Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass that fulfilled your Sunday Obligation? What was it?
For my part, I got to be the deacon for a Solemn Mass today and did not have to preach. Had I preached, off the top of my head I would probably have spoken to the way that both the Herodians and the Pharisees used flattery to lure the Lord into either siding with the Romans (temporal authority) or with God (spiritual authority). Flattery is one of the ways in which we can participate in the sin of another. Those ways are:
- counsel
- command
- consent
- provocation
- praise or flattery
- concealment
- partaking
- silence
- the defense of the ill done
Off the top of my head.
Otherwise, I might have spoken about the wickedness of inciting people to rebel against proper and just authority, both temporal and spiritual. That, of course, leads to the problem of what to do in the face of improper and unjust authority.
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I had the privilege of offering Holy Mass according to both old and new forms today, and it brought out an interesting point.
The old form Gospel shows the Pharisees and the Herodians making common cause against the Lord. They are natural enemies, but they joined together out of hatred for our Lord.
The new form Gospel has the Sadducees trying to trap Him.
Between the two Gospels we find every major party in Jerusalem against Him.
We should not be surprised then that the world hates us. It hated Him first and the closer we follow Him, the more they will hate us.
Persecution is our normal lot. If we are not suffering martyrdom now that is only an accident of time and place. We must resolve to cling ever more closely to Our Lord, particularly in the sacraments.
GO TO CONFESSION.
We had our once-a-month local TLM today (that’s all the bishop allows). Father spoke of, among other things, how our society avoids facing the reality of death and how we must do so. He asked us if we were to die tomorrow, where do we think we would go? He impressed upon us the importance of not waiting to grow closer to the Lord and grow in holiness. He said we should run, not walk, to Jesus. He also invited us to a Holy Hour next Sunday afternoon to pray for the Church and the Holy Father in light of the Amazon Synod. It was a big thumbs-up day.
That people do not avail themselves of the sacraments enough, and find every excuse not to do so, especially confession. Also blasted lax church attendance in general.
We have to take eternal life seriously. It is real.
One of the alumni of the university chapel is now in seminary fairly far along, and gave a vocations talk after Mass (which he served). My mom and dad knew him when he was just a student. She was delighted at his obvious joy in the road to priesthood. He was a big guy then, but has actually grown taller!
I had the pleasure and honour of attending an FSSP service in Phoenix this morning. Here from the Canadian cold (1.4F back home)for 10 days, I was mesmerized by the simple, authentic beauty of Mater Misericordiae. High alter, “proper” alter rails, decorative motifs and a color scheme that poetically sang of “tradition” and “timelessness”. The sermon was a simple and unobtrusive call to allow ourselves to be moulded by Christ’s call in our lives.
Frank, I was at Mater Misericordiae this morning, too! We recently moved to a Phoenix suburb and love their overflowing church. I was surprised to find out that the visiting diocesan priest is formerly of the SSPX and Bp Olmsted took him in.
Our dear, faithful, wise priest invited us to consider that we confirmed Catholics are called (1.) to WITNESS to the faith, as did the 7 brothers in the Maccabees reading did, even to giving our lives (as do many Christians in this era.) And (2) to DEFEND THE TRUTH, as Jesus and the apostles did in affirming the reality that people are created in the image and likeness of God. He spoke specifically against the errors of socialism which have been decried by every Pope from Pius IX to Benedict XVI. He called us to understand that it is precisely our Confirmation which not only obliges us but empowers & enables us to speak the Truth. He challenged us to live as witnesses, and to learn and defend the Truth.
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s but give to God what is God’s. We had a very moving sermon against contraception. Father is an FSSP Priest here in Post Falls Idaho, and goes to Planned Parenthood every month to pray the Rosary with a group of parishioners. He started by saying
Healthcare and Insurance Companies are now mandating us to pay for contraception for all who want it. Contraception has been around from the beginning of time and the Church has always been against it. However in the 1960’s everything changed drastically. Pope Paul VI came out with Humanae Vitae and was blasted by the world for this. Father encouraged everyone to read this encyclical (takes about 45 mins). He went over all the terrible side effects of this pill (Level IV Carcinogen!) and what the consequences of its use do to the women who take it, the men who insist the women take it and the effect on society for whole countries whose birth rates decline, saying it was one of the reasons for the fall of Rome. At one point, when he was describing how some contraceptives are abortifacients, he broke down and wept. I have never heard our full church so quiet for an entire sermon. There are usually a lot of babies crying and fussing, but he held us captive. You could have heard a pin drop.
We are soon to have a 24 hour adoration chapel and he strongly urged us to pick an hour to get down on our knees to pray for Holy Mother Church and the state of the world. He finished by saying that God has infinite mercy and is ready to forgive, encouraging those who have embraced this lifestyle to make a change. Give to God what is God’s (those are all His children). Father is very brave.
