Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 11th after Pentecost (NO: 20th Ordinary) 2020

13 Comments

1. elaine sharpling says:

   16 August 2020 at 12:59 PM

   From Wales UK,
   Father spoke about ‘dormition’ and the difference between ascension and assumption – it was interesting and I like it when things are explained properly.

   Full house (22) at our EF Mass which is about a third of the Church’s capacity – everyone is still booking a slot and cleans their own bench afterwards which is more than helpful.
2. Gregg the Obscure says:

   16 August 2020 at 2:38 PM

   homily was on prayer in particular that many of our frustrations in prayer are from failing to listen the Lord or to accept His response. The Lord’s patience with us is oriented toward our salvation.

   we still have an attendance limit of 80 in a building that can comfortably fit 800 (i think that limit is set by the city) and we were close to it at 1030. many pews are taped off with red tape(!) to indicate that they should not be occupied. other pews are numbered and when one arrives the usher assigns a location and marks that spot off on his chart. i think i’m getting the hang of how they assign locations, so i am going to have to be just a bit earlier to get the spot i’d prefer.

   was good to see so many young families in attendance

   on the way out was a startling sight: a young man exiting the church whose backpack had written on it in large letters the uncensored version of “F*** YOU”
3. Antonin says:

   16 August 2020 at 4:43 PM

   I attend Eastern, Byzantine parish and it is open but there is still a dispensation for those who do not want to go so am not. I like our priest and I am sure he does not like the policies and practices but they just put me in a bad place and there is only one Divine liturgy.

   If we are to attend, we have to send in a form that we have no symptoms, have our temperatures taken when going there, wear masks, not respond or sing, and receive communion at the end of liturgy in some fashion.

   I just find the whole Covid response from our civil authorities frustrating (and I am not blaming priest). I am opting not to attend until the disproportionate, in my view (mandatory masks, etc, etc) and just way out of any proportion to responses change to some degree of rationality.

   Hope the excorcisms works! I am doing my best to pray at home but I miss attending.
4. beelady says:

   16 August 2020 at 4:47 PM

   Father gave an excellent homily on the importance of persevering in prayer.
   Our Mass was outside – bring your own lawn chair for a seat and towel for kneeler. There are lines painted on the grass to show where to place your items to maintain a social distance.
   There were a couple hundred people in attendance.
   Father made a point of saying that he is happy to distribute communion on the tongue, you just need to go to the end of his line.
5. Cafea Fruor says:

   16 August 2020 at 7:05 PM

   First time I’ve been to my parish in weeks. I don’t own a car and usually do public transit, but I’m high risk and shouldn’t be on a bus, so I’ve not been to Mass other than a couple of times during the pandemic when I had some spare money for Uber. But I just got hooked up with access to a borrowed car temporarily, so I drove to church for the last Mass of the day, happy to go to Mass…only to find they’ve dropped the last Mass during the pandemic. :-( At least I got some time with the Blessed Sacrament! Prayed my Rosary there. And now I know better for next Sunday.
6. Hornblower says:

   16 August 2020 at 7:28 PM

   It was the first mass for a priest ordained yesterday. The homily was given by the new priest’s uncle, the former VG and Vocations Director, along with the former pastor, now bishop of a neighboring diocese, along with other priestly vocations from the parish, both priests and seminarians, along with priestly associates, current and passed. It was truly wonderful to see priests and priests-to-be of our Lord Jesus around the altar.

   (The parish, under the former and now new pastors, is a finishing school for newly ordained priests. The shortest tenure was 6 months and the longest was about 2 1/2 years. It’s hard to part with priests whom I’ve come to love. This is the obverse side of priestly service — the obedience promised by priests to the ordinary to serve the particular church. I imagine priests suffer, too.)

   The uncle spoke of and to his nephew about his apparent vocation at an early age and his need to “stretch” to how God wants us to be. He is also to teach us how to do what he’s learned to do — pray well and grow closer to the Lord so that we can be with Him forever. May it be so for all of us, God willing.
7. bookworm says:

   16 August 2020 at 7:48 PM

   Logging in to report extremely good news… my husband came to Mass with my daughter and I and went to confession beforehand for the first time in at least 15 years!! The pandemic and other issues prompted him to resume his long dormant practice of the Faith. The homily was about the persistence and faith of the Canaanite woman in seeking healing for her daughter. I have been praying for this day fir many years….
8. RosaryRose says:

   16 August 2020 at 8:49 PM

   Bookworm that is wonderful news!

