Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 10th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O.: 18th Ordinary)

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 10th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo (18th Ordinary Sunday in the Novus Ordo)?

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.  I wrote about the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost but related it to the great feasts nearby.

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The Gospel of the Pharisee and the Publican exposes the same issue within prayer. Two men enter the Temple, and the expectation of the hearers is reversed. The Pharisee possesses the recognizable marks of religious seriousness. He fasts twice a week, pays tithes, and avoids extortion, injustice, and adultery. These acts are good. Christ does not condemn fasting, tithing, moral discipline, or public worship. The catastrophe lies in the direction of his prayer. Saint Luke writes that he stood and prayed ???? ??????, “toward himself” (Luke 18:11). The Vulgate says apud se, “with himself.” His words travel in a closed circle. They begin with God’s name, pass through his achievements, name the Publican as an object of contempt, and return as praise offered to the speaker.

Here Saint Paul’s warning about idolatry enters the Temple. An idol need not be carved from wood or cast in bronze. The self can become an image before which the heart burns incense. The Pharisee does not deny God verbally. He renders God functionally unnecessary. Grace has no work to perform, mercy has no abyss to cross, and the Holy Ghost has no gift to bestow. His thanksgiving is grammatically addressed to God, while its spiritual object is himself. He has changed the Temple into a hall of mirrors. His prayer is a confession of self-sufficiency, and self-sufficiency is practical idolatry.

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