Your Sunday Sermon Notes

8 Comments

1. Sawyer says:

   17 June 2018 at 2:41 PM

   OF Mass. Referring to the small size of the mustard seed compared to its enormously fruitful yield for the Kingdom of God, the priest said that God can choose the small, the broken, the weak, the insignificant to be his instruments of fruitful yield for the Kingdom. The Kingdom is God’s doing, not ours.
2. The original Mr. X says:

   17 June 2018 at 3:30 PM

   The priest in my (EF) Mass this morning told us that gay pride is an anti-Catholic ideology and that the whole “born this way” narrative rests on a failure to appreciate the effects of Original Sin. It was a pretty good sermon, all things considered.
3. benedetta says:

   17 June 2018 at 8:27 PM

   Sunday of Christ Healing the Centurian’s Servant in Greek Catholic Rite. The centurian was a member of an elite, with one hundred men under him, of a different class, culture, and religion and yet he trusted in, and had faith in Jesus to heal his servant. He recognized that Jesus could heal and he humbled himself to ask.
4. JonPatrick says:

   18 June 2018 at 5:19 AM

   Byzantine Rite, Melkite Greek Catholic Church. There are only 2 places in scripture where Jesus is “amazed” one a negative one, when he is amazed at the lack of faith of the people in Nazareth, the other positive, at the faith of the Centurion, being a Roman yet having a faith that surpassed many of the Jews.
5. Gregg the Obscure says:

   18 June 2018 at 7:23 AM

   OF. The mustard seed is indeed a small seed that produces a large plant. Once planted, it not only grows, but it spreads and produces more plants. An active faith will similarly spread.
6. Prayerful says:

   18 June 2018 at 1:01 PM

   Fr decided to speak about Father’s Day, rather than specifically concentrate on the words from the Gospel of Luke, that we’ve three fathers, our Heavenly Father, our natural father, and our spiritual father, the bishop, and how we should pray to and for them. Now there are different ways to pray, the Our Father, the perfect prayer, but are too other texts from the Breviary or Bible. Now it might prove hard to pray for the last mentioned, the bishop, but perhaps the words of Our Lord’s agony in the garden, or even a line from Psalm 109 (Psalms cix, 8) could be used, ‘may his days be few and other take his place.’ It was a striking conclusion, made stronger still, by Fr’s dry, pitch perfect delivery.
7. frjim4321 says:

   18 June 2018 at 5:01 PM

   Parables aren’t allegories, they are lessons with an intentional point.
   We’re not free to just say what they mean for “me,”
   Today, it’s clear that Jesus has an intentional point, because in this case, he explained in (secretly).
   This is important; we’re not just on our own to determine what the scriptures mean.
   For example, we’ve seen how much harm can be done by misapplying scripture.
   As has, both in the past and present, Romans 13 been used to justify grave, death-dealing sin.
   Abominations and atrocities. As recently as this past week.
   No, we had to do some serious digging to get to the heart of a parable. In fact, digging for the true purpose of a parable is not unlike carefully cultivating the soil so the seed of faith has a better chance of growing.
   So, why does Jesus use the image of broadcast sowing to stand for the kingdom?
   A memory from my childhood helps.
   My Dad was planting grass by throwing handfuls of seed on the lawn.
   Despite most of the seed being eaten by birds or washed away by the rain, the grass still grew.
   Even though many of the seeds were eaten or washed away, the ultimate yield was far greater than that which was sown.
   I doubt that Jesus was unfamiliar with the inefficiencies entailed in broadcast planting, and that’s specifically why he chose this image for today’s gospel.
   The good news of the kingdom is scattered far and wide and with great abundance:
   The lesson that the seed itself is the Word, and its growth is Faith;
   the fruit of Faith is Justice, and it’s fragrant flower is Peace.
   The sewer sews the seed with generosity and abundance.
   Much of it is eaten by birds, or washed away by the rain.
   And yet, the ultimate yield was far greater than that which was sown.
   We’re living in a time of great outrage.
   Tune into any psuedo-news channel, talk radio show or commentary program.
   But while outrage may be justified at times, and maybe even necessary, outrage has never changed a heart. It takes faith to do that, faith in the goodness of creation and humanity, and the trust that makes that kind of faith necessary. The kind of trust that Paul was talking about when he said, “We walk by faith, not by light.” Trusting that the kingdom really is in, within and among us; abiding Grace.

   The civil calendar observes “Father’s Day” today; so we’re mindful of those who have fathered, parented and formed us. That is so much like broadcast planting. You prepare the earth, you cast the seed, and wait to see what God does; like the sower says, “I’m going to bed, it’s God’s job now.”

   But the heart of formation, as Ezekiel reports today, and as Mary sang about 600 years later, is goodness, which is really justice. We’re formed in the God who casts down the mighty and lifts up the lowly. What the value of being great, if you can’t be good?

   What does it take to change a mind? It takes faith. It takes broadcast planting. Even though many of the seeds were eaten or washed away, the ultimate yield was far greater than that which was sown.
8. Lorra says:

   18 June 2018 at 5:11 PM

   My priest said that without sanctifying grace, even if you saved a man from drowning, that heroic and charitable act will avail you nothing for Eternal Life.

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