Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at the Masses for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany (Novus Ordo: 4th Ordinary Sunday).
Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE.
Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?
Those of you who regularly viewed my live-streamed daily Masses – with their fervorini – for over a year, you might drop me a line.
I have some written remarks about the TLM Mass for this Sunday – HERE
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Pingback: Your Sunday Sermon Notes: 5th Sunday after Epiphany (Novus Ordo: 5th Ordinary) – Via Nova Media
NO. Our parish priest started by referring to Isaiah’s lips being cleansed by a burning coal. He suggested that maybe the short lines for confession were due to the fact that people would prefer a burning coal on their lips to achieve purification-he would be happy to oblige as he had coals in the thurifer behind him! He moved on to say that the canonisation of people at their funerals really must stop. ‘The likelihood that any of us in this church will go to Heaven without going through Purgatory, maybe for a very long time, is extremely remote’ he said. He finished by saying that we need to offer the Holy Mass with as much reverence as possible because this is where Heaven and Earth meet and only the Holy can access Heaven.
He’s in his early forties and offers a a very orthodox Mass, often uses the Roman Canon, and not just on Sundays, frequently the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei are said (or more often sung in Latin). He would like to say Mass ad Orientem but I think he’s aware that the more ‘prominent; and ‘influential’ members of the parish would object strongly. He’s happy to give Communion on the tongue (and in my case kneeling), in fact in our parish Communion on the tongue during Covid was never stopped at any point. (The bishop fully supported it-one Sunday last summer I received from the bishop when he helped out at our parish)
In the NO readings one is struck by how each evangelist (Isaiah, Paul, and Peter) is aware of their own unworthiness. We are all sinners yet God still calls us to do our part in spreading the good news. Father spent a good part of the homily explaining how as sinners we can avail ourselves of the sacrament of Confession. Especially with Lent coming up and if we haven’t been for a while. A couple of people did go to confession after Mass including myself.
Rare attendance at a NO Mass yesterday due to road conditions. Priest gave an outstanding sermon on the nine choirs of angels and the order and purpose of each. No altar girls (not allowed in this group of parishes). Father often, at the churches where the high altar remains, celebrates ad orientam (sadly this church was an early vicitm of post-Vatican II wreckovation).
Novus ordo Mass.
Father talked about the vocational callings Isaiah, Paul, and the Apostles in each of the readings, the fact that we each have our own calling from God, and parts of his experience discovering his.
He noted in particular that his experience influenced his practice in the confessional, because forgiveness for his sins had been so central to his own calling, helping him leave a gang life he had fallen into when he was younger. Confession is very important to him as a result.
This is interesting to note, because although this wasn’t our regular parish due to travel, it was one we are familiar with. Liturgically, it is one of my least favorite parishes in the area. However, the parish is very devoted to confession, so clearly they are doing something right. There is always a line on Saturday afternoon before the priest arrives, and it continues for 2 solid hours until Mass starts. Frequently I have seen 2 priests hearing confessions on Saturday afternoons, and sometimes 3. They have several additional times throughout the week as well.
TLM. The Wheat and the Cockle. Priest reminds us, as did St Augustine that there is cockle within the church. Looks like wheat. But no. Then he said, “Just worry about you not being the cockle— be the wheat.”
I noticed something for the first time on this particular passage of Isaiah: the burning coal with which the angel purifies him, comes from the altar. This made me consider that this passage (or this element of the passage) is a foretaste of the Eucharist. From which I considered: while receiving Holy Communion is, indeed, something by which we can purify ourselves of our sinfulness – it must be venial sin, not mortal sin. The “burning coal” is, then, Jesus Christ, the very Word of God who burns with love (“zeal for Your House will consume me”).
Our priest dwelt on the theme in all three readings, about sinners being called by God — Isaiah, St. Paul, and St. Peter. He said the Church is made up of sinners. We should not be surprised when bad things are done by our Hierarchy, because they are sinners too. Somehow we will survive, because God wills it.
(I wonder whether he had already got wind of the rumored suppression of the TLM in our diocese.)