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Detroit, whose patroness is Ste. Anne, so today we celebrated the External Solemnity of Ste. Anne in the Extraordinary Form. Father’s homily touched on invoking Ste. Anne’s patronage for raising children in a culture hostile to the practice of the faith.
Sermon as usual was excellent. The priest connected the lesson for the day into an explanation of the Offertory where our meager offerings are transformed through the Mass into food for the masses, replicating the loaves and fishes deed.
At the Canon we had four young men kneeling before the altar, two carrying tapers and one a censer and the other bells . This is not new, it is done very often at our church but the four young men were brothers.
I have seen it done at Cologne cathedral but in a grand scale, ten young men, matched according to size. It was impressive. Here in a little diocese what is possible is done.
It was an absolutely fulfilling mass.
EF Dominican rite UK. 9th after Pent. Our Lord weeps over Jerusalem.
The city of Jerusalem can be seen as man’s soul and Christ longs for its salvation, not destruction, but it has to be looked after and this depends up man’s action. The errors of Luther who could not accept that through baptism man was capable of an ‘acceptable sacrifice’ and that Faith alone was enough. Thus we can earn grace through our lives but risk the loss of our soul likewise by falling into sin, for which Confession is the remedy.
“Chastity keeps love young,” said the celebrant at the noon TLM in McLean,VA…quoting St.Josemaria Escriva…
Neither re sermon nor good, the Intercessory Prayers jumped the shark today.
“Let us pray for those people who are awaiting an end to their annulment process.”
Oh, we had the usual… You know, the denial of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. They were only sharing what they had, don’t you know.
I once heard an interview with some high ranking Bishop from the Middle East that when people make that sort of statement they are speaking from ignorance of the Middle Eastern customs. It is VERY usual for these people to share food with others and especially strangers. It would NOT be considered a miracle if people shared their food with each other. Something ELSE happened there otherwise it would not have been written down.
John F. Kennedy: that is exactly the reaction I had the first time I heard this “explanation”. Why were the people hungry if they all brought their own picnic from home???
I don’t know, robtbrown; those of us kept outside the Church by our previous sin of divorce would appreciate your prayers.
Today’s homily started with the clearing of the moneychangers from the Temple, went on to proper behavior in Church, and ended with this (repeated in the bulletin, close to verbatim) : “I wish to thank all who helped in making the annual rummage sale a reality again. However, I regret to inform the Parish that *this will be the last one*. The reason is that some *very sinful clothes* were donated (by parishioners — which is a very disturbing fact in and of itself) and the organizer of the rummage sale was unwilling and/or unable to remove these clothes from being sold. They were removed by myself. If any parishioner wishes to see a sample of these sinful clothes, they may do so in the Parish Office. The Parish’s and my reputation for modesty in dress and behavior will not be compromised for the sake of a few dollars; this includes a very grave offense against Our Lord.”
Was this a _good_ point? I guess. I don’t think that the apparent overreaction would have happened if the rummage person had been obedient. I was just a bit in awe; this isn’t business as usual in your typical OF parish. This parish has the dress code posted at the door to the sanctuary, so this didn’t come out of nowhere.
jeffreyquick says:
I don’t know, robtbrown; those of us kept outside the Church by our previous sin of divorce would appreciate your prayers.
Divorce isn’t a sin. There are lots of divorced people who are able to frequent the Sacraments.
Sissy, Later after Mass, I heard a good homily on the local Catholic radio station who also talked about this denial. The priest said that this sort of “explanation” was actually more difficult to believe than a miracle. That all of these people actually had, hidden under their clothes, loaves and fishes and only brought them out once Jesus had the 12 distribute their own food. Then the 12 gathered up the left overs which it would seem more logical that the people might have kept them for later. Also did no one bring any cheese, grapes, figs, etc. to share? No mention of them .
I was going to say the same thing, RobtBrown. There seems to be much confusion out there about divorce. The divorced can still receive the sacraments; divorce and remarried cannot without benefit of annulment.
Our priest today was from Africa so I could scarcely understand a word he said, but his last sentence broke through the accent barrier. He said, roughly, to give something small to God and He will make great things of it.
This resonated a great deal with me.
Also: I’m not naive about the American Catholic divorce situation. Annulments, however, do not rewrite history. When parents with children divorce and remarry, it is the same situation for the children, whether or not an annulment is involved.
Divorce is terrible for the children involved.
