Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Was there a good point in the sermon you heard for your Sunday Mass?

Let us know.

This extends to priests as well.  What did you talk about?

One of the things I spoke of was the Valley of Gehenna (Hell) and the Lord’s warning about ways to wind up there: being externally squared away but being out of joint interiorly.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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28 Comments

  1. Gregg the Obscure says:

    Two really good points – points that echo topics that come up here from time to time – in OF Mass :

    1. a serious Christian life is not possible without regular practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation (yeah, I’d have preferred him having used a different name for it, but that’s not the point);

    2. we get out the Church in general and the parish in particular much more than we put in to it, but we get out of it the types of things we contribute. If we want many people there, we must invite them; if we want good physical facilities, we must pay for them; etc.

  2. ASPM Sem says:

    I went to Nativity in St. Paul and Father’s homily was on the beauty and importance of music and singing at Mass. Nativity has a nice organ too :D

  3. philosoph0123 says:

    I was unhappy last week at our local church, but we were back at Holy Innocents today and I loved what the priest said about virtue and the Christian life. His point that Heaven is not achieved merely through the avoidance of sin but also from the building-up of virtue through work (and grace and prayer, I presume!) was excellent. We will miss you, Father! (He is going to LA…sigh!)

  4. Rose in NE says:

    My husband, son and I are traveling and we were at your Mass this morning, Fr. Z. I appreciated your comments about perhaps being happy and smiling on the outside, but being a mess on the inside. Much to think about. Thank you.

  5. I chose to focus on the second reading by Saint Paul, and talk about sin and redemption, time and eternity. My reason? Because I figured that might be the hardest reading to understand; so maybe a homily on that would be helpful?

    I explained that sin changed the universe — exactly how, we aren’t told; but that the cosmos is running down toward death is incontrovertible. And I talked about how our life here either prepares us for hell or heaven.

  6. Priam1184 says:

    What God’s unconditional love means. That it means that we are all invited but that we are only saved if we accept that invitation. Also a good point about how in the Gospels those who are ‘good ground’ go to seek the answers from Jesus Christ Himself (the Church) as to what the parables mean and that is what we must do.

    Incidentally Father I really liked today’s Collect (Ordinary Form).

  7. Gregorius says:

    Today at liturgy the deacon basically gave a rough historical background on the fathers of the first six ecumenical councils, and why they are critical to understanding the true faith. Good, kind ol’ St. Nicholas, walked right up to Arius to defend the consubstantiality of the Son with his fists, among other examples…

  8. Mike says:

    TLM: Father preached on prayer. “Rote” prayer keeps us on the beam doctrinally. A very well-meaning woman some time ago proclaimed orally and then published a spontaneous prayer asking God to take mercy on the souls of the unborn murdered through abortion. Evidently she couldn’t be convinced that her prayer was misdirected since the unborn are incapable of personal sin.

  9. Susan G says:

    At our Novus Ordo, Father talked about the importance of determining God’s purpose for our life and following it. The importance of truly seeking God’s will and not just going with what we want/ the world wants.

  10. majuscule says:

    Ordinary From Mass. Father is from another country and does not often speak of some of the more difficult topics. Today, in speaking of the places the seed might be sown he pointed out that the seed that lands among thorns is like the person who thinks of themselves as Catholic but they are not pro-life. That a Catholic cannot support abortion (yes, he used that word!) and truly be a Catholic. That the weeds are ideas promoted by our society outside the Church, trying to stifle the Word of God.

    Then he went on to tell us that arriving late for Mass and thus missing the Liturgy of the Word was not good. I am not getting this across anywhere nearly as well as he did in his much longer homily…but he did mention the scourge of abortion and the necessity of arriving on time for the whole Mass!

  11. goodone121 says:

    We had a baptism, today, and our priest-pastor in our local church said how the Word of Christ, in the Parable of the Sower, was the seed, and how our different parts of our life was the soil (yes, that’s not how Jesus explained it, but He didn’t say it was the only interpretation, did He?)

  12. mlmc says:

    slightly off topic, but- we started singing the Mass of Creation by M Haugen the last 2 weeks & it is incredibly bad. The new form is really, really dreadful & the choir is struggling with it. We had a visiting Priest & I am sure he wanted to run out during the mass & grab some ear plugs. Up until now, I found the Gloria to be very uplifting, but with this version it is like finger nails on a chalk board. The choir of angels must be writhing thru it. The sermon was about how we need to avoid envy and harsh judgements about others – along the lines of-if we are seeds yielding a hundred fold do not criticize those yielding only 10 fold, perhaps that is the best they can do/all the Lord intended. The sermon was fine- but I guess I am failing the judgmental part about the music. Fr Z, if you ever do another post about the worst hymns you need to add the new form of M Haugens stuff to the top of the list. The new version of the Gloria & Alleluia makes me almost like Gather Us In-even the spoof of it.

  13. Lin says:

    Please tell us more about your sermon, Father Z, mentioned by Rose in NE.

  14. ByzCath08 says:

    Today was the 5th Sunday after Pentecost. Father spoke on soteriology: incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection.

    Too many Christians today want things from God, but do not want to submit to his will and let him be Lord over their life.

  15. lsclerkin says:

    we will have a candlelight procession with the Blessed Sacrament after the 7pm Mass for the Assumption, Aug. 15. father said mant parishioners asked him to have more processions.
    And he said:
    I expect to see everyone. When a Queen invites you to a special occasion, you don’t tell her that you are too busy or that you have a prior engagement.
    She doesn’t like that.
    Father had a wry, yet serious, delivery for this.

