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Father used the seven loaves in the Gospel to teach about the seven sacraments and their role in our lives.
TLM/EF Mass at a parish where the Society of Jesus Christ, the Priest serve.
GREAT sermon! (Paraphrasing): He spoke about the dangers of socialism! He wants bishops to speak out on this issue. Socialism takes your freedom in the name of “helping the poor, the immigrants, et al.” But without freedom one cannot worship, one cannot love!! Socialist societies have failed(( e.g. USSR), and ARE failing, (e.g. Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea). Catholics must oppose socialism with action. Non-action is a choice and it’s the wrong choice. “If you are not with me, you are against me.”
Father mentioned that some people have complained to him that Mass is boring. This has been a recurring theme in recent months, so i’m guessing he’s heard it a few times – likely from students in the parish school. (I’d personally suggest solemn polyphonic TLM as the antithesis of boring but i digress.)
he mentioned the Apollo 11 anniversary and noted that the moon landing was anything but boring. however the preparation for the landing was meticulous and repetitious in the extreme, so they could be confident that everything would work properly in a life-and-death situation. so with us. what we do and say frequently shapes who we are.
He noted that Holy Church defines the Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian life. frequent attentive participation in Holy Mass will change us for the better, even if we don’t find the process easy.
It was the anniversary of my mother’s funeral (she had dementia for years before her death) and i just recently moved my wife to assisted living due to her Alzheimer’s disease, so i had a heavy heart even before the musical setting of St. Ignatius’ Suscipe prayer containing the phrase “take away my thoughts and my memories”. that hit me hard
EF: Pentecost Season is time to strengthen and protect the gift of our Baptism. We were bound to hell, but God in His loving mercy swooped down like a mother bird to return us to the nest of grace where we stay close to His loving heart. The Sunday Asperges is a reminder of our Baptism, and forgiveness of venial sins. The Holy Eucharist gives us the power to preserve and perfect that grace.
OF: There is power in suffering. We can change the world, bring wayward loved ones back to the life of grace, protect from Iran’s aggression, end abortion… and recycle our lives by living and offering in union with the suffering Christ.
Today’s homily was a little unusual for me. I attended Mass at our diocesan cathedral, where I don’t typically go. The homily was literally three sentences, and because of the acoustics I couldn’t hear most of the last two. The priest started with, “I know somewhere that’s even warmer than here (it was brutally hot inside the building)”. Then it sounded like he said something along the lines of, “So follow Mary…” but I couldn’t make out the rest. That was it, he stepped down from the lectern and began the Creed. I don’t know if this was his normal style, or if he was trying to be brief due to the excessive heat, but it caught me a little by surprise. I will say that any benefit that he may have been trying to provide in his very short homily was offset by the prayer of the faithful, which seemed to drag on for around 10 minutes (in all fairness I didn’t time it, but that’s what it felt like).
In a world so focused on talking and sending output, we need to learn to listen. Like Mary, we should take time in the quiet moments to listen to the voice of the Lord.
Ordinary Form. Diocesan Mass. Reading about Martha and Mary. Father spoke about the need to find time for silence/ prayer/contemplation. Basically explained that it wasn’t an option.
We had a priest from Nairobi today giving a missionary appeal. He began his homily by asking all of us why we come to Mass each week. After touching on many different reasons people come, he made a beautiful sweeping gesture to the tabernacle and said, “HE is the reason we come!” He said if we miss Mass on Sunday, we don’t just break a commandment, we break a heart – God’s.
(Our pastor can always be counted on for a very reverent NO Mass.)
Father told us the miracle of the fishes and loaves was truly a miracle, and that it was mentioned in all four gospels, sometimes twice. It was a miracle, he did not mention anything about sharing.
Our parish priest gave an excellent sermon on the mystery of Repentance. He specifically mentioned that, if so many people are receiving Holy Communion regularly, they should also be confessing regularly. Yesterday was the feast of Saint Elias, so Father blessed all the vehicles after the liturgy.
It’s lovely to read Maureen M’s comment about a priest from Nairobi, while I was at Mass in Nairobi and an Italian missionary, for whom I have great affection and admiration, talked about the idiots who rush around before Mass trying to make sure that the lectors are there and prepared instead of being like Mary and listening to the Lord. I got an elbow in the ribs from the lady who was sitting next to me as she was telling me that Fr. Ernesto was talking about me.
OF mass at 1700 today – “youth” mass with a worship band of baby boomers mostly, and a congregation of 3/4ths boomers or older.
Father spoke of the need to be balanced… like Martha and Abraham we have to be attentive and give Our Lord our attention in serving him and others. But like Mary we have to be prayerful and listen at the feet of Jesus as he speaks to us.
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There are some things in life worth putting down everything, even things that need doing, in order to attend to. Is listening to Jesus one of them for you?
The readings were the hospitality of Abraham to three visitors in Genesis, a passage from Colossians about Paul’s suffering, and ours, making up what is “lacking” in the sufferings of Christ, and Martha asking Jesus to tell her sister Mary to help with the meal.
My homily was structured around three points: God came to a meal; God came to give a meal; God himself is the meal. The episode in Genesis points to God wanting Abraham, Sarah (and us) to enter into friendship with him, as does the Gospel passage. Friends talk to each other, spend time together, and love the same things. I kept returning to this theme of friendship with God. I also talked about Christ being more interested in giving a meal — i.e., feeding Mary and Martha spiritually, than in receiving one. I also said that Martha was correct about the great honor of having Jesus visit; and that not all Catholics appreciate that, as manifest in their deportment and dress at Mass. And I talked about not focusing solely on receiving Holy Communion and thus failing to appreciate the Mass, and failing to examine our own lives — it’s all connected.