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It wasn’t so much a call for Priestly vocations as it was an exhortation for all parents and grandparents to support their kids and grandkids in discerning any vocation. The good Deacon noted how the pericope of the Finding of the boy Jesus illustrates the subservience of our own wills to that of God. Joseph and Mary may have wanted a simple life for their Son, after having so much craziness happen at the beginning of His life. But, ultimately, they came to ponder and to understand the deeper calling for which Christ came to us. Parents would do well to allow themselves to ponder in their hearts, as Mary did, how they might assistant their children in vocational discernment.
Starting with the Introit from the Book of Wisdom and working through the Epistle to the Galatians and Gospel according to St Luke, the parish priest drew these all together in service of his point that the choice is God or death.
Our visiting priest spoke about all the things that work against God’s plan for the family. He spoke forcefully and convincingly against contraception, divorce, infidelity, gay “marriage” and transgenderism, citing scriptural references. Father urged us all to stand up courageously for God’s way and Church teaching, especially the young people who are encountering all sorts of opposition to the Church’s teaching in these matters in their schools and universities. Father told us that though we may be a lone voice, to stay courageous, because it is our opponents in these matters that are wrong. Father strongly recommended the Holy Rosary to all, especially in family setting, with the fathers leading it.
Our parish is not normally given to applauding things during the Holy Mass, but his homily was greeted with enthusiastic applause.
Our associate started out by observing that the feast of the Holy Family was one of the most important feast days. After listing many feasts that were “objectively” more important, he noted that this one is important in light of the current crisis. He went on to talk about how Satan knows that the family is the building block of society and how he has attacked it. He talked about the importance of marriage and stressed the virtues listed in the second reading. Another very inspiring sermon.
The ending of our associate’s sermon was devoted to the importance of praying together as a couple and/or family.
Fr. was discussing the Holy Family and the way the Temple was the house of Jesus’ father. Jesus is present in the tabernacle and we should spend time and build our relationship with him there. We’re part of the extended Holy Family.
The announcement at the end of mass was about signing up for Adoration.
I explained what “transgenderism” is. I talked about real suffering and the agenda of wrecking the family, based on lies and quackery, all the work of the devil. I told folks that we will have brace ourselves on the Rock of Truth, and refuse to participate in the lie, no matter what hatred or punishment comes our way.
The priest, a visitor from India, spoke about the importance of family prayer. He mentioned that his father had recently died at the age of 94, while his mother had died in her eighties. Out of their eleven children, three were priests and two were nuns. He attributed their vocations to growing up in a prayerful family.
No doubt many are already aware of this, but our Bp. Thomas Olmsted (Diocese of Phoenix) promulgated today (Dec 30th) this Apostolic Exhortation. It seems (to me) to be quite excellent, and I hope it gets widely shared.
Here is a link to the .PDF:
http://www.ncregister.com/images/documents/DEC_12_ENGLISH_FINAL_CompletemyJoy.pdf?_ga=2.115224580.205472801.1546214448-1244657218.1546062677
Would look forward to any thoughts and/or reflections from anyone who has a chance to read it through!
TLM (Sung Mass) in Singapore
Father pointed out that the identity of the Child Jesus was revealed to Simeon and Anna, two devout people who prayed and fasted during their lives — people who had developed an interior life. Father urged us to develop an interior life of prayer, meditation and fasting, and to avoid too much “activism”, superficial busyness. The Holy Ghost unveils the mysteries of our Faith to people who develop an interior life. This is the best sermon I’ve heard all year.
Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, vetus ordo.
The preface has it “and in this mystery, the eye of the spirit perceives the new light of thy glory.”
Back in the days of the Old Testament, there was a prohibition: “thou shalt not make thyself an image”, whose chief object was to protect the perception of God from human misconceptions and the otherwise limits of human conceptions. We have to think about God, in some way, but we need be careful not to dismiss the limitedness of such conceptions; and in this sense, the ban of the Old Testament remains in full force.
However, in the New Testament, we have a situation that “we might almost say” there was a commandment: “thou shalt make thyself an image”, because God made His image for us to see.
And if we celebrate Christmas correctly, in liturgy and charity, then we obey both the “thou shalt not make thyself an image” from the Old Testament and “thou shalt make thyself an image” from the New.
(There was a bit more, and of course more detailedness.)
All I can remember is he talked about how the Old Testament has been fulfilled in Christ, and that Jews no longer receive salvation through their proto-scraments (like Circumcision), since Christ fulfilled them when he willed to be subjected to the Law. He ended the Old Law, and gave us a New Law, the New Testament, and New Covenant. Father quoted heavily from the Corpus Paulinum to show that this is not anti-semitic nonsense, but actually divine teaching that salvation only comes through Christ who made the proto-sacraments efficacious, but now instituted the real sacraments; the symbols and types are obsolete now that the real thing is here through which ALL men are saved. It is a sin to adhere to the Old Covenant, since God Himself gave us the New and Eternal Covenant in and through his Christ.
From one of our good and holy Carmelite Friars at Holy Hill (eldest was serving Mass): as difficult as it is for parents to “let go and let God,” we must commend our children to Divine Providence, and remember that though they are ours to nurture in the Faith and to support, our children are ultimately God’s. We must conform our will/desires/expectations for them to God’s will; rear them in the Faith and make sure we provide good examples for them to follow and then get the heck out of God’s way!