Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Was there a really good point in the sermon you heard for the Mass that fulfilled your Sunday Mass obligation?

The undersigned preached about sacramentals today… for them, not against them.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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55 Comments

  1. Elizabeth D says:

    Our homily at TLM included a catechesis on sacramentals and blessings. This priest (happens to be Fr Z) likes very much to bless things, and has the Rituale Romanum with him to do so after Mass. We should use sacramentals, of which examples include medals, holy water, and invocative blessings. There are two kinds of blessings, constitutive (blessings of things, such as rosaries, which become sacramentals), and invocative (blessings of persons–“give me your blessing, Father”–or creatures such as farm animals). Blessed objects become sacramentals, but blessed farm animals do not, but God’s grace is invoked so they will thrive to be of good use to people. Sacramentals are totally removed from the power of the “prince of this world,” the devil. The Devil HATES them and will flee! They are of great spiritual usefulness to us. Sacramentals are not magical objects, but their effect is wholly by the power of God, Who uses these and the Sacraments as tools of His grace (according to the Catechism sacramentals dispose us to receive grace, while Sacraments actually make present the grace which they signify). The Eucharist is the greatest of the Sacraments because the Eucharist actually IS what it symbolizes, Our Lord Jesus Christ, truly present.

  2. Gregg the Obscure says:

    Very good homily at the OF Mass. There is always some tension between action and contemplation both in the Church as a whole and within each of us. The things Martha was doing were good things, but her attitude in doing them was tainted with selfishness. Abraham similarly practiced hospitality in this OT reading, but with no evidence of any loss of focus on the good he was trying to accomplish. He closed with a quote from St. Augustine: “All of us are like Martha, wanting to be like Mary.”

  3. Supertradmum says:

    A wow sermon-wrote about it earlier this morning; I think we are six hours ahead of you, or behind, as some say.

    http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/07/excellent-sermon-and-excellent-ladies.html

  4. Lepidus says:

    Our Indian priest (of course) related Mary to prayer and contemplation and the importance thereof. He mentioned that during his novitiate, they had to go a year being cut off from everybody else. He was told going in to concentrate on what God wants and it will go well. Looking back that was one of the best years of his life! (Bit different from some other priests that try to paint Martha as the one following all the rules – and Jesus saying you don’t have to).

    By the way, Fr. Z. do you ever post your sermons? That sounds like a good one….

  5. frjim4321 says:

    Hospitality. Not in terms of “entertaining” but in tune with the first and third scripture.

    Related the justice issues around immigration reform. Dignity of the human person not limited by political boundaries.

    Introduced the bishops’ website “justiceforimmigrants.org.”

    Our attitudes and opinions regarding the moral issues around immigration reform should be founded on facts and not myth. See what our bishops are teaching.

  6. OrthodoxChick says:

    EF Mass (Deo Gratias for allowing me to get there). Fr. focused on one particular element of St. Paul’s Epistle for today; namely that when we grumble and complain, we are actually telling God that we know better than Him. Fr. gave us a brief synopsis of the life of St. Polycarp as someone who, even in the face of matyrdom, looked back on his life with gratitude to God (rather than complaints) for all of the blessings he had received from Him.

  7. AttiaDS says:

    The FSSP Transitional Deacon preached on how God loved the Israelites, his chosen people, and they did not love Him back. Saint Paul says this is written for our edification. TD said it is easy to love God and that every time we look upon an image of Our Lord, especially if it depicts something from His passion or death, we show Him our love. We show God our love by our time (and something else). The damned cry out if only they had one more hour, so that they may make reparation to God, but they will NEVER have that hour. The blessed, if they could cry, would cry because of the time lost where they could have gotten more graces. The saints always had the next life in their minds.

  8. Lin says:

    Father Z……Perhaps you would post your sermons for us to read? Our sermon was on hospitality and how Abraham was given a son for his hospitality (?). And Martha should have skipped the dishes (?). And how God does not look at the color of our skin. I was just waiting for him to weigh in on the Zimmerman controversy. I thank GOD that he did not. For the prayers of the faithful the response was GOD of hospitality hear our prayer (?). Seems a little pagan to me. I always sympathize with Martha when I hear this reading. Not because of her complaining but because hospitality usually involves some effort, i.e., preparing and/or serving refreshments at a minimum.

