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I preached a Come to Jesus homily this morning. . .
If we are going to worry, why not worry about a very real and dangerous possibility: that we will forget God? That we will abandon the Lord and His covenant with us in Christ. Pushed and pulled from every side by the seductive forces of an increasingly secular culture, it is all too easy to give up on the Father and His Christ. He promises that nothing and no one will ever disturb us. True. But He doesn’t promise that nothing or no one will never try.
https://hancaquam.blogspot.com/2017/02/have-you-forgotten-god.html
Fr. Philip Neri, OP
Our priest said that some of you may be aware and some may not be aware, but there is great controversy in the Church today over differing interpretations of Pope Francis’ document Amoris Latitia; if you are among those oblivious you are fortunate. The bishop had talked about this at the start of a recent presbyteral council meeting. There are issues with the way that bishops in some places like Germany, Malta, and some places in South America are intrepreting it and causing much distress, however we are fortunate all our bishops in Wisconsin are united in interpreting it in a way consistent with the Gospel and the teachings of the Church. At the end of his presbyteral council comments, the bishop had made a statement of confidence consistent with today’s first reading (ordinary form) , that he remained certain that he remains confident that the Holy Spirit will not abandon the Church but is working out His purposes.
i thought that although sufficiently unambiguous for anyone aware of what the controversy is about, and admirably (if improbably) framed the issue as a problem localized in Germany, Malta, and South America, and gave no occasion for any sort of “Wisconsin Bishops Defy Pope” newspaper headline, it was slighltly oblique as a testimony to the teachings of the Church.
The Pastor, and several members of the parish, just returned from the annual pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and, at one point or another, said mass at a church on the Mount of Olives, from where you can look over and see the Temple Mount (which was at one point Mount Zion). He made a point that, during the captivity during which the Jews longed to be back at Zion, despite its pain and sadness, was also a time of great development for the Jewish faith; in many ways, the point during which it started to look as Christ would have known it. So, being taken away from all they had built for themselves, and having to rely completely and totally on God, was something from which the Jews derived great benefit.
OF Mass…
Very brief summary:
“If God isn’t first in your life, and you are preoccupied with worldly things, you may wanna change that right now. If we come to love Him properly, others will notice and also come to love Him.”
My notes on Father Kirby’s homily this Sunday:
http://prognosticis.blogspot.com/2017/02/sacramentum-unctionis-aegrorum.html
I was heartened today by the homily the pastor of my unofficial parish (the parish my children belong to) preached today, especially since this parish has just seen yet another devout, outspoken, eloquent and traditionally-minded priest get transferred to a place that is supposed to be oblivion.
The pastor gave an excellent homily on the sacredness of all life, the sad reality that an “assisted suicide” bill that is incredibly poorly written (even a proponent of “assisted suicide” can find reasons to object to the bill…no screening for depression, no physical control of the medication, etc.) is up for a vote in our state legislature and our responsibility to get out of our comfort zones and recognize that this is happening in our state. He mentioned abortion, too, and challenged us to stop categorizing groups of people according to their “worth.” In God’s eyes, we are all worth the same, because He loves us, just as he loved Job even as He permitted Job to suffer.
This pastor usually gives good homilies, but this one was more direct than usual. I hope this 1) indicates that he will continue to proclaim the Magisterium and 2) doesn’t result in his transfer to Somewhere Else. Please pray for him.
Today Fr. Connall focused his homily on chapter 4, verse 1, of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, explaining what it means and the responsibility we all share in “being servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God”. He used as illustration what has happened to the Church in the Netherlands. In 1980, 90% of Catholics attended Sunday Mass. Today, 5%. They have closed hundreds of churches, which stand empty or have been converted to such activities as indoor skateboarding. Many may become mosques. He queried us, “Could this happen in the United States?”. He then resoundingly stated “Not on my watch!”. I silently seconded him.
He then went on to relate how we may become more deeply connected to the mysteries of God during Lent by attending daily Mass, participating in the Friday Stations of the Cross, seeking out and receiving Penance. Thanks be to God for good and holy priests!
As a aside, I was rustling through my bedside conglomeration of books, papers etc this afternoon, and found a 19 page Encyclical “MIT BRENNENDER SORGE” from Pope Pius XI that for some reason I had printed from the Vatican archives almost a year ago. It is written to the Church in Germany, dated Passion Sunday, March 14, 1937. It is his exhortation to the faithful and not so faithful about what was happening in Germany with the rise of Hitler and his national socialists. It is stunning, chilling reading, not just because we all know what happened, but Pope Pius XI’s description could easily describe what has happened in the U.S over the past 50 years, such as removing all mention of God from the schools, the turning away from laws based on Christianity and the natural law, discrimination against those who live their religion. I think I may use it for a Lenten reflection.
Peace and God bless,
If you or I were the only sinner in this world, Jesus would still have suffered and died on the cross for you or I. That is how much God loves us.
Interesting Mass. I didn’t feel very well, but dragged myself to the 6 pm Mass, hoping it would be short. As a punishment for my impatience, there was a 15 minute video presentation inserted between the Greeting and the Penitential Rite, apparently acted and produced by the young people of the parish. I could understand none of it, so I went outside to sit down at the Shrine of Our Lady.
It was a beautiful evening, and I could hear the maghrib azan, the evening call to prayer, echoing from two or three nearby mosques, with that wonderful polyphonic effect you get when you are within earshot of several mosques, some near, some far, all slightly out of step, the distant mosques echoing pianissimo the mezzoforte of the nearest mosque. And I said to myself: “Never say that I don’t give my redoubtable adversary his due: So far in the liturgical contest this evening it’s Muslims 1, Catholics 0.”
The sermon was a Lenten pastoral letter issued by the Bishop. It quoted Psalm 50:12, “The world is Mine and all that is in it.” No-one can say that anything is his possession. Rather, he should say, “Everything I own is God’s possession, with which I have been graciously blessed (dianugerahkan), so I can use it in accordance
…In accordance with His will. (sesuai dengan kehendak-Nya.) Sorry about the incomplete post above.
Father shared an anecdote about a convert, an acquaintance of an acquaintance of his, who had been a fiercely anti-Catholic evangelical until he was persuaded to attend a prayer service at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Upon entering the basilica, the whilom evangelical fairly felt the scales fall from his eyes as he realized a truth that had been hidden from him by the anti-Catholic slanders in which he’d been immersed: that, as prefigured by Temple sacrifice in the Old Testament, every drop of Our Lord’s blood was shed from His body in sacrifice on Calvary, and that in Holy Mass He invites us to participate in that sacrifice in a real and literal way. Father (who has been offering the Traditional Mass daily for several years now) said that story brought home to him the significance of the separation of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Sacrifice in a way that he had not experienced up to then in his 14 years as a priest.