Was there a good point in the sermon you heard for Laetare Sunday?
Let us know what it was!
Yes… you can share more than one good point.
About this blog…
“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
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
This REALLY helps! And it’s great coffee (and tea)
Polls
Loading ...Donate using VENMO
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
A Daily Prayer for Priests
Do you have a faithful Catholic website that needs competent and reliable tech support?
Fr. Z’s VOICEMAIL
Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
on UPDATED – 14 August Pontifical Mass at the National Shrine: FORBIDDEN: “Does it surprise any of us that in the Capital of our country, full of liberal “catholic” politicians that the…”
on Another wrinkle to the meaning of your phone’s “location services”.: “If I was working at the Vatican I would worry that God may get tired of all this and subject…”
on Baseball’s Cleveland Indians change name to… guess what….: “It is sad, not to mention cringeworthy, that a sports team should feel it necessary to kowtow to political correctness…”
on Another wrinkle to the meaning of your phone’s “location services”.: “Privacy issues aside… what about priestly celibacy? Chastity?”
on UPDATED – 14 August Pontifical Mass at the National Shrine: FORBIDDEN: “No surprise as it is a tainted seat since Theodore McCarrick. Exorcisms are needed. An exorcism of all D.C is…”
on Another wrinkle to the meaning of your phone’s “location services”.: “The now-US-based shell company that owns Grindr is still controlled by the Chinese, just sayin’.”
on Another wrinkle to the meaning of your phone’s “location services”.: “You can shut off your gaydar if they’re using Grindr. Just saying…”
on UPDATED – 14 August Pontifical Mass at the National Shrine: FORBIDDEN: “I’m with boredoftheword. TC is a declaration of war against the TLM and the faithful who cherish it. I’m all…”
on UPDATED – 14 August Pontifical Mass at the National Shrine: FORBIDDEN: “He is a product of his mentors and became what he beheld.”
on “Why, then, would Francis punish those who worship according to the Latin rite?”: “Clare: You raise a good point. “I just don’t get it. How are large families who raise faithful children and…”
on Daily Rome Shot 230: “This is the unforgettable funeral monument by and for Giovanni Battista Gisleni, an Italian Baroque architect and stage designer who…”
on “Why, then, would Francis punish those who worship according to the Latin rite?”: “Is not the destruction of the institutional Church, at a minimum, and beyond that the Faith itself exactly what they…”
on UPDATED – 14 August Pontifical Mass at the National Shrine: FORBIDDEN: “Few of us in the Archdiocese of Atlanta will be surprised by this. While here Cardinal Gregory frowned on more…”
I use this when I travel both in these USA and abroad. Very useful. Fast enough for Zoom. I connect my DMR (ham radio) through it. If you use my link, they give me more data. A GREAT back up.
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful.
That way I have steady income I can plan on, and you wind up regularly on my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I periodically say Holy Mass.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
Yes, Fr. Z is taking ads…
Be a “Zed-Head”!
CHALLENGE COINS!
My "challenge coin" for my 25th anniversary of ordination in 2016.
Want one? I do exchanges with military and LEOs, etc.
PLEASE RESPOND. Pretty pleeeease?
Loading ...This is really useful when travelling… and also when you aren’t and you need backup internet NOW! I use this for my DMR “Zednet” hotspot when I’m mobile. It’s a ham radio thing.
If you travel internationally, this is a super useful gizmo for your mobile internet data. I use one. If you get one through my link, I get data rewards.
WDTPRS POLL
Loading ...Fr. Z’s stuff is everywhere
Help support Fr. Z’s Gospel of Life work at no cost to you. Do you need a Real Estate Agent? Calling these people is the FIRST thing you should do!
They find you a pro-life agent in your area who commits to giving a portion of the fee to a pro-life group!
GREAT causes to support
Help Monks in Wyoming (coffee – UPDATED LINK) and Norcia (beer) and the wonderful "Soap Sisters" of Summit, NJ!
Please follow me on Twitter!
EF Mass. Beautiful vestments, music (the organ was played) Really, just liturgically and spiritually enriching.
Father stressed, “enjoy today, Laetare Jerusalem. We glimpse the joy and salvation of Easter. Prepare for spiritual battle as we head into Passion Sunday.”
Really a wonderful Mass. It I was also the most crowded I have seen the Sunday EF Mass. 200+ people.
It was the feast day of our parish’s patron saint. Fr Francis gave us the history of our saint and parish. I had read most of the information but it was beautiful to hear father tell it. He also added a first hand account about the man who built our parish as a chapel for his vineyard workers. As father stated, our parish is the gem of our diocese.
Ordinary Form – and *very* ordinary – but lovingly celebrated.
5 minutes before Mass, the power failed. They had to bring out many large candles. Power was out for the whole Mass, so the readings were incredibly apt.
The priest used this opportunity to viscerally expound on the spiritual dark-light duality of this week’s Gospel. We are all born blind: in sin, darkness, corruption, and subject to vanity – but Christ eternally shines, and shines through us via love and the Sacraments. When we are anointed with what seems to be spittle and dirt (to our natural eyes) and are sent to Siloam, however, the World rejects the love we have found. When they say “Who is this new man? Is he the same one who begged at the Temple?” we simply reply “I am he” – i.e. we become partakers of the divine nature (I AM) by faith and baptism, regardless of what this darkened world thinks or says. We fall down before Christ, and the lights come on inside us to shine for the world.
