Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 16 February 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point or two in the Sunday sermon you heard this weekend?

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23 Responses to Your Sunday Sermon Notes

  1. Diane at Te Deum Laudamus says:
    16 February 2015 at 4:56 AM

    I recorded Fr Perrone’s homily for Quinquagesima. I hope to have it up tonight at my blog. It’s low quality sound, but high quality preaching. He chose to speak about the upcoming 40 days and it had an effect like listening to William Wallace (at least in the movie) preparing troops for battle. I don’t have time before work to put it up.

  2. Philippa Martyr says:
    16 February 2015 at 4:59 AM

    Our supply priest preached on the three Ps – prayer, penance and perseverance – that lead to the 4th big P – PARADISE!

    Sounds good to me.

  3. Ed the Roman says:
    16 February 2015 at 7:30 AM

    That our current wars and strife proceed from within the soul.

  4. ocleirbj says:
    16 February 2015 at 7:54 AM

    Our deacon, who is a hospital chaplain on call at night, spoke about how apprehensive and inadequate he sometimes feels when he is called on to go and minister to an ill or dying person and their family. But, he said, it’s not wrong, a bad thing, or a cause for discouragement, to feel inadequate or unprepared to undertake a task or challenge which God has called us to do. For this is when God provides the strength, the wisdom and the love that we lack. This wasn’t his main point, but it’s the one that has stayed with me.

  5. FrAnt says:
    16 February 2015 at 8:36 AM

    The priest who is residence with me is moving to Buffalo, NY so we had a special Mass for him and a luncheon. The priest who preached said that the man with leprosy did not ask Jesus to heal him, instead he petitioned Jesus to heal him by saying, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” It was not the man’s desire, but the will of God that healed the man and reunited him to his family and community.

  6. JesusFreak84 says:
    16 February 2015 at 8:42 AM

    Cheesefaire/Forgiveness Sunday, so the point was how fasting from food makes little to no difference if we do not fast from our feet taking us to evil, our tongues speaking evil, our hands doing evil, etc. etc. etc.

  7. Kristyn says:
    16 February 2015 at 9:06 AM

    Deacon preached on discerning what God made each of us to do, the specific task that is God’s “plan A” for me.

  8. Cantor says:
    16 February 2015 at 9:08 AM

    We are all lepers. Instead of wandering around bragging that we are “unclean” or, worse, concealing our leprosy and quietly spreading it to others, we should approach Christ and ask him to make us well.

  9. John of Chicago says:
    16 February 2015 at 9:12 AM

    The pastor spoke of Jesus’ choice to be with the leper and “touch” him rather than be within the Law and “pure.” I thought his sermon was pretty good until I read the sermon Pope Francis preached yesterday to the College of Cardinals gathered in Rome for the Installation Mass. Wow! Now that’s one for the ages. The English translation is on the Vatican Radio website under “homilies.” “Whispers in the Loggia” also has it.
    http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/02/15/pope_francis_cardinals_are_servants_of_the_church/1123586

  10. magistercaesar says:
    16 February 2015 at 10:01 AM

    Mass at home parish: The priest in residence preached on how the leper was healed because he asked for God’s healing, and that we must be open to asking for God’s help. Then he mentioned how the Church, from the Council of Jerusalem til today, has always followed showing mercy to others by showing the truth to others He then mentioned how we must prepare for Lent by doing the little things, such as coming to Mass on time and not leaving after Communion (my home parish has a problem with that)

    Mass at college parish: The new campus ministry priest (coincidentally, ordained at the same time as the priest who preached at my home parish; both are in their early 30s) talked about a silent retreat he attended and how he sneaked out of the monastery to buy a bag of Doritos. While at a gas station store in the middle of rural upstate NY, he realized how noisy the world really was, and how blessed true silence actually is. He then spoke on the virtues of silence as espoused by Benedict XVI, and then pondered on the possibility of what would happen if the world actually listened to Pope Francis. We should make time in our lives for silence to actually listen to God and others, and then continue the work of Jesus by being open to everyone and showing them the truth of the Church.

