Your Sunday sermon notes

Was there a good point you heard in the sermon you heard this weekend?

Post it here.

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43 Comments

  1. tmitchell says:

    Fly fishing, the unavoidable evils of fried foods, and instead of battling evil, replacing it.

    A magnificent delivery and one of the best homilies I’ve ever heard, despite the fact that it wasn’t delivered from the ambo.

  2. Centristian says:

    Yes, comparing our “shallow” Lake Erie to the Sea of Galiliee (sp?) the celebrant of the Tridentine Mass I attended Sunday morning (and again Sunday afternoon) put us all in the boat with Christ and the Apostles so vividly that I thought the Church would capsize. Something about the Edmund Fitzgerald was mentioned…wrong Great Lake, but never mind.

    At any rate, the essence of it, beautifully put, was that there will be storms in life, be they health related or finance related or political or domestic or with respect to work and our relationships, but if Christ is in our boat, so what? Endure the storms, knowing full well that He is there, and will not, of course, permit the boat to capsize, no matter how fearsome the storm may seem, no matter how fiercely it may rage. If Christ is in our boat He will not permit us to drown beneath the waves; He will provide a calm in do course. Trust in Him.

    The celebrant put it all much more wonderfully than I have just done, but that was the gist of it.

  3. pm125 says:

    Jesus’ authority became known in Capernaum by His word not being followed by … thus says the Lord … as did Moses and other other prophets. Jesus showed us that there are evil powers among us that can be seen by terrorism, hatefulness, premarital sex, abortion, euthanasia, selfishness – a long list of immoralities – and that these fear Him, so we must rely on our faith.

  4. DJPNicholls says:

    At our EF Mass, Father picked apart the texts of the Mass (it was like a wdtprs sermon), to show how carefully they were put together in the time after epiphany to reveal different aspects of Christ’s divinity. He also picked up the fact that it was astounding that Christ’s disciples, being experienced fishermen, turned to the sleeping carpenter to save them. Evidently, they might be ‘of little faith’, but they did have ‘a little faith’, and had some idea of Who He was.

  5. Microtouch says:

    I believe that the latest edict from the HHS affecting Christians and Catholics in the USA may have awakenend some of our sleeping Bishops. Oremus.

  6. JonPatrick says:

    In Lewiston ME for the weekend helping my son move there from Massachusetts, attended the 8 AM EF Mass at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, a truly breathtaking structure. From the attendance I would say the Latin Mass community in Maine is thriving. I would estimate about 200 people there. Instead of a homily, Father read a strongly worded letter from His Excellency Bp. Richard Malone, bishop of the Diocese of Portland (which covers the entire state of Maine) concerning the HHS mandate on coverage of contraception and abortifacients. Kudos to the Bishop for bringing this issue to the forefront and urging people to contact their legislators.

  7. Rob in Maine says:

    Father, S.J. gave a great sermon on the Gospels and the Authentic Authority of Christ. This meshed well with his reading of Bishop Malones’s letter concerning the HHS ruling.

  8. dahveed says:

    Hi Father,
    in our tiny berg, Father Tom read a letter from our archbishop about the HHS edict, and made suggestions about ways for the parish to encourage corrective action on the part of congress..

  9. xsosdid says:

    One of the priests who teaches at our local seminary preached about exorcism, about how it is real, how evil is real, and how this world is a spiritual battleground. It was excellent.

  10. Darren says:

    As is typical at my OF parish, the deacon gives the homily on the 3rd Sunday of the month, and also whenever there is a 5th Sunday, as was yesterday. However, our deacon gave a very very good homily. We have 9 deacons, and a couple of them are very gifted preachers.

    He touched on the anxiety issue from Paul’s letter, which reminded me of a little book I read called “Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence” by St. Claude de la Colombiere and another Jesuit priest of his day (can’t think of the name). He also pointed out how Moses was denied entry into the promised land because of one single offense against God’s will. To whom more is given, more is expected. Reminds me of how very much more we must pray for our priests, bishops, and the pope super especially! The higher authority one is given, the more strictly one will be judged.

