Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
It is the 3rd Sunday of Lent. The Roman Station is St. Lawrence outside-the-walls.
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? We all have heard the bad news. How about good news?
I have a few thoughts about the orations in the Vetus Ordo for this Sunday: HERE
A taste…
Christ uses a short parable about a strong man guarding his house. Parables, as you know, have a twist in them, something slightly off-kilter that gets our attention. The strong householder is fully armed and ready but someone stronger comes along. One has the impulse to pity the householder. In fact, the householder is the Enemy and the stronger one who arrives is Christ. The Enemy is the Prince of this world (John 14:30). Christ comes and “steals” what, whom, the Enemy possessed.
Loading ...
A Knights of Columbus Event took me to a small town forty minutes away this morning. There was a rosary at 0800, Mass at 0830, social hour, and then a Council meeting.
The church seats 160, I’d guess, and it was standing room only. There was a good sprinkling of young families, and a good mixture of Anglo and Hispanic families. At social hour I heard that two of the acolytes had been serving for a dozen years, and were joining the Knights shortly when they turned 18.
Fr. Thomas celebrated, and gave a good homily! As a teacher, I loved that he began by asking the congregation if they remembered the first reading from two weeks ago (Covenant with Noah) and last week (Covenant with Abraham), and connected with this week, the Covenant of the Law.
He then recalled the Gospel from two weeks ago (the Temptation in the Desert) and last week (the Transfiguration). Again he connected them to today’s reading (Cleaning the Temple) in the progression from desert to mountain to temple. Then he gave a thorough explanation of temple customs at the time, including the corruption of the merchants inflating prices, and the 20% commission taken by the money changers exchanging roman for temple coins, and the kickbacks to the temple staff.
He closed discussing how Jesus rebuilt the Temple in three days with his resurrection, and our duties to keep our personal temples of the Holy Spirit from corruption.
I admire good exegesis, and am grateful for priests who provide it! In this case, it appears to pack the church with Catholics eager to hear it.
I was informed and uplifted. The homemade coffee cake at the social hour was good, too — a bonus!
It is a tough time in our archdiocese with many parishes being realigned into larger groups. This parish will merge with four others this summer. But the faith is strong in this small town, the pastoral staff solid, and I am encouraged.
Thank you Fr Z for clarifying these passages.
Col 2:15 – St Paul tells us Christ “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them , triumphing over them”.
The deacon today used the example of Mrs. Jellyby from Dickens who neglected her own children for her project, which was the missions in Africa. In the same way we can get carried away with enthusiasms and neglect our state in life.
I took it as a warning for us to concentrate on becoming holy instead of having too much interest in the doings of the world and even the Vatican. On point, I think, especially coming from an FSSP seminarian.
What? This is completely not what we envisioned hearing this reading. I would say is that really the meaning, but that sounds insulting and I wouldn’t question you, it’s just so surprising. We absolutely identified with the strong householder.
We have a great diocesan TLM. No more can be said of it, because of the times in which we live, but God bless our faithful bishop and priests. We do not envy them.
At the NO I preached on Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition are together the wellspring of divine revelation. SS supports tradition but no mention of sola scriptura.
At the TLM I preached on Spiritual Warfare and used what Jesus taught St. Faustina about it.
At my NO parish north of Toronto, Father gave an excellent homily Sunday. He basically said God demands us to give him proper worship in our prayers and that we must follow the Ten Commandments. He named each one, talked about the 7 deadly sins and about going to confession during Lent. Thank you God for my parish priest.
On Sunday, Father first discussed the Gospel (NO – Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple) and then discussed IVF in depth, including profanation of the sacred (both the temple and the marital act). He also discussed how one presidential candidate claims to be a Catholic while supporting IVF, and the other main candidate claims to be pro-life while supporting IVF and that neither position is tenable.
We have sung NO vespers (English) Sundays throughout Lent; I went for the first time this week and there were about a dozen in attendance. Organized by members of our monthly chant choir; Father was not present, at least this week.
I bumped the post button before I was finished… there was also an announcement by Father at the Mass I attended reminding of who can receive communion; I heard later that it was not at all Masses. curious as to what prompted this, but I’m confident I won’t find out, and certain I don’t need to know.