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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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- on WDTPRS – 20th Sunday after Pentecost: What a grace it is to live with mind and conscience quiet: “It reminds me of a framed print or needlepoint that hung in parents’ house for many years: Be welcome in…”
- on WDTPRS – 20th Sunday after Pentecost: What a grace it is to live with mind and conscience quiet: “Father, your fine remarks about heaven’s perfect accord versus hell and sin being discordant seem to echo John Milton’s “At…”
- on Rome 24/10 – Day 5: Savoring life and loveliness: “Father, it brings me joy that you are in Rome and to read your daily posts. Thank you for the…”
- on WDTPRS – 20th Sunday after Pentecost: What a grace it is to live with mind and conscience quiet: “The heading at your post on 1P5 on the Gospel reminded me also of this prayer before communion in the…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Yes, BeatifyStickler, In the 70’s the put out a movie about St. Francis. All the Friars were flitting around like…”
- on Rome 24/10 – Day 5: Savoring life and loveliness: “NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others. The PBG Alaskan…”
- on Rome 24/10 – Day 4: BLACK VESTMENT PROJECT!: “EAW rightly pray for Fr Horan. He may choose to be laicized but I thought the changes wrought in the…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Where did the hippie image come from? It always kind of pissed me off. I just sense gays from the…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Most likely it was referring to the heresy of Catharism, which led to the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229). To know more…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Interesting. Is there an attribution for this text or does the author prefer anonymity? Thanks.”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “@ Joannes_Picus – Heretics at the time were the Cathars and Waldensians who rejected teachings of the Church and promoted…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “What were the Church’s sins at the time, and which heresy specifically was dominating Europe?”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Toward the end of St. Francis’s “Hymn to the Sun” is the line “Woe to those who die in mortal…”
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Father spoke on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and how we must receive Him worthily, in a state of grace. He discussed mortal sin, and how we must go to confession before we can receive Him if we are in a state of mortal sin. He also spoke on how the Blessed Sacrament strengthens us, and helps us become more like Christ.
Father (recently ordained) spoke to the younger Mass attendants about vocations, religious/single/married, encouraging them to pray, reflect and seek the way God wants to be served by each one. It was very good, very sincere.
In my case, it wasn’t what the homilist (a permanent deacon) said, but HOW he said it that made the difference. He got choked up in the middle of the Gospel reading (“I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died…”) and again during the homily, when he talked about how he used to take the Eucharist for granted, before the truth of the Real Prescence sank in for him. He also prefaced his homily by saying “I always ask the Spirit to touch me when I compose a homily, but sometimes he moves me a little more than I expected.” How often do you see grown men moved to tears by the thought of the Real Prescence?
This was at my first sung High Mass (EF); Father preached, in my opinion, a little here and there, but had a great exegesis on the Good Samaritan parable. What really touched me was, during a discourse about modern society and the culture of fulfilling our passions “now”, spoke out against the labour conditions in those places that make our very cheap, very replaceable clothing.
The newly ordained visiting priest spoke about how God uses the Sacraments to give us grace because of His great love for us. And the Eucharist is the greatest of these. He spoke of the Eucharistic miracle of Orveito and how we tend to squash the supernatural life as we focus on the material things of this world. Excellent. Very edifying to see holy young priests.
Fr. V reminded us that Latin is the official language of the Latin rite today, and even used a bit of Latin in the Mass. I was tremendously pleased.
After giving an history lesson about the division of Samaria and the rest of the Jewish nation and the reason it continued for so long (all intersting and informative), Father talked about the Good Samaritan and how we, as Christians, need to step out in faith sometimes, even at things that might be a risk to our reputation, to do acts of charity and be more Christ-like.
Father emphasized the non-negotiable teaching of the Real Presence, and how its the centrepiece of the Faith. He talked about how protestants are deeply confused and in error on this point. He also talked about how Jesus’s words from John 6:56 would have been shocking to his Jewish listeners as well, so it’s not just historical distance that makes his words amazing.
How we might think of ourselves as the one the Good Samaritan (Christ) has gone out of his way to help. Father is another newly ordained, fine man.
Father’s lead-in on the theme of “I am the bread of life” was “You are what you eat.” Led into a nice homily on the Body and Blood of Christ.
We were traveling, and after having a bit of trouble finding a mass to go to (why, oh why can’t parishes keep their websites updated?), we ended up at a very nice church. The priest and deacon said the black and did the red, the choir was good but didn’t attempt to perform a Broadway style production and steal the show, it was full of people who were happy to be there, and the deacon gave a nice sermon in which he related stories about St. Therese and St. Martin and how they understood the Real Presence.