    But onto the gospel, our deacon pointed out how the demon recognized Christ for who He was, but those who witnessed only saw what He did, but not who He was. The demon proclaimed, “I know who you are?the Holy One of God!” Before Christ told him to be quiet. But, the people who witnessed proclaimed, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” And while Mark went on to say that His fame grew… but the point was they they recognized His authoritative teaching, but did not have the same recognition of who He actually was, as did the evil and vile demon.

    I am sure I am missing some key points that escape my memory a day later.

  11. WaywardSailor says:

    Our EF community was blessed with a sermon which beautifully and edifyingly tied the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (“Ye of little faith”) with Pope Benedict’s “Crisis of Faith” comments to CDF earlier in the week and the feast of St. Francis deSales, to whom is attributed the phrase “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” (the salvation of souls being dependent on our offering the honey of the Faith as opposed to the vinegar of sin).

  12. benedetta says:

    In upstate NY, Mass in the EF. The need to trust in the Lord’s gentle and providential care and confide all worry and cares of the future to the Lord.

  13. HyacinthClare says:

    Father read the letter from Bishop Olmsted (Phoenix), encouraged prayer and fasting, and preparing for the honor of persecution.
    I heard that only 29 of America’s bishops wrote a letter about the HHS edict. Is that true? What does that mean?

  14. neworleansgirl says:

    I’m probably going to do a bad job of getting the point across, but our priest here in the FL panhandle gave a wonderful homily.

    When discussing the Gospel, he mentioned how Jesus entered a synagogue and immediately encountered an unclean spirit. Evil is everywhere. Even in the church. And he pointed out that the demon knew who Jesus was. But the demon didn’t say “I hate you” or “Get out of here” or something like that. He said, “What have you to do with us? Have you come to destroy us?”

    Then Father talked about how the false gods of the Old Testament were stationary gods. You had to go to them. Go to some spot for an oracle, go to some temple to offer a sacrifice, etc. But our God always comes to His people. First through things like the burning bush and then through His Son, who walked among us, who lived among us. And we all like to say how we welcome Jesus into our lives, we come to Mass on Sunday and we’re all gung ho. But when it comes to letting Jesus into every part of our lives–our marriages, our families, our businesses, our leisure, etc, we sound like the unclean spirit: “What have You to do with me? Have you come to destroy my business, my marriage, my dirty little secrets, my STATUS QUO, my little world of darkness that I have built for myself?”

    Because to let Jesus in is to be changed from the inside out. To turn away from sin. We know who Jesus is, the Holy One of Israel. But are we too afraid of what He will ask of us, of what He will destroy in us, to fully dedicate our lives to Him?

    Trust me, he said it WAY better than I did.

  15. St. Peter Canisius says:

    Here in Florida Pastor told a Pope-Obama story, which brought convulsed laughter, then said “I always vote and I always vote my conscience. That’s all I have to say.” Applause (and hopefully strong agreement.)

  16. Darren says:

    Father did read the letter from Bishop O’Connell (Trenton), and added some good comments afterwards, asking us if we are willing to forgo the easy path, take up our crosses, and follow Our Lord no matter the cost.

  17. Dr. Sebastianna says:

    At Mater Ecclesiae (EF) in Berlin, NJ, both Priests spoke ardently and passionately about the HHS edict and same sex marriage legislation. The homily was punctuated by an Our Father and a Hail Mary. I was pleased that someone would address these issues from the pulpit… At all of the OF churches I’ve attended, I don’t think that this would have happened…

  18. milhon1 says:

    At St. Demetrius Melkite Catholic Church we heard about erring on the side of mercy. Also the first time I have ever heard the Creed in Arabic. It was quite beautiful.

