Was there a good point in the sermon you heard this Sunday?
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Yes the OF we heard the homilist chose to relate one time of where there was someone he saw everyday but disliked. I was feeling ill and so did not catch the rest however in my meditation I contemplated the many times in which I have served others who show themselves to be not friendly in the Christian sense, and I thanked God for assisting me through the EF, through his many holy priests, religious and laity, and through frequent confessions, to continue even when greatly discouraged and abused, and for the model of the Church in showing the meaning of true caritas and how to be kind and merciful towards those who do not love us. Christian martyrs for the faith pray for me.
Saturday: The priest spoke about his childhood, loosing his dad at age 8 and how his mother loved him though everything. How awesome his mom is ( I know her, he’s right–she’s taught me about what a mother should be) and how she showed him what real love is about: Surrender, Sacrifice, and Mercy. And then spoke about how we are all called to live those virtues out in our lives.
Sunday: Different priest: He spoke about Mothers, those who serve as “substitute mothers” and how God is the perfect revelation of Mothers. That he shows us how to nurture, sacrifice and forgive with out bounds, just as good mothers do.
The sermon was superb. On the famous story of the most wicked woman in the world dying and her guardian angel pleading with God to take her to heaven. God asked the angel if she ever did anything good in her life, and the angel said that once when she was hoeing her garden, a beggar asked for food and she threw him an onion.
God told the angel to take an onion and go to hell where the woman was and if she could hold onto the onion, as the angel drew her up to heaven, she could get in. The angel took the onion and the woman held onto it, but as she was being pulled out of hell, all the people in hell where clinging on to her, in a great line.
She looked back and saw the mass of people going up to heaven, but she yelled, “Let go. This is my onion!”
With that, God made the angel let go and all, including the wicked woman, fell back into hell.
Of course, the story is one of the ancient Russian ones, which is why Byzantine churches have onion domes. Father noted that one good deed is important and we have no idea how one small thing will affect others.
The one onion is actually not our merit, but that gift from God to love others and bring them to heaven. Nice….
Our homilist preached on today’s Gospel – which focuses on the premier commandment, that is, to love. After explaining that it seems pretty easy to peach about love, especially on Mother’s Day, but actually, its not easy because people are confused today and think that many things are love, when in fact they are not. Such as: it is not love to embrace sin and to embrace “love” when it involves fornication and contraception and sodomy, it is not love to pretend certain religious fanatics don’t want to kidnap our children, rape our wives and kill us, and it is not love to go along and get along. Love actually stands up to such things and tries to draw people to Truth. It is also not love to receive communion at every Mass because we are afraid that others might look askance if we don’t (because we can’t let anyone think we are not always in a state of grace). He invited us to keep in mind that we can focus on the cross, the altar, communion, and confession.
*** Important note: He noted how sad it is that we are afraid to not take communion because of what the crowd of believers surrounding at Mass might think – What will we do when we have to stand up for our faith when we are surrounded by people who are hostile to the gospel?
Based my homily on the 1st reading. “Whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” We must invoke the Holy Spirit for the gift of the Fear of the Lord. This gift is the solution to many of the worlds and our own personal ills. The Fear of the Lord aligns us with the will of God.
It was Fr Tait so I’m sure there were good points (I think about that we are not slaves, who have no choice about their state in life, but are friends of Jesus) but I was crying over something else so I didn’t catch a lot of it.
The homily was the saving grace in the otherwise drums and clapping Mass. Father spoke about the legalisation of physician assisted suicide in Canada and some common arguments for it. He then rebutted those arguments. It was heartening to hear from the pulpit such a clear statement against a moral evil.
Quite good sermon by the pastor, focussing on: ” It was not you who chose Me, but I who chose you” in today’s Gospel for the Sixth Sunday of Easter.
So often in our spirituality, we think we are “searching” for God, but in fact God is constantly pursuing us, and we need only to surrender to Him.
The priest cited Thompson’s Hound of Heaven, and Herbert’s well-known poem Love ( bade me welcome), as examples of God’s pursuit. We deem ourselves unworthy, yet God makes us worthy by His Love.
Then, today I re-read Hollingworth’s St Augustine of Hippo, which quoted him: “For this heaven which we look up to with these eyes of ours, is not very precious before God. Holy souls are the heaven of God.”
Fr read this book to us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e2HPSSh_Z4
Down working in Massachusetts this weekend so attended the early EF Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel in Still River. Fr. Carlton preached on prayer as well as noting Mother’s Day, the upcoming anniversary of the apparition at Fatima, and St. Damien of Molokai. Jesus said whatever you ask for will be given to you. However we often only go to God with prayer when something goes wrong and when things are going well we ignore God. We have to have a prayer life and it has to begin with humility, that is, realizing that we can do nothing without God. At Fatima, Our Lady asked the children to pray the rosary every day and that is a good way to start having a prayer life.
In reference to St. Damien he talked about how Fr. Damien had heard about the terrible situation of the lepers on Molokai (Hawaiian Island) and had gone there knowing it meant that he would never be able to come back given the stigma of leprosy. Instead he gave up his life establishing a chapel and hospital there eventually contracting the disease himself. Father was particularly moved when going to Hawaii from Vietnam for R&R when he was serving as a medic during the war. Die to the international date line he got there a day early so he decided to go to Molokai and see Fr. Damien’s chapel which was a very moving experience for him.
There was much else in the sermon but those are the parts that struck me.
We were blessed to have the presence of Bp Gerald (Byzantine Ruthenian) for our Divine Liturgy. His Grace preached on the gospel of the day which was the man who was born blind. To summarize his points.
1. Sin is not necessarily the cause of suffering, sometimes it’s for God’s glory to shine
2. Don’t look to blame others for suffering, as in the Gospel, seeking to blame the parents or the individual
3. There are consequences for our actions (or lack there of)
Great homily about Love and how we can all “lay down our lives” for others every day by not indulging our own selfishness but thinking instead about the other, sacrificing your wants, desires, likes, to give to others and do for others. That is real Love, the kind Jesus left us and wants us to give. He also talked about God’s love being unconditional but there are consequences to everything we do. It was wonderful! As was the children’s choir and the little girl who sang the Psalm standing on a footstool at the mic. The future of Holy Church – our young pastor is involving the youth and children much more than before. Blessed Virgin Mother Mary, pray for us!
I returned to the church 21 years ago and have been a pretty regular Mass-goer from the beginning… this is the first time I’ve ever heard a Marian homily.