I also learned what a dalmatic is today. Until this morning I had only ever seen a deacon wearing an alb and stole (across the chest, of course). The deacon who gave the sermon today was wearing a dalmatic and I thought he was a priest. I was VERY puzzled when he mentioned his wife, but assumed he must have been a widower or something. After mass I told my son he could shake “the priest’s” hand. It wasn’t until I looked at the bulletin in the car that I realized he was a deacon, and then researching online I remembered the subtle differences between his dalmatic and the priest’s chasuble. I have further learned that the dalmatic is encouraged over the alb and stole for deacons. Very interesting, if a little confusing for visitors!
12th Sunday after Pentecost: Good Samaritan: It was a TERRIBLE sermon. Fr. said we actually have to go out and, you know, DO stuff, like help people, like the good S. did n stuff. Jeepers. Idunno about that!
The homily talked a bit about how Jesus remains in us and us in Him, and how we need to remember that about ourselves and about our brothers and sisters in the Church. Especially when we’re annoyed with them. (Blogs may have been mentioned, heh….)
Anyway, I thought that was very interesting and useful, because I’d just been reading about how Tyconius talked about Christ being mingled into us, St. Paul and other people being mingled into Christ, etc., and had been totally missing the Gospel reference. So yeah, that was a fairly pointed sermon from my pov!
The Gospel reading in the Byzantine church was the rich man asking Jesus what he needed to do to get eternal life. Father tied in the Gospel reading with the choice we all have to make to follow Jesus no matter what. We must either worship to true God or we will worship something else. There can be no middle ground.
Homily – 12th Sunday after Pentecost – 8/19/12
Attended a NO Mass last Sunday, and Father spoke on the importance of knowledge and of knowing the Faith, and of standing up to people when it needs defending. It was a very good sermon.
The priest at the parish I attend quoted St. Augustine:
“When I seek my God I seek not corporal grace, nor transient beauty, nor splendor, nor melodious sound, nor sweet fragrance of flowers, nor odorous essence, nor honeyed manna, nor grace of form, nor anything pleasing to the flesh. None of these things do I seek when I seek my God. But I seek a light exceeding all light, which the eyes cannot see; a voice sweeter than all sound, which the ear cannot hear; a sweetness above all sweetness, which the tongue cannot taste; a fragrance above all fragrance, which the senses cannot perceive; a mysterious and divine embrace, which the body cannot feel. For this light shines without radiance, this voice is heard without striking the air, this fragrance is perceived though the wind does not bear it, this taste inebriates with no palate to relish it, and this embrace is felt in the center of the soul.” (Conf., L.10, 6; Solil., c. 31).
It was so beautiful that I took the trouble to look it up. He was quoting the Venerable Louis of Granada quoting St. Augustine in The Sinner’s Guide. He also quote this paraphrase of St. Denis in The Sinner’s Guide:
“Let us first bear in mind, as St. Denis tells us, that effects are proportioned to their cause, and then consider the admirable order, marvelous beauty, and incomprehensible grandeur of the universe. There are stars in heaven several hundred times larger than the earth and sea together. Consider also the infinite variety of creatures in all parts of the world, on the earth, in the air, and in the water, each with an organization so perfect that never has there been discovered in them anything superfluous or not suited to the end for which they are destined; and this truth is in no way weakened by the existence of monsters, which are but distortions of nature, due to the imperfection of created causes.”
For some reason I found the part about monsters amusing and touching. Sometimes, at work, I try to make the groaning sound that a lonely sea monster might make. Not sure how my co-workers feel about that.
“Time is short. Hell is real. An alarming number of people are choosing to go there.”
Second Reading,The Priest asked How many Catholics in the Philippines are Enthusiastic about Rituals,but How many of them are willing to Read the Bible or The Catechism?
At our EF Mass the Gospel was the parable of the good Samaritan. Father talked about the how we can fall into legalism, like the lawyer in the story who “seeks to justify himself” by asking for a (hopefully) narrow definition of who his neighbor is. He tied legalism to Pelagianism where we try to achieve salvation on our own by denying God’s grace and instead trying to follow rules. It was a timely sermon because we had been having a discussion in our family about how hard it sometimes seems to be a Catholic and follow all the rules and how can anyone except a few saintly people ever make it to heaven. The answer seems simple – accept the grace that is freely given, we cannot do this on our own.
We attended the freshmen orientation Mass at U. of Notre Dame. Rev. J.King’s sermon encouraged students to enter into true discernment of the purpose of their lives (asking bigger questions) and trust in the Real Presence of Jesus. “Dare to look upon Jesus as the ultimate answer to all our needs…He has all the answers…”
Heh. This is from the sermon I heard on Wednesday (the Assumption) rather than Sunday, but Father wrapped up a wonderful homily on the shattering importance of the position of the mother of Kings in biblical times (the kingdoms rarely honored the wives of the Kings, if ever, because there were often too many of them for political discretion, but as a man only has the one mother, whenever anyone needed a favor or intercession from on High, they’d go straight to the inarguable) by ordering us to ‘ask Mary to -‘ quote unquote – ‘harass her son on on our behalf in our times of deepest need. That is, after all, part of her historically DOCUMENTED job description, and considering that He elevated her as formal Queen, He is not going to put her off.’
