Was there a good, instructive, inspiring, useful, helpful, memorable, edifying, profound point from the sermon you heard at Mass for your Sunday precept?
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Excellent sermon from Dr./Fr. Anthony Doe of Westminster Diocese on “Catholic identity”. Fr. Doe explained how most Catholics do not understand their baptismal experience and that we all have the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He said, in good Catholic fashion, that it is up to us to cooperate with sacramental graces and that if we all lived as Catholics in the world, the world would look differently. He challenged the congregation to pray, think on their baptisms, and be open to the Holy Spirit working through them. Fr. Doe noted that the Eucharist brought us into the Divine Life of God and that we are to carry that Presence out into the world. He preached the Gospel message.
The Deacon used this week’s collect as the basis of his homily. :-)
Unfortunately, our pastor is not much of a homilist. He has many other good points, and the parish church is pretty vibrant. We are blessed to have a permanent deacon who seems more comfortable in the teaching and preaching role than Father is, and he sometimes gives the homily. I’m heading to the 11 AM Mass, so I hope it is Deacon rather than Father doing the homily today. Just getting back to being able to go to Mass after a few weeks with an injured back and both knees, although I did get the Blessed Sacrament brought to me while I was immobile. I could use a good, engaging, and thought-provoking homily.
I’m very fortunate to live near a Marian shrine, and one of their ministries is a Catholic Bible study group. It is lead, and commentary offered, by the priest (not many of the attendees try to interject their own thoughts into the discussion.) It’s very educational. Since the group uses the readings of the following Sunday for study and discussion, I can get a sort of “pre-homily” that fits the readings, just in case on Sunday Father decides to talk about something with minimal relevance to what has just been proclaimed.
Among the other points of the homily, there was an instruction on how to use Lectio Divina.
Young priest (<1 yr. after ordination) gave good homily based on the Gospel reading on the need to blend "legalism" with grace: as we internalize rules, God's grace helps us to transcend those rules, so that we instinctively (and unconsciously) follow those rules out of a higher motivation.
Not earth-shattering or ground-breaking, but some orthodox teaching that needs to be repeated . . .
Deacon actually used the words ” Cafeteria Catholic” in his homily, preaching that we must accept all the Faith.
As usual the sermon was very good and our pastor stressed the need for confession.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Young priest, associate pastor, talked about how (using his vocabulary) “masturbation, fornication, birth control, in vitro fertilization, homosexual acts” are sinful, how the faithful have been let down by “dissenting bishops and priests” who since Vatican II have “tried to make the church in their own image instead of how God created it,” who want to “get along with society that says all of this behavior is ok.” Then he implored all of us to learn more about what the church teaches and why, instead of just calling priests bigots for speaking God’s truths.
My mind was blown. Plus, I live in Montreal, QC and this is a run of the mill NO parish. My mind is blown even more.
Deo gratias!
Homily based on today’s Gospel that if we trust in God He will provide for our needs according to His plan, not ours, and how we squander the opportunity to do what He wills for us today by needlessly worrying about how we are going to manage our problems, which may never even materialize, tomorrow.
@vox borealis: !!!! Could you keep us posted on what happens in your parish after this “bomb”? That priest sure isn’t afraid of anyone!
@VexillaRegis,
This is like four weeks in a row, while the pastor was on vacation, that he’s preached tough homilies. I complimented him last week or the week before about not shying from the long version of the St. Paul reading (“wives be subject to your husbands…”), and he told me that he feels strongly that priests need to confront difficult teachings, not be silent or scared away. Today after mass I called him a rockstar.
bla bla bla, platitudes and pap, explanation of the pharisees and such, it what inside that counts. All the while we see one severette sitting cross legged, in a too short bag of a alb with shorts and flip flops, cleaning her nails and sighing all the time, her behavior through the entire mass wanted me to get up and smack her right then and there. 40 years ago when I served mass my dad would have! Get the girls out of the sanctuary. I have offered to help train severs but was brushed off with ” we don’t want to ask too much or they may quit”. well talk about a self fulfilling prophecy, don’t ask much, don’t get much. Sorry for the rant
@vox borealis: Interesting! What do people say about his sermons? Are they leaving for another parish, protesting to the bishop, chocked OR overjoyed? :-)
edit: shocked! where are my glasses?
Good homily on how justice is about doing God’s will, obeying God’s law, and serving people in need directly, not following our own political bent and ignoring bits of the Gospels that we don’t like.
The pauses, timing and delivery of this, very nearly towards the end of the sermon:
We wash and shower nowadays many times days , we consider it necessary, we give it priority….
