Was there a really good point in the Sunday Sermon you heard which you can share with us?
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One of our fine priests used this quotation, a sort of parable, from Chesterton at the conclusion of his homily yesterday. It’s quite telling and although food for thought, even more cause for comtemplation and perhaps redoubling of efforts to stand up, in Faith. This was aimed squarely at what the government is doing regarding Religious Liberty.
“Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, “Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good—” At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark.” -GK Chesterton, Heretics (1905) [Nice quote.]
Our Bishop was celebrating Mass and Confirmation. We were treated to a fantastic homily on the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and their application in our lives. Of particular note was his treatment of “Fear of the Lord,” which he described as a healthy respect for the power and awesomeness of God (paraphrasing). [Good topic!] One way in which we manifest this gift is in our reverence for God in the liturgy, particularly by following all of the liturgical guidelines of the Church. This was followed by suggesting that not following the guidelines was a form of disobedience, doing things the way we wanted them done. Then, when the time came for the sign of the peace, he reminded us that in conjunction with his points in the homily, the Church teaches very clearly that the sign of the peace should be done while remaining in our places and sharing peace only with those closest to us. What a great way to get us fired up about reforming the liturgy. [OORAH!]
I always hesitate to post here. I’m extremely leary that my paraphrase could cause great harm and misinform, but I have to share.
This weeks homily included, awareness of sin, examination of conscience, the importance of confession and receiving the Eucharist in a state of grace. [Excellent.] Awareness that communion through the mercy and grace of God is a piviledge and responsibility, not a right.
Last week the homily included being reminded that receiving in the hand is a special permission granted through repeated renewal of indult. We were encouraged to receive on the tongue.
My God, my God, I love you in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, my parish and parish priest!!!
Our young parochial vicar preached a dynamite homily on John 3:16.
He told an anecdote of a young boy who was dared by his friends to go into a church and enter the confessional, even though he wasn’t Catholic. He told a bunch of nonsense to the priest, whereupon the priest assigned him for his penance: ‘Go out, kneel before the Crucifix, and shout at the top of your voice: “You are up there for me, and I could not care less.”‘ The young boy did, and burst into tears then and there.
He later converted, and became Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger.
He put the question – God sent His only-begotten son: do we care, or could we care less?
There was a lot more, but that’s what I took away.
In a pleasant counterpoint, we sang the Sir John Stainer anthem on the text. [nice]
Before he stood up to give his homily, Father let out a big sigh. Only after he finished, 20 minutes later, did I realize it’d been a sigh of, “I’m going to try this one more time.”
Father spoke, yet again and at great length, about the dangers of the HHS mandate, not only to the Catholic church, but to all faiths, giving an example to illustrate his point, and how if this battle is lost, our other freedoms are in grave danger. He’s said at least two or three other times that if the mandate isn’t lifted, he will have insurance dropped for himself, the church and school employees. He’s leading a group from our parish to the protest in Nearest Major City on March 23. I am hoping to attend as well. [Give us a report.]
After Mass on Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend Vespers/Evensong at St. Rita’s in Alexandria, VA. It was an Anglican-use service. Absolutely stirring. Music by Tallis. During the sermon, father spoke of the importance of the Ordinariate. I pray we have more such opportunities to experience it.
It was sponsored by the Institute of Catholic Culture. If anyone is in the DC area it’s worth checking out their schedule.
http://instituteofcatholicculture.org/
Sadly, we are not hearing much from the pulpit on HHS, though our bishop is communicating and a mass and rosary walk are planned at the Cathedral.
Anyhoo, one thing that the priest noted from the gospel that I recall was that not one person expressed any joy or amazement at the gift of sight that the blind man had received from Jesus. [We also had scrutinies, a post-communion talk on $ for a new round (ugh!) church, and new confirmandi making a commitment at the end of mass, bla, bla..oh, how I prefer weekday masses, which is sad, given the holiness of Sunday, the Lord’s Day.]
Our associate pastor celebrated Mass and gave the homily. He spoke about the power of the Cross to heal us and free us from sin and temptation, sharing a story from his own life to illustrate the point. He also spoke of the many graces we can receive from showing reverence to the crucifix, such as by kissing it. It was a very beautiful homily. Father’s English isn’t 100% perfect, but he always speaks from his heart.
The homily I heard yesterday was about the current assault on religious freedom and there are a few points which really stuck with me. Father John talked about nominal and liberal ‘Catholics’ who have the ‘I personally don’t believe in it but it’s not my place to tell others what to do with their own bodies’ attitude toward abortion. Each time we go along to get along, we lose a bit more religious freedom. He talked about the fall of the great societies in history, commenting that the US is going down that path. He went on to talk about the HHS ruling, saying that is not the whole problem, only a very small part of it. It is like worrying about a broken deck chair on the Titanic when the whole ship is steaming toward destruction. Along the way, he wove in some quotes from the USCCB statement which was released last week. It was simply phenomenal.
