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I remember that Father talked about today being low Sunday and also Divine Mercy Sunday. Father brought up Ephesians 5 today and how husbands are to be to their wives as Christ was to the Church. To be willing to die for their family and their wife just as Christ’s love for us lead him to die on the Cross for us. Father also stressed that wives are to be submissive to their husbands just as Christ was to the Father.
Father also talked today about how in the Gospel we heard how Christ instituted confession and the power of Priests to hold sins bound and let them loose. He went on to explain how lucky we are to have this gift given to us.
This was what I remember from today’s homily, from what little I was able to hear while holding on to noisy children. It was a very good homily (one of the best this year). I wish I had recorded to listen to again.
EF Mass in Roxbury, WI
As a followup later in the day, my wife told me that she was chatting with one of her friends and the topic of relations and what not came up in marriage. My wife told me she was able to use the homily from Father today to help her work through some of the difficulty her friend was having with her husband.
It is always amazing to me how pertinent Mass is to our lives. How a good homily from a Priest can teach and inform our conscience during our lives. It really shows the Holy Ghost is working through the Church and her members to help us in our daily lives.
To my great surprise, the pastor (not of my home parish) decided to take his theme from the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic. Making up, he said, for the studied neglect by media commentators, he wished to relate to us the stories of the three priests on the ship, one Lithuanian, one Bavarian, one Englishman, who each turned down opportunities to save their lives on a lifeboat, in order to remain with all the other souls, offering what spiritual aid and consolation they could to them in the fleeting minutes of their lives. Just as their Lord had shown the way on Calvary, these priests gave up their lives for the sake of others.
Then, after this short reflection, he joined the song leader in singing all the verses of “Nearer, My God, to Thee” during the offertory collection.
The key phrase that Father used today, multiple times, was “If you want peace, go to confession.” The homily was about the institution of the sacrament and how vital it is. He also encouraged us to take advantage of Divine Mercy Sunday devotions and the confessions offered in the afternoon (which I did take advantage of)
Amazing. Our Polish Assistant Pastor gave an amazing homily on why ‘Doubting’ Saint Thomas is a good role model. He explained that Faith can be hard, and gave the example of Transubstantiation. He also told us not be discouraged by the secular world which tries to portray Christ as a ‘charlatan’, namely ‘The Da Vinci Code’. I am not doing the homily justice. It was amazing. By the way, my Parish only has the Ordinary Form in English and ‘versus populum’ (with bits of Latin on special occasions, such as The ‘Gloria’ in Latin at Easter), but The Mass is very dignified.
Our Blessed Sacrament was left abandoned in a pew crevice for a week.
This is in a parish which has altar rails which are not used; not permitted to be used.
Seems to me Our Lord would not be hijacked and dumped if communicants kneeled and received on the tongue, in front of the priest. It is too easy to walk away with Him from the hurried cattle lines.
I went to Mass in Minnesota where there was an SRO full house in attendance, an absolutely magnificent choir, 33 servers in the entrance procession, a battalion of 4th degree Knights of Columbus and a three hour Divine Mercy service afterward. And no, it wasn’t St. Agnes in St. Paul. It was Holy Family in St. Louis Park, sometimes known as “St. Agnes West.” While the congregation did receive Communion standing, the vast majority of them received on the tongue.
Homily made a point on this gospel I’d never heard before, pointed out that since Thomas wasn’t there the first time, Jesus came back for him. I think that continues the gospel theme of the good shepherd and the one lamb.
Becasue of a snowstorm, our mission priest was unable to travel. But I do have a confession ‘story’
A few years ago, we had a young man who had obtained custody of his 10 yo son from the boys’ mother whom he never married. After 5 years he and his son had problems, the son called 911 and once again they were separated. The father and son had been saying the rosary every night and it was evident in their life in the parish. They also attended our prayer group once a week. 6 months ago, the father developed pancreatic cancer. He was living wth his family some 5 hours from here. 3 weeks ago, we received a phone call from him. He said he was in the hospital, dying and then apologized for his previous behavior. He phoned several members of the parish. I emailed his phone numbers and hospital info to our vocation director who happened to be our pastor when these people first came to our town. On Easter Sunday evening, this man died with his son at his side, holding his hand. Again I emailed the vocation director. This time he answered and said that when I emailed him the 1st time, he phoned this man and spent a long time on the phone preparing him for death. Both our present priest and this priest offered Masses for him on Monday morning. I like to believe that Our Blessed Lord took him on the great feast of Easter because of corrections he had made in his life and his repentance. I would hope to be so fortunate….
Father talked about forgiveness and how Christ forgives all, if you are truly penitent and yet we have a harder time forgiving ourselves and sometimes hold that act as something pious.
Well my mass had our new archbishop taking the reins. His message was “we must seek to do God’s will. We may not always succeed but we must make the effort”. His coat of arms has this and it made me wonder if perhaps he wasn’t to thrilled about being sent over. He also said we must take the Good News to those who need to hear it most, and said how he wanted to be “among his flock constantly”.
Jesus said “peace” to His Apostles. ( Not shalom which would mean within and without, where there was trouble. They locked themselves in during this time.)
This Gospel being, with Christmas and Easter, the only one that appears in all years A, B, and C.
