Was there a good point in the sermon you heard for your Sunday Mass of Obligation?
Let us know!
And be sure to participate in the POLL on Rose vestments. HERE
Was there a good point in the sermon you heard for your Sunday Mass of Obligation?
Let us know!
And be sure to participate in the POLL on Rose vestments. HERE
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Coat of Arms by D Burkart
St. John Eudes
- Prosper of Aquitaine (+c.455), De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio contra Collatorem 22.61
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
- Fulton Sheen
Therefore, ACTIVATE YOUR CONFIRMATION and get to work!
- C.S. Lewis
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"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
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(OF) Fr talked about the Gospel—Jesus is not answering John the Baptist directly, John who is sitting in a prison cell because he told Herod it was not lawful for him to be married to his brother’s wife.
However, Jesus is letting him know indirectly that injustice will be vindicated, and that the prophecy of Isaiah is coming true, that Jesus is the One who is to come.
Jesus will also suffer, as John is now doing, and be executed—as is John, the messenger, the preparer of the Way.
We are commanded to rejoice. Our faith in Christ empowers us to obey that command.
Father made the point that we should be getting ready for Christmas by thinking about Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; not Santa, Rudolph and Frosty.
GO TO CONFESSION!
The priest, who is from Africa. spoke of joy being the sign of a true Christian. He noted that many people and events in today’s world want to destroy joy and take Christian joy away from us. We are to concentrate on the Coming of Christ, which should bring us joy, either the Coming at Christmas, or at our deaths, or in the Final Coming…good solid references to the three Comings of Christ. All should bring us joy.
One of the people here in this community spoke of “joy vampires” in conjunction with the idea that the world is getting less and less joyful-people who for whatever reason want to destroy joy in others. I was thinking much on the English Civil War this week and the nastiness of the Puritans, who forbade Christmas and May celebrations, destroyed once and for all the Medieval Mystery and Miracle Plays, which even Elizabeth I allowed, and made dancing and singing crimes.
Joy vampires may also, this good woman said, be negative and envious souls….Father’s sermon indicated that joy overcomes all suffering, and in true Christian hearts, joy reigns, even if quiet.
Good sermon and good comment by lady as well outside of church. I would add from my own thinking on this sermon, that joy and peace go together.
Along with an excellent straightforward explanation of Gaudete Sunday and the use of rose, the sermon contained strong catechesis on the Blessed Mother, her power to repel the demonic, her constant protection over us, and why we should remember her during Advent.
Our wonderful FSSP parish priest preached on happiness, and actually said, “You can’t attain real happiness if you are living in a state of sin. If you are not God’s friend, you cannot be happy.” Never heard such a radical (!) assertion in 20 years of attending N.O. Masses in the same locality. Evereywhere else, it’s always, “Smile! Jesus always loves you no matter what!” True of course, but that’s where it ends. No sin. So no need to talk about confession.
I focused on John the Baptist: what made him special? I talked about his going out into the desert, and about how this is a longing some feel; it may be a sign of a vocation to religious life — i.e., setting aside everything else to give all to God. I talked about how many times in the lives of saints, there were people who tried to talk the saints out of their “odd” vocation; but who wants to be remembered in history that way? In other words, my homily was an invitation to follow that call, even if it seems “odd” to everyone else. Won’t it be worth it, if on Judgment Day, Jesus praises us, the way he praised John the Baptist?
I attended Mass for Advent 2 in the EF, and Mass for Advent 3 in the OF, and so heard the same Gospel reading for two weeks in succession, one week in Latin and the next in Indonesian. Jesus does not answer the Baptist’s question directly with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but points to the fruits of his deeds. Actions and example are more convincing than mere words.
Retired priest. I think the one with a PhD in time management, some industry type thing anyway. What Jesus meant in today’s reading was…social justice.
Prepare the way for the Lord by coming to the confession this week.
EF. There is a tendency today to turn everything into entertainment, even in the Church. People who came out looking for John the Baptist were not there to be entertained. They encountered someone full of joy, whose joy came from Christ.
The priest has a strong north of Ireland accent, but his sermon was interesting for Gaudete Sunday. A notable point was how the Jewish authorities kept trying to trap John the Baptist into saying something foolish or inappropriate to the circumstances. This is comparable what happened to Bishop Williamson. The media trapped him into saying something which made it easy to portray him as cranky, even if it was a plausible and reasonable comment in the correct time and place.
OF: Many of us deceive ourselves that we have a living faith and a live relationship with Our Lord, but in truth never hold ourselves to God’s own standards. (I missed a lot of it because I was struck with painfully dry eyes and had to go out.)
EF: God sent His Son that we might have true peace, and therefore be able to truly rejoice–truly be happy! Nothing at all can give us the same peace and happiness as the nearness of Christ, which has been evidenced in His incarnation.
During the normal 3 minute Sunday homily, our Pastor spoke about a French chef who wanted to get to New York to see another Chef make a special dish and having multiple delays, loses his patients and temper. He finished up by stating in a humorous manner that if you can’t keep your temper you should go to Confession. (Laughter all around the nave.) At that point he recommended attending the biannual parish Penance Service next Thursday (again laughter all around the nave).
Our permanent deacon proposed that John must have sent his disciples to ask Jesus this question because he had been experiencing doubts about whether his life’s work of trying to herald the coming of the Messiah had been in vain. After all the hope, John was in prison and probably knew he was going to die.
Jesus does not make his own claim, but instead refers to the witness of others to His works as the evidence John needs.
The deacon then linked this to our own beliefs, or perhaps just as commonly, doubts about the reality of Jesus being the Son of God, and our Redeemer. Therefore, we should take hope from the same accounts that Jesus referred to in order to strengthen John that Jesus really is the Messiah, and rejoice that Christmas is near.