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Father spent his whole sermon on why we shouldn’t watch the Super Bowl.
One way to address the problem of “being choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life”, in order to “bring forth good fruit in patience” is to resolve this Lent to live more simply as far as our meals and clothing and the like, and look after necessities and not overindulge.
Heard in church (OF, emphasis on second reading from Corinthians): It is hard to love for a lifetime. We can be injured when we open to love, and then shut down. Eventually, many people go through life like tanks slowly moving down a road: armored, with only tiny openings, and a big turret threatening anyone who would hurt them again. We need to look to God’s mercy and grace to receive love from God and then love one another.
Read private (EF, Sexagesima). I am just crazy about St. Anthony of Padua’s sermon for Sexagesima Sunday (available in English in volume 1 of the Spilsbury translation Sermons for Sundays and Festivals, Edizioni Messaggero Padova, 2007). You can see why he is a “Doctor of the Church” by the way he weaves together texts of the liturgy: the Gospel of the Parable of the Sower from Luke, the readings from Genesis, about Noah building the ark, from the Breviarium Romanum (Matins): the levels of the ark correspond to the different soils in the Gospel. He also brings in Isaac, “whose name means ‘joy’ or ‘laughter’) as an example of Christ as the joy of the saints. Then he weaves in the Introit, with three times “Arise!” applied to the wayside, the stony ground, and the thorns. Finally, he notes another way to understand the Parable of the Sower in connection with the Epistle.
What a beautiful and rich sermon, from the early 13th century. And how accessible it is to any Catholic familiar with the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite! (The texts are the same in 1962.)
Paul has experienced firsthand this personal knowledge of God, love for the enemy, love for the sinner, for the poor, the enslaved and the weak. It is from a personal experience where the Lord manifests to St Paul his mission. He took his mission seriously, moved by gratitude to God for his faithfulness; it was love that gave St Paul the courage to speak the truth and risk his life.”
EF. Sexagesima. Fr. P stressed how we can make our soul (soil) receptive to Our Lord’s graces by frequent confession. He said the debris of our sins, once confessed and forgiven, can become fertilizer for stronger roots and can lead to greater fruit. Thought provoking and particularly strong sermon. God’s mercy is beyond human comprehension and we should not be fearful of making a good and thorough confession – frequently.
The pastor discussed the second reading of Paul about love, and mentioned St Augustine’s “love, and do what you will” and St Thomas Aquinas’ definition-Love is willing the good of the other.
Made me look up St Augustine’s sermon on this famous quote. It all kind of makes sense.
Bishop Nickless in Sioux City, Iowa: Jeremiah as a young prophet, and the young prophets among us: all the youth who marched for Life in D.C., the Young Defenders (teenagers) who pray in front of the local Planned Parenthood, the young people who stand up for what they know is right every day by rejecting premarital sex and contraception within their marriages. From the Gospel, how Jesus’ rejection didn’t end his preaching and witness to Truth, even to death. He concluded by reminding us that all of us, young or not-young, are called to be prophets, especially of the sanctity of life and marriage.
Bishop also said how happy he was to see our priorities, since there was a certain foolball game going on during Mass. Individual throat blessings were offered after Mass, and just about everyone stayed. Please in your kindness, offer a prayer for this faithful bishop!!
@Fuquay Steve – I had a long paragraph typed out when I saw your concise and nicely worded comment. I strongly suspect we heard the same homily! :) It’s certainly an interesting and effective metaphor.
Father R. talked about how we must let the Lord influence our lives.
Father preached on why we use Latin in the EF, and, among other things, what are the roles of the priest and the people in the liturgy. He told the story of one Catholic visitor, attending an EF Mass for the first time, who commented on the strange language, “Father, the setting was beautiful but I could not understand the words you were praying.” His reply “But I was not talking to you!”
Yes, our homilist began his sermon by asking a question. ( he often does this) The question:
Have you ever been rejected? How did that feel”. And from there he talked about the way Jesus
was rejected in today’s gospel…and the many ways WE continue to reject Him today. And he
repeated the same questions at the end ( which he does to try to tie it all up) We are fortunate
to have this priest as he always seems to make Catholicism practical and do-able…with the
grace of God. We always are given a few minutes to reflect after which helps me for one internalize his message. Otherwise I would probably forget before I got home.
Very simply put: There is nothing more important on earth than the Holy Mass which takes place all over the world every single day.
Father preached that “no salvation outside the Church” went out with Vatican II. This is the second time in a couple of years he has preached on this. I let the first one go but I think I will have to respectfully reply to this one.