  9. Supertradmum says:

    Lin, the passage is misunderstood by most priests. Jesus was not correcting Martha for cooking and serving, as even nuns in monasteries do that. He was correcting Martha for being upset with Mary, as she was listening to Jesus, which even Martha should have been doing. The contemplative life is higher and must precede the active life. If we do not have intense prayer, we shall not be doing God’s work, but our own. Prayer first, that is listening to God, and then, action. Martha learned, as she is St. Martha. We are both, Marys and Marthas, but Marys first.

  10. Jeannie_C says:

    Elizabeth D:
    I certainly appreciated your contribution today about the value of blessing sacramentals. In my experience, my rosaries, medals, crucifixes, once blessed are set apart from my other belongings as now they are, as you write, aids to the reception of grace.

  11. Kathleen10 says:

    Our Mass experience was mostly good today. A fine priest with put as much Latin into our NO Mass as I imagine possible, and it was beautiful. He also kindly blessed my new rosary beads after Mass, which I appreciated. Now, the hard work, for me. Increasing my prayer life is job one right now, so the homily on Martha and Mary (I guess I missed out, no mention of hospitality, immigration, or social justice today, or God forbid, the debacle in Florida). Just about the necessity of putting Jesus first, because without that focus on Him, nothing else can proceed from true love.

  12. Kathleen10 says:

    “who” put as much Latin into our NO Mass….I still don’t edit. don’t ask me why. sorry.

  13. greasemonkey says:

    That the account of Sodom & Gamorrah was a story about hospitality.

  14. Priam1184 says:

    Our priest, a very good homilist who hails from Central Africa, spoke about how to be like Mary at the feet of Christ. About how the same Christ whose feet Mary sat at is present in the Tabernacle and at Eucharistic Adoration and how this is an opportunity we should avail ourselves of. He also spoke of prayer and in particular praying the Scriptures through lectio divina (though he didn’t use those words) and the Rosary, and how this puts in the proper place to receive the Word of God as Mary did.

  15. Elizabeth D says:

    Mass #2: Novus Ordo homily by excellent Cathedral rector was a critique of Nostra Aetate! That was the whole homily, why Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document on non-Christian religions, is overly optimistic. It wrongly avoided pointing out that good elements in other religions are PREPARATION for people to be able to accept Jesus Christ, and wrongly avoided pointing out what is deficient in other religions (and he got specific about some key defects of hinduism, buddhism, and islam). However, he said, the more recent popes have filled in for this deficiency, for instance John Paul II had some words in _Crossing the Threshold of Hope_ criticizing Buddhist Nirvana, their notion of “salvation,” but by freeing oneself from suffering through dissociation from the reality of the world, also Pope Benedict had that great Regensburg Lecture on Islam and the problem of their perspective that defending God’s absolute sovereignty means God is not bound to act rationally or reasonably but can even want people to act irrationally or cruelly to fulfill his will. I spent the rest of the Mass thanking God for this priest. This priest also gave a homily this spring critiquing the VII document on The Church in the Modern World as overly optimistic, and this homily was following up on that.

  16. hungry_papist says:

    I heard the director of admissions at my theologate tell us that all our future priestly activity, unless it is rooted in personal, silent, adoring prayer with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament–preferably in a daily Holy Hour–would be empty. He said that only if we are deeply rooted in personal prayer can our pastoral actions “explode” with Christ’s love. He said that if we’re tempted as seminarians to put off our holy hour due to school work, to choose the holy hour. He said that in the first reading, Abraham’s wife served, but without complaining and without trying to control others–and for this reason she was the one who was blessed with fruitfulness. Martha was rebuked, not because she served, but because she was dissatisfied with Mary’s choice, and tried to tell Christ what to do.

    Awesome homily. I am blessed to have him as a formator.

  17. hungry_papist says:

    I realize the my sentence was abstruse :”I heard the director of admissions at my theologate tell us that all our future priestly activity, unless it is rooted in personal, silent, adoring prayer with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament–preferably in a daily Holy Hour–would be empty.”

    Replace it with : “If we want to be effective priests, we must pray before the Blessed Sacrament…every day, for about an hour.”