  19. Lotsoflittlekids says:

    Our EF father always has a homily that gives you a lot to think about. There were several points but the one that stuck out the most to me was on the fear of the apostles due to their lack of faith. He said fear and anxiety have two causes, one originating from original sin and the other from too much reliance on the self from a lack of faith in God. He also talked a lot of the compartmentalizing of God in our lives. One remedy is that we should implore God’s help in all of our trials and and thank him for the joys during the day. And we should be open to communication with God during our prayers, not just saying them out of duty or because we need something. Oh, and don’t forget to say some prayers out of gratitude. I’m sure there was more as our good father’s homilies are quite long (but I love every minute of it!).

  20. pinecone says:

    The sermon was decent, but the best part was when Msgr. read the Bishop’s letter about the HHS mandate. He got the expression and pauses just right, too. We felt the impact of the Bishop’s letter. Even though I know it isn’t appropriate, I couldn’t help joining in the applause that followed.

  21. Captain Peabody says:

    Our sermon was all about the reality of spiritual evil and demonic powers. Father said that the passage from Mark tells us about the reality of demons, demonic temptations, and demonic possessions. He said the Devil wishes to tempt us especially in church, tempt us to worry about other things, to sin, or to simply go through the motions without faith. He talked about his time in Italy, and the much greater openness of spiritual warfare there as opposed to in the US, the much greater preponderance of exorcists and exorcisms, a difference which he thought was not due to our greater holiness, but rather to the fact that here, the Devil doesn’t have to possess anyone to get his will done. He told us of mystics he had known there who could see this spiritual warfare as plainly as we could see the visible world. However, he said, we should be more afraid of a single, intentional venial sin than of a thousand demons. He then listed out the various sins to which the Devil is trying to tempt us, including sins of impurity, which he reminded the congregation were always grave, and so an obstacle to Holy Communion which could only be removed by Sacramental Confession.

    Then, he told us not to be afraid, and said he himself was not afraid of the Devil. To defeat the Devil, he advised us always to be in a state of Sanctifying Grace, to as frequently as we can attend Mass, and to frequently attend Sacramental Confession. He also especially recommended the intercession of Mary against demonic temptations, stating that a single Hail Mary can clear out a room full of demons.

    It was quite a good sermon, and I was very impressed by its unapologetic supernatural bent and lack of pulled punches. Father often has trouble with his delivery, but I have found his sermons to always be pious, orthodox, and spiritually helpful. His constant refrain, with which he ends virtually every sermon, is for people to attend Mass more often, dedicate our actions to the love of Christ, and go to Confession more often; which, especially in a large, suburban parish such as ours, is a very useful reminder.

  22. SemiSpook says:

    Our parochial vicar had the particular Mass we attended this weekend. His focus was on the HHS issue as well as the SSM bill currently wending its way through the Maryland General Asylum again after failing last year. Very telling that our “catholic” governor is still supporting this garbage (they’ve mention his name as a possible presidential nominee in 2016 *gag*). Some very strong words from Father, although I think a prayer or two might have also been helpful.

    I did manage to take him aside after Mass, and mentioned we wouldn’t be in this situation if people (and I meant from the bishops on down to the laiety) would have just listened to the message of Humane Vitae in the first place. Father agreed, and added, “Yes, we’re seeing that you reap what you sow.”

  23. Frank H says:

    Nice segue from the teaching authority Christ handed to His Church and through the centuries to the bishops, to the letter from Bp. Campbell (Columbus, Ohio) on the HHS mandate. Powerful!

  24. Elizabeth D says:

    In my diocese a brief letter from Bishop Morlino regarding religious freedom and the need for prayer and fasting, and action, was read at all Masses. At EF Mass the accompanying homily was not much. However then I went to 11am Mass at St Patrick’s (temporary Cathedral since ours burned down) where Monsignor Kevin Holmes gave a WONDERFUL homily. He mentioned a variety of threats to religious liberty today including the attempts to force Catholic adoption agencies to adopt to same sex couples, etc, and talked for instance about Stalin giving freedom of worship in Russia but certainly not freedom to influence public life with religiously informed morals, and how today freedom of religion is also being restricted and only freedom of worship is spoken of. He said the threat to Catholic schools is great, if Catholic moral teaching for instance in regards to homosexuality becomes restricted, ten years ago he would have thought it was preposterous that would occur or that Catholic schools would be in danger of being squeezed out of existence, but that now appears to be a possibility.