Like Pilate..
Washing his hands..
When it should have been his soul.
Like the sermons mike cliffson and VexillaRegis heard, ours dealt with confession. When we spend a lot of time focusing on other people’s sins, like the Pharisees, Father said, that’s a sign that we need to go to confession ourselves. That struck me because it is a problem that I have. I tend to be really good at spotting the mote in my brother’s eye while ignoring the plank in my own. I have noticed that, since returning to regular Confession, that tendency is weakening. Thanks be to God.
I went to two Masses this weekend. At the Saturday evening Mass, our pastor talked about some upcoming events at the parish in connection with the Year of Faith; he also spoke about the upcoming elections: what issues to pay attention to (starting, of course, with the life issues), etc. He made the comment that Hitler, Stalin, and other dictators didn’t come into power by accident, but through the voters.
This morning, our associate pastor spoke about the need to have a pure heart. Those with a pure heart will see God.
DLe – Your priest preached on Lectio Divina? That’s wonderful.
It’s one of those keys to the Kingdom that’s rarely if ever mentioned from the pulpit – and without the benefit of a traditional Catholic education, or a year in a monastery, how is anyone to find out.
There are booklets, of course. But then there are booklets on everything.
@VexillaRegis,
It’s hard to say. He’s young and newly ordained and thus generally popular. Plus the parish has a rather big and historic church and is known for a relatively high liturgy (for N.O.), so that there are always (1) regulars who will probably stay in any case because they are drawn to the church structure, and (2) tourists and visitors who come and go. Numbers have been down a little lately, but it’s summer and Quebecers these days, um, don’t tend to put mass attendance first. When I get back to reading as a lector—I was away for about a year—I’ll be able to get a better sense of the vibe in the sacristy. I can say that today I thought I saw some heads turning and shaking and some bums squirming in the pews.
Father preached about sin, particularly the truly dangerous things being from within rather than without.
Interesting comparison about persecution – the political prisoner realizing his jailers are more prisoners than he is (Father had been reading some history on Nelson Mandela lately).
Our Homily was absolutely amazing. Our Polish Associate Pastor basically said how we play-down our sins:
Fornication becomes ‘living together’.
Adultery becomes ‘playing around’.
Murder becomes ‘reproductive rights’ and ‘termination’ [I think that is what he said].
Pride becomes ‘self-esteem’.
Our homily was FANTASTIC. It was on the evils of NFP used with a contraceptive mentality. How many souls that God desires have not been born. We are to trust God and accept lovingly the gifts he sends to us.
I wish I had a recorder. It was the BEST homily I have ever heard. It is what I have believed for YEARS. Most catholics today treat NFP as Catholic birth control.
This was at our EF Mass so it was sort of preaching to the choir as children outnumber adults usually by a factor of 6 or more. I am still glowing from it.
Was there a good, instructive, inspiring, useful, helpful, memorable, edifying, profound point from the sermon yesterday? Well, I hope so. I gave it.
Apropos of Christ’s point about things that come from within, Father talked about the importance of good thoughts and the guarding of our minds against evil thoughts. There was a story of a thief to bolster the watchguard analogy and a story of an innocent prisoner who spent his time becoming a chessmaster playing against himself in his head to bring home the point that putting our minds to good use and not bad is something we can do regardless of our circumstances. Very interesting stuff.
Great Homily at Holy Innocents New York. Father Stravinskas demonstrated how secularism and individualism, which leads the way to consumerism, are incompatible with our Catholic Faith.
Our parish priest (in Sheffield, England) is on holiday and the ‘relief’ priest saying Mass this week was a Pole who is attached to the local cathedral for a couple of months to improve his English.
First: we actually had a homily, which the parish priest doesn’t usually bother with.
Second he preached on what might prevent us from hearing God’s Word. The main point was ‘Sin’. Not too radical? Well, we don’t do sin in our parish, we have ‘faults and failings’ (and yes, this is substituted for the word in the penitential prayers).
Third he recommended us to go to Confession regularly. Most people I know don’t bother with that, but turn up for the penitential rite in Advent or Lent, where absolution is given and which one young lady recently told me is the sacrament of Reconciliation as opposed to Confession, ‘but just as good’.
Lastly, to pray constantly for help to Christ, Our Lady and the saints.
His English was pretty good, as it happens.
Our bishop is past retirement age. Hopefully we will soon have a new bishop who will galvanise the very lacklustre clergy of this diocese- recent appointments suggest that the Pope is well aware of what we need.