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The homily at the Traditional Latin Mass was spot-on, as usual. Father explored how just as the Lord raised three people from the dead and gave them back to their families, every time we go to Confession, we are given back to God, the Church, and the Body of Christ. Each time we turn to God in Confession and are absolved by the priest, in some way, we experience spiritual resurrection. There were many other good points in Father’s homily, but that was what stuck out to me the most.
(Trad.) Fr. implored us to use the collect from the 15th Sunday as our prayer for the Church and in particular with the up-coming synod.
Let Thy continual pity cleanse and defend Thy Church, we beseech Thee, O Lord; and because it cannot continue in safety without Thee, govern it evermore by Thy help. Through our Lord.
The whiny vineyard workers use a secular notion of justice to attack the generous vineyard owner. Question: do we really want our lives in Christ to be judged by this world’s idea of justice? NO! We will — with Paul — magnify Christ with our bodies instead and reap the Father’s mercy.
http://hancaquam.blogspot.com/2014/09/magnify-christ-with-your-generosity.html
Fr. Philip Neri, OP
EF Mass, Fr. preached on the Epistle to the Galatians. What you sow you shall reap. When we as a society sow immorality we reap the results of that. When we sow we have to be guided by God’s principles, through the Holy Spirit.
The parable of the vineyard workers shows that God’s mercy and grace is freely given to all regardless of merit.
The parable of the day laborers and the landowner, the pastor said, had at least two simultaneous and equally valid interpretations. The first was obvious–the extravagant divine generosity encountered in the Kingdom of God. The second was that in this secular, fallen, world even the very lowest on the social/economic ladder must get a enough to survive (food, shelter etc.) before we even begin to argue over what’s a “fair” allocation of whatever is left over (i.e., after everybody gets what they need to make it to tomorrow).
Then the pastor announced that the Holy Father had appointed, just that morning, a new Archbishop of Chicago–Blasé Cupich–and that, so far, he was doing well.
Father talked to us about sins of the mind – how we can sin quite badly just by sitting there and entertaining angry, vengeful, lustful or other sinful thoughts, and the importance of bringing those to Confession, as well as actions. A very timely reminder.
But best of all, it was the anniversary of the dedication of our church. We don’t really DO anything for this, but Father does say the Collect and other incidentals from the common of the dedication, so it’s not forgotten. I remind him every year on account of it also being my BIRTHDAY, as I was born on the day the church was consecrated.
Which is funny, because I was baptised and raised in the parish next door, which went modern and awful, so I went a-wandering, and I have been all round the world and in and out of all sorts of churches since then, and I have come home to find that the ideal parish was right next door all along. I’d be clicking my ruby slippers together right now if I had them on.
NO: Not to do the will of God, the vineyard owner, is essentially to be idle and impoverished outside the vineyard of Him Who wants to employ and reward us, no matter the hour of the day.
A missionary priest was our celebrant this weekend.
His homily gave us new a new perspective on who the last “hired” are. Many cradle Catholics can whine about late comers to the Faith, either converts or lapsed Catholics returning to their roots gaining salvation later in life while we have been loyal all of our lives. How is that fair? We here have not been challenged, have not been threatened and we have not had to choose life over death for our Faith. Christians in Syria and Iraq, where they have practiced their faith for 1000 years, are now given a choice, convert to Islam or die. From that perspective, it is we here who are the latecomers. I know that I am rethinking my misplaced pride. Rarely has a homily hit so close to home.
NO Mass for 7,000+ by the Bishop. Related the first reading to the trend of being “spiritual, but not religious,” said that this is like going to Church in the mirror (not quite his exact words). Related the Gospel to a refugee camp he toured recently, where he came upon a group of the poorest of the poor dancing, singing, “Alleluia! God is with us!”
We need to mature spiritually and move beyond mercenary love.
Also, we don’t know the thoughts of God and if we were honest, we would HOPE for his generosity esp if we considered what we deserved.
NO: Good stuff proposing that if we identify with the first-hired laborers, the parable seems to be about justice (or rather, the lack of it), and so becomes hard to accept, but if we instead identify wit the last-hired laborers, it seems to be about generosity. That’s not a perspective that had occurred to me before; I have tended to see it as a vexing challenge to our understanding of God’s justice.
