Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
It was the 3rd Sunday after Easter in the Vetus Ordo and the 4th Sunday of Easter in the Novus Ordo. In Rome, in the Vetus, we observe St. Catherine of Siena today, Patroness of Italy.
Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Sunday Mass of obligation?
Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE.
Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?
I have some thoughts about the Sunday reading HERE.
A taste:
A follower of Christ is not be dis-couraged. Acknowledge the memory and what happened as a part of who you are. Get on with life. These things, through Christ’s love and infinite power and desire to forgive, are not a problem for Him.
Can we for an instant imagine that Christ doesn’t know about them? We cannot do anything to make Him love us more. We cannot do anything to make Him love us less. To imagine so is an act of vanity.
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Christ suffered under a tyrannical government. Which did not reduce the obligation proposed by St Peter in the Epistle today to honor and obey the civil authorities as given by God.
We shall suffer too. It’s our choice where that opportunity leads.
Anyone in the Fort Worth diocese, Father Harkin at St Benedict is dynamite. Pretty much every time he speaks, I come away with something to think about. Today, it is that I really need to spend some time with the epistles of St Peter. Words for our times.
After all, the emperor at the time of St Peter’s death was Nero, and St Peter still said honor and obey the civil authorities.
Father said it was a bad idea to try to meet the world halfway as the world will either try to reform the Church to its liking or destroy her. ( It prefers that )
He also mentioned that friendship with the world is being an enemy of God.
That we are to keep focused on our goal of heaven, be detached from things of this world and commented on Our Lord saying “ for a little while “ that we are to remember that we are pilgrims and strangers in this vale of tears. That our happiness is in heaven, not here, and our time here in the vale is only an infinitesimally brief time compared to eternity.
He also encouraged us to reflect on today’s Gospel over the course of the week.
The few, without exception, throughout history have done the heavy lifting. So be it.
We had a guest priest who came to help out today because of an untimely death in our parish. He related the story of St. Dominic Savio, who was asked while playing chess what he would do if he knew he had one hour remaining to live, a question that was going around the seminary. Each student had a different answer such as visit the Blessed Sacrament, make a general confession, and so on. St. Dominic said he would finish playing chess. We should all live our lives so that we are always ready for death and would not need to take extraordinary measures, but simply continue with whatever we are doing according to God’s will. We do not know how much time we will have, so we are always prepared. Maybe we will have several months or perhaps only a few seconds of warning of our impending death. Fr. continued on stating that God is pleased when we are doing whatever we are supposed to be doing, even if it’s recreation. We should sanctify the entire day every day through constant prayer. (Of course, St. Dominic Savio himself died a very untimely death at age 14.) Sanctity consists of doing God’s will. Great mortification, long hours at prayers, and so on, are not sanctity but only means to, or signs of, sanctity. Each instant of our life we should be doing God’s will, saying yes to Him whenever He asks anything of us.
We had the happy opportunity to attend the High Mass at St. Mary Providence RI (FSSP). Our son and daughter in law cum grandson are relocating to that area so they can be close to that church community. The mass was well attended with many young families and children. I had a hard time hearing the homily but it appeared to be on the theme that we are in the world but not of the world and are answerable first to God.
Father pointed out that at the time that epistle was written, all the civil authorities were pagans. Worth remembering.
In our email blast 2 weeks ago, it was reported that average attendance 2023 is 74; down from 119 pre covid. (8am TLM)
The deacon who was preaching told a poignant story. He said he was shaving in front of a gym mirror with two guys he vaguely knew standing on either side. One said to the other “Have you brought your family to our services yet? (Referring to the evangelical mega church across the street.)
The other replied “Yes, we came last Sunday. We were very impressed. The music was great–that band sounded professional! And you have so many services–a coffee shop–pet sitting…But I was wondering when you were going to have communion.”
His companion said, “Oh yeah, we talked about it at the last Board meeting. The Catholics keep asking, so we decided to move it from once a month to twice.”
The deacon cried when he told this story.
Ad orientem Latin NO featuring Gregorian chant. The homily had many good points, though the connection between some of them was hard to grasp. Gospel reading was the good shepherd discourse.
A condemnation of relativism with the observation that its logical conclusion is suicide as occurred in the case of Sartre. Calling out Luther and Calvin by name as “thieves and robbers” for their doctrine of the total depravity of man, which has had a baleful influence on American culture. Noting that approximately 3/4ths of the German episcopate has abandoned the Catholic faith and that we may be at the beginning of a second German schism.
Contra the bad things out there, the Lord reaches out to us in numerous ways: the life of prayer, the Sacraments, the corporal and spiritual acts of mercy. He digressed on Eucharistic miracles, noting that in each scientific examination, the same blood type is present.
Before Mass we had adoration, solemn vespers, and benediction.