Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
It is the 3rd Sunday of Easter in the Novus Ordo and the 2nd Sunday after Easter in the Vetus Ordo. It is nicknamed “Good Shepherd Sunday”.
The Roman Station is St. Peter’s in the the Vatican.
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.
Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?
I have a few thoughts about the orations in the Vetus Ordo for this Sunday: HERE
A taste:
[…]
Finally, we might consider the practical ramifications for us in the last verses of the Gospel, in which the Lord says there are others who are not of this flock. There are many who are not of the Church, not near, not following, indeed in mortal peril. Do we stand by idly in enclosed contentment? There are those who have fallen away from the Church, which is even more alarming. I am minded of Lumen gentium 14:
Quare illi homines salvari non possent, qui Ecclesiam Catholicam a Deo per Iesum Christum ut necessariam esse conditam non ignorantes, tamen vel in eam intrare, vel in eadem perseverare noluerint. … For this reason, those who, not being ignorant that the Catholic Church was founded by God through Jesus Christ as necessary, do not wish to enter it or to persevere in it, cannot be saved.
[…]
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My local NO parish (probably the most traditional NO in the diocese, most beautiful as well and likely oldest) recently changed the celebrant’s chairs facing sideways instead of towards the people, says the Kryie in Latin and as of this week the Gloria and the Mysterium fidei as well, and recently made a makeshift altar rail by lining up kneelers where the altar rail used to be (before it was removed after the Council… wish the previous stewards didn’t bulldoze the high altar and throw out the altar rail still). No female altar girls or sign of peace which is nice, but sadly still has lay readers. Father knows the Vetus Ordo but sadly is restricted from saying it. I’m sure he’s hoping for the restrictions to be lifted, along with everybody else.
At the small diocesan Vetus Ordo I go to (sadly the only one “allowed” within a couple hours drive), they’ve started using incense every Sunday and we seem to have (at least temporarily?) added another deacon, which makes for two deacons, which is nice.
It seems the world is healing, at least for now.
A good point from today’s sermon:
In the Greek, the first two times when Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” He uses the work agape — love for neighbor based on love of God. Peter answers with the word phila — love of a friend or brother. Finally, the third time, Jesus also uses phila.
This, along with His prediction of Peter’s martyrdom, could be seen as telling Peter, “You’re still a work in progress, but I will perfect you.”
Not strictly ask on note, but perhaps even relevant, deo volente, is this excerpt from Cardinal Pizzaballa’s meditation for this Sunday:
Peter, he who denied, he who fled, is called to say yes three times, to say that he believes in this new possibility of being, together with his brothers, a community reborn from death.
It is a small, wounded community, which alone can do nothing (“but that night they caught nothing” – Jn 21:3), going through the darkness of the night. But it is also a community that, when it obeys the Word of the Lord, becomes strong: the nets do not break (Jn 21:11), because it is solid, this new community that is founded on the gift of the Lord (“So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.”(Jn. 21:11)
And that the gift is the Lord’s, is evident: the disciples return to shore after having caught a great quantity of fish, but it is Jesus who offers the fish and the bread (Jn 21:9), and this refers back to the self-offering that Jesus made on the cross: this is the true strength of the new community of disciples.
In addition, they cast the net on the right side of the boat (“Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find something”-Jn 21:6): here too the meanings can be many, but what is certain is that the right side is the side of God, of his powerful arm, the side of strength, of blessing, of joy.
The disciples are called to live there, in this place where God manifests his strength, which is always the strength of love, never of mere power.
What they have caught, they bring to the Lord, who unites it with what is already ready on the fire (Jn. 21:10).
The Lord has already done everything, and now, what is lacking is to unite ourselves to Him, making His logic of life, His unconditional trust in the Father, His filial obedience our own.
From there life is reborn, and from there the Church is reborn.
Sorry, auto correct messed me up, I was trying to say, not strictly a sermon note…
Today Father exhorted us to pray for those who have left the Priesthood.
