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Excellent sermon from Bishop Schneider at St. Kevin’s on real joy coming from a personal relationship in prayer with Christ and the sadness which sins cause. He is such a holy man. Dark rose vestments, btw
My pastor preached about the reasons for a high altar, altar rail, and the propers.
Another great sermon from Fr. P. After first analyzing the tragedy and the predictable response from a culture that has at it’s core – convenience and the accumulation of wealth, at the expense of true life values – more laws and regulations. We already have the law that suits the crime – “Thou shalt not kill.” It’s hubrus and egotistical to think modern man can improve on that ‘old fashioned’ law. Left unsaid was the need for growth of faithful adherents to the law, as old fashioned and antiquated as it is. The only way to truly combat evil is to live according to God’s law. In essence, the faithful must increase and the evil-doers must decrease and that relationship is a direct relationship.
Fr. a then went into St John’s the Baptist’s replies to the questions posed by various groups of converts as to “what they are to do?” The reply was in each case was to be charitable in the broadest sense. That, in tandem with true faith in Our Lord is what needs to happen to each and everyone of us.
The school shooting and other recent tragedies of the sort are the work of the Devil. The television people pontificate on why this would happen etc but the answer is that it’s the work of Satan. Turning to Jesus Christ is the answer to how we stop this.
Praise for Bishop Egan’s letter to David Cameron, criticising the proposals for same-sex “marriage”, and making the point that Jesus chose to be born and brought up within a traditional family set-up. Joseph was provided as foster-father…
Father spoke on St. John the Baptist and the questioners and responses; then brought it into how we must all first sanctify ourselves, so that from there our sanctity can help change the world around us. That only when we ourselves become holy can we help our community, and after that, our nation, become holy and recognize Christ as King. That there’s no reason to ask why people shoot up schools and little kids, when 2 million mothers a year murder their own children in abortion. He said it’s a falsehood on our money to say “In God we Trust” and that it is less true today in society than it was even when it was added to the currency. He added that Obamacare is going to pay for mothers to murder their children. Turn to Our Lady and ask Her to sanctify us, and to help our nation be converted. He said it much much better and more profoundly than I’m trying to repeat here.
He said “The tragedy in CT and others like it are not a political problem, a legal problem, a social problem or a societal problem. They are a spiritual problem.”
Fr. said that, in all of the analysis as to how the Connecticut shootings happened, we are nation that will not credit that the shootings happened because of evil, that they were Satanic doings, because we are nation (and a world) that doesn’t want to believe that there is evil, nor offend anyone by admitting that, that we are not a world that believes in sin.
Several good points today, but the one that sticks in my mind right now: Father spoke out against abortion. First time ever in the 3 1/2 years I’ve attended Mass that I’ve heard, in person and in a sermon, any priest mention abortion. God bless him.
Many people want to add Christ to their lives without subtracting sin. John the Baptist said repent THEN (and) believe… in that order….go to confession!
That’s the preach in a nutshell.
My pastor began by mentioning the tragic killings in CT and how the discussion had already become political, but that gun control is a band aid. He then talked about our culture of disrespect for human beings and human life and what Pope John Paul II described as Culture of Death. He mentioned how violence and pornography are allowed in movies on TV–that to criticize this is considered censorship, but it’s not considered censorship to ban a creche or to take God out of the schools. He finished by discussing the power of our prayers in combating the evils of the day: God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah if just 10 good people could be found–if only 10 could have saved those cities, the prayers of all the people in church today at Mass can be very powerful.
Nice integration of the evil in Newton CT with Herod’s massacre of the Innocents and thence to the real meaning of Christmas as stated in 1 John 3:8. Very powerful message.
Saint John the Baptist is the patron of Advent!
Our associate pastor spoke of the words of John the Baptist speaking to the different groups of people–if you have an extra cloak give it to the poor, if you are a tax collector do not take more than is required–and said that St John was speaking to deficits that he was correcting in the lives of the people who came to him. Those problems are still apparent today (Connecticut), and the remedy can be found through the fruits of the Holy Spirit which are, at their heart, relational gifts.