We were blessed to have 10 seminarians from the diocesan seminary with us so we got full smells and bells- all of the servers were seminarians led by a thurifer. Two of the transitional Deacons were vested in dalmatics, one preached the gospel and sermon and the readings were done by a seminarian. All (except Father and the Deacons) were vested in cassock and surplice. There were almost no women in the sanctuary other than the two extra EMHC and the cantor. I was edified that all of the seminarians appeared fervent in their faith – They all bowed at the holy name and received Our Lord on the tongue. I switched places with my 6 year old so he could see the men – the better to expose him to seeing the possibility of a future vocation?
Deacon preached on the necessity of belief in the resurrection of the body, as we pray in the creed. He said other people in the world may agree in the beatitudes and the golden rule but what sets us apart today, as it always was so – dating back to the Gnostics in the 3rd Century – was that we believe in the resurrection of the body – at second coming our bodies will be reunited with our souls. The gospel reading about which of the 7 brothers will be married to the widow in heaven highlights the importance of marriage on earth – which is showing us the love between one man and one woman to bring children into this world as an earthly example of God’s love of humanity and of Our Lord’s marriage to his church. In heaven our earthy marriages will pass away because we will all be in love with God and each other in a perfect way. Faith, Hope and Love are what Christ gives us but in heaven we won’t need Faith because we will see Our Lord face to face, we will no longer need hope because our hope will be fulfilled but will remain is perfect love with God and Jesus.
Father tried to say something about the lure of the world and the eye on the eternal – we don’t have a sense of the eternal and so we are as amazed as the Romans or the Seleucids at martyrs … but then the Ofertory Hymn was “Lord, Take My Hands”, which, after the reading from Maccabees made me snicker just a little too much … I mean, they didn’t think that song was about amputation torture, did they? … so I forgot a lot of it.
Today’s sermon was a tongue lashing, albeit not really related to the readings. Tongue lashings can be helpful correctives, and at least when going to the EF the celebrants do not seem to fear making the people in the pews uncomfortable.
Priest stressed that man was created with reason and should use it and that sin is corrupting the use of reason, e.g. that while the maybe 80 years we have here are nothing and completely irrelevant compared to the eternity in the hereafter, still so many people put so much effort into these 80 years and so little effort towards eternity, which is completely unreasonable.
Had a great homily on hypocrisy, extending references to even those tempted at the height of their growth to sainthood, but noticed also that the priest, when making an explanation of the need for obedience made sure we understood the difference between the Jesuit idea of obedience and that of St Thomas Aquinas. Truth comes first. He cleverly avoided making references to contemporary events and people.
Cicero: Yes, I was amazed at how busy it was for the 0800 mass! I guess ALL the Sunday masses are full. I got a lift in from Desert Ridge after Fr. Passo (who attended seminary with our own Fr. Botta in Edmonton) kindly put a request in one of the bulletins. The visiting priest was formerly SSPX? Interesting. I wonder, now that the SSPX is in some turmoil, if there will be more “cross-overs”? I loved his sermon!! Y’all so very fortunate with such a vibrant, busy congregation, delightful church…..and climate!
Well… fortunate to attend a Mass of Reparation were the sermon discussed that we must render to God what is Gods and thus excludes worship of things which are not God, such as idols–and then was read the letter from SSPX Superior General Father Davide Pagliarani encouraging fasting and penance to fulfill the voluntary aspect of reparation for the actions the Vatican as part of the Amazon Synod.
Our pastor celebrated the external feast of our patron; Holy Mass was in the EF. He brought alive the life and circumstances of this bishop and martyr who is remembered for his work to unite eastern churches under Rome after the Union of Brest and was horribly martyred in the violence of the era. His final resting place is in St Peter. For me it was a terrific reminder that saints don’t live their existence in a holy glow but struggle mightily with difficult issues. Father could have taught many things from the example of this saint, today he applied a lesson against racism. After Mass we were able to venerate the relic of this saint. [Who am I?] That practice alone is a beautiful reason to attend the EF.
I chose to focus on the courage of the seven brothers in Maccabees, which was grounded in their certitude about the Resurrection. I explained a little about Resurrection, the final judgment, and the binary choice: either Jesus really is who he said, and he really rose, and the Eucharist really is him, or it’s all a lie and the Eucharist is nothing. I asked people to consider what be would be willing to die for.
@Mulieribus, was it Fr G? I attend the parish with the other two Fr G’s in CO. This sounds like an amazing sermon.
At our FSSP parish, Father gave an amazing sermon on Our Lady of Akita and the recent visitation Sister Agnes had at the start of the Synod. Praying. Even harder than before. Our family daily rosary finally became a habit last month due to hardships, and I’m thankful. The sermon was forceful enough that our oldest (age 11) was rather fearful after Mass and kept looking for the fire from the heavens. So I had to gently calm the kids, but I will admit that while reading Akita, it’s scary; but having someone quote it from the pulpit is… terrifying, actually.