I am sure that ALL of you heard Mass for Easter.
Was there a good point or two in the sermon you heard?
(Don’t you dare try to contribute bad points. Really.)
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Our homily covered a lot of ground but what really stuck in my mind was that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a thanksgiving (Eucharist means thanksgiving) for what God has done to us by the death and resurrection of His Son making it possible for us to be freed from sin and to have the possibility of eternal life. I need to remember that as I go up for communion.
Our pastor reminded us that Easter signals to us every year that we are not made for death, despair and destruction, which is so readily evident in this world, and that our work is to draw others to the source of joy, hope and the fullness of life that we know in Christ.
We have been freed from the ‘tomb’ of sin. Jesus has rolled away the stone of our hearts minds and souls. But we must take that step into The Light.
Jesus Christ has called you each by name.
Our mass was excellent until the communion hymn and how it was put together but as Father Z requested that the bad points are not shared I will resist and refrain from sharing.
The homily was very good I couldn’t understand all of it as it was in French and my comprehension is not perfect but I’m confident that Our Priest on on the right track as my wife and I often discuss what it is that he is saying.
The negative! Sadly at the end of mass I couldn’t wait to exit as the urge to spiritually vomit was overwhelming.
The problems are created by a few within the congregation who seem to think that they are super Catholic and it’s not the Church of Jesus Christ it’s their Church.
Our Priest poured everything he had into the mass and I’m grateful to him.
I heard two Masses, and two worthy sermons. What stuck with me the most, is the fact that when we are born, we are given a finite number of Easter Sundays (and Chistmases, etc). This is one of them! One of only 60 or 70 or 80 or 90, or maybe even fewer! For some this will be our last Easter! Live the day! Alleluia!
Father used the same homily for the vigil that he used for Easter day. It focused on how we are often preoccupied with the “large stones” we believe will impede us in doing what we need to do, only to find they have already been pushed back for us.
Beautiful Tridentine Mass. Full choir with strings. My favorite point during the homily, ” The boulder has been flung aside. It has begun.”
Really struck with me.
“For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” John 20:1-9
Father expounded on this scripture passage noting how confused and scared the Disciples were – yet they woudl all suffer death proclaiming the Gospel (except John).
Good point from the Easter Sunday homily: The words of the angel at the tomb were “Be
not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth,who was crucified: He is risen, He is not here; behold the place where they laid Him.” Even after the Resurrection, Our Lord remains Crucified; even after the Crucifixion, Our Lord remains Risen. The two are inseparable, and necessary for us because Christ Crucified obtained pardon for our sins, Christ Risen gives hope for eternal life.
In Christ,
Was taking care of my autistic son and couldn’t hear much, but I did hear that the resurrection doesn’t matter if we don’t experience it throughout the year and don’t give it life through our actions and our lives. I like that.
Translating from the French: “I beg you, do not be part-time Christians, who only go to mass on Sunday! Be beautiful Christians!”
Through Baptism, we are one body with Christ as the head. Like a baby being born, the head has been born into new life; the body will follow.
We tend to live constantly in Good Friday. Jesus has rolled the stone away. Let him roll the stone away.
Since I went to the Vigil Mass, my Sermon was way early on Easter Morning. Father was very quick and to the point- The Exsultet says, “O happy fault that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer.” Father reminded us that the fault is only happy if we embrace and love our risen Lord. Otherwise, the “happy fault” can become very sad for us.
I also wanted to point out that I very much liked Pope Francis’ homily. Specifically where he stated: “To enter into the mystery we need the lowliness that is powerlessness, the renunciation of our idols… in a word, we need to adore. Without adoration, we cannot enter into the mystery.”
I took this to mean basically leave the things that don’t lead you to God behind you, and adoration certainly brought up images, not only of prayer and thanksgiving, but real Eucharistic adoration…something I found to be very profitable in my relationship with the Lord.
Happy Easter!
The Resurrection changed everything, even if the disciples did not fully comprehend and appreciate the change until after the Ascension and the persecutions began in earnest. Further, all meaningful and lasting change is spiritual change and comes from God. All other change, that born from man, including empires and man-driven movements within the Church, are temporary and inevitably fall away.
Those that deny the Resurrection, deny Christ.
Those that deny Christ are not saved.
Our priest really gives us the good stuff and not the fluff. We are lucky that he provides the EF along with the OF and he really teaches and preaches the Gospel.
Happy Easter!
Our new priest gave three very lovely homilies throughout the Triduum.the Easter Vigil focused on us renewing our baptismal promises and getting back to the beginning of our love for God. It sounds simple, but it was truly lovely and.made the baptisms after and our renewal that much more significant.
