Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
It is the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time in the Novus Ordo and Sexagesima Sunday in the Vetus Ordo. The Roman Station is St. Paul’s outside-the-walls. We are back in purple for Sunday while the new-fangled Novus gets green.
We are now in pre-Lent. Those who attend the Vetus Ordo are never surprised by Lent.
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. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE.
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:
Here Benedict refers to the reading of Scripture as an “art”, not just a method or a craft or a skill or a project. It needs the right “hermeneutic” or principle of interpretation, interpretive lens. In modern times, what came to be called a “hermeneutic of suspicion” developed in view of Scripture intended to challenge the plain reading of the texts, to force new interpretations to the fore. This pernicious approach resulted in someone, let’s say a Jesuit, reading the Bible and then spouting that what we read in Scripture about, let’s say homosexual acts, was wrong. Otherwise, there could be someone, let’s say, a German cardinal, who regarding Christ’s words about, let’s say marriage, concludes that if Christ wasn’t exactly wrong, He was right back then. This is now. Scripture has to be read differently, through the lens of our lived experience. Scripture means what it means and, surprise, it doesn’t mean what it means at the same time.
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Share the good stuff:
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I pray others have received better today.
At least he did the blessing of throats. Prayer to St Blaise answered on that!
Bruised: Sorry to hear it. I take it that you didn’t get “good stuff”.
I’ll make a suggestion.
Whether from a priest blathering in a confessional some sort of counsel, whether from a priest bloviating in a pulpit during Mass, you can almost always find at least ONE good thing in all the ridiculous things they burble. Almost always there is at least ONE good point. You have to listen, of course, and they make that hard. Even if the point isn’t particularly profound, it can still be a good point. Even in the point is poorly expressed, it can still be a good point.
Augustine taught (De doctrina Christiana) that the three fundamental functions of preaching (as in ancient rhetoric) are to teach, to delight, and to persuade. It may be that the priest was not a good teacher because he was wrong or unclear or ignorant. It might be that he did not delight, because of the former and even those things he put badly. However, it may be that something in his garbled mess moved you to be a better Christian or to make some sort of change. Then… was the sermon all that bad?
Father hit it out of the park today in his homily. Went to a Byzantine Catholic parish and today is Meatfare Sunday. He talked about how we’re only one week away from total fasting, and that we must commit ourselves to doing penance. He said that he’s obligated to tell us what the minimum is: for Byzantine Catholics, they must abstain every Wednesday and Friday, and then fast on three specific days. He basically said he despises telling people what the minimum is. Then he told us what he would like to see everyone in that parish doing: the traditional fast.
He said what we should be doing is no meat and no dairy for 40 days. He then talked about how hard it is to get into Heaven, and gave us an example by asking if any of us are proficient at a particular skill like an instrument or a sport. He said we may think of ourselves as really good at that activity. BUt then we find someone who is REALLY good. We might be moved to say, “I’m great at playing the trumpet… but compared to THAT guys over there, I’m NOTHING!”. He then turned it back to the spiritual life. How often do we say that we are “good”? That we are pretty ok in our spiritual lives and diciplines? He then said that in coomparison to the Holy ONe, our Lord, we are nothing
My apologies as my earlier comment was accidentally posted while I was editing…
Father hit it out of the park today in his homily. Went to a Byzantine Catholic parish and today is Meatfare Sunday. He talked about how we’re only one week away from total fasting, and that we must commit ourselves to doing penance. He said that he’s obligated to tell us what the minimum is: for Byzantine Catholics, they must abstain every Wednesday and Friday, and then fast on three specific days. He basically said he despises telling people what the minimum is. Then he told us what he would like to see everyone in that parish doing: the traditional fast.
He said what we should be doing is no meat and no dairy for 40 days. He then talked about how hard it is to get into Heaven, and gave us an example by asking if any of us are proficient at a particular skill like an instrument or a sport. He said we may think of ourselves as really good at that activity. But then we find someone who is REALLY good. We might be moved to say, “I’m great at playing the trumpet… but compared to THAT guy over there, I’m NOTHING!”. He then turned it back to the spiritual life. How often do we say that we are “good”? That we are pretty ok in our spiritual lives and disciplines? He then said that in comparison to the Holy One, our Lord, we are nothing. He said that heaven “is for SAINTS, not for also-rans”.
