Was there a good point or two in the sermon you heard during your Mass to fulfill your Sunday obligation?
For my part, I spoke about the centurion and the Lord. First, as a friend reminded me this week, Teresa of Avila notes that – now – it is only in the Eucharist that the Lord is vulnerable to abuse. The Lord continues to “risk” in coming to us. The centurion, in great humility and faith, took social risks to come to the Lord. In this highly charged moment of encounter and risk we should not be complacent, thoughtless, indifferent. Communion, and all the other things we do as Catholics, from making the sign of the Cross, etc., should not be allowed to become routine. We must develop habits but without repetition that is mindless. Saying, for example, the “Domine non sum dignus” three times should help us to be ever more mindful of what we are about to do and what a great gift it is.
All our devotions are gifts. We must not abuse them directly or through carelessness.
I also brought up attacks on the sacrament of matrimony, which are also attacks on the Eucharist. For our part we can battle the attacks by our own personal devotion and care.
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Ordinary Form – Our pastor regretted how the lectionary cuts up the Jonah story, and exhorted to remember every Sunday as an Easter. At the same time he spoke of how we must deny what the world tells us is right to follow Jesus. Our parish patron is St. Agnes and he spoke of he she resisted the world’s riches and headed Christ’s call for her because she had hope in the Resurrection.
OF year B, so the year of St Mark’s Gospel. Our priest spoke about Mark, his approach to Gospel writing, and the Messianic Secret. He emphasised the immediacy and brevity of Mark’s account and strongly suggested that we go and read it. Or failing that, watch a ‘reading’ of it, such as Alex McCowen’s which is available on Youtube.
I noted also that it was not one of the standard Canons, I think it was ‘EP for Various Needs 2’. On the greater feasts he normally uses the Roman Canon, so we have heard that a lot recently.
Father had an excellent pro-life sermon, very traditional theme. Church was as quiet as a mouse during the sermon. He tied in the reading about Jonah’s 3 day trek across Nineveh with the 3 day trek across D.C. at the March for Life. He talked about the “concern” for pregnant women, and the corresponding death sentence for the babies. He also mentioned the Women’s March, and stated that those participants frame the issue as a woman VERSUS a baby debate.
After Mass, a group of parishoners gathered at the Knights of Columbus Hall. Father led us in prayer for the people returning home from the March for Life.
BTW, we are in parish in a small town in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
Our Deacon talked about the need to seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. He didn’t say, but I assumed that it was at least partially due to the fact that our parish is going to have Confession Monday-Friday in addition to the normal Saturday time during Lent.
At our OF Mass Father spoke about repentance and about trusting in the Lord.
I have often been discouraged by priests who preach about God’s love and forgiveness and don’t mention repentance–as if it’s a given that we know we should be sorry for our sins and amend our lives. I’m afraid nowadays many people don’t think about that. They need to be reminded!
Well, Father did that today! He also explained that to repent isn’t just to give up doing what is wrong, just turning away from it. No, it also involves turning toward what is right and doing that instead.
I made a point to tell Father that I really appreciated his homily.
Our TLM priest spoke of the humility and faith of the centurion but more of his emphasis was on tomorrow as a day of penance and prayer for life. He mentioned what the President said about us being one of only 7 countries to allow elective abortions late in pregnancy. He also spoke of the other forms of disrespect for life such as euthanasia. He had researched a bit and had some sound stats. We will have a holy hour for life followed by a TLM (high, I believe) in the evening. He urged us all to take the call to fasting and penance seriously tomorrow, during Lent, and always, emphasizing the fasting because, as he rightly noted, it is so under emphasized in the Church today.
Our time is short – and we don’t know how short. When the Lord is standing along the shore and calling you, you may not have the time to put him off until after the nets are mended, the deck swabbed, and fishing season over.
Today in the Byzantine rite it is the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee aka the second Sunday of pre-lent. Father explained the gospel he told us that the pray of the Pharisee was not a prayer to God but actually a prayer to himself, it was a self centered prayer he boasted about his good works and that he was not like the tax collector. The Publican’s prayer was humble , he looked down and prayed for God’s mercy.
