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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
- on WDTPRS: 4th Sunday of Easter (Novus Ordo) – Mighty humble Shepherd, humble mighty flock: “I’m off to Mass so I shall come back and reread this for further reflection. Whenever I see or hear…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 30: Let there be LIGHT!: “Why, if life was the result of random events, is there such order in everything that exists? And why, if…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “In this day & age, religious rituals are quaint and unnecessary. But the secular rituals people have for sports games…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 30: Let there be LIGHT!: “Linguine Marinara con Gambieri tonight. In your charity please pray for me. it appears that i will likely be fired…”
- on ROME 24/4– Day 30: Let there be LIGHT!: “Father, may I ask in which church is venerated the beautiful image of St. Joseph in the holy card that…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “remember this?: …The Pope turned to the beggar and said, “Would you hear my confession?” The beggar replied, “but I…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Thank you Fr. Z. kissing the hands that serve me my Lord. Not that I would ever be Pope (God…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: ““monstrance says: 19 April 2024 at 1:31 PM Thank you Fr Z. Then there’s the scene of Pope Francis violently…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Wonderfully done, Father. Thank you.”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Fr Z I have three things to write about here. First, Ss.Trinita looks stunning. I have, when in Rome, many…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “It isn’t a humiliation for us to behave with decorum. It also isn’t humiliation for us to behave with humility.…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Here in Vancouver, Filipinos are the heart and soul of the archdiocese. We would not have full churches without them.…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Dear Father, thank you for addressing this question and bringing in the additional context! Your line “It is wrong for…”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “How paradoxical that the Judas liturgical mindset isn’t the one WITH the kissing, given how Jesus was arrested!”
- on ASK FATHER: Kissing the priest’s hand in the Latin Mass v. the liturgical spirit of Judas. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Thank you Fr Z. Then there’s the scene of Pope Francis violently ripping his hand away from the faithful attempting…”
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I tried to unravel the Gospel passage, which is notoriously difficult to interpret, i.e., Jesus talks about calamities and the Son of Man appearing in the clouds, and that this generation will not pass away till it all happens. I explained that the passage refers to many things, including the Lord’s death and resurrection, the ascension, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and foreshadowed the Lord’s coming at the end of time. All these things are separate moments in time to us, but all one moment to God.
I talked about time and eternity, that we are preparing, and we will not simply be different people in eternity from who and what we are in this life: if we’re greedy and lustful and wrathful here, that’s what we’ll be in eternity. So God gives us time in order to change; and absolutely everyone needs to change. I challenged those who say — by word or deed — that they don’t need confession. Did the saintliest saints ever say any such thing? No, they never did.
Back to the Gospel: what is Jesus saying? Pretty simple, actually: WAKE UP! The time to change is right now.
Father talked about the apocalypse being the ‘icon of the liturgy.’
Father had on his mind today perversion, specifically perversion of justice, though another sort of perversion was clearly lurking in the background if not named. The first perversion was Rome blocking the US Bishops from taking any votes concerning accountability of bishops for the abuse crisis. The second was the US Bishops as a group for their overwhelming rejection of a motion to call for the Vatican to release the documentation on McCarrick.
Overall theme – these highly placed men may be able to delay justice for these sins, but God’s justice will be done in the end. Would that he could deliver his sermon to the bishops personally.
At Mass today my pastor preached from the appointed Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 16, and the refrain: “You are my inheritance, O Lord! This was the first time as a Catholic that I heard a sermon taken from the Psalm of the Readings. To the question “Why are you Catholic?” Father told us the answer he often hears has three words: “I don’t know”. Father said that the best response also has three words: The Apostle’s Creed.
At Mass today my pastor preached from the appointed Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 16, and the refrain: “You are my inheritance, O Lord! This was the first time as a Catholic that I heard a sermon taken from the Psalm of the Readings. To the question “Why are you Catholic?” Father told us the answer he often hears has three words: “I don’t know”. Father said that the best answer also has three words: The Apostle’s Creed.
At Mass today my pastor preached from the appointed Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 16, and the refrain: “You are my inheritance, O Lord! This was the first time as a Catholic that I heard a sermon taken from the Psalm of the Readings. To the question “Why are you Catholic?” Father told us the answer he often hears has three words: “I don’t know”. Father said that the best answer also has three words: The Apostle’s Creed.
I ask Fr. Z to remove my first two posts.
Father C for 33rd Sunday Ordinary Time:
He started with the analogy of a marathon, similar to St Paul’s Letter: “I have run the race, I have kept the faith”. When Mark was writing today’s Gospel, he was speaking to new Christians who were likely already starting to undergo persecution, and strongly considering giving up their new faith.
When you run a marathon, you can train for months and years physically, but it is the mental preparation which can be more difficult. The devil is whispering in one ear “you’ll never make it.” The greatest challenge in the marathon of life is the demon of discouragement. What is needed is trust. St Paul could say at the end: “I have kept the faith.”
Father recently ran into a woman in the church parking lot, who said “Today is my anniversary!” “Anniversary of what?” “Today I am 42 years sober”. She has been going to AA meetings to the parish hall weekly, and knows how to take life one day at a time. One milestone at a time, one water stop at a time, one encouraging friend at a time, along the way.
Then Father C cited Cardinal John Henry Newman’s “The Pillar of the Cloud” and the circumstances during which he wrote it. “Lead, Kindly Light…” ( Father Z has a good podcaZt 106 on this)
None of us know when the End is, but Jesus leads us.