Norah….No question what you should do….Put on the armour of truth as Paul said and correct your Pastor with all charity. Perhaps suggest he read Blessed John Paul II’s CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF FAITH where it is made clear how we believe that while many outside the walls of the church will be saved, the grace is involved flows from the Church founded by Jesus Christ. If he continues along these lines and repeats again such error, sadly, you must report this to your Bishop. If that fails, contact the Office of the Papal Nuncio in Washington, DC. God bless.
“Unless you do penance, you will perish.” He went on to describe the Church’s history of fasting laws, as well as explained that fasting helps temperate the vices of gluttony, anger, lust, and one other I can’t remember. He also stated we should/need to do more than just the bare minimum fasting and abstinence requirements.
Using the Gospel (in the OF it is Jesus being run out of Nazareth for reading from Isaiah) the priest spoke of Humanae Vitae, and the reception Paul VI received after issuing that Encyclical. He even read from part of it and received (what I consider to be a very rare case of) much deserved-applause.
If God is Love, and…
if we are all called to strive to emulate Christ in all the ways attainable to us, then…
A handy little self-diagnostic is to insert our own name in today’s reading and see how truthful it is.
“Rob is patient, Rob is kind.
Rob is not jealous, ”
Any of those little tests I’m not passing, I know where I need work.
Fr. Dominic spoke about charity, real caritas. He noted that the Church members must love. His really strong point was that we think that St. Paul was successful all the time, but more than not, he was a failure. Fr. noted that there are no letters to a Church in Athens, because Paul could not set one up there. Fr. noted the scourgings, imprisonments, troubles with the Corinthians and other churches which Paul experienced.
His missionary efforts were hard and slow going. He failed in some places and succeeded in others.
Fr. said this was to be our challenge. Not to give up. Not to expect constant success, but to keep trying to build the Kingdom of God in love. Love is real, he said, NOT spiritual experiences, but hard work. (Fr. is a man after my own heart). He challenged us to always love. Love means getting down and dirty, not seeking spiritual experiences.
So many people do not and cannot love. They need us to help them and we need to love.
Like St. Paul, there will be setbacks and even discouragement, but we have the Indwelling of the Trinity, Fr. reminded us, to make us strong with the sacraments.
This good priests and others here in England see hard times coming and are trying to get us ready. There are no frills here, dear brothers and sisters. The Church is obviously getting lean and mean in Europe, but very small.
Good sermon from a good priest, Fr. Dominic Rolls.
Father preached on the 2nd reading, and told of a spiritual exercise he learned about at his seminary. Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-13 as written, then read it substituting the Lord’s name for “Love,” and then read it again substituting your own name for “Love.” He suggested using it as an examination of conscience before going to communion.
I’d never given it much thought, but it is an interesting idea. I certainly know that I am not patient, I am jealous, I am quicktempered. All of these forms of caritas that St. Paul mentions are qualities that I need to cultivate.
Norah, talk to your priest first before you do anything. Maybe you are misunderstanding him.
A few references….Pius IX, spoke on two different occasions. In an allocution (address to an audience) on December 9th, 1854 he said:
We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation; that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for this in the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest?
And, Quanto conficiamur moerore of 10 August, 1863
It is known to us and to you that those who are in invincible ignorance of our most holy religion, but who observe carefully the natural law, and the precepts graven by God upon the hearts of all men, and who being disposed to obey God lead an honest and upright life, may, aided by the light of divine grace, attain to eternal life; for God who sees clearly, searches and knows the heart, the disposition, the thoughts and intentions of each, in His supreme mercy and goodness by no means permits that anyone suffer eternal punishment, who has not of his own free will fallen into sin.
And from the CCC
838 “The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter.”322 Those “who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church.”323 With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound “that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s Eucharist.”324
846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336
847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation.337
848 “Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men.”338
oops, forgot reference for first part was EWTN
Our priest also talked of rejection, but then continued on to say that God will never reject us.
Great homily on St. Blaise, his life and martyrdom, the blessing and the use of sacramentals.
The people of Nazareth hung on the Lords words until he started saying truths they did not want to hear. Our society does not want to hear truths either, especially truths about the nature of marriage. We have the truth and we must not be dismayed when it seems we are unsuccessful, or when we are abused for speaking the truth, or when we are accused of being hateful because we hold to the truths, it is an accusation and nothing more. We must, however, do all that we do out of and with love. We do not and must not hate those that oppose us, they are not enemies to be defeated but brothers and sisters to be helped. We can have all the intellectual arguments in the world but if we do not have love then we are futile. Fr then told of how his brother, also a priest, had forwarded him a letter from his (brothers) Member of Parliament (David Morris, member for Morcambe and Lancaster) which explained that he intends to vote against the government bill seeking to redefine the nature of marriage. Mr Morris explained in his letter that he has taken into account the number of letters he has received from his constituents, and that in voting against the bill he would be best representing the view of his constituents. This shows us the power of good actions to make a difference, as previously Mr Morris was believed to be ready to vote with the government. Good News.
