Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of Sunday obligation? Let us know what it was.
I made very rapid points to my tiny congregation in our coastal Sicilian town. First, taking a cue from St. James, we could all avoid a lot of sins if we would just shut up. Not only do we have to shut up, we have to put up, in terms of good works. I also decided on the spot to muse about that image James uses about the man looking in the mirror and then forgetting as not making a serious, interior, real examination of conscience: if you just brush the surface, you don’t know who you are. Lastly, I pointed to all the talking and singing vocabulary in the prayers of the Mass and how they are connected to joy. That in turn I connected to the Lord’s teaching the Apostles about serious prayer in His Name. Prayer, even in serious times, must also be offered in joyful HOPE, since it is offered in His Name.
On the spot, with LOTs of pain killers.
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The Sunday of the Man Born Blind in the Byzantine Rite. Fr. Dcn in his homily referenced St. Irenaeus: By healing the man born blind Christ manifested God’s hand.
I know that when in pain, even prayer is difficult. Saying some now to Mary and Joseph for your relief.
OF – God is love. He loves us despite our sins, faults and failures. He even loves those who freely choose to reject Him for all eternity in hell. And we must love others with the same love. Hate has no place in our dictionary.
EF – Our Heavenly Father supplies for all of our needs. We need to ask in the way Our Lord did, according to the Fathers will. And the answer will be as Bishop Sheen put it: “Yes, no, and not right now.”
I keyed off the Gospel in which our Lord referred to us as his friends three times. That is very striking: what does this mean? I talked about true friendship, per Aristotle, as the love of the good in each other, and together. In other words, to be Jesus’ friend, we must love what he loves. Jesus wants us to be his friend, that is compelling.
The Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in Spokane WA was celebrated by Fr. David Kruse. He focused his homily on the word “remain” found in the First letter of John, and in the Gospel according to John. He pointed out that God’s love for us is given freely, and nothing we can do has any effect on how much He loves us. He also pointed out that for us to “remain”in God’s Love, we must follow Jesus’s commandments, which are to love one another as He has loved us. If we do as Jesus commanded, the Joy that will fill our hearts, hands, minds, bodies and souls is what the Love of God is.
Peace and God bless.
Not an actual sermon as such, but can I tell you anyway? In a lecture on Church History given by the Dominicans in Bologna one of the Fathers said, “The Dominican Order was instituted to fight the Cathar heresy; the Society of Jesus was instituted to fight the Lutheran heresy. How many Cathars have you seen lately?” Very true…
This evening’s homily, given by a visiting priest, was excellent. The theme was God’s love, and how it is given unconditionally, but, as Jesus said, to remain in God’s love requires obedience. To grow in God’s love requires us to first accept it, then give it away to others. Referring to St. Bernard of Clairvaux and his analogy of the three kisses–the kiss of the feet(recognition one is a sinner and needs God’s grace), the kiss of the hand (becoming a servant of God by action in obedience), the kiss of the mouth (through obedience and service, becoming a friend of God in communion with him and reflecting his love and grace to the world), Father encouraged us to redouble our efforts to grow in grace and obedience.
The Sunday of the man born blind, Byzantine Rite. The story of the man can be seen as an allegory of our own journey from being born in original sin (“blind”), our baptism symbolized by Jesus putting the mud on the blind man’s eyes and subsequently washing in the pool where we now can see the truth, and lastly our being sent out to share this truth as the formerly blind man does with increasing courage as he is questioned. Even the the spittle and mud which Jesus uses can be seen as symbols of creation where God creates out of clay (dirt + water).
Both the Epistle and Gospel for the Fifth Sunday are fine texts, but instead Fr spoke on how no Catholic should consider anything other than a no vote. Thomas Aquinas and JP2 1995 Encyclical, and the nature of the political process were mustered towards this conclusion. Not a highlight, per se, but a very fine homily. Orate pro nobis.
I was a guest at a mission Church where the pastor, who has a reputation as an excellent on homilist, lived up to his reputation.
“Love one another, as I have loved you.” The first part of this quotation is very easy to live out and is not questioned by anyone. It is the last part of the phrase which gives us trouble. Everyone is ready to love one another to a certain extent, but we frequently fail to love each other enough or in the way that Christ loved us. One of the great challenges of the Christian life is to truly love, to will the good of the other even to our own detriment or loss.
At the N.O. Mass I attended in our local Dominican church here in Ireland for the sixth Sunday of Easter, Father skilfully wove the Gospel text “Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,” into a powerful homily on how as Catholics we are bound to follow His commandments and oppose the proposal in the forthcoming constitutional referendum on the introduction of (practically unlimited) abortion. He spoke for about 5 minutes and although an elderly man, he is a Dominican of the old school and preaches in a forthright but always calm and charitable manner, without any notes (or hesitations etc.) whatsoever. I saw many people outside afterwards talking to him and not a few thanking him for his words. As I did myself.
First Communion Mass – NO. Sermon– God gives us everything we need in the Eucharist.