  25. pledbet424 says:

    My parish is St Augustine’s in Brighton, CO. I sat in bliss as our young pastor gave his sermon on the Sacrament of Penance, how necessary it is, the 5 requirements of a good confession, the 3 requirements for a sin to be a mortal sin, etc. We were in the front row, and he must have been wondering why I was smiling, not that I didn’t know these things, but that I was so happy to hear them from the pulpit again, after so many years.

  26. ‘I will go to jail.’

    After reading the Archbishop’s letter, I repeated his statement: “we cannot–we will not–comply with this unjust law,” and I said I would go to jail before obeying. I said it may come to that, or else the government will seize our property, if we don’t pay the fines they levy. (Of course, that assumes we don’t just pay the fines; my advice is we must not; make them come for us.)

    I also gave teaching on why we’re taking so strong a stand–explaining the Church’s belief about contraception and marriage, and pointing out this is a war on what marriage is, what family is, what human dignity and identity is.

  27. NoTambourines says:

    We got zippo on the HHS business. I want to be able to come up with some logistical reason for why it didn’t happen, but on the other hand, reading the letter from our bishops would have only required a printer and 3 minutes of church time that they usually use to hand out children’s “bulletins” during Mass.

    The homily was interesting, though. Based on the second reading, Father talked about vocations. He noted how the number of marriages in the Church have declined steeply in proportion to the number of people getting baptized each year. (That’s because some of us can’t find a practicing Catholic man to marry, and the pews aren’t exactly teeming around here with single Catholic men. But I digress.).

    He tied the decline over recent decades in vocations to the priesthood (though that seems to be turning around in our diocese in an answer to many prayers) to a decline in the idea of vocations — of being called by God — to any state of life, including marriage.

  28. gloriainexcelsis says:

    As usual, it was a great homily. Repeating what some others here have said, the Gospel for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany (Matther 8: 23-27, tells us that Christ is always with the Church (the boat), and though often He seems to be sleeping, He is there to calm us through the tempests that have always, and will always, toss the Church in this world. In the end He calms the storms. This can apply in our personal lives as well.

  29. Cathy says:

    At the Mass I attended (OF), the priest said that people who reject the Church’s teachings on abortion and contraception are NOT in full communion with the Church. It was the most complete silence I have ever heard at Mass there.

  30. Will D. says:

    We had a super visiting priest. He does the red and sings the black. And then he preached a real stemwinder about false prophets, namely Mohammed and Joseph Smith. Father talked about being a convert and nearly choosing to enter the LDS “church” before discovering Catholicism. As he researched, he read both documents that both supported and opposed Mormonism, and decided that the movement was riddled with inconsistency. When he read documents about the Catholic Church, he saw that it was the only religion he looked at that was entirely logically consistent. Finally, he reminded us to listen to the voice of God in our lives, but to make sure that it is God’s voice.

  31. Margaret says:

    Nothing on the HHS mandate, as the pastor was giving the same homily at all Masses, even those he did not celebrate, on the Bishop’s Appeal. I didn’t realize at first what was going on at first, and wondered at the pastor giving a more substantial, content-filled homily than his typical zen-like statements. He very nicely tied in Paul’s reading into his preparation for his priestly vocation, talking about all the support he received from many sides during his years as a semiarian, and then tying THAT into the Gospel, pointing out the difference between hearing God’s word and will, and acting upon it. Good up until he then broadened the vocation discussion to include all the folks “studying” at our Institute for Lay Ministry, which was a segueway into the money plea for the diocese.

