Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Was there a good point or two in the sermon you heard for your Mass of Sunday obligation?

Let us know.

For my part, I spoke about different kinds of suffering and about the fact that everything we might endure here in this vale of tears is but a blink of an eye and nothing compared to the bliss of heaven.   I spoke then also for bit about what heaven might be like, though it is mysterious.  We know by Catholic Faith that the bliss of heaven will be complete and eternal.  I think that the happiness of heaven, and the sight of God in whose image we are made, will be so overwhelming that God will continue to give us the graces we need to bear the sheer overwhelming joy.  God will forever show us more about ourselves, since we are in His image, and we will eternally journey toward Him in fascination and ecstasy for He will always remain Mystery.

Therefore we must persevere in enduring our temporal sufferings, which come from without and which we endure within especially when we suffer because we are resisting temptations.  We should strive to relieve the suffering of others as best we can even as we endeavor to bear our own.  Staying close to the sacraments and persevering in this way – will we come to the happiness of heaven.

When I say that we should preach about the Four Last Things, I mean it.  That means also preaching about the joy of heaven.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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

  1. Prayerful says:

    Preached on Luke 5:1-11.

    Fr started with how all the skill of Peter and the others as fisherman were as naught until Jesus helped them. He then focussed on how since Vatican 2 when a human-centred optimism entered the Church there has been a love for the appearance of activity through every sort of committee. Yet if the Lord does not help, this activity is futile.

  2. wanda says:

    We actually heard the words sin and confession. The priest is helping us out while here in these USA for studies.

  3. Wiktor says:

    The Church’s teaching is a bright light that may seem too bright for those in the darkness, but we should never try to put a lampshade or a filter on that light to please them.

  4. Gregg the Obscure says:

    Having gone to confession yesterday, this morning I visited the Cathedral so as to avail myself of the holy doors there. The homily was about confession. The words “sin” and “evil” were frequent – and not just as something far away, but something in each of us.

    Bonus: the entrance and communion antiphons were sung. A great step in the right direction.

  5. bmbain16 says:

    Fr. Hough III at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham (Ordinariate) in Houston preached today about the need for priests to administer the Sacraments as Mother Church intends. He sounded very much like Fr. Z. He said priests must follow the rubrics because the laity have a right to be certain of the validity of the Sacraments. He also lamented the fact that many try to change the rubrics in order to be relevant. It was refreshing to hear this from a pulpit on a Sunday.

    [He sounds very wise.   o{]:¬) ]

  6. misternaser says:

    This was our pastor’s final Sunday before transferring to his new parish assignment, and he spoke at length about confession, including the disconnect between long Communion lines and short lines for the confessional. It was a very good homily.

  7. Ed the Roman says:

    Particular and general judgements in some detail.

  8. iPadre says:

    Some are perverting the Year of Mercy by saying: “All are welcome,” as if all were not already welcome. That is why we are there, we sinners are all welcome to answer Our Lord’s call to “repent and believe” “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” There is no mercy without repentance. Talked about the great examples of repentance of David and Mary Magdalene. Two great sinners, who became great saints. We throw away our Baptismal anointing and gifts, but we have the gift of confession to bring us back.

  9. jameeka says:

    First, Father Z, thank you for your sermon notes—it is very GOOD to be reminded of Heaven once in a while.

    OF last night: Father B made good (and to me unexpected) point—Gospel was Jesus dining at house of Simon the Pharisee, with the sinner woman washing Jesus’ feet with her tears. Fr said the woman’s sins had already been forgiven prior to her entrance (because of her faith? or previous encounter?), and she was showing her enormous gratitude to Jesus. Simon, on the other hand, had no gratitude and did not show even any signs of basic hospitality. So, who was the sinner?

    EF this AM, Gospel was Jesus preaching from the boat, and Simon and his fellow fishermen caught huge quantity of fish. Father A spoke about how God is the source of all order, starting with the creation of the earth and the heavens, etc. We are often afraid when we see the “impossible” miracles performed by Jesus in the Gospels, but they are part of God putting His order into the world. We should never fear satan, but rather have fear of the Lord, who orders all things mightily.