  11. dhgyapong says:
    16 February 2015 at 10:13 AM

    The sermon I heard stressed the disobedience of the leper after his healing, how he was sternly admonished by the Lord not to “blab” about his healing, but to go show himself to the priest that he was healed, to obey the Law, in other words that had a provision for restoration to the community after a healing. Because he did not do what Jesus commanded him, Jesus was then unable to go to the cities or the towns because he was now deemed unclean for having touched the leper. The priest also suggested that perhaps the leper lost his healing, that we don’t know, but anyone who is involved in healing ministry has seen people who have been healed by the Lord who lose their healing by reverting to a sinful lifestyle that may have contributed to the illness.

  12. Gregg the Obscure says:
    16 February 2015 at 10:26 AM

    (OF) The leper was obviously sick and an outcast, yet he approached the Lord for healing. Just as the leper approached the Lord to be healed, so should we approach Him in the confessional. We must not delude ourselves into thinking that our sins are more than He is willing to forgive.

  13. Elizabeth D says:
    16 February 2015 at 10:53 AM

    Bishop Morlino talked about how lepers had to remain outside the camp as a kind of quarantine, and that this was painful and humiliating. He talked about how Jesus was crucified outside the walls, and this most severe, painful and humiliating criminal punishment also rendered Him ritually “unclean.” We are called to go outside the walls, not to rescue Jesus but to be with Him and remain with Him, to share in His suffering and shame. He talked about what Pope Francis had just said similarly to new Cardinals and how much the Holy Father has talked about going out to the margins, and while we should bring help, it does not primarily mean to rescue the poor but to be with them.

    The local superior of the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest was in choir at this Mass and one of the members of the Society received the ministries of Lector and Acolyte; he will be ordained a deacon and a priest this summer. The bishop commented about the SJCP that they are an example of going out to the margins and they have suffered deeply for it, and he praised them.

  14. HobokenZephyr says:
    16 February 2015 at 10:57 AM

    Newly ordained preist (from the parish where he is vicar today) and first time through Lent: “we are all spiritual lepers, get to confession.”

  15. Grateful to be Catholic says:
    16 February 2015 at 1:06 PM

    Bishop Athanasius Schneider, visiting Old St. Mary’s in Washington, DC, from Kazakhstan, gave a Catholic sermon: he must have used the word “Catholic” six times in the first two minutes. His emphasized the centrality of Christ in the Liturgy, the Presence of Christ on the Altar and in our lives, the importance of external acts of reverence to nurture our internal attitudes and Faith.

    Years ago, before I began attend the usus antiquior at St. Mary’s, I used to leave my local parish thinking that I could have heard the same sermon at the Protestant church across the street or even the synagogue in the next block. OK, but not Catholic! Not at St. Mary’s and certainly not with Bishop Schneider. May God bless him.

  16. acardnal says:
    16 February 2015 at 1:18 PM

    I attended holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form where the priest was from the Order of which Elizabeth D. spoke above. They speak the truth from the pulpit!

    Father said there are bishops and prelates in the Church who want to tolerate sin and call evil good and good evil…although they say they are not changing doctrine, they are. They use an old technique of semantic subterfuge and use the word “pastoral”. He specifically mentioned those who want to give communion to those in adulterous second marriages (mortal sin) and those in homosexual relationships (mortal sin). Father then called attention to a quote from the first reading, the Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians 1 Cor 13:1-13: ” (Charity) … does not rejoice over wickedness, but rejoices with the truth;” Amen.

  17. acardnal says:
    16 February 2015 at 1:22 PM

    I forgot something. Father also quoted Cardinal Mueller, prefect of the CDF, from this article:

    “The attempt to separate the Catholic Church’s teaching from her practice is “heresy” according to the Vatican’s highest doctrinal official.”

