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Our priest spoke about lukewarmness. Specifically he was speaking about how a sure sign of lukewarmness is deliberately committing venial sins, with the presumption that since they’re “only venial” they won’t lead to a loss of salvation.
He said that temptation never starts out at ‘full blast’, so to speak. (His words, not mine.) I think he quoted St. Alphonsus, about how the devil will start off small, tempt us to venial sins, and over time gradually increase temptations until after a while mortal sin no longer seems so appalling. He used the boiling frog analogy, and he also gave an example of how a movie may start out with fairly minor issues, and gradually get more and more graphic. While a person opposed to such things would probably leave the theatre or turn off the movie if it started out so graphic, he might not think to do so if it came on gradually.
This was a good one for me; I think I needed to hear it. I renewed my commitment to avoiding occasions of sin.
I firmly believe that the very best homilies make you extremely uncomfortable. I am so thankful for our priest, a fairly young FSSP man. He works so hard, and his homilies always seem to kick me right where I need to be kicked.
Not really, but we had very powerful General Intercessions (no EF near me). Something like, “Remove the veils of ignorance from the hearts of our catechumens preparing for baptism,” and, “Lead them from the vanity of sin.” Even Satan was mentioned.
This was also the first Sunday that the Church v HHS/Obama theme wasn’t mentioned at all. I hope that this is revisited perpetually for a very long time, and not just the HHS thing, but the overarching implications. I hope our priest uses this to lead into things like spiritual battle and the importance of penance and fasting. He is very, very good at discussing individual topics, but he is not good at all at relating things together.
Oh, and we were also chastised about confession!
In his childhood Father was told that the basis of the veiling of statues and crucifix was the last verse of the Gospel: Jesus hid Himself, and wentout of the temple.
He then went on to say that Catholicism today has lost much of its verility becoming lax in traditional practices in family life and general loss of Catholic identity. Those who hold onto the true faith have often isolated themselves and seek other similar minded Catholics but find they stand alone. Opposition and persecution is just what the Church needs to get out of its inert posture. Or is God letting the Church fall short to show His Mighty Arm? We need to fight our own wickedness before taking on the world but Christ in us will conquer the world.
I’m waiting for an overt reference to the issue of religious freedom and having prayer cards available.
Short and to the point for Sunday. Paraphrasing, Father asked “What do you want to be in life?” and “If your life ended today, what would you be?”
Nice homily from Saturday, as well. Mass to open a day-long catechetical conference. Preached on how God reveals himself to each of us and how we react and how faithfully we do (or don’t) pass along what we have received – whether Apostles, chief priest and pharisees, Nicodemus, even the Samiratan woman at the well.
I was happy Father tacked the question I had when reading the Gospel a few days ago (doing cycle A Gospel which was the raising of Lazarus). The question was why Jesus stayed where he was for 2 days before going to Lazarus, and Father alluded to how we are often frustrated when God does not respond to our prayers in the way we think he should. He spoke about our lives not being for ourselves, but for the glory of God, how we are often called to play a supporting role, such as the father of St. Therese did for her and her sisters after their mother died.
We went to a low Mass today (Diocesan) and there was a guest homilist, Fr. Vincent Kelber,OP.
And only as a Dominican can preach, it was great. Our normal priest, Fr. Tran also can preach a great homily.
See Irenaeus G. Saintonge’s post.
Yes , this was one of those Sermons that makes you feel uncomfortable. I thought lukewarmness referred to cafeteria Catholics and not me. I guess I was wrong. Let the purging of venial sins begin.
APX, maybe we were at the same Mass! :D I know it’s an enormous long shot, but Calgary?
Travelling, so not my own parish, but pleasantly surprised. Father (ordained less than a year ago) preached on the seven last words (a rarity in the Netherlands), giving a thorough analysis on how they reflect the passion as the instrument of our salvation, horrendous as the actual event must have been to behold.
I had the impression that most of it was based on his lecture notes from seminary. If so, that was actually a good lecture. The link with the readings was a bit general, but that’s a very small price to pay.
Fr. Joe gave a homily on the five wounds of Christ envisioned as five portals to direct perception of Him through the Holy Spirit. The homily was given at a Missa Cantata wjth full choir, sacred chant and polyphony. Fr. Joe has learned to celebrate this form of the EF for the benefit of the parish and all who would like to participate. It will be offered at 3:00 on the last Sunday of each month at St. Paschal Baylon Church in Thousand Oaks, California. The pastor, Fr. Dave Heney, is the founder of “The University” series which now encompasses ten parishes and some 11,000 participants each Lent.
