Your Sunday Sermon Notes: 9th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O. 19th Sunday)

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 your Mass of obligation for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost (19th Ordinary in the Novus)?

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.  I hear that it is growing.  Of COURSE.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

A few thoughts of my own, HERE.

Is Idolatry Less Serious Now Than Back in Old Testament Times?

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in SESSIUNCULA and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

5 Comments

  1. Brian64 says:

    We have a new priest after 11 years of solid preaching from our beloved Father B, who has moved on to a different parish. Attendance is steadily growing – always over 100 people now, a few new faces every week.
      
    Our new priest focused on the words of the Secret, that in every Mass the work of our redemption is wrought. He compared our current Masses to that original Sacrifice on the Cross. We may not be like the Blessed Virgin, whose attention was perfect. We might be distracted by any of a thousand earthly issues. But we are like two others who “assisted” that day: the two thieves. Will we be like the first thief, who continued to complain? (There was no sacred music, certainly there was lack of reverence for Our Lord.) Or will we be like the second, who saw past all his suffering and pain and saw Jesus’ act for what it was and asked to be remembered in Heaven?
      
    Despite what we may observe at Mass, what we might perceive as lack of reverence, what we do not like (the vestments are too fancy (lace!) or not fancy enough – at the original Sacrifice there were no vestments, Our Lord was stripped), it is the act upon the altar that should enjoy our focus. The act of Jesus offering Himself up to the Father for our sins is the true essence of the Mass.

  2. Kathleen10 says:

    That was a thought provoking essay, Fr. Z. I know I have asked this before, but this remains an ongoing dilemma for me. When I read something such as you have written, it is excellent to learn more insights about scripture, and I want to know more. But where can a Catholic find solid biblical teaching such as you have provided here? Reading scripture without these deeper understandings seems incomplete. Thank you in advance of any suggestions.
    It is impossible to think of God as a pacifist, after reading your essay. One wonders what delays him in our time, and after Pachamama. Idolatry is now openly encouraged by our church. Most Christians feel God’s going to clean house one of these days.

  3. Suburbanbanshee says:

    We had the Gospel about the wicked servants who weren’t ready for the Master to come back, and who beat up other servants.

    Basically he said that laypeople also have to worry about being wicked servants put in charge of stuff. Which obviously is true. (He did mention the obvious non-lay part first, in a circuitous way which was funny.)

    The hilarious bit was when he brought up the “if you complain about stuff, you’ve just volunteered to do something about it” principle, which obviously could also be true for laypeople.

    It’s almost the start of a new college year, so obviously he’s trying to get help for the various campus ministry programs. (Previous priests discouraged the non-college attendees from donating “too much,” but the pendulum is swinging the other way with the college kids so hard up for cash.) But there is wider application.

  4. Suburbanbanshee says:

    Oh, hey, I had a thought and went looking… and sure enough, the Feast of the Visitation is the Feast of the “Episkepseos,” in Greek. Pretty cool.

    Obviously it was kind for Mary to go all that way up into the hills to help her kinswoman; but she also may have seen it as a queen-mother’s duty: to check up on her blest kindred and on the other prophesied child, and to make sure everything was going okay.

  5. Suburbanbanshee says:

    (Btw, the Feast of the Visitation was introduced in the West during the 1200’s, possibly because the Scriptural event was getting popular in Marian devotion, and it used to be stuck at the end of the Octave of St. John the Baptist’s birth, on July 2.

    (The Greek Orthodox feast only was invented in the 1800’s, and it’s on March 30, soon after the Feast of the Annunciation, or on Bright Friday; but only in places where the feast was adopted.)

    The really interesting thing that I didn’t realize is that Maronite Catholics have SIX liturgical seasons (Annunciations, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and Holy Cross), and most of their Marian feasts are in Annunciations. Their Visitation is on the 3rd Sunday of Annunciations, so it’s about (US) Thanksgiving time every year! (The first Sunday is Zechariah, the second Sunday is Annunciation, and so on. Very tidy way to do Adventish things from November on, leading up to Christmas and all the theophany stuff on Epiphany.)

Comments are closed.