  18. Poustinik1 says:

    Father Z it would be wonderful if you would share your Sunday Sermons with us in written form. It would help especially those who are meaningful homily deprived. I feel blessed at my Parish but sometimes I have to attend elsewhere and after the homily I have to ask Jesus, “What just happened?”

  19. Bea says:

    Elizabeth D, you are so lucky.
    Yes! Fr. Z. it would be nice (more than nice) if you could reprint your sermons here for us starving in other parts of the country/world.

    Supertradmum went to your blog. excellent post
    I can relate to: Quote:
    “in the 1970s, the bishops instructed, and the nuns complied, that parents were to be discouraged in teaching religion in the home.”
    About that same time we were getting the same B..aloney S..tory when they said “we are the experts” Hah! Some of those children are divorced and re-married and/or lost their Faith.

    Yes Fr. Z please reprint your homilies here. Since you call for “good points” there is nothing I can relate here, at least we would have your homilies

    greasemonkey:
    Our visiting priest had the same slant last week. He must have been reading the same book/article/whatever — as your homilist did today. I guess “lack of hospitality” deserves the same fire and brimstone as other “faults”. Today he spoke of Jesus breaking the rules by being a single man visiting a woman’s home. I guess Lazarus and the apostles don’t enter into the picture here. Hospitality was again the big issue here. Mary was not being hospitable so lets examine our conscience and see how inhospitable we are.

    Dear, Lord, with all the other ad-libs during the liturgical prayers, I felt as if I had not even attended Mass today. My eyes are dried from all the tears but my heart still weeps.

  20. ocleirbj says:

    Today I attended my first ever Extraordinary Form Mass [a topic for a comment somewhere else!]. The gospel wasn’t Mary and Martha, but Jesus cleansing the Temple. It was a long, well-delivered sermon that hit just about all of the points that I think of as “typically traditional”, as well as commenting on the readings. Every action of Jesus in the gospels is perfect, because he is perfect. He was correcting the money-changers out of love: love for the Father, because he wanted the Father’s house to be as he wanted it, a house of prayer; and love for the money-changers themselves, because he wanted them to love God and his temple as they should be loved. Later, during a rather technical discussion of how to gain merit, which I didn’t quite follow, the priest discussed how to “practice the presence of God” by making a deliberate offering of each action of our day, even [or even especially] if it’s just an unwanted chore. That looks quite simple and familiar written down, but as he was saying it, I was feeling the strength of the challenge.
    N.B. I’ve always felt for Martha in today’s other story. It is hard being the one feeling the responsibility for getting dinner on time, especially for an honoured guest, and watching the very people who ought to know better just sitting around rather than lending a hand. I suppose if Martha had joined them all in the sitting room there would have been a lot of edifying discussion, and they would have sent out for pizza afterwards. :-) I like the idea that her error was criticism of Jesus rather than of her sister. Maybe she should have asked him what she ought to do before assuming that he wanted dinner right away and going ahead into the kitchen. Then, whatever he asked her to do would be, for her, what sitting at his feet was for Mary, a time of complete grace.

  21. Lin says:

    greasemonkey and Bea……….
    Our pastor gave us the same Sodom and Gommorah was all about hospitality and NOT about homosexuality sermon, too! He was reading the same book, article, or web site as you homilist. I’m sure there is a web site for progressive priests. I don’t think he believes in the existence of hell. All we need is love and hospitality. I crave a meaningful sermon!

  22. iPadre says:

    Our theology/ philosophy on suffering is unlike any other. Through baptism our sufferings take on new meaning. Uniting & offering our sufferings in love to Our Lord can transform us and the world around us. Our suffering has power. I shared a personal story of suffering and how it can change others, and indeed has. In this, the priest has a unique role in this as victima sacerdos.

  23. Fr. Thomas Kocik says:

    Lin: “I crave a meaningful sermon!”

    Then move on! I cannot believe—what with all the orthodox/traditional priests ordained over the past 10-15 years (the “JP II / Benedict XVI” generation)—that the situation is as abysmal as it was in the 1970s & ’80s. If you are not being fed where you are, then shake the dust from your feet, as it were, and move on. You are not obligated to attend Mass at any particular church. I don’t mean to come across as harsh, but really, there are many more options for liturgical and homiletic edification today than in the not-too-distant past. Traditionally minded faithful tend to network. Ask around, shop around (yes, the consumer mentality can work in our favor), and move on.

