation) by god; we have to listen and respond, “Speak Lord, I your servant is listening.”
2. “Women! While giving the Eucharist I see more cleavage than I should be seeing! Cover up! Do not give scandal to me and other men.” Quit being distractions.
3. Sin is bad.
4. He mentioned confession about 3-4 times (as stories to suppliment his homily) … but the message was received by me was LOUD & CLEAR: go to confession; go to confession; go to confession.
–GHP
Unfortunately, having come straight from night shift at early morning Mass, I slept on and off in the Homily. What I did get from the Redemptorist (Liguorian) priest was an emphasis on vocations, tying into their vocation day this coming thursday. Interestingly they also emphasized their youth lecture on sin and redemption (a theology on tap) event this coming Tues I will go to. Score 1 for the young people. Both the event and the vocation day is what the few of us remaining need to hear.
Not from homily today but overheard our Byzn Catholic assistant pastor (a convert from 7th Day Adventism) pointing out to a young fellow parishioner who’s getting hammered by sola scriptura acquaintances: [paraphrasing] Most of the letters of the New Testament were written not to lay out an explanation of how the Church was to be architected but rather to correct **abuses** to a pre-existing (oral) Tradition that was already in place and obviously presumed by the writers because they referred to it with phrases like “as we taught you.”
A really good point!
Father mainly preached about the family.
1. When God created man, he created a family. God wants the family from the very beginning.
2. God chose to live in a family for thirty years. He could have chosen anything, but he chose this.
3. The Son of God chose to perform his first miracle on a wedding feast.
4. God wanted His Church to be married to Him. Regardless wether one is called to get married or live a life in celibacy, we all live in a big cosmic marriage. The marriage of Christ to His Church.
He also pointed out last week, that the political/econimical attacks on our country are mainly due to our new constitution, because it is declaring that life begins from conception, marriage is between one man and one woman, and that our country was founded by a christian saint, and that it cannot rupture the continuity with it’s christian roots and history.
We got a good homily from one of our permanent deacons on chastity: its importance; that we are called to it whether married or single; and that we must resist the influence of entertainment and the general modern culture. Good stuff, and too infrequently heard from the pulpit. On the not so good side, when I saw that the first reading was Samuel’s call, I was pretty sure that we would be subjected to Here I am, Lord. We were, but the rest of the music was good.
So unmemorable that I cannot recall a single thing he said. And I was paying attention at the time.
A one-off though; usually our new priest’s sermons have a bit of punch to them. And he’s had a busy few weeks, so I’m not complaining.
But I was lucky; I was expecting the 7 year old to ask what fornication means on the way home, and I wasn’t in the mood for that conversation.
Actually fairly decent sermon if a bit repetitive and therefore lacking in impact. Our assistant priest seems to determine to preach about every reading so quite often we effectively get two or three sermons in one since the second reading is not always that easy to link to the others. But at least he doesn’t just completely ignore everything in the second readings.
The main focus was vocation. It was a shame to my mind that he did not use it to focus on priestly vocations when there is such a need but he is Nigerian so probably doesn’t have the same experience there.
* Samuel did not realise it was God calling him. Although he had been in the temple for some time he was not familiar with God.
* This was because he did not really listen
* We need to make space, find the quiet to listen to God, in prayer, at the Eucharist. (much irony on that latter one in our parish but he is only the assistant)
* God had to call Samuel four times before he responded, God keeps calling us we have to listen
* God calls people all the time to know him
* When Andrew followed Jesus, he went back and brought Peter – God’s call can come in many ways
* We are called to use our bodies for God
*diversion to highlight that sexual sins harm us, “fornication” is not just literally fornication
then basically the whole thing all over again.
He would be a more effective preacher if he could be a little more concise but he almost always has something of value and at least doctrinally sound to say.
Homily on the need for silence and actively searching in order to foster a vocation and how we cannot hear God’s call if the only time we take out our music headphones is to put on a gaming headsets. Also on how our call to. Chastity arises from the sanct
Sorry, accidentally clicked post.
