Was there a good point or two from the sermon you heard during Holy Mass for Sunday?
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Fr. Gahan had a most excellent sermon on the Gospel reading and that the conscrated host is not an symbol, it is Jesus body, soul, and divinity. To the point, simple enough for my kids to understand, and moving. Just perfect!
The devil is attacking the family, big-time, so we all have to man-up and deepen our faith, live the Gospel, name the evil, forgive the hurts, feed on the Eucharist…no journey is long with the Bread that comes from heaven.
Our new priest was ordained this last May. He needs a little more sobriety–in the moral virtue sense, not the alcholic sense!–during Mass, but otherwise, he’s fantastic!!
Pray for all priests! Especially our new ones!
7am TLM: During the announcement interlude before the homily there was an appeal by a quite excellent new seminarian, for the seminarian education fund. 7 years ago there were 5 seminarians, now under Bp Morlino’s excellent leadership there are 32 and they are very good ones. And Bishop Morlino is having them ALL learn to celebrate the TLM beautifully. In the homily that followed, the priest, rather inspired by the beautiful testimony of the seminarian of his desire to give his heart that Jesus may love with it, his voice that Jesus may absolve sins, his hands to celebrate Holy Mass etc, spoke further about the priesthood. And that the priest is not perfect, and we should not be distracted by the fact that we may be aware of some imperfection or moral fault committed by the priest, or he didn’t answer our email etc, because nevertheless the priest IS Christ, especially when praying the Canon of the Mass. He implies he is unaware of any moral faults committed by Bishop Morlino–though it is possible–and alludes to the canonization process after the bishop passes away.
11am Mass with Bishop Morlino: We should go to receive Communion truly as though we were walking toward eternity, and we should exhort others to do so too, our friends, coworkers etc. Also: He says everyone in Wisconsin, whether they agree with him or not, should be proud of Paul Ryan. People could agree or disagree about a particular budget or economic plan, but abortion and same-sex marriage are non negotiable and a Catholic cannot in good conscience vote for a candidate that supports those things. Bishop Morlino expects that we are about to see a big campaign of attack against Ryan as being a bad Catholic and Bishop Morlino thinks inevitably this would involve him too. The excellent seminarian gave his testimony and appeal again, more polished now. There were two other seminarians present, one a medical doctor who is leaving that to become a priest, and one a former Episcopalian priest.
Celebrating the Feast Day of St. Clare of Assisi, patroness of our town, we had a sermon about her.
Most amusing point, said with just a twinkle in his eye, was Father’s observation from St. Francis de Sales: the actions of the saints are to be admired, if not imitated. (She took the ciborium from the tabernacle. Father noted, with a wry smile, that everyone seems to be going to the tabernacle nowadays.)
She (St. Clare) had absolute confidence in God. God protected the convent and the town.
God bless,
Chris
We are born with the desire and longing to be with God in Heaven but sin gets in the way of this. The only way to overcome sin is through the sacraments, particularly Confession. We were encouraged, reminded and dared to go to Confession ASAP. Oh, and by the way, missing Mass on a Sunday or Holy Day without a valid reason is a mortal sin.
Oh, how very wonderful to be at a Mass celebrated by a young priest who was willing to stand up and say all of this!
Well, Father asked us to define transubstantiation….Father had the little kids gather up front, and he gave a solid homily on the Eucharist to them (we weren’t really addressed)…in spite of the Liturgical fails of this particular parish in Idaho….
The Cross.
Monsignor gave a great homily about reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, quoting Peter Kreeft’s comments about his conversation with a Muslim who didn’t believe Catholics actually thought Jesus was present in the Blessed Sacrament because of their irreverent behavior. He reminded us who we are receiving in Holy Communion and how we should prepare ourselves–confession, arriving early, praying before Mass, etc.
In the middle of the Sanctus, the fire alarms started shrieking–full blown lights and ear-splitting sirens–, shorted out by the raging storm outside. Monsignor sent the deacon off, presumably to check that it was a false alarm and to coordinate with the fire dept, which arrived about 15 min later, and continued as if nothing was amiss. Truly putting into practice his homily on reverence, even in the midst of the most distracting and painful noise I have ever endured, which lasted until the communion line ended.
Our young priest contrasted earthly struggles for material goods against the Eucharist provided solely by God’s grace. He focused on giving our best to God even though it won’t be perfect. He really woke people up when he flatly stated that our efforts, on our own power, to make a better life for ourselves on earth will always fail, and that eternal happiness is only possible through grace. I’m not doing his talk justice, but it was very well thought out. Go Fr. Kurtis W.!
