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EF. Excellent (but when are they not?) one on the Mass. What happens, attendance rules, the benefits of hearing Mass – attentive attendance is more profitable than the strictest mortification- deportment and so on.
We have a constant stream of attendees new to the EF, so our priests do more catechetical sermons than might be usual elsewhere.
As Lent is the prelude to, and preparation for, Easter, so the “gesimas” are the prelude to, and preparation for, Lent. (A point made occasionally elsewhere, but one that I don’t think can be emphasized enough. Ill preparation for Lent seems to me to bespeak ill preparation to meet Our Lord as all of us one day must.)
Although we didn’t have a sermon this Sunday I was in Spain for the best part of last week and although I couldn’t understand the Priest (novus ordo) I got the gist about the importance of the family because he kept mentioning Our Lady , St Joseph and the Holy Family a lot and it they had the 21st anniversary renewal of Wedding Vows for two of the Parishioners.
Bishop Morlino said the first reading shows Job whining, and the second reading shows Paul preaching and the Gospel has Jesus healing the sick, preaching and casting out demons. So his homily was “most all of us do a lot of whining, priests and bishops included. Don’t whine about what is wrong in the Church, instead go out and evangelize.”
I also stopped in at an evening Mass to hear the Cathedral rector’s homily. He sprang off from Saint Paul’s saying he makes himself a slave for Christ Jesus, and made a historical review of the Church’s good record on the issue of slavery. While before Christian times and into the time of Saint Paul, slavery was taken for granted, it was eradicated in Europe by Christians. Much later, in the Age of Discovery, some Portugese Catholics began practicing slavery in the Canary Islands even though some of the enslaved persons were Christian converts or catechumens. The Pope issued a clear order that they be freed on pain of excommunication, but this was not heeded. Subsequent Popes also spoke clearly that slavery is wrong, even while some Catholics did not heed. Finally he quoted something to the effect that everyone is a slave to something, be it God or the devil, addiction, sexual behaviors or etc, and it matters that we choose to serve God. The binding lifelong obligation for husband and wife to serve one another was also worked in there.
In a very short and powerful homily, the Priest in Our Lady of Candelaria, Uruguay, where I was with my family, highlighted the fact that as Catholics, we are not spared the sufferings of this life, that our Lord is the One True Healer, as beffiting a king, and that althought it is licit to try to avoid pain and suffering, it not licit for us to suffer them without hope. People were really moved.
The homily was given by one of our deacons, whose professional life has included being a physician, hospital chaplain , and also a mortician. He spoke of the need to ask and allow and believe that Jesus did, can, and will heal us. He gave an example of a patient (man) who had a very life threatening inherited disease, who also was a man of deep faith, whom after a very long struggle completely recovered. The deacon told us that the man’s first response to his healing was to give all glory to God, and then went home to a small town in Montana and started a shelter for the homeless which has continue to flourish to this day. The deacon challenged us to seek healing, be thankful when it occurs, and then go out and share it with others.
We heard about St. Valentine, possibly because Father will not be preaching at our Mass next Sunday (closer to Valentine’s Day). He is planning on the same homily at other Masses next Sunday–to cover most of the Masses in our parish!
Father tied it all together beautifully: “St. Valentine died so that you could get married in the Church, so that you could remain open to life always in your marital relations, so that you could lay down your lives for each other in Love.” He actually told us that contraception is gravely sinful. He spent 15 minutes building up to this crescendo. (His comments on marriage included much more than his statements about contraception.)
I was amazed since this was the first time I have heard the subject of contraception dealt with in a homily since coming back to the church in 2007. Others at this Mass commented favorably but I know the makeup of people attending other Masses in our parish is completely different and it will be interesting to see what ensues.
Father also gave the homily in Spanish at the Spanish language Masses. Audios of his homilies are posted online, this one in both languages.
Please pray for this wonderful young priest. I’m not sure he has the support of his immediate superior but I know his bishop supports him.
Pray the rosary every day for our priests!
In our Ordinary Form Mass, Father made reference to the duty of the Priest to proclaim the Gospel in full no matter what the times allow. He was very clear that failure to do so would do nothing short of sending him or his fellow Priests to Hell. This is regularly what comes from the pulpit at my church, and I dearly love it. No words are minced.
I tried parish I had never been to before. The Mass was Norvus Ordo. The homily was about the precautions a priest must take to protect the Holy Eucharist. There were points when I thought the priest was in tears. ( I will go no further than the back doors anymore, so I could not see if he actually was crying, but it sounded like he was) He told us that under no circumstances will he give consecrated hosts to someone he does not know, and he does not care if the person is a child, if they are walking away without consuming the host he will stop them, and more. He then spoke of the penalities for a priest who does not sufficiently protect the host. And exhorted parents to make sure that if a child has not recieved their first communion that they do not allow the child to take it- that if they are visiting the parish he would not know if the kid had or not- but the host still needs to be protected.
Great sermon, and not something I had ever heard preached on before.
Many good points but the one that really struck me was that people came to Jesus to be healed all day. Some came right away, some came in the afternoon, some didn’t come until late at night… but some knew he was there but didn’t come at all. Father said that YOU can come to Jesus to be healed too, so if you’re not why not?
Father said if we are suffering and keep the faith, we are living the Gospel.