  24. RafkasRoad says:

    Dear ‘Greg the Obscure’ at *2,

    Likewise, I attended a local NO parish for the first time ever, four minutes by car from my home Yesterday (Sunday) (a departure from my Maronite observance), and was greatly impressed. A dear friend who had been staying with me having travelled from interstate was also deeply impressed by this parish’s Sunday service (one of three Sunday services). The church holds around 300 and was full, the demographic and ethnic makeup a diverse one – common for my part of the world. The quiet reverence was striking even during the greeting of the piece. the soft clickety-clack of rosary beads throughout the service was there but not intrusive. All the altar servers were boys or men who according to my friend executed their roles with reverence and absolute zero disrespect of any kind. Not sure if there was incense at any point, but we had bells!! :-). The prayers of the faithful were on-target and beautifully offered by a very well spoken young fellow around twelve years of age. We had the Mary and Martha sermon, but Fr. reminded the congregation that in order to authentically live out our Catholic Christian faith, we cannot solely lean on merely being ‘nice’ or a ‘good person’. Rather, it also essentially requires a life intimately connected to God through frequent prayer and meditation upon God the Word (I took this to clearly mean study of Holy Scripture). The clamouring of our ridiculously busy lives with the noise of technology ever increasingly invading every corner of our days cannot be used as an excuse for neglect of the above. It also necessitates quiet, yes, QUIET coming away from the everyday every day into silence in which we pray and interact with our Saviour Jesus Christ through prayer, contemplation, and meditation upon God as Word – ‘Be Still and know that I am God’. he actually stood up for Mary but reminded us that Martha’s role was essential as well, pointing out that it wasn’t so much the duties she was engaged in that were a problem, because they were necessary and good, but her anxiety and attitude in their execution. We need in our parish life and in our own personal lives to have, and be both (I read into this Matt 23: 23). A very good sermon, I thought.

    No Holding hands through the Lord’s Prayer’, and though we queued for communion and there were several EMHC’s, I dropped to my knees and received on the tongue; the young man who reverently served me didn’t skip a beat and gave me our Lord on the tongue in a very respectful, efficient and practiced manner; he’d either done this before or had been shown, and was expected to do this properly. The vast majority of EMHC’s though there weren’t many, were lads, not lasses. The precious blood was available, but I find this can be awkward without something to rest against whilst kneeling. I was not alone in mantill’ing either, though my choice of scarlet might have been a bit ‘fast’ :-)

    Apparently, the crucifix is integral in the stained glass windows behind the altar, with another crucifix on the altar itself. They have two side chappels, one for Our Lady, and another for the church’s patron saint with kneeling and sitting areas for devotees to pray and meditate, plus candles ( electric, for overarching OH&S concerns I expect, but the baptismal font in the centre of the aisle was amazing; two tiered that acts like a fountain when in full use, but with a good supply of clean, fresh water for folk to either anoint themselves or fill up their holy water vessels from (which several folk did after mass was ended. At times, the priest faced us, or faced the tabernacle. Of interest, there was no music, nothing; no singing, no instrumental; but this was NOT diminishing in any way; the liberal use of silence throughout the mass was amazing and very reverent. Even the children were excellently behaved. After mass, my friend and I needed things blessed; medals, rosaries, holy water vessels that we’d filled up at home prior, and the priest, with genuine joy and good nature, did this, and blessed my friend for her plane trip she’d be taking later in the afternoon. He prayed an English ‘general’ blessing, even though I had a benedict rosary, but I trust in the efficacy of his prayers as the local latin mass (FSSP) makes itself poorly accessible as my friend, my husband and I found out frompersonal experience two nights prior. The priest is a relatively young man; my friend put him at roughly mid forties. They have daily mass everyday but Monday and seem to have a fairly active community life. Re confession, this church has it either at 9:30 on Sat mornings (after the Sat morning mass; why after is beyond me, but well…) and at around 5PM Sat afternoons. Its not confession during mass as I’m used to, but its regular and accessible. My friend spotted both confessional booths (the usual sort) and two chairs against the wall beneath a crucifix so folk could choose their mode of engagement. There is only one priest to serve this community. Please pray for Fr. G. who serves Christ, guides and supports His followers, and evidently pours all of himself into God’s service. He’s a good man of God.