   Our Priest spoke about the Canaanite woman and Jesus. He started with pointing out that in those days, Jewish people did not own dogs. Also, there was an order to eating, where the most important eat first.

   In our modern English, it looks like Jesus calls the woman a dog, but He does not. He is speaking about something she would understand – He is feeding the children of Israel first. She responds that even the dogs get the scraps. Jesus said “Woman your faith has saved you.” He didn’t say “your boldness” “ your courage” or “your determination”- he said your Faith has saved you. She believed that God could do anything from anywhere.

   It really helped me visualize this.
9. Curate says:

   16 August 2020 at 9:23 PM

   If I may say, Fr. Z., your homily was outstanding, and your ending delightful!
   My focus was on the Canaanite woman’s perseverance in prayer. The Lord oftentimes stretches to pray, and pray, and pray, and just when we are ready to give up on prayer is the same exact time we must give prayer that one final chance.
   I also focused on the interesting phrase that Jesus says to the woman: “Let it be done for you as you will it.” Normally, this is how we are to pray to God (as our Lord did during his agony in the garden), and yet he says these words to the woman because her will is identical to that of the Father’s in that moment: completely devoid of pride and presumption and filled with humility.
10. JonPatrick says:

    17 August 2020 at 5:38 AM

    Again in Kennebunkport ME so attended at the Franciscan Friary there. No signup needed, first come first serve until they fill up. Pews marked off with blue masking tape. Unfortunately they announced a policy of communion in the hand only so I did not receive.

    The homily concerned perseverance in prayer. The canaanite woman was initially ignored by Jesus but she persevered. That can happen to us where God seems not to answer us initially. Maybe he is giving us a chance to intensify our faith before he responds.
11. jhayes says:

    17 August 2020 at 11:03 AM

    I watched the Mass on television. Processing in and out, the priest wore a mask that matched the fabric of his chasuble. He removed it on entering the sanctuary. I had not seen that treatment of the mask as a vestment before

    Sermon: Give hommage to Jesus and never give up in calling on Jesus for help. Similarity between the woman’s faith and Thomases “my Lord and my God”
12. KateD says:

    17 August 2020 at 11:45 AM

    Our priest consistently hits it out of the park with his homilies…ding, ding, ding….Like ringing a bell. He makes it look easy!

    First he spoke about the need we all have to take time for ourselves to pull away from the crowd and be quiet and reflect, regroup. He spoke about the heritage of the Cannanites, and the ethnic group that identifies as such today. He told a story about Miami Dolphin’s Don Shula who when they won the super bowl became so popular that he was constantly hounded by fans wanting to congratulate him. It caused his family some lack of privacy and they sought to find some time to just be on their own. To get away from the congratulations and just regroup. The family took a road trip up to New England and in a small coastal village they were able to find some anonymity. One evening they decided to go to a movie. They arrived after the lights had gone down and went to find their seats in the darkened theater. Relieved that the dark would conceal his identity, they looked for seats. They were further pleased to see only eight other people in the theater. As they took their seats, the other eight people stood up, turned around and began applauding. He stood up and said. “thank you, but how did you know it was me?”. They responded “we don’t know who you are, but we were told by the kid in the ticket booth that the movie wouldn’t play unless there were at least ten people.”. Father talked about how Jesus had been seeking a little time away from the crowd to allow his apostles some time to regroup, but every where people recognized Him and crowded in. They went to the foreign land where He would have some anonymity, but then the Cannanite woman recognized him. He mentioned the faith of the Cannanite woman as noted by Jesus in the Gospel and her persistence, but what was most more worthy was her humility despite the seemingly harsh treatment by Jesus. But was Jesus being harsh? Or just setting an example for his Apostles whom He told not to preach outside of the people of Israel? Then he announced the annual priest’s retreat to regroup for a bit.

    There was more, of course….but the Shula story was fun….
13. exNOAAman says:

    17 August 2020 at 5:34 PM

    My first time back to a particular NO parish. The County cops were keeping guard, same as the other Washington diocese church I visit. (This is new in the past few weeks. Similar in Baltimore diocese.) Attendance seems about normal but spread out over the large nave. Hard to tell. Communion on the toungue…please sit on the tabernacle side. So I did, and was uplifted to see so many others devoutly do so. Oh, and masks are required by diocesan rule, and the head usher greeting all at the front door was wearing a big “Trump 2020” mask. Kinda cool.
    My poor hearing mostly precludes me from father’s homily, but I did catch his sarcastic gag about the “pastoral apostles ” dealing with the Caananite woman.

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