He closed by saying we must do penance and fasting, and be charitable givers during this Lent, because who else is going to do it? He said we must fast to make up for all the greed and avarice and selfishness in the world. Fast and pray for others was the main message today, and that we should never think it’s easy to get into HEaven. That if we simply are baptized Catholic and we get a funeral we are guaranteed Heaven. No. We must be a saint, and the saints prayed and fasted often. We need to do that during this Lenten season.
The news from Chicago is not great today. As you probably know, in a most cold-blooded act of mal-shepherding, Cardinal Cupich has suppressed the Traditional Rite of Mass on the first Sunday of each month (not to mention Christmas and Easter) throughout the archdiocese. At St. John Cantius, we’re fortunate enough to have Mass every day of the year (except for the aforementioned days) and I attend as often as I can. At last Sunday’s Mass, the Alleluia having been put to rest the previous day, our pastor clad in violet vestments gave an impressive sermon on the significance of the season of Septuagesima. Motivated by his words, I attended Mass several time during the past week to cultivate a pre-lenten attitude. This morning l arrived at church for the 7:30 Low Mass only to be reminded in the most brutal fashion that this was the first Sunday of the month. Bang – I suddenly found myself not on Sexigesima Sunday, but on some Sunday in “ordinary time” complete with green vestments, Gloria, and an ad hoc reawakened Alleluia. Mind you, the NO at St. Johns is offered in the finest way possible – in Latin, ad orientem, and strictly according to the rubrics. Making us play hopscotch between two calenders is both disruptive and pointless. It is impossible for me to determine what can be gained by Cupich’s jack-booting maneuvers to goad an unwilling and uninterested population of faithful Catholics to accept the imposition of a rite that does not meet their spiritual “rightful aspirations”.
Mornac2: I am really sorry about that news. Very much so. Because I have such sympathy for your plight, I let your comment through to public view. These posts ask for “the good stuff”. And yet… gosh, I’m so sorry about that this more words escape me at the moment, other than to remind people that it’s not just the rite that the these prelates don’t like… it’s YOU they don’t like. They don’t like the people.
Everyone… now that that’s posted, let’s please stick to the topic: good points from Sunday sermons.
And pray for these prelates who hurt so many people.
Our FSSP deacon from the seminary compared our situation to the US Navy at the Battle of Midway. A weakened navy was able to concentrate forces and defeat the Japanese because of superior intelligence on where and when the attack was coming. In the same way we have superior intelligence from the Lord on who the enemy is: the world, the flesh and the devil. We will concentrate our forces during Lent with prayer and fasting. We will know we have won a victory when our hearts are like the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The point that stuck out to me is the good seeds that bring forth fruit are the people who unite their suffering to the Cross. (I made the trek to another diocese since it was the 1st Sunday of the month and we can’t have TLM.)
(Yesterday being the feast of St. Blase was a good reminder to pray for Cardinal Cupich. I asked St. Blase for his help.)
Our priest talked about the readings during his homily, but he also mentioned the current legislation on physician-assisted suicide that our state legislators are considering, and here’s where he won my appreciation and admiration. He called the legislation evil and explained why physician-assisted suicide is truly evil, using information about PAS’s slippery slope in other countries, explaining how doctors are also harmed, and urging us all to contact our legislators right away, saying that we won’t vote for them if they support this legislation. I thank God that this priest was so blunt and took the time to supply facts, not just an appeal to emotion.
The homily was on the parable from the Gospel and also bringing in God’s response to St. Paul when asked that his “sting of the flesh” be taken away emphasizing how God’s grace is sufficient to deal with the thorns that prevent the good seed from flourishing.
However, one of the positives was the announcement of some large donations for our new church fund. Our TLM parish has out-grown our current church. This is good news! And contrary to some misguided assumptions, while I am a senior citizen, most of our parish are young families and singles. It is quite the mixture that makes me hopeful.