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Father, as I am ashamed that I cannot recall any of the remarks that the priest in my parish made concerning the Gospel, I thank you for asking the question.
1. Peter and Paul disobey unjust authority.
2. Peter and Paul accept the unjust authority’s punishment.
3. Repeat.
Just so, in our day and against our government, we must do the same.
An Indian Priest spoke about His Time as Deacon when He Met a Neophyte,who said She Prayed for More Vocations as Worked in the Fields.
He Compared the Priest’s Role to that of Parents.
Peter and Paul don’t; but Peter and John do.
Paul comes in a bit later.
In one sentence, the shepherds of the Church who speak for the Church are the bishops, not Sister Carol Keehan. Of course there was also much on the Church being found where Scripture, Sacraments, and Peter are, and admonition to pray for clergy who do the never-easy job of shepherding. It was a nice surprise to hear the mandate brought up yet again and not allowed to disappear as if resolved.
I’m sorry to say but the priest’s jewelry distracted me so much that that’s all I remember. His rings, bracelets, and possibly dyed, fancy hair-do…ugh…can going to Mass be an occasion of sin?
The pastor of Saint *****, who is not incidentally one of the finest preachers in the land, has recently announced that he is being “booted upstairs” to the Cathedral. (I suppose in the old days that would have meant making him a canon. Let’s return the canons. Sorry, I digress). He used the occasion to deliver a beautiful sermon on the joys of being a pastor and on the duty of the priests in the parishes to be in accord with the legitimate teachings of their pastors, i.e., their bishops.
Sorry but when the celebrant brings in a live baby lamb and holds it during his disjointed discussion of what Good Shepard sunday means it is difficult to view that positively…especially when he then parades it up and down the main isle so that children (and even adults) can pet it “It’s an experience they will never forget”. At least the Priest was honest enough to refer to the lamb as a “prop”. Of course props have no place at Mass. Oh for the opportunity to attend the TLM on a regular basis (which does not happen anywhere in our huge diocese) where the focus is on the Sacrifice not on the popularity of the celebrant.
At our OF Mass, the pastor hit multiple topics and all well:
(1) we’ve each been chosen by the Good Shepherd to be the children of God;
(2) there are others who don’t yet know that they’re chosen too;
(3) we must do what we can to facilitate the new evangelization.
At Old St Pat’s in Chicago, I learned that the Vatican is persecuting women religious because they (the women religious) have been good shepherds. I also learned that we are all Good Shepherds. I would have liked to ask the pastor, who celebrated and was homilist, if such a thing as sheep still exists in the Church, now that we are all Good Shepherds.
Beginning with the Old Testament Prophets – good shepherds – Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Isaac, and to David – were chosen by God to teach us in Scripture and to prepare us for an understanding of Jesus who would look for one missing from the ninety-nine and lay down His life for the flock.
These men contrasted by Ezekiel’s illustration of bad shepherds to show us how those who are in shepherding for the money will run from the flock when the wolves threaten.
In any vocation, we have the duty to shepherd one another for the Lord. Today, World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood, please pray for more and good shepherds.
I gave a sermon on etiquette in church. On such a subject, there is always more to say, but I hit several points.
My homily for first communion was rather different. I used a dialogue between God and an angel, to explain the Eucharist.
Pray for vocations.
Pray for vocations.
Where do priests come from? (Hint: Not the seminary) They come from the laity. Suggest priesthood to your boys.
Pray for vocations.
(We’re hard up for priests, can you tell?)
At the NO Mass I attended yesterday, the homily was about US being the good shepherd. The priest did mention Jesus at the beginning but then the bulk of his homily was that the message is that WE are supposed to be, each of us, the good shepherd, you know, in our ‘faith community’. I’m not accustomed to NO Masses so I don’t know if this is common for Good Shepherd Sunday, the Gospel message being about us. I would’ve so much preferred to hear about Jesus.
Our pastor started his homily with Humane Generis, by Pius XII. Unfortunately, through the wiggling and giggling of my children, I wasn’t able to hear the entire homily, but I did find the Encyclical good reading this morning!
The Ubiquitous above must have been at our traditional Mass.
Peter and Paul disobey unjust authority. Preach the truth. Get tossed in jail. Get out. Repeat. We are called to speak the truth no matter the cost.
Allow yourself to be shepherded, then be a good shepherd to others.
I understand that the EF Epistle for the Third Sunday after Easter (1 Peter 2:11-19) has never been heard at OF Sunday Mass in the past forty years, having been purged from the OF Sunday lectionary. Perhaps because of its insistence on refraining from “carnal desires”?
We usually can’t hear the sermons, “en toto” but our new sound system is finally starting to work.
Our priest spoke about the sheep wandering off and the shepherd is not angry that the sheep wandered off but happy to have found it, also, how we must stay on the path and be guided by the shepherd, to remember that we are the sheep and not to be anxious because we are in the arms of the good shepherd, all we have to do is Trust.