    Oh, and not one clown, banner, inappropriate song or even better, full acceptance of me; no apparently no dirty looks or murmourings about me my guide dog or my means of engagement with worship or reception of my Lord.

    Blessings,

    Aussie Maronite.

  25. dianecee says:

    We had a visiting priest this weekend who mentioned that his mother had always wanted to rip that page out of the Bible that talked about Martha and Mary. It was downhill from there as he went on to mention “Rembert” in the Eucharistic Prayer. ouch.

  26. Fr. Thomas Kocik says: I don’t mean to come across as harsh, but really, there are many more options for liturgical and homiletic edification today than in the not-too-distant past.

    Not in all dioceses. There are a lot more good catechetical materials out there, thanks to the internet; but some dioceses (geographically very large and therefore not easy to travel outside of) are still wastelands.

  27. disco says:

    The priest gave a sermon about hell. He read from the catechism, quoted the Fatima visionaries, and recounted an anecdote of the meeting between sr jacinta and the future pope jp I.

    It was a very sobering topic, to say the least. He didn’t use these words exactly but I took away from it that it’s difficult to save souls if you do not tell them what they need to be saved from, namely hell.

  28. nemo says:

    What is the sermon about Sodom and Gommorah that relates to hospitality? The Bible is very clear that God was displeased with the evil behavior of the men of Sodom. They even wanted Lot to hand over the two visiting angels to them. How does this relate to hospitality? What am I missing?

  29. pookiesmom says:

    Our newly ordained FSSP priest, taking his cue from the Epistle, Cor.10 6-13, gave a wonderful homily on the Sacrament of Penance and then after Mass gave all who wished his first priestly blessing. We are so fortunate here in the Archdiocese of Seattle! Welcome, Father Charles Vreeland!!

  30. zag4christ says:

    Our homily at the early Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral in Spokane, WA was given by the Deacon Paul Herric. He noted that in the Church there are “Martha’s” who zip around getting all kinds of things done, most very necessary, some unnecessary, and there are the “Mary’s” who primarily contemplate and pray, at the foot of the Cross, and whose prayers are most necessary. He proposed that in many ways we all are part Martha and part Mary, but we should all have at our base, Mary. It makes our Martha part most true. He relayed a story from his past as a high school theology teacher. He decided one year to take his senior students and require, but also led them in one hour per week in quiet repose in front of the Eucharist or the Tabernacle. As the school year went on, he noted that when he would occasionally stop in the student chapel, he would find that some of the students had taken it upon themselves to be with the Lord on their own time. One of his former students from that class later told him that she did not learn much Church history from him, but her love of Christ had grown.
    Peace and God bless

  31. pinoytraddie says:

    I didn’t go to Sunday Mass because I had No driver.

    But Yesterday’s EF Mass at a Jesuit University was all about Vocations.

  32. Gail F says:

    We are human “beings” not human “doers.” What we do is important, but not as important as what we are. When we substitute our actions for prayer and love of God, we have given up the better part. Doing is important, but sit at the feet of Christ first, even if only for a little while.

  33. Hank Igitur says:

    The most powerful sacramental is the St Benedict Medal. It is embedded in the crucifix which is used for exorcisms, I recommend it most strongly to all Catholics. Also be devoted to the brown scapular and the Miraculous medal, amongst the many other important sacramentals, such as correctly blessed Holy water, the Agnus Dei and the five in one and many other scapulars. The importance of these holy sacramentals prevails, despite what some misguided or misinformed 21st century folk may say. They are powerful aids to sanctification and repel Satan at every step.

  34. wmeyer says:

    Fr. Kocik, with all due respect, in my own archdiocese, it is not all that easy to find a priest whose homilies are aligned with Church teaching. And at 64, I am not fond of hearing the phrase “biological solution”, as it may be that I will be gone before the priests whose homilies set my teeth on edge.

  35. The Masked Chicken says:

    Trying to turn off italics (there is a faulty close tag in one of the comments, above).

    The Chicken

  36. The Masked Chicken says:

    Father Z,

    A little help… I still see italics

    The Chicken

  37. VexillaRegis says:

    The italics apperared at 9.06 GMT.

