Share the good stuff.
It’s the 20th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo and the 28th 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.
It can seem these days that we will never again see good things in the Church. Of course we faithful Catholics know that good things, and more than good – the best – things are ours in the Church, the Sacraments. We know where to look up the good things of Holy Church’s teachings on morals and the Faith even if (when) our shepherds lead us not to green pastures but rather the zoo, or maybe the abattoir. In these times our old catechisms and spiritual books, the writings of the Fathers and commentaries and biographies of the saints are like armor to put around ourselves and our loved ones and friends. The fiery darts of inanities or of outright error cannot get through to the well-catechized Catholic. Sometimes it feels to me as if the slow and steady dumbing down of the content of our liturgical worship (which is doctrine) and preaching and classes in seminaries, etc., was systematic, in view of these days now, when people at big gatherings talk about the future of the Church, blurp all manner of lunatic jibber jabber and are mechanically applauded.
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The sermon at the local church was pretty straightforward and at least encouraged the basics: just as it is our civic duty to pay our taxes, so it is our Christian duty, as citizens of God’ kingdom, to come to Mass and the sacraments and say our prayers every day. Sadly, there weren’t many there to hear it.
We were fortunate at 1030 to have the parochial vicar who is a scripture prof at the sem. He gave good historical context to the readings, particularly the fraught relationship between observant Jews and the Roman authorities in the time of Christ. He gave some pointed examples of similarly harsh conflicts in our day including vaxxes, social distancing, and the situation in the Holy Land. He gave great context on the OT reading and mentioned that both it and the reading from Thessalonians were messages emphasizing hope and that we must retain hope, while avoiding naivete.
Today is the liturgical commemoration of St. John Paul II, who celebrated Mass at this altar when he was here in 1993. JPII lived through the horrors of both Nazi and communist occupation, yet he never gave up hope. A very good biography of him is entitled Witness to Hope. When he was here, the late pope gave the Cathedral a replica of the famed Black Madonna of Czestochowa – Father directed people’s attention to it, though it cannot be seen from the choir loft. He then recounted some of the many miracles attributed to this image (see here for some in case you’re curious: https://www.udayton.edu/imri/mary/c/czestochowa-black-madonna.php ) – often deliverance from very difficult military situations. He noted particularly that attempts to repair two areas of damage to the image have never been successful, drawing a subtle parallel to the Lord’s wounds being visible even after the resurrection.
Next to the Black Madonna is a Guadalupe image. Father recounted that Our Lady’s appearance at Guadalupe led to countless conversions.
Since we have access to the Queen of Heaven, we should approach her in hope asking her intervention to bring peace. He closed the homily with such a prayer which of course concluded with all of us praying a Hail Mary.
Choir sang a lovely Mozart piece at the offertory.
I have heard two FSSP sermons via the internet today and one at the NO Mass I assisted at today. (Do NO attendees assist at Mass or do they just attend?) The first FSSP (Father Hathaway) sermon hit home about the necessity of forgiving in our hearts those who have harmed us and the fact that Jesus explicitly says this today’s gospel. He expounded on this by relating it to the epistle, the armor of God, etc, gives us this ability. Sadly he mentioned a priest he met while in the peace corps in Nepal who was in Nagasaki the day an atomic bomb was dropped on it. The priest stated he could never forgive the Americans for what they did. You could tell he was concerned for this long dead priest.
Father de Mallory from St Mary’s in Warrington UK reflected on his 8 years there as he is being moved to start a new Chapter house in the Bedford area. He particularly noted the increase in the number of weekly confessions and suggested that priests spiritually benefit from hearing confessions (otherwise I suppose they wonder why they are needed).
Finally at one of my local NO parishes the priest emphasized the notion God owns everything, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. He turned it into a cheer of some sort.
Hi Father-
Kind of a follow up on my last ’good news’ comment, but our Ordinary, Bp. Libasci was again offering the first Mass this morning. Then he spent the next 3+ hours in the box hearing confessions. THEN he gave an excellent (note less) sermon along the lines of your 1Peter5 post, the armor of God, & the strength of confession.
I love this guy…
Our priest preached about the Gospel by highlighting the importance of forgiving others lest we either ignore or forget our greater transgressions against God.
Our Masses, as always, are full at all three times. We are blessed to have excellent FSSP priests.