On Friday, I also experienced one of the more touching homilies of my life. It was not so much the words the same priest spoke, so much as what happened to him. While speaking of the great sacrifice of our Lord. He became very emotional and near tears. It was beautiful to see a priest so touched by a “fact” he lives with everyday of his life. To know a priest can still be moved to tears simply from the love of Jesus is an inspiration.
Not a sermon, but I attended the Good Friday evening vespers at a local Byzantine parish (after attending the afternoon Latin Good Friday ). I had not been to Confession for several months, and availed myself of the Sacrament after the evening service. The priest was very kind, and provided an insightful quote from Pope Francis as counsel.
In the Byzantine Church , the priest covers your head with his stole as he pronounces the words of Absolution. It was the first time I had received Absolution that way, and I have never experienced the feeling of being covered with God’s mercy in such a profound way. It was beautiful.
Attended Easter Vigil at my University parish (St. Peter’s in New Brunswick, NJ). Father said he was a sinner, but he knew he was a beloved sinner. He spoke on St. John Vianney and how he would weep from hearing of people’s sins in the confessional and how we too must weep for our sins. He then said we had to be beyond grateful for what Jesus did for us and that we must accept God’s mercy and strive to live our lives for God and each other.
A reminder that eternal life starts at Baptism – not when you die.
In the Good Friday homily, the priest referred to the cry of the Jews, “Let his blood be upon us and his children.” Although they meant it differently, he made the point that we do indeed want Jesus’ blood to be upon us, to wash us clean of sin and reconcile us to God.
Abortion is shredding apart babies in the name of choice, contraception is shredding apart couples, marriages are crumbling and there are attempts to redefine the institution itself, religious liberty is being trampled, ISIS and Al Shabab and Boko Haram are taking lives, and people everywhere are being radicalized.
Is it really possible to live with the joy of the Resurrection?
Yes, because it really happened, and Christ brought the carnage of the War with Him to the Cross.
That was his Easter homily in front of both regular attenders and the C&E set. At an NO parish, too. God bless this diocese even more than He already has.
We need to respond to the Love and joy of Taster by living it.
oops that Should be “Easter”
Father talked about how in Mark’s Gospel, there was an open tomb – no earthquake, walking saints or anything really dramatic. That, he said, is often how God comes to us, in things that are ordinary and somewhat unassuming.
As much as we find tombs macabre, many a visit to important places (he used Virginia, Washington D.C., Paris, London) involves a visit to important tombs. The Church doesn’t have a cult at the tomb of Christ because it’s EMPTY. The Lord is Risen indeed.
Christ is Risen!
Aquinas Gal: That’s pretty cool!
Our priest told an apocyrphal Jewish story about Adam not wanting to die and going to Paradise to get the “oil of mercy” to make him immortal, but then the Archangel Michael came and told him he could never have it and would have to die. He said that Christians later changed the story so that Adam DID get the “oil of mercy,” but it was Christ who gave it to him — salvation, a differnt kind of eternal life. And he said we should ask ourselves if we are looking for the wrong kind of eternal life and rejecting the one that is offered to us by Christ.
Bishop Boyea told us to remain open completely to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. That we must be aware of how the Spirit is working in our lives. That we must always remember we are sinners but not focus on that too strongly or we can miss what the Spirit is trying to tell us. Likewise we should not be too wrapped up in what the Spirit is saying as that can lead to issues of pride. We must strike a balance.
The bit that stuck with me the most was the priest’s commentary on the reading from the Book of Exodus, when the Lord saves the Israelites who are being pursued by the Egyptian army. He cited a commentary on the text, by St. John of Avila I understood him to say, saying that our past sins are the Egyptians that pursue each of us: the memory of them terrifies us, even as they threaten to return us to the slavery of sin, but the Lord’s mercy is like the Red Sea, which destroys and washes them away completely. It was an especially apt allegory to draw upon right before renewing our baptismal promises.
Spent Easter with the Maronites this year. Father commented that we needed to take off the old and put on the new, while Christ is risen we still need to fight the good fight in order to join Him in eternal happiness. Father then reported a Muslim leader having said that if Christians actually lived as Christ commanded he would convert immediately, encouraging the congregation to take the treasures they gained from Lent in order to be more Christ-like.
I’m still exhausted from the Triduum. It was so powerful. All of the sermons, lessons and Sacraments just blew me away. Had a super Confession too. Solemn High Masses all week. The choir must be totally worn out. And all 16 Altar boys are tired too. My body could not continue much longer but my soul still longs for more.
The sermons were fantastic, powerful. “Who do you say that I am” was a recurring theme along withe Mary’s Fiat.
Can’t wait for next year..