After the morning Mass, and breakfast, I have embraced a slow day today during which I can prepare more carefully the sermon for tomorrow’s Mass in the Cathedral of Camden for the Assumption.
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About this blog…
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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- The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
- Prosper of Aquitaine (+c.455), De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio contra Collatorem 22.61
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- “The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
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frz AT wdtprs DOT comAs for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
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Let us pray…
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
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Do Priests every get homily writer’s block? I always wonder how the Holy Father especially thinks of new things to say, since his every word is recorded!
Hopefully the Holy Spirit has something to do with it, along with ‘pondering the Word of God’ as Mary did. However I am glad that, unlike the Pope, my homilies are neither recorded nor written down to be checked later! However like all homilists, including the Pope, I do sometimes get the ‘I know what you really meant Father’- guaranteed to be something I not only didn’t mean but hadn’t even thought of! One last thought: it is often the homilies I am least happy with that make the greatest impact- an invitation to humility if ever there was one!
“…t is often the homilies I am least happy with that make the greatest impact- an invitation to humility if ever there was one!”
Amen!
Often we priests will hear a parishioner say: Twas a fine sermon ya gave Father! And I often think and would love to say: thank you, but could you tell what I said? LOL!
Father, is there any chance that the Assumption Mass will be either audio/video recorded so those of us who can’t make it to Camden can still hear your sermon?
Anthony: Possibly.
Hi, John, please come back to Cleveland, the beautful weather arrived with you and left with you. Sadly, we here had to work all day leaving only a scant 90 minutes for homily prep . . . and Celebration does a bad job helping with the holy days. There’s always the JBC!
Dear Father Westsider,
I have an unusual favor to ask of you. Would you mind addressing Father Zuhlsdorf as “Father” on the blog? I suppose that among you priests, you routinely call each other by your first names, but it embarasses some of us laymen to be privy to your personal conversations. It’s kind of like watching your parents kiss–you know they do it, but please, not in front of the kids! He’ll always be “Father” to most of us and you addressing him otherwise makes us feel, well, uncomfortable.
With all due respect,
Tomas Lopez
Tomas, I have to say your post had me laughing for quite a while lol
Cecilia: Me too! If I had been drinking something, I would have done a “spit-take”!
Tomas, I’m not getting the joke. W/S
No joke to be gotten, Father.
Tomas – I see you point and I must say that I agree that I always prefer that Priests are addressed as Father in my presence, too. To me, it is much like the wearing of a Roman Collar. I think it is so important in this culture that there be vigilance about the fact that Priests are set apart – especially around women, although I think it applies generally. So, is it fair to say that Tomas is saying something like – it is fine if you want to go jogging together in sweat suits, but it is helpful if you please wear a Roman Collar around me? If so, it is like the standard I hold my girls to – there are things I let them wear in the house due to the appropriateness of our family intimacy that I would never in a million years allow them to wear outside.
Thank you, AveCrux. I guess everyone else just thinks my request is inappropriate–or a joke.
Not so much inappropriate but retro.
Retro. I’ll take it–I’ve been called worse.