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 Septuagesima Sunday (Novus Ordo: 6th 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
AND…. did you know that these Gesima Sundays have Roman Station churches assigned to them?
Here is a great initiative which gives a view of the Roman Stations. Very well done.
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Novus Ordo at St. Joseph Parish, Philadelphia Archdiocese – Good homily by Fr. Stephen Leva: “Is Jesus serious in the gospel today? Yes. We are called to love, not just those whom it is in our advantage to love and express and show love to but to all, even our enemies. Is it hard? Yes. We are called to be Christlike and that means taking on our shoulders the burden of peacemaker in a world torn asunder by pride and strife. Can it be done? Yes. The Church points out saints precisely for this purpose, to make a mockery of the claim that no one can live a truly Christian life.” Good Mass, great homily. Not at all happy about the Mass of St. Ignatius as a format – it is the most musically unintelligible Mass format, so bad that, after a year of working with it, no one knows it. Music was OK, nothing old or touching but none of the garbage either.
It’s 1:36 PM here in NH. I’m in my SUV and will be entering the Gilford SSPX chapel for Mass in a few minutes. Since there’s no comments yet, I figured I’d say happy Sunday to everyone.
Father is having a catechism class after Mass today for all the laity. I’ll try to remember to post later and share any good content we learn from either the class or his homily today.
Novus Ordo Mass
Gospel reading:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“To you who hear I say,
love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
Father reminded us that it is only with Our Lord’s grace that we can do what He commands. To love our enemies as Our Lord commands us requires us to not respond with our instinct-driven lower nature. Our natural inclination is to retaliate and/or vindicate ourselves. Only with the aid of supernatural grace can we act and achieve what would otherwise be impossible. The readings all meshed together beautifully today. It was a good reminder that to give in to resentment is contrary to Our Lord’s will. Especially at this time when some are attempting to quash the TLM, it’s tempting to just wallow in resentment. That way madness lies.
Diocesan TLM, a beautiful one, as always, we are blessed to have it. For as long as we have it. Father’s homily was about how Pre-Lent is the time to prepare how we are going to spend Lent, and give thought to what changes we will make, to build better habits, such as more prayer, fasting, and penance. He explained the “gessimas” and that they are a countdown of sorts. It’s the time to give thought to planning out Lent a bit.
Father had a great catechism class. It included the deeper meaning behind genuflection, the sacrifice of the Mass under the new covenant, the heretic schism of Henry VIII, the deep theology behind the Sign of the Cross.
What really stuck was the importance of the Crucifix, including points in the Mass when the priest is to look upon it.
He touched on Protestant objections to the corpus on the cross by putting on a fake Dixie accent and mocking what Southern Baptists will say, i.e. “y’all papists want Him dead”. After his Brother Love imitation he simply said “I don’t even have to explain how foolish that is”.
Our pastor, in view of the theme of the readings of this Sunday’s Mass (Novus Ordo), i.e., forgiveness of one’s enemies, told the story of Saint Gregory (“the Illuminator”) a court official to King Tiridates III of Armenia. Gregory was a devout Christian, and Tiridates was angry when he discovered this. He ordered Gregory to offer a sacrifice to a pagan goddess. When Gregory refused he was thrown in a dungeon at Khor Virap, Armenia.
After that, things did not go well for Tiridates. He went mad, there were many cases of demonic possession in the country, and lawlessness set in. For 12 years Gregory remained in the pit. Christians smuggled food to him. For all that time he prayed for Tiridates.
Finally Tiridates sent for him. Gregory restored his sanity and instructed him in the faith. In A.D. 301 he baptized Tiridates, who subsequently declared Christianity the religion of the realm. Order was restored to the country.
The point of the sermon was that Gregory’s twelve years of prayers for his persecutor and his refusal to hate him were instrumental in converting Tiridates and making Armenia the first Christian country in the world (years before Constantine’s conversion).
Father spoke of all the troubles going on in the world and especially here in the U.S.
Spoke of how it is easy to get depressed. Father did an excellent job equating St. Paul’s Epistle and how he dealt his troubles. Uplifting.
Strong stuff about loving our enemies, even in time of war. Our priest choked up remembering his father making this clear to him. His father was a naval officer in WWII, convoy work in the Atlantic involved depth charging U-boats and his father suffered anguish after each successful kill, praying for the souls of the sailors dying in the icy depths beneath him (and for their mothers).
And he made it very clear to us that we must not demonize our human enemies, who are loved by God.