Mr Edwards, the I Peter 2 reading is read in part in the NO on Thursday of the Eighth week of Ordinary Time in year II. Different starting and stopping points. The “carnal desires” text is retained, but the submission to authority verses are omitted. It would have been read this year on the last day of May, but the feast of the Visitation takes precedence. Stay tuned until sometime in late May/early June of 2014.
BTW there’s a very useful reference site about the lectionary (NO and VO) at http://catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/1998USL.htm
The same priest who preached on the Sunday about Jesus healing the blind man preached today. Just as every one was ticked off about Jesus’ healing then, the authorities were ticked off that Peter healed a man. The priest noted a few weeks ago that nobody was happy for the blind man healed. Today the priest noted that no one was happy for the crippled man who could now walk.
Gregg,
Yes this is quite typical. Many or most of the “hard readings” one hears at a Sunday EF Mass, if not deleted entirely from the OF lectionary, are relegated to an every-other-year weekday, so that the typical Catholic who attends Mass only on Sunday has never heard them read at Mass.
Thanks for that nice reference on the OF and EF lectionaries.
We didn’t have what I would consider a “real” homily. We watched a message from the Archbishop about the upcoming Catholic Services Appeal.
I feel quite fortunate that I attend the beautiful Cathedral of the Nativity in beautiful Juneau, Alaska, where the good Father told a story of a Korean War Catholic Chaplain who went to the front lines under fire to minister to a dying non-Catholic soldier, and told the CO that he was there to minister to ALL, not just Catholics. Fit in subtly and beautifully with the sheparding theme.
I chanced to be in Charleston, SC, in the Cathedral.
Father (it wasn’t the bishop who said Mass, didn’t pick up the priest’s name) hit a multitude of points, among them that in order to get vocations, prayer and the sacraments were essential (yes, confession was mentioned, more than once). There was much, much more, but I was frankly too tired to register all.
At some point one could have easily mistaken oneself by believing to be reading one of Fr Z’s posts, rather than hearing the sermon.
Our Deacon is off gallivanting through Italy with his bride of 50 years and Father was unable to offer Mass so he asked me if I would read the Gospel and preach for a communion service. I agreed after he said, “pray on it”. He has a way with words. My sermon was about following the shepherds voice and not jumping over God’s wall, and a little more.
Father: I would be delighted to e-mail a copy of my sermon for you (warts and all) to critic if you would allow. We are a small parish of around 40 and all of us do what we can, so this situation will happen again. Everyone said they were happy with my effort.
I am a transitional deacon (40 days Deo gratias!) at what had been a notoriously liberal parish. At my parish I asked why would a man become a priest. I spoke of the first reading, and that ultimately a man becomes a priest because he believes in the name of Jesus and in the power of the gospel. I went on to explain how this compels the priest to be the good shepherd, following in the steps of Jeremiah 3.15 “I will give them shepherds after my own heart.” I then said that if i were just a hireling, I would merely tell people what they wanted to hear, what made them happy so that I still got paid. But if I’m a shepherd, then I must speak the truth when I see a wolf approaching the fold. I then went on to explain how the sociological data of our times supports what we say about divorce, living together before marriage and contraception. I then asked people if our disbelief about contraception, divorce and sex has come because we have a crisis of faith. So I challenged them, do we believe in the power of the gospel to transform us? Do we believe that Christ will provide us the grace to live the life he has called us to live?
Some of the storm over it has already begun to hit. Please pray for me. But many people have been wonderfully supportive.
We heard about St. Catherine of Siena, whose feast day it was. Father did bring in the Good Shepherd in terms of listening to the call of God. I enjoyed it.
I may have it wrong. But it was 1 Peter 2, and the passage doesn’t explicitly mention who was tossed in gaol with Peter. Where was that event in Acts?
iakob the confessor:
quote
Some of the storm over it has already begun to hit. Please pray for me. But many people have been wonderfully supportive.
unquote
Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. I heard a holy priest say this in a sermon
he also said “When you get flak, you know you’re over the target”
so rejoice in the storm you have caused, it means you reached someone.
You have planted a seed but you may not live to see its fruits.
You will be a great priest.
May God Bless you and keep you in the palm of His Hand.
Apparently, I need to preach better. My sermons never make it on the front page *sniff*
Hmmm, it’s hard to know whether it was a sermon, a homily, or a discussion group. (It’s a homily if it’s about the Gospel, right?) This weekend, I got to go to a NO Mass, a far cry from my usual TLM. *sigh* It was pretty sad. Fr. told us that we are all children of God and that He loves us all. I don’t think it was anything new to his parishioners.
They probably would have benefited more from a modesty sermon.
“Come to the Table of Plenty!” was the opening song. Quite, quite interesting.