The Holy Spirit put His seal of approval on this homily, in my opinion: The power was restored just after the priest received holy communion and the people were about to receive.
NO: How do I respond to God, knowing that He sees not as man sees?
This is one miracle Jesus performs without being asked. We are like the man at the pool, in that our Original Sin leaves us “blind” and we need His help whether we think we do or not.
Ordinary Form. Father was vested in rose. He had a wonderful homily on how Jesus shows us who he really is through the story of blind man. He mentioned how we , in our own blindness, came into more understanding of the truth, we began to ask, “who is he that I may believe in him”. It was very uplifting, and the parallels with today’s world are unmistakable.
Our new pastor (relatively young at around 45 yo…a John Paul II generation priest for sure) commented on the readings and lovingly, but forcefully and passionately, encouraged everyone to go to Confession. He also reminded everyone that all the popes went to confession on a regular basis asked all in attendance to go online (or if they are older – ask their children or grandchildren) and view the video of Pope Francis going to confess his own sins.
I’m 37 years old, and until the past 4-5 years, I never in my life heard a priest talk about the importance of going to confession during a homily. It’s happened at least a dozen times in the past few years (the JPII, Benedict XVI, and Francis triumvirate is having an effect). Alot more mention of sin too in the homily. It’s great to see and hear! The happy-clappy stuff of the 70’s and 80’s is rarely seen…at least in my NO parish.
VARoman–were you, perchance, at St. John’s? I was there w. three of my kids. A wonderful parish, with a magnificent liturgy and excellent priests!!
I attended the Novus Ordo in English at my local Philadelphia Parish. I have been usually attending TLM there but this week attended the 4pm Saturday mass. The priest wore gorgeous rose vestements (and a biretta) and the mass was very reverent. I was incredibly excited to find the church had recently begun to use English chant antiphons (which were also in the mass supplements). The mass felt very reverent and coherent; the antiphons tied it together throughout, from the entrance to the communion antiphon. They began thier use at the beginning of Lent and are considering retaining them throughout Easter and Ordinary Time.
EF – 1. Offer what little you have to God, He wants to use it for His will.
2. The people wanted to make Jesus an earthly king. They misunderstood Him, and we must be careful not to misunderstand the mission of the Church (the body of Christ) today.
Love my parish, love my priest!
New parish. Ordinary form. We sang Amazing Grace and the service was very, very good. Extremely pleased with my new parish home after moving.
I attend the EF in Kalamazoo. Beautiful Mass as usual; a little more organ than we’ve been having in Lent in honor of Laetare Sunday; Father wore an elegant rose & gold chasuble, pointed out that the stational church was Holy Cross in Jerusalem, & exhorted us to choose the transcendent joy of the heavenly city over the temporal happiness of earth.
The easiest way to summarize Father’s homily would be: GO TO CONFESSION!!! ;)
He spoke about various experiences of Padre Pio, and especially emphasized the importance of taking this sacrament (and all sacraments) more seriously.
NO: Father wore rose colored vestments.
This was such an excellent homily it too hard to find just one good point.
He first related a news story from the BBC about a young woman who just had a special ear implant and started hearing for the first time. The nurse was speaking and her mom was recording the first words she ever heard. The tears and emotion were overwhelming. We can read the miracle stories and forget the full impact of what just happened on the people who were there.
In addition to the physical healing he also healed the man’s soul. When first asked who healed him the beggar said a man, then he said a prophet and then he said the Lord and worshiped him. The physical healing was less emotional and had less of an impact then the spiritual. He ask us to contemplate where we are on our own journey of faith. The truth is: JESUS IS LORD! His forceful proclamation was impact-full.
He then went on to explain how the physical steps Jesus did to heal this man were not necessary. He listed other healing that were done with only spiritual means. He related this to the seven sacraments and after listing them (in case anyone forgot) he listed the physical and spiritual elements of each.
Both the 1st reading with the anointing of David and the Gospel, with our Lord’s rubbing spittle/ mud in the blind man’s eyes and sending him to wash in the pool demonstrate the importance of ritual and ceremony. God created us with five senses. Christ used the senses in His institution of the Sacraments, the Church uses them in Her Sacraments. The whole of Catholic worship is incarnational. Through ritual and ceremony, we are led to an intimate communion with the living God.
My sons are learning the TLM as alter servers so the family went to Sunday noon at St. Peter’s in Merchantville, NJ. Father Phan celebrated with 13 alter boys.
Had a parish mission this week with Fr. Ben Cameron of the Fathers of Mercy. The Cardinal Sins and Virtues still resonate from his passionate sermons that the whole congregation is still recovering from a week of confessions, sermons and benedictions each of the 4 nights.
OF in La Puente, Father’s sermon focused on self honesty, he touched upon the hot button issues, abortion, same sex marriage, and the HHS mandate, Father was extremely passionate, in one of those you had to be there moments, I’m thankful there are still faithful parishes in the LA Archdiocese.
The Gospel in the EF was the feeding of the 5000. The people are focused on their needs – to be fed and to have an earthly King. Jesus wants us to love him for who He is not for what He can do for us.