How our call to chastity arises from the sanctification of our bodies, not just our souls.
Our young assistant pastor (ordained 2009) preached about how Peter and Andrew responded to the call of Jesus. Then he told us how he had slowly discerned his own call to the priesthood. His sermon was funny, touching and thoughtful and the congregation spontaneously applauded him at the end. This is something we almost NEVER do. We are not the type of congregation that routinely applauds every Sunday. In this case, Father really earned it. It was a wonderful sermon.
The homily was on marriage, what it is and what it is not. Once again after hearing this, I question the validity of my anulment… I hate it when I don’t feel like the Church has done what God intended. Argh!
Our Mass was the Traditional Latin Mass.
The Gospel for the second Sunday after Epiphany was taken from the
second chapter of St.John…the wedding at Cana . Our Priest delivered
an excellent sermon centered on Jesus , Mary and the family. To paraphrase
he said that if we bring the basics, the most simple of elements to Him,
Jesus will turn it into our joy ( the reason for our existence..eternal joy
within the Beatific Vision). This wedding sees water transformed to wine
and sees the disciples transformed into believers.
Father pointed out the fact that these are the last words Mary speaks in
the scriptures when she instructs the servants”do whatever He tells you”.
How loving Mary is in her attentive care to our needs..often anticipating
them before we do…she is love without pretense, rejoicing with those
who rejoice ,weeping with those who weep..always leading us to her Son.
Our Joy… our first beginning and last end.
There was much more Father preached all of it great…but this hit home with me
jbuntin,
Holy Mother Church grants annulments. If you do not trust the Church in the application of Canon Law in your particular case, this is a problem that you alone can address. One should only enter into the process, which has strict guidelines, if one is dispassionate, healed, and rational about the former marriage.
The Church has been responding to the lack of catechesis in the family. In older days, for example, fathers took a more direct approach to the courtship of their daughters. Since the beginning of the 20th century, over a hundred years ago, the idea of marriage and courtship in American and European society was eroded by secularism and the decline of parental authority. The Hollywood emphasis on romance and sex hastened the plunge into chaos.That there are annulments is not the fault of the Church, but the fault of the laity to take authority over their children and to teach the proper reasons for marriage. If you have doubts, get a spiritual director who is traditional and sound. Do not pretend to understand the entire process. Trust in Holy Mother Church and obey Her Laws. You can go wrong then.
1. Vocations
2. Vocations
3. Vocations
4. Be supportive (of Vocations)
5. Vocations
The priests at my parish are Franciscans. They wear a brown hooded robe, with a rope for a belt, and sandals. They have repeatedly preached against abortion, contraception, divorce and remarriage, sex outside of marriage, and many other sins. I recall one sermon in which the priest said, something like: “As a priest who hears confessions, I can tell you that few people confess the sin of contraception. But I know that many of you are using contraception.” Then he went on to speak about the Church’s teaching against contraception.
I recall another sermon, by another one of these priests, on the topic of one of those controversial Pauline passages about wives being obedient to their husbands. He did not undermine or contradict this teaching in the least. He said that this is a matter of faith, that the husband is the head of the family, and the wife is the heart of the family (an allusion to Casti Connubii). The sermons at this parish often present various teachings of the Church in an accessible but theological manner. The doctrines of the Church are explained, one after another, as the occasion arises from the particular readings of the day, including the role of the Magisterium to teach the faithful, and the requirement to believe what is taught. The faithful of this parish are used to this type of sermon.
At Sunday Mass, a solid homily on vocations without any particularly memorable bon mots that I’d bullet point or put in fortune cookies.
Elsewhere, in the evening, I was at an MLK prayer service. Good music, scripture, prayer and preaching.
Among Father’s points:
– Tied-in to the Mass readings for the day, and other days – noting how he wondered if the sons of Eli were among those of whom it was said “Not everyone who cries Lord, Lord…”
– We can’t get by with just warm fuzzy platitudes, singalong We Shall Overcome and Kumbaya or whatever, go down to the church hall for coffee and cookies, and go home. There is the obligation to listen to the Lord is asking of us. Sometimes what the Lord is asking of us requires sacrifice and suffering on our part.