Supertradmum, I know Fr Rolls well, what a kind, gentle, holy and clever man he is, you are very lucky indeed!
Fr. Perrone, on Sexagesima Sunday, discussed several ways we might think we are special. He explores how this affects the spiritual life. The visual quality is not good, but the audio comes through well, I think. It’s about 13 minutes.
http://te-deum.blogspot.com/2013/02/video-fr-perrone-on-sexagesima-sunday.html
Tonight I’ll be uploading a brief video clip on the blessing of throats that took place after Mass, and a pic or two, in another post.
Our priest explained the seven spiritual works of mercy, and when he got to “admonishing the sinner” and “instructing the ignorant,” used the Sunday/holyday Mass obligation as an example of a teaching that many Catholics are either ignorant of, or need to be admonished about. He is relatively young and says he’s continually surprised at the number of Catholics he meets who have either forgotten or never been told that it is a MORTAL sin to intentionally miss Sunday Mass (in the absence of a serious reason such as illness, etc.).
Fr D. at the EF Sexagesima Mass preached, in his soft voice, on the seed falling on the different kinds of ground and took us through all the different ways each of us can become that bad ground. It was an excellent examination of conscience full of details and specific behaviors. We were all squirmin’ as we heard our lives described! LOL. I wish I could remember all of Father’s examples of laxity, self-indulgence, laziness and procrastination of which we are all guilty that lead us to make that precious planting so ineffective.
Dr Austin – love that, thanks! “I could not understand the words you were praying.” [Father’s] reply “But I was not talking to you!”
Norah and Supertradmum: Succinctly put, the ‘nobody gets to heaven outside the Church’ teaching is that, after the purification of Purgatory, we are all Catholics when we enter heaven. Today the exceptions are over-emphasized, and the hard unambiguous teachings are missed leading to much misinterpretation, with erring on the ‘mercy’ side, and not enough of the ‘just punishment’ aspect.
Hopefully, Norah, you can have a productive conversation with Father.
I wonder if NoraLee and I go to the same parish!
A brief background on St. Blaise, and why we bless throats on his day. Then an excellent explanation of sacramentals: what they are, how they work and how they differ from the sacraments and why they are helpful.
IOW, why Catholics have so much ‘stuff’ in our spiritual lives.
Love: learn from the example set by St. Thérèse and her “little way.”
I heard a very disturbing homily today. It was somewhat rambling but the thrust seemed to be ‘Jesus was prepared to accommodate His teaching style to His hearers. The Church has been ‘wrong footed’ over same sex ‘marriage’ and does sometimes fail to take account of relevant information/changes. If Jesus was prepared to be flexible, can we do less?’ I have not heard anything overtly against Church teaching from this priest before (though the Tablet is sold in the Parish). I have just emailed him to ask what was the point that he was trying to make as I was confused. However I am looking for a new parish.
Abortion in Canada and all legal limitations removed by the Supreme Court on Jan 28, 1988 – exactly 25 years ago last week. For this reason, our priest dedicated his sermon to speaking about abortion.
He spoke very directly, and left no room for doubt. He started by pointing out that the removal of all limitations in Canada means that “abortions” have been performed while the baby is, for all realistic purposes, born, but still has only one part of the body inside the birth channel, since legally they are not fully born. He then emphasized that a baby is a human life from the point of conception, and that, as shocking and grotesque that the “partial-birth abortion” is, that some pills referred as birth-control are just as inhuman and murderous.
He brought the point home to the congregation in very direct way; after citing some stats on how many “catholics” support abortions and the disproportionately large number of catholics who have had abortions, he made it very clear that anyone who was in one of those categories committed a sacrilege every time they received communion. He also laid out what he expected from anyone in our parish in such a situation; for anyone who had had an abortion (or pressured/supported someone else in having one), he offered a process of entrusting the baby to God and reconciliation. To those who support abortion (politically or otherwise), he stated that they could not rightly call themselves Catholics, unless they changed their views and repented, approaching the Church for reconciliation. For all who refused the reconciliation that he was offering, he said they would be better off to be honest and leave the Church.
Hard words, but necessary. I admire his courage to put things so directly, and I feel that such a hard stance has long been lacking in the Church in Canada. I pray that at least some people will take his offer seriously and approach him reconciliation.
I have never understood why the Church just doesn’t simply have apologetics as a requirement for every adult. It would greatly cut down on the invincible ignorance.
The Chicken
I went to Mass at the Co-cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston this past Sunday. The celebrant was His Exxellency, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller. He preached on the idea of a Culture of Communion. He also talked about how secularism has infiltrated our country and the need to maintain communion with Peter.