  16. Elizabeth D says:

    Homily was about the new evangelization. A book by Matthew Kelly says that (roughly, as I recall it) 7% of parishioners contribute 80% of volunteer hours and a heavily overlapping 7% give 80 percent of the finance for the parish (some have more time than money, others have more money than time). Kelly mentions 4 habits of highly effective Catholics (the ~7% who actually make the parish work), the main thing emphasized today was prayer. We will be getting more homilies expanding on this.

    My own comment… Our parish is in serious need of more people contributing more time, talent and treasure. Being able to evangelize does depend on that, so does even maintaining our buildings. If it is essentially a good parish, people need to think about a parish a little more like a family and have that kind of commitment and concern, and I think if people are bitter about something they need to seek healing for that and grow, and not withhold their contribution. I also think people really NEED to give to the Church, even to tithe 10% and give sacrificially, because often our heart is where our money is, this helps us to be invested in the Church and its mission. I would like to see people vacation less, be less materialistic (not everyone has this problem by any means but some do), and give more.

  17. Will Elliott says:

    Today at Our Lady of the Atonement in San Anotnio, we observed the patronal feast of our parish. A good summary of what Father Phillip presented in today’s homily can be found at his blog:

    There is a second reason, hardly less weighty than the first, why the title, Our Lady of the Atonement, should powerfully appeal to the mother of God. It was through the Incarnation she become the mother of Christ, but through the atonement she became the new Eve and the mother of all the regenerate, who being redeemed by the precious blood are predestined to eternal life as the adopted sons of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. The third time Our Lord spoke upon the cross it was to emphasize this phase of the Atonement, when he said to his mother: “Woman, behold your son,” and to St. John, “Son, behold your mother.” [John 19:26-27] Thus by virtue of the atonement Mary is the mother of all who live through Christ. Can anyone therefore possibly conceive the depth of significance this title “Our Lady of the Atonement” must possess for Our Blessed Mother herself?

    http://www.atonementparish.blogspot.com/2014/07/thirty-years-under-her-care.html

  18. Susan G says:

    @mlmc My brother and I refer to Haugen ‘ s Mass of Creation as the My Little Pony mass… Because the theme song and the Gloria are remarkably similar.

  19. Bea says:

    Do we prepare the good soil?
    By learning our Faith?

    Study the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
    Read the lives of the saints.
    That we not be misled.

    He said he gave the CCC to a protestant friend who read it end to end.
    He (the friend) proceeded to become a Catholic after he read it.

    He even put in a plug for the bookstore that we (our Catholic group) open a couple of Sundays a month.

  20. Reconverted Idiot says:

    My Sunday sermon notes are all the same: “How does he know that’s what I’ve been wondering about?”; “How does he know I needed to hear that?”; “Look! I really don’t mind if you do a sermon for someone else once in a while. Only I don’t want to monopolize anything, least of all your time, Father. ”

    Better get this tongue out of my cheek quick, before the wind changes or something.

  21. Quote:

    “If there’s no sacrifice, then it’s no Mass, and the celebrant is no priest, because he’s a priest only if he offers sacrifice.”

  22. Skeinster says:

    As a follow-up to last week’s sermon on Maria Goretti and the power of forgiveness, we had another sermon on forgiveness. We will need to know how to forgive, especially having to live in our times, filled with the Culture of Death, hatred of the Church and the resulting probable persecution from various sources.
    It’s summed up in the Our Father: “and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

  23. AngelGuarded says:

    Wonderful homily about the gifts of the Holy Spirit perfectly relating to us and to the parable of the sower. But, the BEST thing was that after being Pastor only 13 days (!!), we now have BELLS to announce that a supernatural miracle is taking place on the altar!!! Made me cry and my husband felt compelled to kneel for Communion. AND we heard the first Latin in this church – during the Penitential Act, we chanted (CHANTED!) Kyrie Eleison, Christe … instead of the spoken English. Prayers were answered! Thank you God for sending this wonderful young priest to us! More changes needed but he is doing it right, a little at a time, or to borrow a phrase, brick-by-brick. God bless all our priests!!!!!

  24. Gerard Plourde says:

    In our Ordinary Form parish the pastor masterfully wove the message contained in a retreat talk given in the 1950’s at the Abbey of Gethsemani (I think the Trappist giving the retreat was Eugene Boylan) with the day’s Gospel of the Parable of the Sower to remind us that the path to Heaven is filled with struggle and that the Sacraments, especially Penance and the Eucharist, are there to provide sustenance for the journey.

  25. templariidvm says:

    Father broke down the parable of the sower, but focused on the seed that falls among the weeds. He went on to explain how pornography is one of the pervasive “weeds” in our society, explaining why pornography is wrong, and mentioned a website that helps people who are struggling with pornography. Definitely one of his better sermons!

  26. acricketchirps says:

    EF Mass: Our priest is outdoing himself: unflinching look at the devil and the battle in which he engages for our souls. Never, ever used to get this stuff before SP (actually UE).

  27. mo7 says:

    That it wasn’t enough just to not sin, that as creatures of habit we need to form and practice virtuous habits.

  28. frjim4321 says:

    I was having a hard time this past weekend, although Celebration featured Pat Sanchez who is always great. I found a pretty good canned homily on the internet and adjusted it. I don’t like to do that, but the muse was not with me.

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