  38. The Masked Chicken says:

    No, VexillaRegis, it appears in iPadre’s post at 8:53 pm. I looked at the page source. He has a . at the end of victima sacredos.

    Sorry, iPadre.

    The Chicken

  39. The Masked Chicken says:

    Opps, I should not have tried to posted the html mistake. It added another layer of improper italics. :( Anyways, iPadre and now, my post, above, are the sources of the italics.

    The Chicken

  40. wmeyer, perhaps you and I (a bit older still) need to take a longer view. In the year 2000, Fr. John McCloskey made a prediction in the form of a letter written in 2030 to a young priest born in 2005. In part:

    “Arguably the worst aspect of the distortion of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council was the abuse of the liturgy. . . . The sacrileges, blasphemies, irreverence, and down right ugly bad taste has gradually petered out during the years of your childhood. . . . Now that the priesthood and the religious life are generally healthy in belief and spirit, the Mass being celebrated the way the Council intended in order to give glory to God, foster devotion in the laity through their active participation. While the Tridentine rite in all its glory continues to be celebrated in some churches, every parish has a Latin Mass every Sunday morning, along with other vernacular Masses, celebrated with reverence, a well prepared homily, sung chant, incense, and beauty in appointments that leaves no one among us who remember the old Mass nostalgic for it.”
    http://www.catholicity.com/mccloskey/2030.html

    In 2000, I felt this might be too optimistic. But now I think we’re ahead of schedule with the fine young priests and seminarians now being turned out. So you and I only need hang on till we’re 80 or 90.

  41. wmeyer says:

    Henry, you may be right. However, I would find it much easier to hang on if I had a nearby TLM parish, such as your own. My best option for now is an 83 mile round trip, and that’s just too much to make it “my parish”.

    For now, I could make do with banishment of post-V-II hymnals, freedom from ad libs in the liturgy, and consistently good homilies. Used to have that, in a particular local priest, who has since been reassigned. And our “traditional choir” seems to have lost sight of traditional for the summer season, gifting us yesterday with “Gather us in”….

  42. MF says:

    We need to be hospitable, we need to welcome others, we need to mend relationships – yada, yada, yada.. So sick of this homily as we seem to hear it ad nausem in its various forms. Add to that the variety of alterations of the text including just ignoring some of the new translations and you get the typical Sunday Mass at our parish. I feel like writing the pastor and telling him that his changing the words of the Mass is very inhospitable and unwelcoming to me…

  43. Chick says:

    At an OF Mass. A slightly different take on the Martha-Mary story. The first and most important aspect of hospitality is to listen to the needs of the guest. Jesus is on his journey to Jerusalem, to his crucifixion.
    With his death facing him, he stops at the home of friends he dearly loves. He wants to pour out his heart to them. He is not concerned with a meal, but with sharing his pain, having someone listen to him. Mary chose the greater part of hospitality in this instance.

  44. pannw says:

    Nemo,

    I’m no expert, but I have seen these arguments from pro-homosexualists, that Sodom was destroyed not for sexual sin, but because the people were not ‘hospitable’. I believe the people pushing this ‘theory’ get it from Ezechiel 16, where it says, “Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom, thy sister, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance, and the idleness of her, and of her daughters: and they did not put forth their hand to the needy, and to the poor.” And they leave off the last sentence of the particular passage, “And they were lifted up, and committed abominations before me: and I took them away as thou hast seen.” See, they argue, it wasn’t the abominations before God that did it, it was that they were inhospitable to the poor or that the abominations were the inhospitality. (Demanding Lot deliver the Angels so they could sodomize them is pretty inhospitable.) Of course, when you read the whole chapter, or read St. Paul in Romans 1 where he explains exactly what happened, (not only to Sodom, but what is happening to us right now) it is true that the homosexual acts weren’t the first problem, but the end result of the denying of God and changing His truth into lies….“For this cause, God delivered them up to shameful affections….” And then God has had enough.