    And, the sacraments of the Church give God’s order to the chaos (which could be another word for hell).

  10. jhayes says:

    iPadre, in his Thursday homily at Santa Marta. Pope Francis said

    It is not Catholic (to say) ‘or this or nothing:’ This is not Catholic, this is heretical. Jesus always knows how to accompany us, he gives us the ideal, he accompanies us towards the ideal, He frees us from the chains of the laws’ rigidity and tells us: ‘But do that up to the point that you are capable.’ And he understands us very well. He is our Lord and this is what he teaches us.

    HERE

    I think he means we should welcome people whether or not they have reached the ideal

  11. Mike says:

    In the midst of uncertainty, Simon Peter realizes the vanity of his self-will and becomes subject to hope. From this root springs the work of the Apostles that continues to this day, drawing all men into the liberty of the children of God, from uncertainty into hope.

  12. emmanuelb says:

    Our Bishop celebrated mass this Sunday, to commemorate the one year anniversary of the ‘Committee for the participation of Women in the parish’. (Roughly translated from Arabic. I belong to the Maronite Rite)

    While I was initially wary, the sermon he delivered beautifully attacked feminism, transgender-ism, and the gay agenda all at once. (And politely at that.)

    What stuck with me is, (Roughly translated again.)

    – Men and women are equal in their being different. Making them equal in everything will create an unhealthy competition between the two genders that will tear the family apart.

    – One does not know the motherly love of the woman through God’s love; but knows God’s love through the motherly love of the woman. (I’m pretty sure he quoted some Pope in that regard. He quoted so much JP2 and Pius XII that I lost count.)

    – When Christ on the Cross called his mother ‘Woman’, he elevated her role to that of the loving mother.

  13. JonPatrick says:

    EF, the “fishers of men” Gospel. It takes a good reason for a man like Peter to leave the good fishing business he has to go follow Jesus. Peter must have been affected enough by the talk Jesus gave to agree to go out even though he “knows” it is the wrong time to fish. When he sees the great catch he is overwhelmed perhaps because he realizes his life will have to change, so he says “leave me alone I am a sinful man” i.e. I don’t want to change. But Jesus invites him to “catch men”. The key is not to be looking at what we are leaving behind when we follow Jesus. In this materialistic world that is how we tend to look a things. Instead look at what (who) we are following.

  14. justanothermom says:

    Our priest emphasized the importance of confession! “Father forgive me, I have sinned” is not where it stops – we must acknowledge our specific sins and bring them to God.

  15. mharden says:

    Those who are forgiven the most love the most.

    But to receive forgiveness we must place ourselves in a position to be forgiven. And, as the woman in today’s Gospel shows us, that place is at the feet of Jesus.

    Simon the Pharisee has invited Jesus to his home but not given him any sort of welcome. Simon thinks he has no need of forgiveness. Instead he judges both Jesus (if he were really a prophet, he would know a sinner is touching him) and especially the poor sinner at the feet of Jesus. If Simon does not recognize his own need for forgiveness, how can he receive it?

    But we all need forgiveness for our transgressions. We may owe the master only a single day’s wages and not five hundred, but even that debt is impossible for us to pay. It is not enough, like Simon the Pharisee, to simply invite Jesus in without recognizing who he is and how much he loves us. Like the sinful woman, we must place ourselves at the feet of Jesus, bathing his feet in our tears of repentance. Seeing the wounds in his feet by which he healed us, we soothe them with the ointment of our sorrow for sin. We trust that we, too, will hear from him those beautiful words “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

    Then, like the sinful woman, our tears of remorse and sorrow will turn to tears of love and thanksgiving.

  16. chantgirl says:

    My husband and I had to split up for Masses as a few of the little ones weren’t feeling well. My husband went to an early NO, and heard that women are capable of doing so many different things for the church, and that they could even be priests. The priest said that some people have different opinions but that his opinion was that it was a good idea for women to be priests. ( JPII had more than an “opinion” about all of this!)

    I went with the older children to an EF Mass and heard a homily about purity of intentions, and how we should scrutinize the motivations behind our actions, even our good works.

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