The EF had as the Gospel the feeding of the 5000 so Father preached on the meaning of the (EF) Mass, going painstakingly through each part of the mass and explaining it. I was struck by how each gesture and action by the priest had a symbolic meaning; for example the breaking of the host in 3 representing the 3 parts of the church – triumphant, militant, and suffering. Another example was how the mingling of the portion of host and the precious blood representing Christ’s coming back to life at the resurrection. I don’t think I’ll ever look at the Mass the same again.
Sadly, I was sick with an allergic reaction to French vegetables and missed Holy Mass. However, I have heard a great sermon last week, which I did not mention, on hell. Can you imagine?
Father gave a very hardcore homily, as has been the case practically for the whole of this year. He printed the “Quit the Catholic Church” ad from the New York Times, showed it to us and talked about how “stupid their publishers are, as if I [Father] have a spell on you and force you to come here, as if I have you all brainwashed, as if the sacraments themselves aren’t good enough to convince you.” He additionally had a small tirade about how they refused to print the similar anti-Islam ad. It was all very good and you could cut the tension with a knife, but you could still tell that practically everyone agreed with him. We had no walk outs, nor do we ever. And this all at a little Gothic diocesan church in South Carolina, one with an ironing board altar :[ might I add.
Oh, and he also made fun of how the ad labels him a misogynist and a sex pervert, saying that if he really hated women then he wouldn’t hear their confessions and baptize their babies and bury them.
Nice homily from our transitional deacon at the parish. Spoke on the nature of forgiveness. Particularly liked when he spoke about the need for awareness of sin and need for contrition/penitence, as well as the need to be careful to not wrap ourselves in despair, obsessing over sin and penitence without remembering the third point – God’s forgiveness.
Was on a college visit last night for Mass, as well. Very nice homily from the Chaplain on the analogy of God’s relationship with his people as the relationship between husband and wife. Quoted a British author (whose name escapes me) on the topic and did a little compare and contrast with what the Mass readings said on the subject.
In the Byzantine Church, the Fourth Sunday of Lent Gospel reading regards Jesus healing a mute man possessed by a demon. Our priest has been using the Sundays of Lent to talk on the sacraments of the Church and spoke on the sacrament of anointing of the sick which tied in nicely with the Gospel reading.
Homily – 4th Sunday of Lent
Fr. Mitch Pacwa offered the Saturday Vigil Mass as a conclusion to the day-plus Lenten conference he gave at our parish. He noted that there are two animals that Scripture uses as images of both Christ and the devil: the serpent and the lion. The bronze serpent stretched out in the crook of a tree foreshadowed Our Lord stretched wide on the wood of the Cross.
We had a wonderful conference but the poor man’s voice was nearly gone by the end of it.
One of the Priests from my Parish told the Following Story in His Sermon:
There is a story that took place in Germany in 1456 when Gutenberg was printing the first Bible. The printer had a little daughter, Alice, who came into the printing press and picked up a discarded sheet of paper that had only one incomplete line printed on it. The line read: “For God so loved the world that he gave,” and it ended there. Now, these were times when popular religion was a matter of living in fear and trembling before the awesome wrath of God. So little Alice put the paper in her pocket and kept on thinking of the fact of God being so loving, and her face radiated with joy. Her mother noticed her changed behavior and asked Alice what was making her so happy and Alice showed her mother the sheet of paper with the one printed line. Her mother looked at it for some time and asked, “So, what did God give?” Alice said, “I don’t know, but if God loved us so much to give us something, then we don’t need to be afraid of Him.”
http://www.frtomofm.org/lent406.htm
He Added we Must Rejoice that Redemption has been fulfilled by Christ’s Sufferings.
Father continued the series of homilies on the Beatitudes that have been going on through Lent. He focused on “Blessed are the peacemakers…”. Father spoke about three levels of peace- with God, with ourselves and with our fellow man. He explained that true peace cannot come without God, and dispelled the myth that to be a peacemaker is to be a pacifist. He pointed out the differences between what the world considers to be peace (lack of external conflict) and the peace that passes all understanding that comes from God. It reminded me so much of what is going on in America right now. People of conscience, especially Catholics, are being asked to shut up and submit to a false peace in the name of healthcare. Anyone with a big enough Catholic family has probably felt pressure to not rock the boat in various circumstances (irregular marriages, cohabitation, children not being baptized) to avoid a family argument and “keep the peace”. Sometimes our notion of being a peacemaker is a cover for cowardice, I suppose. Father’s homily gave me much to think about and made me pray for fortitude during the Offertory, not only to stand up to the lions of injustice in society, but to have the courage to do the right thing when it comes to sticky family situations. I was reminded that I need to be faithful in small things if I am to be faithful in big things. Fortitude is not something I regularly pray for as I am usually so focused on patience, but this homily drove me to pray for fortitude in a way that I have not before.