Today at Priory Mass in Chelmsford, England we were introduced by Fr Rupert to another Norbertine Priest who will celebrate the Old Rite for us on a Sunday so now we have two Priests too cover all eventualities!
Rose coloured antependium today…beautiful.
Our pastor wore a rose damask chasuble with gold embroidery. The set contains stole, maniple, pall, burse, velum, antependium and “ambo-antependium”. The colour is not girly, more like the rose Louise Odier. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/201360/ It does match our red carpets, believe it or not ;-) NO Mass with biretta, as usual.
Sorry, posted in the wrong thread!
So glad Father Z has this post. I love reading everyone’s Sunday sermon comments.
Our pastor spoke on the true interior joy of belonging to Christ and the Church as opposed to the glitter of passing worldly things.
He said of the many reasons being given for the horrible shooting in our state, the one that is not being addressed is the failure of so many parents to be seriously and personally engaged in bringing their children to know and love God.
That life is a mix of joy and sorrow. The true cause of our joy is found in Christ who we can also share our sorrows with and bring light to a darkened world.
From Fr. Scott McCaig, moderator of the Companions of the Cross, we heard about the need to prepare for meeting Jesus. That all the effort we put into preparing for exams, for sports events, for meetings with important people, should be surpassed by our preparation to meet Jesus.
Wonderful Anglican Use Mass, with rose chasuble (not “an effeminate pink”) with a joyful exhortation to repent and prepare and closing hymn, Lo He comes with clouds descending.
Afterwards, sandwiches and cake and other goodies in the Church basement.
Rich sermon today.
1) The Pharisees didn’t dispute St. John’s teaching, merely his authority to teach it: we each have our own kingdoms, and we don’t like others to “invade” them.
2) If we send a Christmas card to someone but don’t send it with love – especially if that person is someone we send to merely out of social convention – we’re lying.
3) (For the first time in weeks, Father omitted any reference to the world ending, but this is indeed noteworthy, since he has been asking us, effectively, what would happen if the world DID end on the 21st?)
4) Not in the homily, but in the bulletin: an ongoing series explaining specific aspects of actions/rubrics at Mass.
5) Rejoice in GOD.
Souls are not in hell because they fell (into sin).
They are there because they did not get up, (and repent).
John the Baptist challenged hearts. We are called during Advent to examine our own guilt and confess our sins.
Fr. DelaDurantye noted in the homily that God does not impose on us, but gives us free will to choose to live in evil or in God’s manner. We should rejoice at the chance given us by Jesus’s entry into the world and his sacrifice on the cross. The evil done at the shooting in CT does not diminish our own ability to repent and regain everlasting life.
Wasn’t exactly a sermon, Fr. Felton said “I think the tragedy in Newton should make us think about the importance of stricter gun control laws. What do you all think?” The next 30-45 minutes were filled with various members of the congregation talking up the merits of gun control laws and having more phycologists in the educational system.
One gentleman did mention that we ought to pray for the gunman as well as for the victims, that he had remorse before death (one of exactly two mentions of anything religious in the whole discussion-thingie. The other was someone who brought up the devil and his real work in the world, which Father immediately dismissed). I think that was a pretty good point. In fact, it inspired me to spentdthe rest of the “homily” saying a rosary for the shooter and another for the victims (only got halfway through the second), so it was the BEST point of the entire mess.
The Lord is coming, robed in dreadful majesty, to judge the quick and the dead . . . go to confession!
Father has been doing a 3 part series going through the Mass. Sunday he went through the prayers from the offertory to the minor elevation. This is the EF by the way. There was so much that he talked about that I could write a whole blog about it, but one thing I came away with was that we participate in the prayers by offering ourselves to Gods in union with the priest offers Christ. I tried to focus on that during the actual Eucharistic prayer at that Mass and found it makes a big difference.
How can we get in the spirit of “gaudete” following the murder of 20 children? Because Christ came we have hope for those young souls that they will soon enjoy the beatific vision. Without Christ, they have no hope.
I went to two first masses. (We had 44 priests ordained Saturday.) One talked about the history of his vocation, the other had two points:
1. God’s presence in the temple, in us and in the Eucharist
2. Rejoice IN THE LORD, not in anything else even new priests.
The second mass was the first time I heard the new English collects sung – amazing for any priest with a voice.
