Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 4th Sunday of Advent

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 this 4th Sunday of Advent?

Tell us about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?  A taste of what I offered at 1 Peter 5 this week:

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Another way in which this Sunday’s match is a review or summation is found in the three distinct Advent voices we have heard all the way.  In the Introit antiphon we hear Isaiah sing, “Rorate caeli desuper… Drop down the dew from above”.  The Prophet, inspired by the tale of Gideon and the dewy fleece (Judges 6:36-40), foresees how gently the Lord would come in his First Coming, in contrast to how He will come in the Second.  In the Gospel from Luke 3, the Lord’s herald John the Baptist cries out, “Parate viam Domini… Prepare the way of the Lord”.   John is in the wilderness.  Perhaps we are too, just in another kind of wilderness.  Perhaps we can call it a bewilderedness, with its myriad distractions and allurements.  If in the geographical desert there isn’t much to see, in our post-modern, post-Christian technological desert there is too much, and therefore, too little to see.  John’s shout gives us something upon which we can focus.  In the Offertory antiphon the Annunciating Gabriel sings to the Annunciate Virgin, “Ave, Maria, gratia plena… Hail, Mary, replete with grace”, which immediately brings her perfect response to mind, “Fiat… let it be so”, which booms all the more in our attending minds and receptive hearts as it remains physically unchanted, but intentionally left like her mantle outspread over us all.   Isaiah expresses our longing as he brings us toward the sanctuary.  John prompts us to penance as we kneel in self-examination.  Mary reveals active receptivity while bringing us to the altar of Sacrifice.

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About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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2 Comments

  1. EAW says:

    TLM, better attended than last week (attendance then was noticeably lower than usual). Father based his homily on the verses of Rorate Caeli, which was, as is customary of Sundays of Advent, chanted after Mass. After the Communion antiphon, the schola chanted Magnificat, accompanied by today’s O Antiphon.

  2. andia says:

    Saturday vigil— the importance and wonders of confession
    Sunday morning-Seeing Jesus in all we meet

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