We should be grateful to be Catholic. To have Peter; to have the Church.
Humility is best demonstrated by giving others the respect they are due.
Father talked briefly about how we all have a calling, by virtue of our baptism, to be faithful Catholics. He went on to say how part of being faithful is full, active and conscious participation at Mass. Then he lead us through some questions to examine our participation, especially at Mass now that we have been using the new translation for a bit now.
At the TLM, the Gospel reading was on my favorite miracle, that at Cana. The sermon touched on how the priest was remembering a concert by the singer Barbara Cooke, who sang a song written by an AIDS victim and there were two lines that seemed to sum it all up:
“all we will ever need is love, all we don’t have is time.” (paraphrasing)
Makes you think.
Our homilist quoted extensively from St. John Chrysostom regarding the need for John the Baptist to alert the disciples more than once as to the reality and truth of “the Lamb of God” in their midst, and further then the taking up of the same exhortation by the apostles in their preaching. On the hardness of our hearts and resistance to listening as a tendency which must be overcome through perseverance and sacrifice. NO, National Shrine of the Divine Mercy.
Father made the excellent point that facing death we are all like monks, taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience: we must leave our goods and the flesh behind, and when God calls we have no choice but to obey.
The priest at our little TLM chapel did his sermon on Our Lady’s words at the Marriage Feast At Cana: ‘Whatsoever He shall tell you, do ye’.
He mentioned about prayer, and how Our Lord prayed always in His life here on earth. He particularly gave three examples: 1) His sojourn in the desert to prepare for His Public Life; 2) His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane; and 3) His ‘Father, forgive them’ at the Crucifixion.
Father especially hammered home the necessity of praying in times of temptation.
And all this while ‘competing’ with not one, but two squalling infants in the chapel!
Our priest was just ordained at the end of June. We seem to be a “training” parish for a lot of first-year priests in the diocese, and then they generally become pastors somewhere else.
He used the day’s readings to point out how God uses human messengers in His plan. Sometimes they know it, sometimes they don’t. Case in point was his own path to the priesthood. It was always up to him, but God didn’t stop asking. He had been hearing it here and there for some time that he’d make a good priest, to the point that he got tired of hearing it and told people he didn’t want to hear it anymore.
Then, finally, there was one week where he was hearing it from all sides, from people completely unconnected to one another, basically one each day, getting more and more direct until he went to dinner with a priest friend — guess what he asked him about? By that point, all of his rationalizations for staying away had been dismantled. There was no more putting it off.
He said it’s probably “easier to get into the FBI” than the seminary, but aside from the exhaustive background checks and screenings, he described how smooth his path to the seminary was in terms of things like getting his house sold in time, and odd coincidences along the way that just further drove the point home that he was doing the right thing.
It was an incredibly inspiring story, and I’m so glad he said “yes” when he did. Whether he wanted to hear it at the time, he certainly was a priest waiting to happen, and he’s doing a wonderful job in our parish.
In the gospel the two future Apostles, Andrew and Peter, were already following John and searching for the Messiah. They heard John proclaim Jesus as the Lamb of God. As first century Jews, they would understand the reference to Isaiah and they when off to encounter Jesus.
In the course of a normal week we encounter many people. Most of these meetings are of little note and soon forgotten. Occasionally, we have a manful encounter with someone. A married couple can always tell you when they first met. These encounters are time that we remember for the rest of our lives. The indication of a 4pm (Roman 10th hour) meeting, indicates this was an encounter that was remembered vividly.
Their encounter with Jesus is the first time Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John. His first words are, “What are you looking for?” During this week we should mediate on what we would say if each of us, individually, met Jesus and he asked us this question. Would we say that we wanted money, prestige or material things like a house or a car. Perhaps we would say that we want the Broncos to win this year – but that ain’t gonna happen. Perhaps we would say we want world peace, happiness, joy or justice. If you think about it Jesus’ question, it is most profound.