    Of course, then you have people twisting the line “God delivered them up…” to say that ‘see, God made them that way.’ When in fact, He simply removes His protection from us after we spit in His eye one too many times, for example with 55 million murders of His most innocent…and our own evil natures take over. It’s all right there in Romans 1, but they refuse to admit it, or they’ll say Saint Paul wasn’t speaking for Christ, that he was just a sexually repressed fundamentalist, etc. Never mind that we are witnessing it play out exactly the way Saint Paul warned, in our own country and world…

    These people wickedly take a single line of Sacred Scripture and twist it to their purposes, leaving aside the complete context of the chapter and Scripture as a whole. It’s an evil thing. As they say, even the devil can quote Scripture.

    God have mercy.

  45. Denise says:

    Father marked the 45th anniversary (actual date is July 25) of Humanae Vitae with powerful catechesis on the Church’s teaching on contraception. It was more than just “Don’t do that”. It covered the consequences of contraception–physical, emotional, spiritual, cultural as well as the benefits of living according to God’s plan. He connected the dots between contraception and divorce, abortion, promiscuity, domestic violence, etc. He encouraged everyone to read or re-read Humane Vitae and placed booklets with the text of the encyclical at all church exits and encouraged everyone to pick up a copy free of charge. There was a large display about NFP in the narthex and after Mass volunteers were manning it to answer questions. Lots of people were stopping by the table and getting information.

  46. AttiaDS says:

    wmeyer, Please do not think 83 miles round trip is too much. Unless you are on a ~really~ limited income (unemployment), please consider going to that parish, at least two Sundays each month. I can promise you you will not regret it and the graces you will gain will far outweigh any time and money you think you may be inconvenienced.

    Before I moved to a different state, I would drive, every Sunday (more or less, there was a time when I did go to the OF parish 5 minutes away because I didn’t have a job), 1.5-2 hours one way. The church that the FSSP rented was about 90 miles one way from my home. I would be away from my home about half of Sunday.

    But, the pastor I had at this time mentioned on The Feast of The Circumcision 2011 that it would be for our good (or something) that we go to Mass one other time each week (at least, probably). Because he said this, I would drive 1h20m-1.5 hours from my job on Friday to get to the 19:00h Mass that night. I would then drive the 1.5-2h drive back home. I did this for as long as I could. When finances were too tight, I would do this two or three Fridays each month.

    Please consider the Sacrifice and what you wouldn’t be missing: improperly vested priests; questionable or heretical homilies; poppy or dreary songs; the responsorial hymn, where people speak it in a drudging monotone, or where one has to endure the cantor’s focus; other people besides Father, Deacon, Sub-deacon, and altar boys up on the altar/sharing the spotlight; the focus being not Jesus; The Kiss of Peace among the laity; having Mass end and people deciding it is time to talk amongst themselves; noise; people leaving after receiving Holy Communion; etc.

    I think if you went to the Mass 41 miles away, your soul would be more at peace. I don’t know who would offer the Mass (hopefully he would be in good standing with Rome), but it has been my experience that the FSSP typically hears confessions for about one half hour before Masses. These men are committed/dedicated to saving your soul. Again, I don’t know who offers the EF closest to you, but whichever priest/group does, has to love God and obedience very much and takes sacrifice seriously.

    Please consider what you would be gaining by going to the other Mass.

  47. skeeton says:

    I’ve been Catholic for 12 years now, and this weekend, I heard something for the first time!

    In the Diocese of Jackson (MS), I heard my first ever homily agitating for a “conversation” (whatever that entails) on the injustice and inequality that women suffer when it comes to “ministry” in the Church, and the Mary / Martha reading was used as the launching pad for this exercise. It was impossible to miss the thinly veiled suggestion that women should be ordained. The homily took place in a suburban parish of the capital city, Jackson. Interestingly, this parish has a female “lay ecclesial minister” assigned to oversee the parish. Both the sign by the road and the parish website list this woman above and ahead of the assigned priests, who are both listed merely as “sacramental ministers.” What happened to being ordained priest, prophet AND king?!

    Mind you, this is the same Mississippi with astronomically high rates (as compared to other U.S. states) of poverty, joblessness, homelessness, obesity, illiteracy, teen pregnancy, and children born out of wedlock. And this alleged injustice and inequality suffered by women is so bad – and solving it is so essential to the salvation of souls – that a priest feels the need to preach a homily during Mass to suggest the reopening of a discussion that’s been closed for nearly 20 years? Nevermind the fact that shortly before Holy Communion was distributed, there were five females and two only males in the sanctuary. Some inequality there!

