Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard during your Mass of Sunday Obligation?

Let us know.

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10 Comments

  1. AnnTherese says:

    The readings I heard were about loving our neighbors, especially our enemies. The sermon focused on this, which was helpful in light of our current political climate. Our priest shared a moving story, as well, about how extending love–not guilt, shame, or fear–brought a woman and her family back to their Catholic faith and church.

    This morning I read this: “Love is the measure by which we shall be judged.” St. John of the Cross

  2. Adaquano says:

    Father asked us to think of someone that has greatly wronged us and to spend Lent praying for that person.

    [A good reminder. I need to do that too.]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  3. JMGcork says:

    Father began with an analogy today. He said that if a concert were to take place there would be lots of notice well in advance. He used this analogy to explain the concept of the three weeks in preparation for Lent. We are being given advanced notice that Lent is on the horizon. We should make use of this time by taking advantage of the sacraments. Especially Confession and Holy Communion. He highlighted how beautiful a practice it is to receive Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. It shows that we want to receive the graces and nourishment that comes from Holy Communion.

  4. iPadre says:

    OF – I began by asking how many Commandments there are. Most would answer 10, but there are many more. Like in today’s first reading, we are commanded to become holy, to become saints. It’s not what we do, how many rosaries we say, Mass we attend, or Commandments we live. They are all part of it, but holiness is being in constant communion with God. If you desire holiness, you live the Commandments, you go to Mass as frequently as possible and have a deep relationship with Our Lady. We make excuses. “It for priest & nun.” “I don’t have the ability.” We are all commanded to be holy, and God will assist us in our desire.

    EF – We are at war. Whenever we do good for our eternal salvation or that of others, bringing people back to Mass/ Confession, we can expect the evil one to make some dust. We must always be on alert and know the signs. Be prepared, and have a strong devotion to St. Michael.

  5. PhilipNeri says:

    Secular culture doesn’t need to throw us to the lions or put us in jail to convince us to dhttps://www.facebook.com/#eny Christ. It’s perfectly content to allow us to keep our shallow measures of Christian holiness so long as we leave Christ in his gilded box inside the church. But our Lord did not die on the cross so that we might have somewhere to go at 6.00pm on a Sunday.

    https://hancaquam.blogspot.com/2017/02/as-temple-of-holy-spirit-how-are-you.html

    Fr. Philip Neri, OP

  6. PhilipNeri says:

    Fr. Z., I don’t know how the facebook link got into my comment. Please delete the comment, and I’ll repost. Apologies for the inconvenience.

    Fr. Philip Neri, OP

  7. PhilipNeri says:

    Secular culture doesn’t need to throw us to the lions or put us in jail to convince us to deny Christ. It’s perfectly content to allow us to keep our shallow measures of Christian holiness so long as we leave Christ in his gilded box inside the church. But our Lord did not die on the cross so that we might have somewhere to go at 6.00pm on a Sunday.

    https://hancaquam.blogspot.com/2017/02/as-temple-of-holy-spirit-how-are-you.html

    Fr. Philip Neri, OP

  8. iamlucky13 says:

    On the topic of being holy as God is holy, our vicar used an anecdote from all the years he spent in school and then seminary, about how sometimes he had classes on topics he was enthusiastic to learn about. When it was something he liked, it was easy to participate fully in the class. For classes that didn’t interest him, he spent the semester focused on doing the bare minimum to get what he considered a reasonable grade. As a result, he got less out of those classes than he could, and later regretted it.

    He compared this to striving for holiness versus doing the bare minimum that the commandments required. In fact, he pointed out that merely trying to do the bare minimum wasn’t really striving for holiness so much as limiting our holiness.

    He did a good job of tying this into both the scripture and the Gospel readings, and snuck in a few tangential points related to each. One I remember is that “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” was not an allowance to take at least that much in vengeance, but a limitation on reparation or punishment. It was merciful compared to other contemporary practices, and yet Jesus tells us to be even more merciful in pursuit of holiness.

    Also, after having gone to confession yesterday, Psalm 103 was a welcome reinforcement of trust in the reality of forgiveness of sin.

  9. AveMariaGratiaPlena says:

    At our local Ordinary Form parish, our “baby” priest (ordained in June) started by saying that Jesus’ admonition to turn the other cheek has a deeper meaning that simply taking abuse – it’s also about seeing the dignity in everyone, even those who are insulting you. Responding in a way that recognizes everyone’s dignity — which is fitting, especially in these times of frequently hostile, rude and dehumanizing discourse. You can respond to someone’s attempt to humiliate you by treating him or her with respect, kindness and compassion, by seeing him or her as a creature of God just as those who treat you well are creatures of God. He then moved into the part of the Gospel where Jesus spoke of loving one’s enemies. Similar to what a previous commenter wrote, Father suggested that in preparation for Lent we think of all our “enemies” (who can be people at work, people at church, even people in our own families) and make a conscious decision to forgive them. He said forgiving doesn’t mean you have to feel all wonderful about them, or that you need to be best buddies, or that you even have to be around them – it means you decide to forgive them and pray for them. In other words, he put a whole new twist on the notion of an “Enemies List”!

  10. iprimap says:

    My Sunday Sermon Notes – late. Sorry. Got busy and got lost in a book by Alvin Weinberg – The First Nuclear Age (obviously completely irrelevant to the topic). ;-)

    http://prognosticis.blogspot.com/2017/02/sacramentum-ordinum-sanctorum.html

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