Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Was there a good point made during the sermon you heard for this 1st Sunday of Lent?

Let us know.

Mine…

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16 Comments

  1. Mike says:

    Our Lenten practice should be to seek liberation from the need to be in control and instead to accept the sufficiency of God’s grace.

  2. Josephus Corvus says:

    “Let us pray the Our Father that we are not led into temptation as Jesus was.”

    Father wasn’t referring to anything other than the today’s gospel reading and the Lord’s Prayer, but that seems to me like a clear / great answer to what the Holy Father was concerned about. Unless there are some connotation differences in the other languages that he was talking about, this comment shows that there is no problems with the common translation.

  3. Adaquano says:

    Our pastor reflected on how we should focus on our Baptismal promises during Lent, in particular we should be convicted in admitting that we fail to live according to our Baptismal promises and then turn to God and his graces to heal ourselves, especially in the Confession for both venial and mortal sins.

  4. Michael Haz says:

    Today’s sermon was delivered by Bishop Athanasuis Schneider, who celebrated a beautiful and moving Pontifical High Mass at our Oratory.

    Bishop Schneider reminded us of the need to pray constantly, pray in all we do; to be always in communication with God. Pray not only for ourselves, but for our Church, of God’s love, for the clergy, for peace, and for defense against sin. To live right, with humilty, and to offer our lives themsleves as prayers.

  5. Prayerful says:

    A young priest in Our Lady of the Rosary chapel, Cork, preached on the reality of the devil, that not been able to see him makes him no less real. And at times, as when Satan scorched the Cure of Ars quarters, this evil can be manifested in a visible and real way.

  6. mikeinmo says:

    Father spoke about the need for repentance for all of us, including himself. We all need to cast aside those things that separate us from God in any way.

    We had some traditional additions for the Lenten season:

    1. No music or singing accompanied the procession from the back of church to the altar. The cross bearer, servers (one of who is my son) and the priest walked down the aisle in silence. They were accompanied by the sound of a gong, struck 5 times by my other son. Father explained that the gong reminds us of the somber nature of the season.

    2. The Kyrie , the Sanctus, and the Agnes Dei were sung in LATIN. Our organist/choir director practiced with the congregation before Mass. I could not help but notice that any of the older congregants gladly sang along (with a smile on their faces.)

  7. LeeGilbert says:

    The sermon last evening at 5:30 was so good that I went to 7:00 Mass this morning to take notes. Fr. Dillard indicated that he was basing his homily on a book on Lent by Bishop Morneau.

    The following is an inadequate paraphrase:

    In this first Sunday of Lent the Gospel details the three temptations of Christ, which correspond to the temptations that we experience in day to day life. And there is a fourth temptation, which we will discuss later. As remedies for these temptations the Church proposes the three pillars of penitence: fasting, prayer and almsgiving.

    Speaking generally of ascetical practives in Lent, they are an invitation to experience the depth and power of the season. We could of course, take a minimalist approach, give up something for forty days and then take up where we left off. Or we could take the opportunity to adopt practices that will affect the way we live the rest of our lives.

    The purpose of Lenten ascetical practice is to make room for God, to root out the things that get in the way of our relationship with God, to make more room for attentive obedience to God. We tend to take the commandments of Christ and the precepts of the Church as mere suggestions. Ascetical practices are intended to help me grow in obedience and the love of God. Thus we ought to consider what are the goals of our ascetical practices, and we ought especially go to God in prayer and ask Him for His wisdom in what we should undertake.

    Concerning ascetical pratices in themselves, there are three temptations to avoid, namely: 1. Excessiveness, for we tend to go overboard in our penances; 2. Vainglory, for we tend to think of ourselves as more holy than others when we do penance; 3. Self-righteousness. But all of this is self-defeating, for the purpose of ascetical practice is to make us more available to God.

    Asceticism should bring us joy, for we are leaving behind things which get in the way of our relationship with God. Ascetical practices should not be thought of as drudgery, for spiritual goods makes us happier, while the things we typically think will bring us happiness, such as money and power, do not. Spiritual goods are not attracive, but they satisfy.

    Now, the three temptations
    1. The temptation to turn stones into bread. Here satan tempts Jesus when he is at his lowest ebb physically and mentally. This corresponds to our desire for physical pleasure. Fasting is the remedy for this, since it reasserts command of our higher faculties over our lower faculties.
    2. The temptation to obtain the kingdoms of the world. This corresponds to our desire for power, wealth and fame. The remedy for this is almsgving, for money and things are depowered by our giving them away.
    3. The temptation to cast himself down from the parapet of the temple. This corresponds to our presumption in dealing with God, to our testing of Him by our disobedience, to our presuming upon His goodness and forgiveness. The remedy for this is prayer, where these temptations vanish.