I think I must have been at the same church as gradchica above…I got the same homily, but at 11:15 Mass there were no sirens.
I hope I get it right. My brain was a little slow but it was a good sermon, a little deep.
THE HEALING OF THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN:
It was more than just a healing in the physical sense, but we must look deeper into the spiritual lesson that Our Lord is giving here.
The deaf man cannot speak because he does not hear.
We are like the deaf when we do not pray enough and open our hearts to Our Lord.
We are like the deaf when we fill our lives with the things of this world.
We cannot hear the voice of Grace when we are filled with TV, Novels, and other distractions.
When we do not hear what God is telling us, when we do not pray enough, when we are filled with other “voices” then we cannot be as one with the Spirit of Truth.:
then, when we DO speak, we do not speak with the mind of the Lord.
We cannot speak/teach on what we do not know and yet people do.
There was more deep stuff about the “stiff-necked people”
who made their own God according to their whims.
I hope I got his sermon right. It was very good and I don’t want to mislead you,
there was a mention too, on Bishops, who mean well but are caught up on “doing”
We cannot judge them on their teaching us (or failing to teach us) because they think they do rightly in teaching us to “do”
He ended with “If today you hear His Voice, harden not your hearts”
PS
Don’t let me mislead you. It was not the “doing” that was wrong.
It was so much stress on “doing” that we forget to put God first.
Splendid homily from our young parochial vicar. Analysis and advocacy for the Real Presence, drawing from the scriptures, the Psalms, St. Thomas Aquinas, the encyclical “Mysterium fidei”, and a few personal anecdotes having to do with baseball (it was appropriate and it worked, really.) Wide-ranging and hard-hitting. He’s a serious young man and absolutely fearless, and he chants (and has a lovely voice).
The importance of the final Sacrament to our eternal resting place- and our responsibilities as sons/daughters/husbands/wives to know and execute our parents/spouses wishes before Communion can not be received due to infirmity.
Our priest is on a roll with the second excellent homily about the Eucharist and the centrality of it in our life. Yesterday, he went somewhat poetic, speaking about St. Thomas Aquinas’ Lauda Sion and Pangue Lingua as expressions of the reverence and love we should have for Our Lord in the tabernacle. He also emphasised, for the second time, that our Communion must express that same reverence and love. How should we receive? One of two ways, on the tongue (rare are the Dutch priests who even acknowledge that this is an option!), or on the hand, followed by placing the Body of Christ in our mouths before the priest.
Father spoke of benefit of frequent reception of the sacraments and of making spiritual communions during the week if we are unable to make daily mass.
Our good pastor would probably be among the first to be locked up in a re-education camp – should it come to that. He sees evil for what it is. ‘nough said.
Father tied the gospel back to the first reading, speaking about the Eucharist as viaticum – food for the journey. The Eucharist and sacramental are what we need for our lives.
For the 11th Sunday after Pentecost an Excellent sermon taking Aquinas’ notion that for the faithful no proof is necessary while for those without faith no proof is sufficient and juxtaposing it with the absolute cold hard historical reality of Christ’s miracles (Gospel:Mk7:31-7), including the resurrection (Epistle:1Cor15:1-10), from which real personal experience of the Living Christ is made possible (with an example).
I had the privilege of cantoring a 40th Wedding Anniversary Mass on Saturday. We had a visiting celebrant who gave a beautiful homily, opening and closing it in song — The Prayer of St. Francis. He related the song to a lifetime of marriage and the responsibility of husband and wife to each other as a channel of peace. He casually reinforced Catholic teaching along the way, mentioning the two genders that comprise a marriage and that this is a sacramental marriage. He had the couple “reiterate” their vows so all could hear what their commitment has been. I guess technically the Catholic Church doesn’t hold with “renewal” of vows, but when you’re Archbishop Nienstedt you find a way!!
An excellent – and totally off-the-cuff – homily from Fr Lewis at St Teresa’s, Taunton (UK) about the Eucharist. Top stuff, and I wasn’t the only one to think so; Father had more people thanking him for it after Mass than I’ve ever seen before.
In line with the first reading, I appreciated Father’s reminder that discouragement is a tool of the Evil One to get us to work against ourselves.
At the noon EF Mass, our Pastor Emeritus concluded his three-week homily on contraception. It was solid and generally sensitive to the young/children present.