TLM at Assumption Grotto in Detroit. Good turnout. They are having a Solemn High Mass Tuesday for the conclave.
“There are many who are not of the Church, not near, not following, indeed in mortal peril. Do we stand by idly in enclosed contentment?”
To answer your question…Never! Be a shining example of charity and encourage them to join you at Holy Mass.
My oldest son received Confirmation and his first Holy Communion this weekend!!!
Deo Gratias!!!!
He took the name Paul Miki, a surprising choice for a nine year old.
In our archdiocese we are fortunate to receive Sacraments in the restored order. So Confirmation and first Holy Communion are normally the same Mass.
So, I attended an evening Mass at my old college. It was the first time attending something other than the Easter service there in over a decade, I think; I had a friend who joined me who was a few years ahead of me there.
The shift in the service was /massive/ from what we remembered. It was a Novus Ordo service, but as much was in Latin as could be. The folk group we recalled has been replaced by an organist, and the hymns were chanted by a small choir (it /was/ a 9pm service). A significant number of students were opting for reception on the tongue, and probably a dozen or so knelt as they did so. There were a decent number of mantillas (mantillae?) worn by female students and lots and lots of more formal dress (guys in coats and ties) than I ever could have imagined when I was attending there.
At the start of the service, the priest processed from the sacristy – my friend and I both had a moment where we weren’t sure if he was going to do prayers at the foot of the altar.
I just wanted to mention this because the shift in the last 10-15 years in my area has been pretty broad and deep even within the Novus Ordo – a lot of priests seem to be doing everything they can to bring it as close to the Vetus Ordo as they can within the confines of the Novus Ordo (and, in some cases, the constraints of the facilities they have to work with – it’s a lot easier to do some of these things if you have a pre-Conciliar church to work with than if your parish council foolishly went along with some of the 80s/90s “innovative” designs, though one parish in my area raised several million dollars to overhaul their worship space – the weird “pews on both sides, altar in an aisle in the middle between the sets of pews” design was replaced with something that is as close to a “traditional” design as they could get [the layout doesn’t face east, sadly]).
I still hope for a more ready offering of the Vetus Ordo in the future, but I’m at least heartened by steps in the right direction – and the behavioral preferences of the students suggest that there is definitely demand in this direction as well as supply.
At our FSSP parish, this being Good Shepherd Sunday, the sermon was about a particular priest who was an example of a good shepherd. Father Thomas Byles was an English priest, a convert from Protestantism who was traveling to New York to officiate at his brother’s wedding. The ship he chose for his passage happened to be the Titanic. On board the ship he offered daily Mass and heard many confessions. Sunday April 14th happened to be Low Sunday. He offered Sunday Mass with a homily on the importance of avoiding a spiritual shipwreck and how the prayers and sacraments of the Church are like spiritual lifeboats that save us from this shipwreck. That evening as we know the ship struck an iceberg. Fr. Byles along with 2 other priests on board descended to the steerage decks at the bottom of the ship to lead prayers and to lead women and children to the lifeboats. He himself was twice offered a place in a lifeboat but refused. As the ship began to sink he started hearing confessions of those remaining behind. He and the other 2 priests perished with the ship.
Fr. Byles was an example of a true shepherd for whom it was more important to be prepared for a spiritual shipwreck and to take advantage of the Church’s spiritual lifeboats than it is to prepare for an actual shipwreck. In the Church today we have some true Shepherds as well as some hirelings. Remember to pray for all the clergy that they will be true shepherds.
Good Shepherd Sunday attendance was very good this weekend. Visiting Oratorian Father gave another superb homily on the attributes of the Good Shepherd, namely that we need to imitate and live His sacrificial love of the flock, to recognize when we are being hirelings and change our ways. My husband, who is not Catholic, came to Mass with me this weekend….maybe he’s being nicer after hearing Father’s homily?! Noticed the picture of Francis had been removed.