    The Institute for Lay Ministry is precisely one of the reasons I’m always a little hesitant to give to the bishop’s appeal. We seem to be planning for a priestless future instead of actively working to foster vocations…

  32. During the homily, Father read a letter from our bishop (+Michael Driscoll, Diocese of Boise) condemning the HHS mandate. Unfortunately, it appears not to be online anywhere.

  33. St. Epaphras says:

    Cathy said: “At the Mass I attended (OF), the priest said that people who reject the Church’s teachings on abortion and contraception are NOT in full communion with the Church. It was the most complete silence I have ever heard at Mass there.”

    If I had heard these words from my parish priest, said silence would have been broken by my weeping from sheer joy. Let us pray for that priest!

    Fr. Fox,
    You are now my hero. Totally unashamed to say it.

    There is still HOPE, people. Pray for priests!!! Pray for many holy priests.

  34. Templar says:

    During our Sunday Mass (OF) our Priest, a newly ordained (last Summer) young man from Poland, read our Bishop’s (Hartmayer, Ordained Bishop a few months ago) strongly worded Letter on the HHS Situation. he then followed up with a rousing Homily about growing up in a country devastated by the effects of failed Communist policy, and how he came to America in no small part because of it’s promises of Liberty, only to see that the disease of Communist thought attacking anew in America. He said also that he hoped those of us in the pews were pepared to fight for our Faith, and he hoped our children would be prepared to fight by our sides, but he was not sure we would be up to the task. He then “shucked the corn” as we say down here, and spelled out in clear terms why he felt we were possibly not up to the task, and challenging us to rediscover our Catholic Identities.

  35. Ttony says:

    I was at a church where the priest preached on the difference between Satanas and Diabolus. Satanas builds sick unity: he takes the people who cried “Hosanna!” and turns them into people who cry “Crucify Him!”. Diabolus is divisive: he picks off individual members of the Church and separates them from God and their neighbour.

    This is a very poor outline of an electrifyingly good sermon from a priest who is at the sensible end of “spirit of Vatican II”.

  36. Justin_Kolodziej says:

    Nothing about HHS, but from what I remember (and my memory may be faulty) Father preached on how, yes, the demons knew who Jesus was intellectually but we need to know Him with the heart. Also, that what St. Paul meant is that the normal love for family is not enough, you need the supernatural kind of love even in the married state. I don’t think the V word was used though (vocations!)

  37. Jayna says:

    I went to an excellent conference at St. Mary of the Lake on Triduum liturgy. Lauds was beautiful. Even if it did take me five hours to get home (which was 40 miles away – day of the snow storm here in Chicago).

    And I’ve been asked to contribute to a book on Mary Magdalene. I’ll be working on depictions of Mary Magdalene in Western art from Baroque to contemporary.

  38. Jayna says:

    Oops! Meant to post that last one in the good news thread!

  39. buffaloknit says:

    Sadly, I can’t find a good point to share from the sermon at my parish this past Sunday (this never happens here!) so I will not say anything here. Maybe I’ll write my own blogpost about it.

    My Mom, on the other hand, heard a great sermon aimed at the young people in attendance, about the importance of conscience in the coming tectonic plate shift that we will experience culturally and socially. The theme was the bishops’ response to the HHS mandate. If you check the website for St. Joan of Arc, Kokomo, IN you can listen to each sermon online. As of now, (Monday, 1-30-12) it is not yet online, but I think it should be soon!

  40. Gretchen says:

    Father spoke firmly about the Magisterium. He said Jesus spoke in plain terms about following the commands he gave: take it or leave it. He said that the same rule applied to the Church Jesus founded. Wow!

  41. EucharistLove says:

    Why were there two different Gospel readings? It appears some heard the Gospel regarding the boat in the storm and others heard about Jesus casting out the demon. I thought the readings were the same all over the world.

  42. Father’s homily was on the authority of Jesus and the use of Canon Law, it was a very good homily.

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