We had a visiting priest today, who is the diocesan Vocations and Priestly Formation chief. I always look forward to him celebrating Mass, because he is strictly a “Say the Black, Do the Red” orthodox priest, and he also always delivers a solid homily.*
In today’s case, he illustrated the connections between the Collect, the first reading and the Gospel on God’s providence. First he talked about the Eucharistic fast, and how it is too short and too poorly observed. His point, which I loved, was that we are not punishing ourselves in fasting, but rather making ourselves hungry for Christ in the sacrament. The second part of it revolved around the miracles in the Gospel and the first reading. He didn’t even mention the wishy-washy “sharing” theory. No, it was all about how God will provide, and do so abundantly. He emphasized that when everyone had eaten his fill, there were still twelve baskets left over — God will give us enough for ourselves and to share with others in charity.
* No adverse reflection on my Pastor, by the way. He’s very orthodox as well, but a little weaker in the homiletics.
acardnal,
Amen to that. And divorce is also terrible for the children who witness it and fear for their own family.
My parents are still married after 52 years, but I can tell you that my sister and I quaked in fear every time another couple in the family-school-church circle got divorced – and there was a period there when we were around 8-10 years old that far too many of them did. It seemed like a huge wave that was going to engulf us all.
John F. Kennedy says:
Oh, we had the usual… You know, the denial of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. They were only sharing what they had, don’t you know.
asperges says:
EF Dominican rite UK. 9th after Pent. Our Lord weeps over mindless Scriptural Hermeneutic.
FYP
At St. Alphonsus in Hopewell, NJ, the deacon recalled how an unorthodox priest asked Dorothy Day for a coffee cup and used that to consecrate the Precious Blood at a Mass he offered at her Catholic Worker house. After Mass, she took the coffee cup, kissed it, and solemnly buried it in the garden outside, as she recognized that it would no longer be just a coffee cup any more. Another priest once dropped some unconsecrated hosts on the floor and before he discarded them, he held one between his fingers and said to it, “Think of what you could have become.” This led into a good homily about the Real Presence and how that ought to change us when we leave Mass and go elsewhere. After Mass, a Host was placed in the monstrance on the altar for adoration.
John F. Kennedy,
I wanted to slap our pastor because he put forward the ‘sharing’ idea as “a theory that a lot of people hold” — and argued that it was just as much a miracle that everybody was ‘inspired to share’.
He’s been sick lately so I’m not going to get in his face, but why repeat that nonsense unless you’re going to refute it? If I had trouble believing in miracles, I’d be a Unitarian/Universalist or something.
I’m going to try to find the homily of the bishop that you mentioned and Email it to him. Bah!
Andrew, If I’m ever in Hopewell NJ, I will be sure to attend a Mass at St. Alphonsus. Someone there understand what’s going on.
You know, AmericanMother and John F. Kennedy. if I were in your position-and I have been in the past- I would first discuss the error with the priest; second, stop all donations; third, write a letter to the bishop; and fourth, find another parish.
This was a miracle. . . something which shows that Jesus Christ was Divine.
Exactly so. As father pointed out, it is the only miracle that is described in all four Gospels. It obviously struck the evangelists as being very important, indeed. If there was a mundane reason for it, why would they all record it?
The priest who celebrated Mass today often delivers his homily in the form of a poem. This is very difficult for me to get anything out of, and I usually cringe when I see him and end up reading the bulletin during the homily (I know, not good).
However, today, what I got was this inner revelation: it doesn’t matter if I can understand it or not, lots of people do, and the fact that Fr. can take the readings and weave them together like this is an awesome gift.
In the future, I will be more tolerant of his homily poems, and I bet I’ll even get something out of them.
Greetings All,
We were graced with a visit from Fr. McCrystel who works in Africa for the SMA
– Societas Missonium ad Afros in Latin, which is why it is known as SMA, although in English the society is known as the Society for African Missions.
Fathers’ homily was simple and beautiful – simply beautiful to be precise.
Fr. McCrystel reminded us that no matter how small our offering, The Lord can put it to much valuable use for the poor when we give it to Him.
Our new pastor gave a great homily on how it was the young boy’s gift that made the miracle possible. We are all called to give what we have, even though it might seem to be insufficient in order to accomplish the work of the Lord!
Remaining single; putting off the normal things of this world (ie marriage) is the better part. But it should be undertaken with serious devotion and the back bone to stick to it.
