Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of obligation for this Passion Sunday the 5th in Lent and in the Novus Ordo 5th Sunday of Lent?
Tell us about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.
Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?
A taste of what I offered at 1 Peter 5 this week:
[…]
In this time, the Lord presses His hearers with the question: “Which of you shall convince me of sin?” He whom Hebrews presents as the sinless High Priest stands before men who are themselves bound by sin and enraged at truth. They accuse Him of having a devil. He answers with majestic calm and then utters the word that detonates the scene, “before Abraham came to be, I am” (John 8:58), that is, the claim of divine identity itself, sounding in Greek as ??? ????, “I am”, and reverberating with the dread majesty of the divine Name. They understand what He is claiming. They take up stones. Then comes the line which the Roman liturgical tradition seized and unfolded with genius: “Iesus autem abscondit se …but Jesus hid Himself” (John 8:59).
That brief verse has governed the Church’s custom for more than a millennium. Because “Iesus autem abscondit se”, crosses and sacred images are veiled from this day. Passiontide imposes a further deprivation upon sight itself. What the eye loves is hidden. What the heart loves must be sought in faith. Former centuries often knew the cross above all under the sign of triumph. Early crosses were frequently a crux gemmata, a jeweled cross, radiant with victory. The Church’s meditation on the Passion deepened, and so her rites deepened with it. Purple veils came to cover crucifixes, statues, and pietà scenes. The hidden Christ of the Gospel is echoed in the hidden Christ of the sanctuary. The saints are hidden with Him, as the members with their Head. The eye is made to hunger. The heart is prompted by loss.
[…]
Because in the Gospel today we read that Jesus “hid himself” we have the tradition of veiling statues and images in our churches. This is part of her liturgical death until the Vigil of Easter.
Here’s a poll. [UPDATE… It seems that the migration has impacted the functionality of the Poll plugin. It allowed one vote and then stopped. The dems would love it. I’ll report the problem. Meanwhile, post what you saw.]
Anyone can vote. To comment, and I hope you will, you have to be registered and approved.
Choose your best answer.
Could not vote.
Pastor at my novus ordo “pastorate” will not be veiling. He would consider it as superfluous as the patens he refuses to use. ?
There’s an outside possibility that our parochial vicar will veil, but he is travelling and may have already been instructed not to veil by the pastor.
Can’t access the poll. Everything was covered at St. Patrick parish in Grass Valley, CA.
Our deacon gave the sermon today. He started by talking about the precepts of the Church. Go to Mass on Sundays and Holidays of Obligation (a novel idea for some I think!). He then had the courage to actually say that failing to do so is a grave sin. I literally can’t remember hearing that from the pulpit since my childhood. He also added going to Confession at least once a year and receiving the Eucharist at least once a year between Ash Wednesday and Trinity Sunday. I recall how often we were reminded about our Easter duties when I was a child. Since the 60’s not so much! I wonder how many in the congregation were shocked at what he said. Quite a few I suspect.
I can’t access the poll, either, but everything at church was covered.
The poll doesn’t work. All statues and images that could be covered were covered.
All statues were covered except one large pieta. We have a lot of statues! Father said it took 2 people 8 hours to finish. ?
All statues and images covered.
Sermon was beautiful about how Jesus’ call to Lazarus to come forth is also His call to each of us.
Statuary not veiled yet but it will be
All the statues and images were covered or veiled at our church. Holy family in Woodruff, Wisconsin.
No statutes covered but in the NO Passiontide does not exist, at least around here.
Our overworked pastor in my opinion gives the same sermon every week, he keeps returning to very basic things, like go to confession if you have committed a mortal sin, get your children baptized, etc. He mentions that he has a lot of adult baptisms.
One thing I have noticed, which I believe is important, is that a pretty large share, maybe 50% of parishioners, only go to the priest to receive Holy Communion. There are four lines, sometimes one is manned by the deacon if he is there, but the others plus the cup are manned by the ordinary extraordinary Eucharistic ministers. I notice this because my wife has celiac disease and we always go last to minimize the chance of gluten contaminating her low-gluten Host. Even when our elderly deacon is there, he stands there quietly with the others waiting for the line to the priest to finish. (I refuse to receive except from the priest or the deacon. It really bothers me that unconsecrated hands are touching our Lord. Am I a man of principle or just showing off? I don’t know, but it seems like a lot of people prefer to receive only from the priest.)
Even the big crucifix suspended over the alter, several meters up, was veiled – I would almost vote for ‘Even the ones that could not reasonably be veiled are veiled’ if that were an option, as I have no clue how they managed that without scaffolding or taking undue risks with ladders. NO parish, by the way.
Yep, all covered (even the photograph of S. Pius X behind the pulpit).
All statues, crosses etc. veiled at our FSSP church, except for the stations of the cross which are 3D statues rather than images. The church was packed today.
One thing that struck me from the sermon – Jesus being divine sees outside of time so our prayers to him now comfort him during his passion.
During communion the choir sang Allegri’s Miserere. It was so beautiful. I was thinking of the music of the previous week when I had received at a Novus Ordo Mass but we are only supposed to talk about good things here so I won’t say anything more.
All statues and images covered at Holy Trinity in Norfolk, VA…Still could not vote in the poll…
EVERYTHING was covered at Our Lady of Peace Church and Shrine, Santa Clara, California.
Very holy fathers, very traditional NO parish (bells & smells … and sin is often mentioned in the Fathers’ homily) administered by the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE).
In the Novus Ordo lectionary, this Sunday’s gospel was the raising of Lazarus. Father shared that when Jesus told Lazarus to “come out,” this was not merely a command, but also a life-giving word. When Lazarus came out of the tomb, he was still bound and covered in burial clothes, and Jesus commanded that he be unbound. Father highlighted that Lazarus reflects the Christian life because Jesus desires first to give us new life and then to set us free. I might add that the death of the Christian is when he chooses to remain in the darkness rather than to come out of his tomb and into the light. This touches on the importance of both sacramental confession and integrity lived through community.
I couldn’t vote either, :( ?
I think they should be.
all images that could be veiled were. Father likened this to a fast for the eyes.
Most notably in the homily was commentary from St. Augustine. He described the four days that Lazarus was in the tomb as four phases of sin: first the temptation, then the consent to the temptation, then the act itself and lastly the habit. and so develops the great stench. the Lord’s asking others present to unbind Lazarus is a prefigurement of the Sacrament of Penance, to which Father exhorted us.
at that moment i remembered that i had forgotten two items, one quite important, in the previous day’s confession as i was startled by a clarifying question, so i deferred reception of Holy Eucharist
Can’t access the poll either. FSSP using a NO parish. Nothing was veiled. Father did make a comment about traditional parishes will veil.
Statues (all 3) and crucifix veiled, reredos covered with its built-in side panels. Lady chapel reredos veiled. Stations of the cross not veiled. Paintings high on side and back walls not veiled
Folks… I know that the poll is broken. We’re working on it.