It’s the 6th Sunday Remaining after Epiphany in the Vetus Ordo and the 33rd Sunday of the Novus Ordo.
Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Sunday Mass of obligation?
Share the good stuff. Quite a few people are forced to sit through really bad preaching. Even though you can usually find – if you are willing to try – at least one good point in a really bad sermon, that can be a trial. So… SHARE THE GOOD STUFF which you were fortunate enough to receive!
Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE.
Any local changes or (hopefully good) news? We really need good news.
I have some thoughts about the Sunday Epistle reading posted at One Peter Five.
A taste:
We are both intellective and affective. They come together in the tension of fides quae and fides qua, our willed choice to know and to love. After all, God made us His images, to act like He acts, to know, to will, to love. Catholics who truly love their Faith shouldn’t need weird stuff and controversies to spur them into their catechisms and the constant study of and review of the Faith. We should burn with a desire to know more more more anyway and all the time.
On the other hand, was it Winston Churchill who said “Don’t let a good crisis go to waste”?
We shouldn’t need a crisis to drive us to learn our faith better. BUT! We’ve got one! There’s a faith to learn and love. There’s a Person, to learn and love and give.
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N.O. (33rd Ordinary). 11:00 Sunday – quite full, especially for the opening weekend of gun deer season in Wisconsin. We had the chant choir today, so that may have helped; they tend to be on the schedule once a month or so, but of course never enough for my liking at least. We have a couple seminarians assigned here, including a transitional deacon, which is great for the parish as well!
Anyway, onward to the sermon. A good discussion from Father regarding the parable about the servants and talents from St. Matthew’s Gospel. Father expounded upon ensuring we are using what we have (materially and otherwise) to best effect. A quote from St. John Chrysostom was worked in – “Happiness can only be achieved by looking inward and learning to enjoy whatever life has, this requires transforming greed into gratitude.” That quote is helpful to me as I’m in a trying time of transition in my life. I’m not remembering much else 10 hours later, but I believe I’ve previously heard the four last things linked to this reading – this was not incorporated.
“It’s the middle of November, so we may have forgotten about the Holy Souls. (Personal story about visiting a graveyard…) So here is my challenge to you… remember the forgotten souls in purgatory, those for whom no-one prays, or remembers who they were. Those who will stay in purgatory for a long time. Sprinkle some holy water on the ground and pray for them every day. I believe that when we do that for the forgotten souls, then when we are in need of that, when our family or friends forget about us once we’re dead (how many of your family and friends will devoutly pray for your soul in purgatory, eh?) IF WE HAVE DONE THAT FOR OTHERS, then God will remember and nudge someone else to pray for us in the future. Pray for the forgotten holy souls… Eternal rest…”
Traveling so at a new church for early Sunday mass so some trepidation whenever going to an unknown NO parish, will it be reverent or a clown mass with liturgical dancing? Turned out ok and with an excellent homily by the Deacon about talents. Our talents were given to us so we can become saints. However instead of valuing the talents we have, we tend to look at other people and envy them for their abilities, forgetting that we only see their good qualities on the surface and don’t know their negative qualities. We need to be aware of the talents we have and use them to help others and do God’s work which is how we become saints
I went to a Divine Liturgy celebrated by a Ukrainian Eparch. He spoke of how giving to the war effort is more important than needless accumulation of wealth.
Deacon’s homily (Father’s homilies are consistently pretty good to very good, but this week it was our Deacon’s turn) on the talents was thoroughly researched and well laid out. The homily also included a personal anecdote about finding the courage to ask to return to the parish as deacon, which I appreciated on several levels.
I have to say I much preferred the Deacon’s explanation of the parable of the talents to the rather leftist gloss in the lector’s workbook (Sunday was my turn as lector at 8 am Mass — I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve).