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 spoke of the beauty of the Christian soul in the state of grace and then moved to correptio optimi pessima, corruption of the best thing is the worst kind of corruption. The Christian soul in the state of grace is so very beautiful, but the soul in the state of mortal sin….
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
on ASK FATHER: Octave of Easter, what about Requiem Masses, Votives for the Election of a Pope… Novena to St. Catherine?: “Grant M : I’m intrigued that both our bishop and the SSPX priest are waiting until sunset on Easter Thursday…”
on ASK FATHER: Priest and the Roman Canon… what do we say now?: “I respect your opinion fr, but my friend annibale bugnini had a different idea.”
on ASK FATHER: Priest and the Roman Canon… what do we say now?: “I don’t know what they call it in Latin or Italian, but the Camerlengo taps on the Holy Father with…”
on ASK FATHER: Priest and the Roman Canon… what do we say now?: “I’m not sure of the exact rubric for the English version, but here’s what Grok had to say about the…”
on Pray for a new Pope to who will be… better than we deserve! : “This might help… https://www.praymorenovenas.com/st-catherine-of-siena-novena”
on Pray for a new Pope to who will be… better than we deserve! : “We need a warrior Pope, someone like Saint Patrick, and surround himself with several dozen tough, like-minded men. And who…”
on ASK FATHER: Octave of Easter, what about Requiem Masses, Votives for the Election of a Pope… Novena to St. Catherine?: “Thanks for making me do my homework on this. I was writing originally after an email was sent out to…”
on ASK FATHER: Priest and the Roman Canon… what do we say now?: “It would seem that only the English Wikipedia has a distinct article about the “Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis” – apparently…”
on ASK FATHER: Octave of Easter, what about Requiem Masses, Votives for the Election of a Pope… Novena to St. Catherine?: “Copied from a London parish here in the UK: ‘Tonight – Monday 21st April 2025 – at 6:30pm there will…”
on ASK FATHER: Octave of Easter, what about Requiem Masses, Votives for the Election of a Pope… Novena to St. Catherine?: “I don’t know if this is the same: The priest at our TLM this AM said he wasn’t a liturgist…”
on ASK FATHER: Octave of Easter, what about Requiem Masses, Votives for the Election of a Pope… Novena to St. Catherine?: “I have been forwarded two messages. From the nearest chapel of the SSPX: Dear faithful, a solemn requiem high mass…” on ASK FATHER: Octave of Easter, what about Requiem Masses, Votives for the Election of a Pope… Novena to St. Catherine?: “Isn’t it also the case that the Conclave itself must await the conclusion of the Easter Celebrations before even starting…”
on With the death of Francis, some will have questions about an election: “@kurtmasur There are 16 of 365 days in the year within the Christmas or Easter octave. Probably a fair assumption…”
on With the death of Francis, some will have questions about an election: “robtbrown : “The argument that the resignation of BXVI was invalid contradicts the authority of the pope himself.” I disagree.…”
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A Daily Prayer for Priests
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since Sat., 25 Nov. 2006:
At Confession, put yourself in the place of the Good Thief, and end your Act of Contrition with “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom”.
Priest made some good points, but for myself they were awesome, cause they fitted exactly spot on what I needed (and also in a quite amusing way).
To explain that just rather shortly some background, since about 1 year I have a growing awareness that while the inner-catholic-“debates” of AL and other hot topics are of course important, that it is not spiritually healthy for me to get into that (e.g. reading the back and forth between papal critics and defenders; it is important; but not something I should waste time on, if avoidable).
It was somehow on and off, finding resolve to mostly ignore the “debates”, just to be drawn into it again, e.g. when some pics of people bowing before not-that-christian-looking statues went public.
Just the last 2 weeks I got more and more better at ignoring the “debates” (meaning skipping reading articles and so on), which helped getting my mind back again to some duties which i should not neglect.
The way I achieved this was by repeating in my mind, that I should be humble, that however clever I think I am, I should steer clear of these “debates” and that if I need any guidance about the various “debates” (e.g. in case I cannot avoid some topic), God saw fit to lead my life into a parish with a rather pious parish priest (at least for German standards), so I should simply trust the shepherd Holy Mother Church decided to place above me and not bother myself with these “debates” much (cause again: they diverted my mind from important duties).
Due to some circumstances (holidays; many visiting priests; some travelling on my part) it was quite some, since I heard a sermon from my parish priest.
So me quite happy, when going to mass and noticing him going to preach (he is a decent preacher); and holding in my mind fast “Stop busying yourself with Pachamama and all that garbage; if it is relevant, ask him and stick with what he says, otherwise ignore the controversial topics; that is probably what God wants you to do”
And now guess, what he preached about.
Yes, starting from Jesus being supreme king over everything, going to that therefore we shall only kneel to him and then…
Pachamama, Amazon Synod, the synodal way in Germany and that the first commandment is important and that some indirectly clearly identified German bishop is unqualified for his job and that whoever is responsible for that inclusion of those statues in the synod is also not fit for his job, though he stressed that he did not think there were any idalatrous intention from the Pope (to speak rather generally).
It was in a sense really hilarious; as if someone had set that up to ensure that my resolve and intent to trust my parish priest in these matters and not busy myself with these matters is burned into my mind with a “See? You can really rely on his guidance in this matter, so skip busying yourself with that”, so I shall never forget. And it probably will work. Good job by whoever set that up.
So the mayor good points:
Carrying around statues who somebody sees as pagan goddess in Churches or even bowing to them, is bad, even if statues are to people doing the carrying and bowing are only symbols of life or so, cause that is sufficient to give appearance of idolatry and even appearance of that should be avoided, as Christians paid in blood to not have idolatry in Churches.
Apologizing to indigenous people for “splashing” them in Tiber but not apologizing to Catholics for having them around in the first place, is a serious mistake.
While he can tolerate that lots of university catholic scholars are well paid to spew out lots of non-catholic nonsense, he will not tolerate if Bishops do so (and accordingly, called one Bishop out specific for talking nonsense).
Warning that some people want to abuse the German synodal path to turn the Church into something non-catholic.
And as the content of his sermon is similar to something he said on some catholic radio show, another good point or more consequence of his sermon is, that my daily prayer routine is now to be expanded to include prayers for him, more precisely for his job security (cause after all, his boss is his Eminence Cardinal Marx who might dislike that one of his “allied” bishops was called from the pulpit unfit to serve).
At the Abbey de Saint Joseph de Clairval in Flavigny sur Ozerain (France) for the Feast of Christ the King (the new rites in Latin, ad orientem), the priest reminded the congregation that in addition to being the King of the entire universe, heaven and earth, Our Lord is also the ultimate ruler of the secular order and thus offers to us the possibility of achieving justice in our time and the constant hope that all righteous things will be justified in due course.
We all need this message, which was remarkably well-put.
Not trying to stir the pot in any way, but this is probably one of the hardest homilies for someone with scrupulosity to listen to. They spend every waking moment having anxiety about this very topic. That doesn’t mean this subject shouldn’t be preached about, though.
I mention this because I think it’s relevant to the topic of state of one’s soul and to point out (just from my observation, which I admit might be limited) that this “demographic” of the Church doesn’t get a lot of attention.
Again, I’m not chiding Father here. It was an excellent homily, but it is something I thought relevant and worth mentioning.
To start Father spoke of one of the best ways to honor Christ as our King was to enthrone His Sacred Heart in our houses with a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the prayers that went with it.
He also spoke of the importance of having Christ as our King and not to follow the world as the world leads to death but only following Christ do we attain eternal life.
Among several good points, Father reminded us that our actions and choices matter; they need to show the world that Christ really is our King. The music we listen to, the TV shows/movies we watch, etc., all must be subjected to the King of Kings and not the Prince of this world. He also recounted, briefly, the martyrdom of St. Jose Sanchez del Rio, one of those killed through hatred of the Faith in Mexico. May his dying words be ours: Viva Cristo Rey!
Thanks for posting you homily, Fr. Z. I always find them worthwhile.
I was privileged to celebrate the feast of Christ the King in the morning and the Last Sunday after Pentecost in the afternoon. The afternoon celebration was perhaps the first TLM ever celebrated in that church since the new church building was constructed in 1979. (it incorporated the altars and stained glass windows from the previous church, and all of our Masses are celebrated ad orientem so it was not hard to adapt to the use of 1962. — Brick by brick)
In the morning I pointed out the parallel between Dismas, the Good Thief and Zachaeus the Chief Tax Collector. They both had to climb a tree to meet Our Lord, and He as King, was able to save them. To Zachaeus, He said “This day Salvation has come to your house.” To Dismas, He says “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
In the afternoon, I addressed the Abomination of Desolation which will beset up in the sacred places before the Final Coming of Christ. I referred to the events involving the Pachamama (who we meet as Astarte and Ashera in the Old Testament) being enthroned in the Vatican Gardens and at Santa Maria Transpontina and at St. Peter’s itself during the Amazon Synod. At the same time we find Moloch enthroned at the Colloseum. These are not to frighten us, but to galvanize us into action of earnest prayer and acts of reparation, especially to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In the face of these things, the question of when will all these things happen? is the wrong question. It may be later today, it may be many of our years from now. Heaven’s “soon” and ours are not counted in the same units. Whenever He is asked about when, the Lord refers us to the need for constant prayer and vigilance and the need to be ready at all times. We won’t miss His Coming when it happens. Let’s pray that the time be shortened so that He will find faith on the earth when He comes.
Thanks, Father, splendid sermon!
An observation or two on how the USA mindset can be a little stiff-necked in recognizing God’s sovereignty.
Also, regarding what we say in Mass: “Lord, help us to want what we pray for!”
…
Outside of Mass, an interesting conversation prompted by one priest’s remarks on the cross being Jesus’ throne. Dismas & Gestas got a different experience of being at the left and right hand of the throne than James & John had imagined.