    The fourth temptation is to do nothing, to treat Lent in a pro forma way as a season that comes around once a year and really requires nothing of us. Yet we should take advantage of Lent to take up those ascetical practices that will have a profound and lasting effect upon our lives. If we do not choose to do so, Lent will not have an impact. We will not have done what God would want.

    Such was the homily at Holy Rosary Parish in Portland, Oregon, where the liturgy is perfect and the sermons are to die for.

  8. Rob83 says:

    The occasion of the third temptation of Jesus led to a not so subtle dig aimed at a certain Jesuit priest who has often been mentioned here, as well as unnamed German and Austrian bishops for a stunt pulled for Valentine’s Day, that they were more interested in the kingdoms of the world than serving the Lord.

  9. zag4christ says:

    Our parochial vicar, Fr. Kyle Ratuiste, called us to focus on faith, prayer and conversion. He juxtaposed his homily as to the evil exhibited at the school shooting in Florida. At the end of his homily he read the names and gave the ages of those who died. His basic message was that there is evil in the world, and it can only be overcome by living the faith, constant prayer, and for each of us to turn from evil, small and great, that we entertain in our daily lives.
    Peace and God bless.

  10. JonPatrick says:

    The 3 temptations of Jesus correspond to 3 sins of the Israelites on their Exodus from Egypt to the promised land. They did not trust God that he would provide their daily bread; they tested him by complaining even when he did provide; and they turned to the golden calf and worshiped it. We too are often guilty of the same things – not trusting in God to provide for us, testing him (“if you do x then I’ll know you love me”), and worshiping worldly things.

  11. frjim4321 says:

    It was a fervorino on the upcoming communal celebrations of the Anointing of the Sick and Sacrament of Penance. As related to restoration of convenental relations with God, others, and creation (Genesis). A reminder that the celebration of the Healing Sacraments are our normative response to the call issued by Jesus in the gospel, to reform our lives.

  12. I continued my homily series on the Mass. I explained some things about the vestments and then expalined how the prayers of the “Introductory Rites” make clear who we are: we are sinners who are on the path of conversion — we are the people who need the Mass. Our participation in the Mass is a priestly act, united with the ordained priest and with the whole body of Christ in the one Mass of Jesus Christ.

  13. robtbrown says:

    frjim4321 says:

    It was a fervorino on the upcoming communal celebrations of the Anointing of the Sick and Sacrament of Penance. As related to restoration of convenental relations with God, others, and creation (Genesis). A reminder that the celebration of the Healing Sacraments are our normative response to the call issued by Jesus in the gospel, to reform our lives.

    The unfortunate times when I’ve been to a mass with the accompanying Anointing of the Sick, it seemed as if everyone with a slight headache was invited to come forward. Are you flatulent? Come on down! Paper cut or stubbed your toe? Come on down!

    And then there is the matter of ex opere operato

  14. frjim4321 says:

    “…then expalined how the prayers of the “Introductory Rites” make clear who we are…”

    I like that frame, and I like the idea of letting the Introductory Rites speak for themselves. I have a classmate who always goes out to the ambo (!) and gives some kind of “call to worship” before mass, which makes absolutely no sense to me, b/c that’s what the I/R is for.

  15. frjim4321 says:

    “… it seemed as if everyone with a slight headache was invited to come forward…”

    How would you know what a person is suffering?

    We have some very healthy, athletic-looking youth who indeed have serious threats to their health, including very serious life-threatening allergies and a boy awaiting test results on a degenerative neurological disease that has not yet manifest but was recently discovered in a sibling.

    People who fear a recurrence of cancer can also appear quite fit, but be awaiting test results.

    What motivates such a stingy approach to the sacraments?

    [Perhaps what you think is stingy, some think is reverence and respect. This sacrament is not to be given just anyone. HERE]

  16. robtbrown says:

    FrJim4321,

    I don’t pretend to know each person’s malady. I do, however, know what the celebrants said, and it went so far as to include almost everyone, even to the point of being elderly, whatever that might mean.

    The Sacrament exists to strengthen spiritually someone who has a malady serious enough to threaten the faith–not to cure said malady. I have never heard a celebrant clarify this most important point, on which the essence of the Sacrament depends (thus the reference to ex opere operato). And every time I was present the celebrant was a neo con.

    IME, these “healing services” that I have seen belittle the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, reducing it to little else than healing tent show biz.

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