Your (Palm) Sunday Sermon Notes

13 Comments

1. Elizabeth D says:

   20 March 2016 at 4:30 PM

   The good point in the bishop’s homily was easy to remember for purposes of this post because it involved Father Z: the LOOK Jesus gives to Peter after Peter denies Him for the third time is like the LOOK a parent might give to their erring child, or that the bishop used to give sometimes to the university students he taught years ago when their responses in class showed they obviously had not done their homework. The bishop also said that Father Z (whom he warmly praised) has this LOOK that he gives to anyone who does something wrong in the solemn Mass. [Seriously? LOL!]

   Peter responds correctly to Jesus’ LOOK by going outside and weeping bitterly. This is what we must do when we realize we have seriously erred. Someone who doesn’t love Jesus won’t be thus affected by the LOOK. We have to allow ourselves to be affected by having disappointed Jesus, and repent with true sorrow and confess our sin.
2. alexandra88 says:

   20 March 2016 at 4:31 PM

   Father urged everyone present to go to confession before Easter.
3. momoften says:

   20 March 2016 at 4:58 PM

   I went twice…the one that had a homily the main thing he said was that if you don’t go to confession,
   you are with the devil, and you can’t go to heaven-period. You want to go to heaven, go to confession.
4. APX says:

   20 March 2016 at 7:45 PM

   We had a visiting Deacon from the FSSP who made an interesting point: When Jesus was calling “Eli” from the cross, he was not speaking in Aramaic, but rather Hebrew. Hebrew being the liturgical language and Aramaic being the vernacular, Jesus didn’t pray in the vernacular…
5. Adaquano says:

   20 March 2016 at 7:48 PM

   Father talked about how when we look at our palms we should be reminded of the ashes received at Ash Wednesday and think about our growth during Lent. Furthermore, we should then look into the future and remember that these palms also have a future they might be folded into crosses or put behind holy images or burned to be used as ashes. Thus we should also contemplate our future and that we hold our salvation in our hands.
6. Elizabeth D says:

   20 March 2016 at 9:26 PM

   Yes of course seriously! And I did LOL at Mass; I could picture exactly your LOOK that he meant.
7. jameeka says:

   20 March 2016 at 10:41 PM

   Father B talked about Jesus riding the colt that has never been ridden before—and how normally that would be a very tough task, but everything was under Jesus’ dominion in this procession. He told us to imagine that we were that colt, and subjecting ourselves to His ultimate power over our sins and death.

   Also, he referred to the second reading of St Paul to the Philippians, and of Jesus emptying himself, that this was true Love. It was the love that Jesus has for his bride, the Church, and that elsewhere Paul says is the same love a husband should strive to have for his wife.
8. Glennonite says:

   20 March 2016 at 10:41 PM

   The aspect of Mass that most impressed me was that the congregation displayed a quietness, a reverential sense, before the Mass that hasn’t been witnessed by me in years. I did notice that the usual ‘piano practice’ was done two hours earlier during Confessions rather than directly pre-Mass. But the half hour before Mass was beautifully prayerful. More folks were making good genuflections upon entering their pews.

   Our priest is approaching the completion of his first year as our pastor. Over the last two months, the altar boys have been noticeably looking sharper in their duties and appearance. Patens have returned during Communion. I’m thinking that Father is gently tweaking our Masses towards a more beautiful and reverential form. Alleluia. (Not today, but next Sunday; Alleluia.)
9. trespinos says:

   20 March 2016 at 11:05 PM

   Father gave us the terrific news that our TLM community will be “coming in from the cold” (my phrase, not his) on or about Trinity Sunday: Bishop Garcia has offered and we have accepted the use of an unused-on-Sundays* older parish church (used only for daily Mass after a beautiful new church was built at the end of the ’90’s). After four years worshiping in the open-air mausoleum chapel of a Diocesan cemetery (open-air is not particularly bad in California year-round), we will have an attractive sacred worship space in a church designed for the TLM. And with the kind welcome of the parish’s resident priests, we will actually become members of the Sacred Heart Parish, no longer outcasts. Father’s challenge to us: give the greatest example we can, give it to those who in seeing our Masses will perhaps be having their first exposure to what we cherish in them, and in meeting us and working side-by-side with us could be edified by how we live our faith. We will have a part to play in building up our new parish and as Father Z says in another post here, we ought to make the most of it.

   * “unused on Sundays” Well, unused by Catholics. In a misguided ecumenical effort, the church has been allowed to be used by a tiny Episcopalian congregation. That will now cease.
10. JonPatrick says:

    21 March 2016 at 5:23 AM

    In the original Palm Sunday procession, people were expecting a military leader who would make them great again. They will become disappointed and later turn on Jesus. Jesus becomes abandoned by all except John and His mother as he is even misunderstood by his own disciples.

    On the cross, how could Jesus feel abandoned by God (My God why hast thou forsaken me?) ? Because He took on our sins, and the worst consequence of sin is separation from God, so Jesus experiences that separation Himself.

    When we are at our lowest point and wonder where God is – that is the time we should turn to Jesus and say “remember me Lord in your kingdom” as the good thief did.

    When Jesus says “it is finished’ in the original Greek this is one word “finished” – it is a cry of victory over sin and death. It is our victory also.
11. iPadre says:

    21 March 2016 at 7:43 AM

    Our Lord had a passion for us, that lead him to The Passion. We must grow in our passion for Him.
12. Simon_GNR says:

    21 March 2016 at 8:23 AM

    The answer the disciples were told to give to the owner of the colt when questioned why they were untying it and taking it away was: “The Lord has need of it.” The priest said that the same phrase can be applied to all the skills, talents and abilities we have been blessed with by God. The Lord Jesus needs us and all that we have and can do.
13. Imrahil says:

    21 March 2016 at 5:46 PM

    My first EF Palm Sunday (beautiful ceremony). We had no sermon. We don’t usually have sermons on Palm Sunday in the OF, either, except in the Mass celebrated by the Bishop.

    However, I also attended a solemn mass for the feast of St. Joseph, and that was on Saturday evening, so “on Sunday” in the legal sense (St. Joseph is not here of obligation).

    One interesting point was his meditation on the phrase, “because he was a just man”. St. Joseph, according to his limited knowledge at the time, had to suspect the Blessed Virgin of adultery. So, the Bible calls him a just man because he is willing to both draw the consequences (in this case, separate from his bride), but do so in a merciful, moderate manner. This is a prime example of seeing the man behind the sinner, of disagreeing with the sin while not pinning the sinners down to it (St. Mary of course wasn’t, but St. Joseph didn’t know that, according to our preacher). For a marked contrast to that, see our present society where someone who has once stolen is forever “a thief”, a politician who was once in the newspapers with something disagreeable is forever “a scandal-politician” and – with one somewhat and one very obvious allusion to present news-reporting – a manager once convicted of evasion is forever a “greedy manager” and a bishop who once let build a splendid episcopal residence is forever a “bishop of bling”. (The bishop in question, presently employed as an Apostolic Delegate by the Pope, was recently bullied into not giving a speech at a Catholic meeting.)

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