Was there an especially good point in the sermon you heard for your Sunday Mass?
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Coat of Arms by D Burkart
St. John Eudes
- Prosper of Aquitaine (+c.455), De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio contra Collatorem 22.61
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
- Fulton Sheen
Therefore, ACTIVATE YOUR CONFIRMATION and get to work!
- C.S. Lewis
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"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
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Gratitude doesn’t link us to the GIFT, but to the GIVER.
The parable of the 10 lepers and only one returned to give thanks. How often do we thank God for all that He gives us? Not often enough.
Our Lord enjoys giving us good gifts but He also enjoys hearing us thank Him. There are so many occasions when we could do so. Sometimes when we’re in a hurry, all the traffic signals are green. Sometimes when we carry an umbrella on an iffy day, it really does rain.
EF Mass for 13th Sunday after Pentecost. Father preached on the Epistle to the Galatians. The Jews misunderstood justification: instead of the Law pointing them toward salvation, it became an end unto itself. The promises made to Abraham preceded the Mosaic Law by several hundred years. “The Law reveals diseases without taking them away” (St. Augustine). It is like getting an MRI, it doesn’t heal you; it just helps you understand where your sickness lies. In the same manner the Law shows us our sins and hopefully leads us to Christ who is the only healer. Jesus was that seed that was the descendant of Abraham through whom the promises made to Abraham would be fulfilled.
I focused on the dangers/rewards of truth-telling, and exhorted the faithful to step up and take responsibility for their own holiness and the holiness of the Church. Lord knows the clergy and religious haven’t done such a great job lately. . .
http://www.hancaquam.blogspot.com/2014/09/breaking-conspiracy-of-silence.html
Fr. Philip Neri, OP (Order of Pistols)
EF Mass, 13th Sunday after Pentecost, Msgr. wove a beautiful homily tying September as a very Marian month to giving thanks to God (exemplified by Samaritan leper) for all His graces and love, and the bird’s eye perspective that the most important of the virtues is love and love of neighbor. Concluding that how can one gain the world and lose their soul, be damned to hell for the lack of love of friend and enemy alike? Why would we not be aware of this? Very moving.
A bit broad spectrum, but fired up. Touched on ISIS and its Western recruiting as a natural consequence of the culture of death and obstinate public atheism.
Stopped short of going all Deus Vult, but certainly did not pull punches. This from a priest with a later calling who’d been a rock musician previosuly.
“We are all spiritual lepers in some way.”
The homily also touched on the importance of thanking God, which the priest said is one of the reasons we celebrate Mass on Sundays and every day.
Father instructed us on the important and difficult responsibility of fraternal correction.
Heard a nice story about a truck driver who regularly showed up early for work, stood outside alone in the parking lot, and said a few prayers to himself. Within a month, he had a dozen men coming to work early just so they could pray together. Been going on for years since then.
Quoting Mellville:
Moby Dick Chapter 9 “…Shipmates, it is a two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living God…”
Father asked us to “pray for your clergy!” I shall.
My homily: ‘Conversion is hard. But it’s necessary.’
I knew this was going to be a good one in the Ordinary Form, with Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another and If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault between you and him alone in the readings. We did not hear a Kumbaya-love-is-the-answer-to-everything®™© homily.
On the contrary, Father pointed out how fraternal correction is a sign of love. That we should desire that our brothers and sisters to be saved because we love them. He even used concrete examples for when we might speak to these people: cases of abortion, adultery and missing Mass on Sunday or holy days of obligation–mortal sins. (He keeps reminding us that those who did not attend Mass on the recent holy day should not present themselves for communion without first going to confession.) But before we try to remove the splinter from their eye, we should be certain we have removed the plank from our own.
This is a priest who mentions the reality of hell and the need for confession and contrition often, yet he is not a bombastic fire and brimstone preacher. He also offers regularly scheduled hours for confession outside those on the church schedule. (And he celebrates the EF but we have none on the schedule in our parish.)
Sadly, after Mass I heard some discussion among several of my dear brothers and sisters (this is a small church community–we are like family) that they didn’t get much out of the homily (??? I don’t understand that!!!) and they were thinking of attending the main parish church instead of our mission church so they could attend Masses celebrated by their favorite priest. (He is a good man, too, but does not concentrate so much on sin and the reality of hell.)
I am praying for these people because, as I said, they are like family. I pray that Father’s words and the words from the readings will get through to them. And I pray for Father and all priests every day.
At the EF Mass, Father said sin was leprosy of the soul; the Sacrament of Penance is the cure. As leprosy grows unseen in the body for years, so sin can become habitual, without frequent confession.
At the OF Mass a few hours earlier (different parish), Father said we are gathered together and therefore Christ is present, and by a miracle Christ will come to the altar. The sermon could have been given in any number of protestant churches, to rousing “Amens” from the congregation.
Father Robert McTeigue, SJ, delivered a fervorino for the ages to the 10:00 am Mass at the parish in Ave Maria, Florida. Challenging us to be alert watchmen and not simply those who watch things unfold. To refuse to accept nonsense and untruths that are wrapped up as “catholic”. Father is a good friend and I can’t help but compare him frequently in my mind to dear Father Z. Everyone will enjoy his rejoinder to the fool at TIME who has no clue about women Religious but wrote about them anyway. This is his very first weekly column on Aleteia. http://www.aleteia.org/en/religion/article/why-would-any-woman-choose-religious-life-5839118508490752
That there are no accidents, only appointments, where we have the opportunity to live our faith.
Wonderful homily by our deacon; mentioning our ( as prophets) responsibility to speak the truth with love ( even in fraternal correction). Also , deacon mentioned now is an excellent time to pray to Our lady of America. I was not aware of this particular apparition in the US. I did some research and recommend that others do the same if they are unfamiliar with OLof A.
pax et bonum
Sioux City cathedral–NO Mass by a young priest who also celebrates the EF–he talked about correction as a necessary topic because of the reality of sin & pushed hard on measuring ourselves (and sometimes others–fraternal correction and witness to the culture of death) by God’s standards of holiness and not a watered-down version. He didn’t give concrete examples, but halfway through his homily, I asked God to show me and of course, that prayer *always* gets answered. Really, if there had been confessions during Mass, I would have gotten up and gone right then. I don’t know if he had a strong conclusion, but for a conversion of heart, he sure got the job done.
EF: If you were healed of leprosy you could never forget it as long as you lived. Having all your sins forgiven is even bigger. Christ’s death for you is bigger. How grateful are you for that?