EF (Dominican Rite). (All Holy images and Crosses veiled). Both readings testify to the Divinity of Christ. In the Ep (Heb 9, 11) speaks of the way in which the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies annually to assure the continuance of the Jewish nation by the blood of animals, but of how much more worth is the blood of Christ with its eternal consequences? In the gospel (John 8,46), as He is taunted with having a devil, Christ’s purpose and destiny is made clear when He speaks of Salvation for those who believe in Him and the fury of the synagogue when He says “Before Abraham was, I am,” the meaning being crystal clear to them. They take up stones to caste at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the Temple. An interesting aside is the manner in which Jesus probably simply vanished from their sight, since any physical movement or escape would have been impossible in the danger and close confinement he would have been in. Such things should not surprise us. He had power over nature as often shown elsewhere.
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I like Irenaeus G. Saintonge’s post about lukewarmness. It makes me think about souls that are tepid, or the noonday demon. I think that in this secular world, being lukewarm/tepid can easily lead to sin; it’s easy to rationalize behaviors, if other people are doing things, then it must be ok, right? My priest sort of spoke about this when he mentioned how a person can rationalize not going to confession by saying “well I didn’t kill anybody, so I must be ok, don’t need confession”. Beware lukewarmness, it creates too many ports of entry for the evil one.
I too like a strong homily that make one uncomfortable, we had a visiting priest some time ago who gave a strong Baptist-like homily on being a sinner and needing salvation. I could feel that several of the flock were uncomfortable with directly being called a sinner. It was very refreshing. I get tired of these “I’m ok, your ok”, Jesus is a nice guy, it’s nice to be nice to the nice bland homilies.
EF, St. Louis at St. Francis de Sales Oratory. Canon Weiner gave a homily on “Blessed are the persecuted”. He spoke about the martyrdom of everyday life versus physical martyrdom, saying that those in the Church who have handled physical martyrdom in a valiant manner were already handling the martyrdom of everyday life in a valiant manner. He said that the grace of enduring martyrdom is the crowning beatitude and the culmination of the soul’s efforts (and God’s grace) to acquire all of the previous beatitudes. He said that while we may never face physical martyrdom, all of us are called to die-to-self daily for God. He urged us to practice daily martyrdom of self, and then we would be prepared for actual martyrdom if it ever came.This was a good homily to get everyone squirming in their seats. The spirituality of St. Francis de Sales often permeates the homilies there, which is why I think the lines for confessions are so long.
We ended up at a rural parish we usually avoid. The sermon was a surprise. The main point was rooted in Christ coming as servant and our being called to serve. The best
servants are unseen.
A Comparison between Jesus and Socrates
Fr. worked St. Dismas into the homily. I was very impressed when he pulled that off.
A grain of wheat (seed) that dies can become, for example, as great as the 2500 yr. old tree in CA (?) called General Sherman. At 365′ tall, one must fall backward to the ground to see the top. What of our faith, if it were a seed, and how do we hear the Word of God?
At OF Mass our pastor focused on the reading from Jeremiah about the Father inscribing the law on our hearts. He mentioned that in old depictions of Moses, he carried the tablets of the law in his left hand, cradled closely to show the nearness of the law to his own heart.
@Irenaeus G. Saintonge
Given the nature of my work, I try to keep on the DL, but that doesn’t seem to work at the parish.
@pinoytraddie
“A Comparison between Jesus and Socrates”
At my parish, too, Father made a comparison of Jesus to Socrates in his homily yesterday. It was to serve the purpose of explaining why Jesus would answer the Greeks that unless a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die it would not bear fruit, that He would have to die. Father explained how Greeks treated dissenters like Socrates (either exile or death) and how the Greek society changed the law following Socrates’ death so that people were allowed freedom of speech. This set up a historical reason why the Gospel seemed to imply that Greeks wanted to speak to Jesus to give Him the option to “run away” to Greece where He could freely teach and not be put to death. This historical context was something I had never thought about but helped to make more sense why the Greeks were specifically mentioned. Father also compared the famous line of Socrates, “An unexamined life is not worth living” and tied it into reconciliation and the fact that we, as Catholics, need to examine how we live our lives according to the Christian ideal. He went on to explain that we needed to die to ourselves in order that we may attain eternal life.
All in all, I thought it was a very good homily…intellectual and practical.
pm125 Our priest mentioned the same tree this weekend in his sermon. Perhaps we’re in the same parish.