The Apostles answer the question with a question (They must be part Irish). “Where are you staying?” This is a good answer. In answer to what they are looking for they want to know where to find Him. The Catholic faith is not an answer to a test question. It is not found in a book. It is personal encounter with Christ. It is an encounter that changes our lives if we let it.
Sermon this Sunday by our permanent deacon, who is a first-rate homilist. (The fact that he’s a prosecuting attorney the rest of the week probably helps.) His topic was vocations, and he concluded by suggesting that some people never follow a vocation because noone ever brought up the topic. He also noted that after Saturday’s performance we should not regard Tibow as the Messiah, but merely a prophet :-)
Jbuntin if you have an annulment then it is valid. When you say you hate it when you don’t feel that the church has done what God intended you’re in good company, Archbishop Lefebvre and the SSPX feel that same way. But since God doesn’t hold conference calls with me I just assume that the church is doing what God intended. However, i want Him to know that I’m available for those conference calls if it should please Him
He preached on one sentence from the Second reading: “Glorify God in your body” – and used it as an occasion to encourage husbands to renounce addictions to the computer. He also mentioned temperance with food and eschewing piercings/tattoos that violate the integrity of the body, which is a temple of the shekinah, the presence of God.
Our 84 year old retired priest in residence preached on parents being like St. Andrew–who alway is presented in scripture bringing others to Christ.
Parents: do you speak of the Faith to your family, friends?
This elderly priest is elquent, but I must admit, his silver hair gives him an ethos that is most persuasive, much like our beloved Holy Father!
Yesterday was our SFO fraternity meeting Sunday, so I went to Mass at to my own parish, but the parish where the fraternity is located. The priest there gave a short and pithy homily on the Gospel reading. He pointed out then whenever we see the Apostle Andrew in the Gospels, he is always bringing someone to Jesus; here it’s his brother Peter, in another episode in John, it’s some Greek people. There is yet other instance I’ve forgotten.
Father wanted to know what we are doing to bring people to Jesus. He spoke of a man who was admitted to a nursing home for the last few months of his life. The person who did the paperwork asked him as a matter of course, “What’s your religious preference?” He answered, “It’s funny you should ask that; no one has ever asked me before. I’ve always had a dream of being Catholic.” Well, because of that question, the man took instruction and ended up dying a Catholic.
Father urged us to urge others, as the commercials say: “Come Home!” There was more too, all well expressed. I’d rate him higher as a homilist than any priest at my own parish.
Wow, Mike, I’d say we went to the same parish — except our priest is nowhere near 84! (I just finished and read your just-posted comment).
Loved the comment about “Here I am Lord” being played when we read about Samuel’s call! After a wonderful homily on the necessity of a response to a call, I saw the Dan Schutte staple listed as the Offertory hymn and commented to my wife that most American Catholics tie the two together when the song is about Isaiah’s call and response. We got “Here I am Lord” as our song for a CRHP retreat, and after 30 times that “song has lost its songness” [Mk 9:50 paraphrase].
Sunday closed with a prayerful night of reflection for teen-aged candidates for Confirmation, me standing in for my son’s sponsor. Very good homilies and witness talks and “sharings” followed by Eucharistic adoration and benediction. Our youth director has done a great job of changing the Lifeteen focus from the bread of pizza to the Bread of Life, and I look foward to the action of the Holy Spirit among these young Catholics.
Father responded to the reading about the holiness of the body with a lengthy and heavy beatdown on sexual sin. We’re used to that with our good priest. He takes Mary the Terminatrix of Sin very seriously :)
Much like Kathy C.’s priest did, our pastor talked about how holy our bodies are, but he also said that every time we use our bodies sinfully, we drag Christ through the dirt with us.
When we pray, we should make sure we are saying “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”, not just “Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking.”
Similar to Wayne NYC, our priest spoke of Mary’s last words in the Gospels, emphasizing that they are the last words we hear her say. He then took it further and said that Mary was not just speaking to the waiters (“Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye”), but to us. Amazing how many times I’ve heard/read that phrase over the years and just brushed past it.