Oh, and he looked very dashing in his particular vestments too; very Marian with the dark sapphire blue, and the gold and ivory embroidery. The delicate blue and white orchids at the altar were the perfect touch. It was all particularly poignant because Father lost his own beloved mother just a few weeks back, and a huge portion of the congregation attended her Requiem Mass there at our basilica. Looking back, one could see that the entire Mass had, therefore, very special meaning for him.
Sad to say, the point wasn’t a good one. Our priest’s introduction to preaching about some of the disciples walking away from the difficult invitation to “eat My body and drink My blood” was to enumerate the difficulty in decisions we have to make–home school or public school? send one’s children to the movies or keep them home? vote for a Vatican II Catholic vice presidential candidate who focuses on social justice or a John Paul II Catholic vice presidential candidate who focuses on family values? At that point I screamed inwardly and closed down. If the Catholic Church cannot teach through its priests at Sunday Mass that same sex marriage and abortion are WRONG, then who will listen when she declares she holds the Truth which alone frees all men?
Father related the story of St. Francis kissing the hands of a corrupt, sinful priest because those “hands held God.” He quoted Lumen Gentium on the Eucharist being the source and summit of the church. Then he said that without the Eucharist, there is no church; without the priest, there is no Eucharist; and without holy families, there are no priests. He then asked us to pray for all priests, and to pray for more vocations.
My priest (not SSPX) referenced in his homily Fr. Leonard (SSPX)’s article that shows the Church Fathers unanimously consider Jesus Himself the Good Samaritan, in contrast with the Modernists’ interpretation that the Good Samaritan was an unclean, pagan stranger.
My priest also emphasized that “social justice” is a secular endeavor; we Catholics strive for higher things: the salvation of the soul. The Levite wasn’t being Pharisaical in his passing by the man in the ditch of sin; the Levite didn’t have the fullness of the priesthood to cure the soul the spiritually sick man, but Jesus, the Good Samaritan, did. The Good Samaritan story is about God’s grace, figured in the wine/blood/grace the Good Samaritan uses on the person in the ditch of sin; He later takes him to the inn, a figure of the Church.
@AlanAversa–do you have a link to Fr. Leonard’s article about this please? i’ve never heard any Priest say that the Good Samaritan is our Lord. i would very much like to read the article. thank you
Father talked about why the priest and Levite left the injured man by the side of the road. He said their actions were not a snap decision but rather influenced by actions and teaching of their society. Their actions were wrong but they didn’t see that they were. Father then went on draw a comparison between them and those who ignore church teaching. He used abortion as an example. Some people see abortion simply as a woman’s right to choose and not as a intrinsically evil act. That’s what they’ve been conditioned to believe by society so that’s what they believe and they don’t see abortion for the evil it is.
Our young FSSP assistant related in detail the moving story of Lutheran pastor Richard Wurmbrand and his wife Sabina, who converted the man who murdered her Jewish family during the Second World War.
RichardC-thank you for that lovely quote from St Augustine, will look it up as well.
The liturgy at the Mass was rotten, but the priest gave a thoroughly orthodox sermon on the Real Presence. He reminded us that the Eucharist, the Real Presence, because it is the true body and blood of the Lord, calls us to thanksgiving, to sacrifice, and to communion, each in a very real way.
And then the extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist (hey! that’s what he called them) bowed to the altar as they carried the precious Blood to the serving line. They confess it on their tongues, they believe it in their minds and hearts, but they don’t appreciate it in the sense of feeling the infinite dignity of what they are privileged to receive. But if the priest keeps telling them, maybe they will reflect on what he is saying and gradually Get It.
Indulgentium:
We had the same unpacking of the parable , as well. From my notes:
First, Fr. pointed out again, that works do matter, a recurring theme for the last few homilies. He gave a great one last week about the Sacraments as works.
The types in the parable: Wounded Man= Us, Robbers= the World, the Samaritan = Christ
(sorry, missed what the Levite and Pharisee were- baby crying loudly)
Now, the wounds of the Man in the parable do not condemn him, but our wounds (sins committed in response to the World) do. Moving from “Jerusalem to Jericho” = moving away from God towards the World (near occasions of sin, not co-operating with grace, etc.)
“Go and do likewise” means we must show mercy to others, b/c we are in need of mercy. Not just physical needs, but spiritual as well. Jesus could have left us in our sins, but He didn’t. Even wicked sinners need and deserve our prayers, as well as those who do ill from ignorance. To get oneself wounded, or worse, to incite that or to do it to ourselves through our own actions is to be needful of grace.