And my bff’s sermon today via Deacon was : Mass is a great privilege. One we may not have much longer in this country. Don’t take it for granted.
Fr. Ubel’s homily was about the miracle of the loaves and fishes, which was then connected to the food of angels/bread from heaven that we received at Mass.
Went to Mass at an ethnic festival downtown. The visiting priest who usually says Mass couldn’t come, so they just had a normal priest. He said (and sang) a dignified Mass. A lot of the usual weird add-ons weren’t added on this year. Father also explicitly remembered the guy for whom the Mass was being offered (maybe we weren’t supposed to hear that part, but he was miked for radio broadcast).
Anyway, the homily was about how even for athletes, they know that if they want to go to the Olympics they have to train and eat right, and how God has let us know that we need to partake of the Eucharist if we want to train for heaven. He included pretty much all of the readings. He also talked about loaves and fishes being the only miracle in all four Gospels, and about how Jesus didn’t announce that he was going to do a miracle, but just went ahead and did it.
(What I mean is that I was surprised, because in my experience, priests don’t usually say out loud in the prayers that they’re praying for N. dead person.)
Today the priest did something a bit different. Since we’re losing our MUCH beloved Bishop Cordileone to San Francisco, and since so many people have asked so MANY questions about it, Father took a phrase from today’s second reading as his text, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” He began by explaining how the bishops are the successors of the Apostles and, in union with the Holy Father, teach as Christ taught. He went on to explain how bishops are chosen, how they compare to priests and to archbishops, how dioceses and archdioceses have been set up in the U.S. from pre-Revolutionary days to the present, and the differences between the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the Diocese of Oakland. It was riveting, inspiring and informative even for long-time, well-educated Catholics. The one question he couldn’t answer was the pay grade difference between bishops and archbishops. :)
In the homily that was given last Saturday, the priest described the tabernacles in the high Anglican Churches, as nothing more than bread boxes. I have never thought of it like that before, although I know that they do not have the True Presence.
Ours was an ‘enrolment Mass’ for children making their first Holy Communion in September. Father asked them if they’d been to McDonalds and then explained that the Eucharist is the real ‘Happy Meal’! I’m not sure it’s particularly sound theologically, but they’re going to remember it next time they go to McDonalds!
Last night at the Vigil Mass Archbishop Naumann spoke of the many modern scholars who say the miracle was the “sharing” and how often we hear that nonsense. Said they are wrong and it was a miracle!
AnnAsher says:
Remaining single; putting off the normal things of this world (ie marriage) is the better part.
It’s not that simple. The single life itself is not higher. Marriage is a good. Giving up marrying (celibacy) is only better if it’s for a higher good (e.g., Priesthood, Religious Life) or if someone concludes that he can be a better Catholic without marriage.
In St. Paul’s day, 23000 perish in a single day from sins described as fornication.
Our Lady warned us.
Abraham bargained for Sodom and Gomorrah.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem — and WE have been warned.
EF 9th Sunday after Pentecost
By the way — since our Italian priest wasn’t sure — what would the English for “sida” be? Several of us thought he meant SIDA (what Americans call AIDS).
We are a “community” of believers. We need to be there for each other: to coalesce.
We are like individual grains, that separately that is all we are, but when meshed together we become bread, which we cannot be apart from one another.
The above is a quote from what the priest’s homily was about. I forgot to qualify it.
For the first time ever, a sermon affirming the teachings of Humanae Vitae!
We had a Deacon give the homily (typical of 3rd Sundays, and whenever there is a 5th Sunday, at my parish)… …and he was better this particular Sunday than the priests often are. He really put the focus of the gospel on the Eucharist, and the Real Presence of Christ. I was pleasantly surprised.
He talked about the imperfection & doubt of the apostles, not yet truly understanding what our Lord was capable of. Yet Andrew, bringing forth the boy with the bread and fish, had a little hope but still doubted. He then talked about this event prefiguring the Eucharist, and that He really did feed the thousands and that it wasn’t just another nice story as some say.
EF: 9th Sunday after Pentecost
Father preached on the Epistle (I Cor. 10:6-13), explaining that the Hebrews were a type of the Church. He explained more about the incidents referred to in “Neither let us tempt Christ” and “neither let us murmur”, suggesting we read those in the O.T. Those sins were in effect, a type of schism. So don’t fall into that failing.
And it does not matter if you come to it from the left or the right.