    And sadly, this is the same Mississippi that was recently publicized on this blog and others for not having a single, regular traditional Mass anywhere for the small number of Catholics who call this state home. Hmmm… I wonder if the lack of TLM availability and this goofy theology is connected somehow?

  48. VexillaRegis says:

    Chicken: Oops, I didn’t see victima sacerdos! My apologies to F. Kosick ! :-)

  49. Bill69 says:

    Our new associate pastor expounded upon the Gospel reading and Martha’s consternation towards Mary remarking on the insight of Our Lady’s last recorded words in Holy Scripture whereby She provides a glimpse into the solution to the apparent dilemma presented: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5) requires that activism be built upon an attentive contemplation of Christ, the better part, which must always precede the busyness of “works”. Father juxtaposed this “both/and” understanding of the popular Gospel passage with what he noted as the “either/or” interpretation laced throughout sermons over the past several decades which he felt missed the broader point to be made about an authentically integrated life in the Church (instead often resulting in cheap jokes by pastors at the expense of one or both of the holy sisters of Bethany without much plumbing of the fruits of devout contemplation – my editorial).

    On another note – I am curious as to the identification of Mary of Magdala as one in the same person as Mary of Bethany. What are the compelling arguments and sources for / against this position?

  50. I had a great desire to hear Father Vreeland’s first homily at his new assignment in Seattle, and thank the person who posted a brief recap.

    Our local priest’s homily extolled the virtue of prayer, and especially of sitting in silence with the Lord. Father admitted that in his own 14 years of Catholic education, no one ever taught him how to pray, and that he expected that most of us in the pews were faced with the same lack of formation. Father announced his resolution to teach us how to pray, and that he would be offering a parish mission in September. He urged every person to commit to spending a minimum of 10 or 15 minutes each day with the Bible leading to silent prayer in God’s presence. Father promised that learning to listen to God will lead to freedom from habitual sin and help us grow in holiness.

    Father shared that his inspiration to teach people how to pray followed reading”Soul of the Apostolate” by Jean-Baptiste Chautard (a book which Bishop Vasa highly recommends).

  51. Bea says:

    nemo says:
    “What am I missing?”

    I felt the same way until I realized “Hey, I’m not missing anything. It’s the homilist that is missing the whole thing” I guess in “hospitality” Lot should have handed over the angels??? Can things get any crazier?

    Miss Anita Moore OP
    I feel the same way. The hour and a half (3 round trip) doesn’t seem like much but with my husbands health and traveling we seldom make the trip. In the meantime we starve or feed ourselves with books.

    Gail F
    We are human “beings” not human “doers.”
    That was beautiful.
    Best way to describe the Martha/Mary issue that I’ve ever heard.
    My husband and I always disagree with this one reading.

  52. MAJ Tony says:

    Fr’s Sermon was from the NO “Mary & Martha” gospel. Fr. told the story of a date he had “once upon a time” and how at the end of the date, he and his date didn’t know any more about each other than they did before because his date was too busy running around talking to everyone else. Apparently she was quite the socialite. He tied it in to the gospel reading, correlating Martha and his one-time date. He put it in the context of spending time in contemplation with the Lord, and noted how we can be too busy to listen to the Lord, going about our “life.”

  53. Lin says:

    Dear Father Thomas Kocik……Perhaps my husband and I should leave. We could go to another church within 30-40 miles from our small town. My concern has been for the elderly in our parish of which there are many. Most are not able to travel that far. And they dare not anger our current pastor for fear of needing his spiritual assistance. I have with utmost respect approached the office of the bishop about this matter and the response has been less than satisfactory to date. I have not given up hope. All good things take time and GOD’s grace. Meanwhile, I read many books written by saints and about saints. They struggled with many of the same issues and did not lose faith! I also pray for our shepherds daily. Without you there is no Eucharist! God bless you and thank you for your comments!

  54. Lin says:

    Dear Father Thomas Kocik……Purchased you book, Loving and Living the Mass, on my Kindle. Great read! God bless you!

  55. St. Epaphras says:

    Wmeyer, you could go to the FSSP parish in your state, couldn’t you? I’d so love to go to Holy Mass there. Much longer drive than yours though :-) Some things are worth it.

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