The homily focused on God’s generosity, and linked the generosity to the late-comers with the generosity of the miracle at the wedding feast at Cana. (I had read something very similar the night before in Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth, so much so that the two are blending in my memory.) It also touched on God’s ways not being our ways, et cetera.
The homily concluded with a reminder that it’s impossible for the Church to contradict its doctrine, and joked that if that day ever came: I’m outta here — and so should you be! At that point I nearly choked – you don’t hear a lot of apostasy humor these days.
Yesterday the satanic black Mass was to be held in Oklahoma City. On the feast of the Assumption, our little Tyler, TX, parish held a Holy Hour of Adoration with Benediction, the long prayer to St. Michael, and Father recited the exorcism prayers. He took the opportunity yesterday to note that the satanists really believe in the Real Presence. Why else would they want a consecrated host from a Roman Catholic church, or an apostate priest to consecrate one? They don’t take a piece of bread or some grape juice from a protestant church. They believe. Father then spoke about it being one reason for condemning Communion in the hand, not just because it’s easier to steal, but that the tiniest particle, perhaps too small to see, still is the entire Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord, dropped on clothing, on the floor, in the pew, etc. It’s why the priest holds his thumb and finger together after the Consecration, so that no particle is lost. It’s why, if a host is dropped, Communion is stopped, or a cloth put over the spot until it can be cleansed properly. A Novus Ordo priest I know of, when a parishioner asked about it when such an event occurred and nothing was done, told her with a laugh that they didn’t do that any more. Another priest had an “altar girl” pour left over consecrated wine down the sink in the ladies’ room. This lack of respect for the Holy Eucharist shows immense ignorance or real disdain. For today’s parishioners it’s ignorance. For a priest it’s unbelievable. Worse, people don’t want to hear about the problems. They don’t see any and call trads like me, fanatic. How many priests, I have to ask myself, really believe?
Celebration in the Ordinary Form: Father spoke on the Gospel of the vineyard and the workers in light of the fact that we should beware demanding what we deserve, since, through our sinfulness, we deserve hell; and hell is real.
This Sunday was part of the postfeast for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (for the UGCC according to the Gregorian calendar,) so our homily was on the triumph represented by the cross. I went to the bi-lingual liturgy, and Father usually preaches for 15 min. in Ukrainian and 3-5 min. in English, but this weekend I think we got the same homily in both languages, at least by time, and it was definitely one of his best homilies.
NO deacon: suggested that the reason the landowner sought more workers near the end of the day was that the workers who had labored all day had not done as much as was expected of them; i.e. we should–rather than be envious or dismissive of late conversions–acknowledge how remarkable have been the contributions of many latecomers to the Faith. And, of course, examine our consciences over how much we cradle Catholics have sown in the vineyard.
NO. Father linked the first reading …’God’s way is not our way’ to the vineyard parable. Father stressed that we must strive to get into The Fathers vineyard no matter what stage of life we are in. Our goal is to get in the vineyard no matter what obstacles…the reward is just and eternal. Anyone who thinks, Our way is God’s way is thinking that man is the center of the universe and is in grave danger. God’s way has been handed down to us through the inspired words of the scriptures and liturgy, plus the sacraments and sacred traditions of The Roman Catholic Church.
The first workers were getting everything they needed from their jobs and should have been grateful, but became envious when they started comparing themselves to others.
Our Mass started with the announcement that our Bishop had just been named the Archbishop of Chicago. Fr. Connall, celebrant for the Mass, made the announcement just prior to beginning of the Mass. He said he had heard about it early Saturday morning, and had texted Archbishop Cupich congratulations, and the new Archbishop immediately texted back ” pray hard”. Fr. Connall led us in the Hail Mary dedicated to the people of the archdiocese of Chicago, for Archbishop Cupich, and for the Holy Father to provide for us a good shepherd to succeed Archbishop Cupich.
His homily focused on the parable of the vineyard workers was an example of the amazing generosity of mercy of God, and that we should avoid the sin of envy.
A priest spoke about Vatican II. He said that it is a valid council, but it has not always been interpreted or applied properly. He referenced the Ratzinger Report and spoke about the hermeneutic of continuity. :)