Please pray for me as I have one year to go.
It was not part of the homily, but at the close of Mass, our new pastor told us that confession times were available outside of the published regular times. Then he added that he believes that confessions should take place behind the screen rather than face to face. He described the screen as sacred and said that it reminds us that our forgiveness does not come from the priest, but from God. From behind the screen we hear only the voice of the priest expressing that forgiveness. I predict confessions will increase.
I delved into the implications of the phrase, “baptize in the Holy Spirit,” [and fire!] explaining what the Greek means and the connection to the Jewish ritual of the mikvah, and then posed the question: what would our lives be like, what would change, if we were “soaked” and “drenched” in the Holy Ghost? I spoke about how we like to tame God and not lose control, but if we want to go to heaven, then the Holy Spirit wins the tug-of-war. I talked about confession as a way to get a “taste,” if we are hesitant about what the Holy Spirit might ask of us. I mentioned the times we were having confessions, including, for the first time, Christmas Eve.
Now, I wrote my homily well before the crime in Connecticut, so I pondered all day Saturday how to address that. On Saturday evening, I touched on it as a sign of how much we need the Holy Spirit to penetrate hearts, and about the problem of evil. I wasn’t entirely happy with how I developed that, and on Sunday morning, I simply forgot to address the point.
Our priest has spent good deal of his sermon talking about the Sacrament of Penance, encouraging people to come and celebrate it. He tried to explain that it is misleading to think about it only in terms of confession – something rather unpleasant for most of people. We have to take the whole thing into consideration, that means especially including the absolution. We leave the confessional cleansed by our ever loving Father. And that is the thing. In the end he offered extra hours at the confessional this Saturday, even summoning another fellow priest to hear confessions.
Looking at The Cross helps.
Offering up temptations, troubles, etc… To Him.
The new priest at one of my families parishes gave the sermon.
Shalom
God bless
You’d like this one Father Z. At the Mass I went to, Father basically said that we ALL need to get to confession. He then compared confession to a nuclear weapon that completely destroys sin when it is brought out into the light. This priest also hears confessions before every single one of his Masses.
Father spoke of Rejoicing in the Lord. And went into detail of how rejoicing is not simply being emotive or sentimental, but true rejoicing is based on a deep understanding of the truth of the faith. Anything based purely on emotion will not be strong enough to stand the challenges that we are likely to face in your lives.
I heard two homilies and one very long, homily-like announcement this weekend. The first was from a deacon–I think it was only his second or third time preaching and he was obviously quite nervous, but had good things to say. He talked about preparing our souls for Christmas and putting on the appropriate “garments” to meet the King. He also advocated prayer for the dead.
Later, the priest made an announcement addressing the recent school shooting. He said, first of all, that he wished that all those who mourned the loss of these six- and seven-year-old children would similarly mourn the thousands of unborn children whose lives are ended every day, and not by a stranger but at the behest of their own mothers. Secondly, he said that these kinds of demonic manifestations in our society can only be driven out by prayer and fasting, and that it is our duty as Christians to pray and fast.
The other homily I heard was very brief, and the priest discussed the Cord of St. Thomas Aquinas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confraternities_of_the_Cord#Confraternity_of_the_Cord_of_St._Thomas (for those who, like me, had never heard of it before)
Our priest asked that parishioners whose family members (such as teenagers) would be coming to Mass at Christmas, but who are NOT attending Mass regularly, should ask/warn them (the irregular Mass-attenders) NOT to come up to receive Holy Communion. “If you’re not attending Mass regularly you should not receive Communion without going to confession first.” Fr. Bergin couldn’t quite bring himself explicitly to say that it is a SIN to fail to come to Sunday Mass without good reason, but it could be inferred from his saying that one needed to go to confession before receiving Communion if one were not regularly coming to Mass.
Why do we hear so little about sin and its consequences (e.g. Hell and damnation) in sermons these days? If sin were not such a serious problem, why would God have sent his only-begotten Son to suffer and die in order to redeem mankind?