It is an encouragement to us today that comm-unity in faith is so vital. Thomas had chosen loneliness and what would have become of him had he not returned that day, at the urging of the others, when Jesus again said “peace”?
Our help and strength is in Him. Life v. loneliness.
Father (FSSP) stressed the Sacrament of Penance. When in the Gospel (John 20:19-31) Christ says to the apostles, “Peace be with you,” and told them “whose sins you shall forgive…….”, He was also telling us that through the Sacrament we attain peace. And yes, Our Lord came twice to the apostles purposely to demonstrate through Thomas that “blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.” Father made it very clear, also, that he knows some priests who tell people that if they are in mortal sin, they may receive the Eucharist and go to confession later, and that is definitely WRONG (the capital letters demonstrate the tone of voice).
The pastor at the mass we assisted at preached very clearly and very directly on the Divine Mercy and . . . Confession!!! It was literally the first time I have ever heard a priest preach on this. Way to go !
One of my nephews was a First Communicant, and the priest was very good, but left a Christological point dangling, talking about Eve’s creation through Adam’s rib and the water and wine from the crucified Christ’s side. I’ve been mulling it, but haven’t gotten beyond his point about creation and re-creation. Seems there must be something more to it. Or not?
Father talked about Christ’s glorified body retaining the wounds of his Passion and death as a permanent sign of His love for us. Then he said that our glorified bodies will retain whatever imperfections, scars, wounds etc that God gave us to help us become more holy. Whatever sufferings we endure that we offer up as sacrifice will be retained to glorify God. I’d never considered that before. What a reminder of the humility required to be like Christ and be with Him in Heaven.
Sermon covered an overview of St. Faustina, including some readings from her diary, the process by which her devotions were first suppressed then allowed, history of her beatification, and the benefits of divine mercy devotions and of receiving communion worthily on this Sunday.
I got the “we are the church” sermon. Also since “we are the church” we have the power to forgive. What’s bothers me about this is that it blurs the distinction between priest and laity. In addition, I was treated to the Gloria sung in the old version of the new mass. Also, when consecration of the wine took place, the priest said “and for all.” That was the deal breaker for me. I left during communion and attended a traditional Mass at another church almost 30 miles from where I live. When will the madness end?
My parish priest made a very good observation this Sunday. He spoke of the crowds on Easter Sunday, and how there were so many people at every mass that reglarily attending parishioners could not get a seat. I was there (of course), and people were lined up out the door and into the parking lot. He observed how people herded in in like cattle to receive communion, and like cattle being herded into a slaughterhouse, not really knowing what they were doing or why why were doing it, some people in the communion “procession” may have been walking toward the “death” of their souls by receiveing communion unworthily. He went on to say that everyone last week shouted out “I do” in the renewal of their baptismal promises. Then he paused, looked around, and asked “were are they today?” He told the parishioners to go home and ask that question of their friends and family who they know are the “pasqualini”. He said that on Divine Mercy Sunday we should make reparation for all those who make empty promises and sacraligious communions, and pray that God, in His mercy, will shine the light of truth into the darkness of their hearts so that every Sunday will see the faithful crowded into the church to witness the miracle of redemption renewed on the altar. It was a powerful sermon that really shocked people. I myself was left thinking “did he ACTUALLY say that?” I wanted to give him a Jersey style fist pump and a hooting and hollering standing ovation. Obviously I restrained my joy (and dignity) and will instead express my appreciation in a way that is more effective for lay people like me – with a big fat cheque to the parish and a letter of thanks to the priest, both photocopied and cc’d to the chancery.
Father talked about sin and confession. He reminded us that no sin is totally private, all sin wounds the body of Christ, and all confessions heal the body of Christ. He also mentioned how important it is for children to see their parents going to confession and setting the example. There were so many good points, but these are the highlights.
I suppose over a lifetime of attending Mass, one is bound to encounter the unusual – as was the case for me yesterday. Attending a Tridentine service, we had a guest speaker deliver the homily (not 100% sure, but fairly confident a Catholic priest). The guest represented a Catholic education organization that makes the rounds here seems every few years to seek donations for their magazine and mission. Having read the magazine some years back, I seem to recall it as better than most (name isn’t important for this post).
In any event, at what seemed to be close to the end of the visitor’s message (homily), a young man stood up in one of the front pews and began appealing to the priest/brother?, “Please stop. Please don’t try to sell us anything. This is the mass. Everything we need, we have through the mass” etc, etc.
This began a back and forth between the visitor and the young man that went on far too long. Some worshipers seemingly uncomfortable with the emerging situation, got up and left. After what seemed to be a few minutes of this back and forth, one other individual stands up and asks both to cease and get on with the Mass. Yet it still continued far too long.
Among the aspects of this that were disturbing – nobody (e.g., usher – other than the other individual mentioned above) attempted to persuade the young man to stop his disruption of the service.
I can understand the sentiment of not wanting to be “sold ” something during Mass, as this young man exclaimed. Still, I wouldn’t ever think of standing up however and disrupting a Mass as was done yesterday. To me, this was disrespectful to our presider, to our guest, to the sanctity of the Mass itself, and to all those gathered to worship.
One element I typically walk with after attending Tridentine service is a sense of calm and peace. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case yesterday.