We use the sun to mark the hours of the day, the moon to measure the seasons (?), and the stars to navigate by night. Thus when “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky” (Mark 13), we will lose all our external bearings and be disoriented. Our pastor compared this to turning the lights out at a birthday celebration so we can see the candle flames, and tied this in with the first reading. “But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever” (Daniel 12). Let us then lead people to justice so that we can shine in the dark!
Traveling to Massachusetts for the weekend, on the way home I availed myself of the early (7:30 AM) Extraordinary Form Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel in Still River MA. Father preached on the Gospel which has 2 parables, the tiny mustard seed that grows to a large tree and the leaven that causes a large batch of dough to rise.
Seeds are amazing things, think of one tiny seed a thousand years ago which now has produced millions of plants or trees. It is like the growth of Christianity from 12 men 2000 years ago to millions of people now.
Without leaven bread is hard, just like without the love of God our hearts are hard. Evangelization is about spreading the leaven of God throughout the world and it is not just a job for clergy or religious but for every one of us, starting with our families, those in our workplace, and those we meet during the course of the days activities. We do not have to beat people over the head with the bible it can just be a simple act of kindness or even a smile.
The Mass of the resumed 6th Sunday after Epiphany (26th after Pentecost) meant a homily on the Parable of the mustard seed. Fr, the parish priest, spoke in particular of the seed of faith resulting in the growth of strong Catholic families and parishes. It might mean a degree of retreat in order to consolidate as the Church has grown weaker, but it is a temporary retreat.
Day Three of the Call to Holiness Conference at Assumption Grotto in Detroit. Solemn Pontifical High Mass with Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago (!). Theme of the Conference and Bishop Perry’s homily was “The Sacredness of Marriage”. Orchestral music was a Mozart Symphony prelude, Sacred Chant, Mozart’s “Coronation Mass”, Mozart’s “Sancta Maria, Mater Dei” for Offertory and Cherubini’s “Salutaris Hostia” or Communion.
There appeared to be some “ringers” (Saint John Cantius, perhaps?) to work with our own altar boys. Wonderful Conference, wonderful Mass! We’re still buzzing.
Our visiting priest (our parish priest being way) talked about judgement – the particular judgement and the general judgement. He didn’t mince his words about the requirement to account for our lives and that we will be judged not on how wealthy we were or how we got on in our careers – we’ll be judged on how we have loved, how we have responded to God’s grace. It’s a bit unexpected from that priest as I’d always thought him to be one of post-Vatican II “we’ll all be saved” types. I’m glad he was straight with us and didn’t try to sugar-coat things as some preachers do.
This actually relates to two weeks ago when at our parish the priest read the 5 USCCB points on migration and went on to castigate us Americans for not being more welcoming to these wonderful, real Catholics in our city, hiding for fear of ICE. I composed a letter to the bishop which I append below:
Dear Bishop :
During Mass on Sunday Nov. 4, 2018 we were forced to sit through the USCCB 5 points for “migrants”. While claiming not to be about politics, it was actually worse – about allowing the destruction of our nation by inaction against the ongoing invasion by criminal aliens through false application of Catholic social teaching.
The first point in the “homily” was that the Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that sovereign States have the right to protect their borders and citizens; the second that citizens should be able to earn a just wage. Then the rest of the points goes off the rails by telling us how that really doesn’t matter because of “human dignity”.
The reality is this marxist social twaddle is aimed to destroy the United States as Europe is being destroyed by unrestricted immigration with weasel words about “human dignity”, right to migrate etc. These people have a right to find work in their own country (one of the 5 points). They are not entitled to illegally enter into our country nor be welcomed and protected by marxist or misguided Bishops or other Catholics. They can have their “human dignity” in their own homeland.
These people are, in fact, criminal aliens and deserve to be driven from our country by the government and citizenry. They come here against our laws – becoming criminals (felons) – take goods, services, jobs, livelihoods and everything that belong to us as our children’s heritage from our forefathers who built the United States “for us and our posterity”.
These people are in a state of constant mortal sin as it is a mortal sin to rob, steal, dispossess, burgle our house – which is our country, etc.; not to mention their high rate of serious criminal acts against Americans. Thus, they are NOT good Catholics, but invaders who care nothing for the authentic Catholic teachings. Their only possible penance to return to a state of grace would be to restore the cost of the various goods and services they have stolen by their presence and return to their homes immediately; including their “anchor babies” who are not real American citizens except by a false interpretation of the law, soon to be corrected.
It is the duty of every good Catholic to enforce the laws of our nation, inform ICE of the presence of these criminal aliens so they may be removed and deported, and to assist the government in their removal as necessary.
Statements such as these lying five points are why virtually no one listens to the Bishops or USCCB any more. Their marxist liberation theology, anti-American agenda is not Catholic and they behave not as Americans, but as anti-Americans themselves. Consequently Catholics should withhold contributions and gifts to dioceses and parish programs which thus violate Catholic teaching as they have become destroyers rather than supporters of America and their true parishioners.
The Bishops are already under serious public scrutiny and criminal investigations for their untruths, homosexuality and communist teachings. May Our Lord deal with them quickly, and convert those who wish to be true Catholics. Our Lady of America and Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
In our holy Catholic Faith for Christ the King,