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/attempt-to-divide-doctrine-and-pastoral-practice-is-a-subtle-heresy-vatican

  18. jhayes says:
    16 February 2015 at 5:02 PM

    acardnal quotes: “The attempt to separate the Catholic Church’s teaching from her practice is “heresy” according to the Vatican’s highest doctrinal official.”

    John Allen commented on the difference:

    Francis is a pastor.
    He’s not an academic, meaning he’s less interested in abstract consistency than in concrete situations, trusting that there’s always a way to smooth out the intellectual rough edges.

    Frankly, every pope is, to some extent, bound to be a contradictory figure. The Catholic Church is a motley crew containing wildly different impulses, and a pontiff has to embrace them all. As John XXIII once said, “I have to be pope both for those with their foot on the brake, and those with their foot on the gas.”

    Most basically, however, Francis is a master of the time-honored distinction in Catholicism between doctrine and the pastoral application of doctrine, and many of the apparent contradictions he exudes can be explained by grasping the difference.

    Here’s an example. Catholicism has a clear teaching on marriage, yet Catholic schools all around the world have to decide what to do when parents who don’t follow that teaching want to enroll their kids — couples with multiple divorces, or same-sex couples, or couples living together outside of marriage.

    Some schools may discourage such parents in order to avoid confusion. Others may welcome them with open arms, on the grounds that some contact with the faith is better than none, and that the Church should love the sinner while still hating the sin. Both positions are fully consistent with the official teaching, but they create a very different vibe.

    Francis is a man of tradition at the first level, but a pope of great compassion and mercy at the second.

    Seen in that light, his digs at “ideological colonization” and his signature line “Who am I to judge?” actually are consistent, because the former is about doctrine and the latter is concerned with application in a specific case.

    Similarly, the “greedy generation” line about childlessness is a doctrinal point, while telling couples they’re not compelled to breed like rabbits is a matter of compassionate implementation.

    Given his endless capacity for one-liners, this pontiff may still sometimes leave the world scratching its head. Grasping the difference between doctrine and application, however, often will go a long way to getting the real Pope Francis on his feet.

    http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/02/14/will-the-real-pope-francis-please-stand-up/

  19. acardnal says:
    16 February 2015 at 6:32 PM

    John Allen is not a cleric or even a theologian. He is journalist with degrees in philosophy and religious studies. Fortunately, there are many influential bishops and cardinals with advanced degrees in theology who disagree with Allen’s opinion and just a few are quoted in the above LifeSiteNews article . . . including the Prefect of the CDF.

  20. APX says:
    16 February 2015 at 7:38 PM

    Charity is a word often thrown around without undstanding its actual meaning. Charity is a supernatural virtue, we can’t acquire it on our own and means first, to love God above all else, and second, to love our neighbour as we love ourselves for the sake of God.

    People are quick to point out other people’s apparent lack of charity saying that “so-and-so is uncharitable”, etc., but those who point out the apparent faults of others are those who lack charity.

    Without charity we cannot get into heaven, and we lose charity by committing one mortal sin. Thus it is important that we never lose our state of grace, and if we do, to get to confession as soon as possible. The more charity we have in our soul, the more pleasing we are to God.

    Even if the greatest person in the world according to the world’s standards can do even one of the great things that St. Paul listed, if they don’t have charity, they are displeasing to God and if they die without charity, Hell is the fate for eternity.

  21. acardnal says:
    16 February 2015 at 10:25 PM

    Regarding the Pope’s comment, “Who am I to judge?”, it always makes me smile because some weeks later he made a public statement that members of the mafia are going to hell unless they repent.

  22. LarryW2LJ says:
    17 February 2015 at 8:00 AM

    Father pointed out that the physical disease of leprosy is akin to the spiritual disease of sin. Just because leprosy isn’t as common as it used to be, doesn’t meant that sin isn’t as common as it used to be. Sin is most definitely common and real, we all do it and we all need healing and forgiveness – and we all know that, deep down inside, even those of us who don’t want to admit it. And the place to get that healing and forgiveness is the Confessional.

    Bravo, Father! This subject needs to be broached way more often.

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