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It’s the 12th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo and the 20th Sunday of the Novus Ordo.
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 some thoughts about the Sunday Epistle reading posted at One Peter Five.
A taste:
To back up Bl. Ildefonso, I can attest that the Offertory chant is strikingly beautiful, particularly at the invocation of the names of the great patriarchs (v.13) which is the emotion-packed climax of the chant before it drops into its peaceful denouement. You want to hear the chant and follow the chant notation? HERE
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From a small parish, whilst on holiday in God’s backyard (the Lake District, England), Novus Ordo:
“Can any of you… maybe some of you remember Vatican II? It changed how we practice the Mass” (paraphrased)
When will priests stop making the in jokes about Vatican II? No one alive now can surely remember it with any clarity. I’m 37, my kids are aged 9 and below, and none of us give a damn.
Back to the Vetus Ordo for us next week. I just can’t do the Novus Ordo any more and keep any sort of reverence, it’s too difficult too.
1030 NO we had the parochial vicar with a very high voice.
It would seem that two themes characterize the three readings (“a house of prayer for all peoples”, “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable”, and “even the dogs get the scraps from the table”) : the universal call to holiness, and prayer.
Each of us are called to be holy. What is it to be holy? it is to be in right relationship with God. Living a moral life to the best of our abilities is essential, but it simply isn’t enough. Relationships require regular communication. Our communication with God is prayer. So the call to holiness is in very large part itself a call to prayer.
As the Gospel reading makes clear, prayer requires both patience and persistence on our part. It’s worth noting that the Lord commended this woman’s faith when so often he chided the disciples for lack of faith. Confidence in the Lord’s love for us can help us to be more patient and persistent in prayer.
It is a good thing to use prayers we know by heart, so long as we don’t merely recite them absent-mindedly. It is a better thing to participate in silent prayer, keeping attentive to what the Lord has to say to us in the specific circumstances and details of our lives.
He gave two great quotes from St. Teresa of Calcutta that were new to me:
“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”
“The Fruit of Silence is Prayer
The Fruit of Prayer is Faith
The Fruit of Faith is Love
The Fruit of Love is Service
The Fruit of Service is Peace”
Church was packed. Father talked about St. Theresa of the Andes who, in a letter, questioned God on why He would not keep his promises. “Why do you not help me? Why do you not listen to my prayers? Why do you let me fall into sin?” We need to have a greater reliance on God, we need to ask God these questions so that we may enter into conversation with God, thus entering into prayer.
The Gospel in the Byzantine lectionary for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost is Matt. 19:16-26, the account of the rich young man. Focusing on the last part of the Gospel, for man it is impossible, but for God nothing is impossible, the pastor of Saint John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church in Houston compared the heresies of Pelagianism and Quietism, saying that the teaching of the Church is not in the middle between them, but above them, that for salvation grace is necessary but our cooperation with grace is also necessary. Glory to Jesus Christ.
From BW, above:
When will priests stop making the in jokes about Vatican II?
I suggest, BW, that perhaps the comment was more of an “inside jab” at pre-NO than a joke about Vatican II. And perhaps the comments are made more because those who poke at the “old, outdated, obsolete, stupid…” mass do so because they (still) feel itchy and defensive about their NO, and that the jabs will continue as long as they continue to feel itchy and defensive.
Which, most likely, will continue: not merely as long as there are people who remember assisting at the old mass in the old days (as teens or older, i.e. as long as those now age 70 can remember their youth, but as long as those NOW raised to hear and respect the TLM (which includes my teenage kids), and indeed as long as there are people who can read the old missal side-by-side with the new missal and compare them.
Maybe the solution is to reform the NO mass so that it is what Vatican II said it should be. Then both the NO people and the TLM people would have something to rejoice over together.