What a homily!

We went to the Tridentine Mass this morning and Fr. Hils had a SUPERB homily. When there is a Mass with no "surprises" it sets the tone for a glorious day. He talked about the history of the devotion to the Sacred Heart and how we are called to be meek AND humble. Neither of which I have a decent handle on. Regardless, he is a gem and it amazes me how even a day that started badly took another direction because of a holy Mass and thought-provoking homily. It deserved a "shout out".

Man is it hazy, hot and humid here!

Wise and timely words.

We Bishops have come together to manifest this central truth, since we are directly bound to Christ, the Good Shepherd. The mission entrusted to us as teachers of the faith consists in recalling, in the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles, that our Saviour "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4). This, and nothing else, is the purpose of the Church: the salvation of individual souls.

And then later....

Even more: when, within the Church herself, people start to question the value of the priestly commitment as a total entrustment to God through apostolic celibacy and as a total openness to the service of souls, and preference is given to ideological, political and even party issues, the structure of total consecration to God begins to lose its deepest meaning. How can we not be deeply saddened by this? But be confident: the Church is holy and imperishable (cf. Eph 5:27). As Saint Augustine said: "The Church will be shaken if its foundation is shaken; but will Christ be shaken? Since Christ cannot be shaken, the Church will remain firmly established to the end of time" (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 103, 2, 5: PL 37, 1353).

This was particularly of interest regarding weakness of faith:

A particular problem which you face as Pastors is surely the issue of those Catholics who have abandoned the life of the Church. It seems clear that the principal cause of this problem is to be found in the lack of an evangelization completely centred on Christ and his Church. Those who are most vulnerable to the aggressive proselytizing of sects—a just cause for concern—and those who are incapable of resisting the onslaught of agnosticism, relativism and secularization are generally the baptized who remain insufficiently evangelized; they are easily influenced because their faith is weak, confused, easily shaken and naive, despite their innate religiosity.

On ecumenism and the "one faith":

In fact, the integrity of the faith, together with ecclesiastical discipline, is and will always be an area requiring careful oversight on your part, especially when it comes to living out the consequences of the fact that "there is only one faith and one baptism".

- from BENEDETTO XVI IN BRASILE IN OCCASIONE DELLA V CONFERENZA GENERALE DELL’EPISCOPATO LATINO AMERICANO E DEI CARAIBI , 11.05.2007 originally translated from Portuguese

Fire and brimstone = good.

Pope Warns: "Hell . . . Exists and is Eternal"
He is my hero this week. I wish more of our bishops and priests would have this same fervor in homilies. I want someone to be straight with me. If I wanted warm and fuzzy I'd watch the Disney Channel. God bless our Holy Father. On that note, I need to get to confession again before Easter.

A wonderful homily today

The comfort it brings to attend the Tridentine Mass cannot be expressed in words(although I will try). We have not been to Sunday Mass at our home parish for almost a month. I do go during the week, however. Today the homily was on the suffering of being a "traditional". This was just one aspect of the homily but it was directed at those of us that feel hurt by the Church, feel sad or perhaps angry by someone or something within the Church. I cried. I feel that way. My silly notion of Catholicism as a child has left me jaded and hurt. I have a shield up now that I won't budge on because of the liberal garbage that I was taught when I was young. I know the "shield" is not the answer but until I find that answer, I am on guard always.

In the homily, Father spoke about saints who have been wronged by the Church, their bishops, their orders and what they did to overcome that persecution or suffering. A wise and timely homily indeed. I see good priests around me being persecuted for standing firm in their faith and in trying to lead people to holiness. I see those that have a "whatever you wanna do is fine by me" attitude toward lay people and those in their parish and they seem to remain untouched. While it hurts to witness this, it leads me to want to follow them all the more(the holy ones, that is). To cry or tremble during the consecration because I know the power of Christ working through these holy men of God is what keeps me going. It allows me to suffer through a Mass riddled with abuses and silliness the following week. I am finding some of what was bitterness, turning to hope and that's an amazing transformation for me. I do have such intense hope in the Church and in my own dilemma. And so I will mull through another week of "Gather Us In", "We Remember" and the "Yoo-Hoo Song" along with the "creative" liturgy at our parish with the hope that one day I won't be a "roamin'" Catholic any longer.