I went to the parish I grew up in this weekend, as I was visiting family. The priest gave an entire homily focused on repentance and did not mention confession once. I found it odd.
Referred to the alert last Saturday morning in Hawaii, comparing it to the Sitz im Leben of the Corinthians, expecting the Second Coming as a matter of hours or days and not the centuries and millennia as we now know it to be; but conditioning that although the immediacy of the Day of the Lord may not be what is once was, the urgency of our preparation for it is no less than what is was for Peter, Andrew, James and John who left their families and means of livelihood to follow Jesus. Remarked that P, A, J and J were not called as individuals, but the context was as of family, as they were brothers; God calls us out out as members of communities to share our gifts with the community. We tend to channel our inner Jonah, as reluctant prophets tending to deny that God can use our poor selves in the service of his plan; after all, the entirety of Jonah’s prophecy was contained in those eight words; and yet in one day an entire city was converted. What if each of us were willing, even if reluctantly, to put our gifts at the service of God’s plan? Hopefully, none of us will ever be given a fifteen minute warning as were those citizens of Hawaii last Saturday, but if we are, will we be able to meet our Judge and admit that we have shared our gifts generously, and acknowledged, affirmed, and accepted the gifts of those around us?
I attended Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral today. The homily was given by the rector, Fr. Darren Connall. After the reading from Jonah, then the second reading from Paul to the Corinthians, and finally the Gospel from Mark, I was expecting a homily about repentance. Instead, Fr. Connall spoke about how our Bishop, Thomas Daly, had brought in the exorcist from the Diocese of San Jose, Fr. Thomas Gary, for a seminar for all the priests of the Spokane Diocese.
Fr. Connall described some of the discussions and experiences Fr. Gary shared with them. When it came time for Q&A, Fr. Connall asked Fr. Gary if he was ever frightened when dealing with demons. Fr. Gary explained that he himself was never afraid, because “it is not about me, it is about Jesus Christ and His Power, not me. I am as St. Teresa of Calcutta said, a pencil in the hand of God”. Fr. Connall then reflected on how he perceived Fr. Gary to be one of the most humble priests he has ever met. He then shared that he has been praying and discerning about his own lack of humility, and he thought that among the leaders of the Church, lack of humility is one of the most common weaknesses. At the end of his homily, he led us in the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.
Yesterday we had our third annual Northwest Walk For Life in downtown Spokane. It began with Mass at the Cathedral, then a rally at the city center, Riverfront Park, then a police escorted march through a portion of the downtown. Afterwards, I walked back to the Cathedral to GO TO CONFESSION. As I approached the front entrance, a elderly gentleman I have never seen before, silver haired and bearded, walking with a cane greeted me very graciously with the words ” God Bless you, and keep the faith!”. Later while waiting in line for Confession, I had the distinct impression that I may have met a angel.
Peace and God bless,
Publican and Pharisee, 2nd Sunday of pre-lent. Father’s homily was about change, our change, framed in context of the Gospel.
EF Mass. The Centurion must have had respect for human life as he cared about his servant. He had faith in Jesus and his power to heal, His faith was stronger than that of the Jews. The Kingdom was now open to all.
My wife who attended an OF Mass reports that the pastor gave a barn burner of a homily about Lent coming up soon and how we need to take seriously the fasting and abstinence, not just giving up candy, because our time is short and we need to prepare ourselves.
Fr used the Gospel as the basis of talking about making a good Confession. The Centurion stated what he could do, his powers, succinctly, and what he believed Jesus could do, that is, heal his servant. A Confession needs to be clear, to the point, and crucially making clear the frequency and gravity of the sin. Do that and sins and the sins are forgiven.
That in using only Gehenna as the name for that place reserved the damned (all else being descriptions), Jesus identifies child sacrifice (such as abortion) with Hell. This (with some explanation of it) and more led up to Jesus’ call in Mark 1 for repentance and a charge for us to be like Jonah to the Nineveh all around us.
As a reply to the “Women’s Marches” the previous day, Father preached about how to avoid a “victim mentality.” This was in an EF parish, and I can certainly see where trads might feel tempted to such a mentality during this Papacy–it’s a trend I’ve had to fight in myself. Good homily, though I kind of wish they’d mic Father just for the sermon.