Rejected Homilies

If you're an older Catholic you've heard oodles of sermons, among them some real doozies, and by doozies is not meant anything meritorious. If those sermons had titles published in the parish bulletin, then you might have been able to spare yourself the torture of a bizarre encounter.

Catholics are fortunate to have access to a massive library of biblical wisdom in liturgies throughout the year. Alas, more often than not it seems, the typical diocesan Catholic is subject to repeat performances of stories that are variations on a theme, that theme being 'Me-Myself-And-I', or 'The Catholic Church Remade In My Own Image'.

Suspect Sermons In The Parish of 'Now'

  1. Mass is like a box of chocolates... or should be.
  2. James Martin, future pope.
  3. Five Reasons Annibale Bugnini should be canonized.
  4. 175 Reasons why the Second Vatican Council didn't go far enough.
  5. Marko Rupnik on the role of the priest.
  6. How to insert more pop songs into the Mass.
  7. Martin Luther was right all along.... about everything.
  8. The prophetic teachings of James Martin.
  9. Cardinal Fernandez on the clarity and genius of Fiducia Supplicans.
  10. Celebrating non-binary spirituality.
  11. The beauty of human relationships according to Theodore McCarrick.
  12. The confident Catholicism of President Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.
  13. Matthew Fox and his creation spirituality for daily living.
  14. Leonardo Boff and his liberation theology for daily living.
  15. Living the Winnipeg Statement.
  16. The joy of living as a couple in an irregular union.
  17. The Eucharist: a symbol of Jesus.
  18. Welcoming the woke in you.
  19. Scheduling a playdate with the Infant Jesus of Prague.
  20. Be your own pope.
  21. How to pray the writings of Margaret Sanger.
  22. Mao Zedong Makes Mass Marvelous.
  23. The Woke Mysteries of the Rosary.
  24. Love is love.
  25. I'm right and you're wrong, unless of course you are right, in which case I'm more right.
Please pardon the hint of sarcasm in the above list. We Canadians attribute that spice to the influence of our British cousins.

If you're at a parish that features Q&A homilies, that is, the congregation is invited by the priest to weigh in during the sermon, or the priest blithely wanders up and down the nave or around the pews like he's in customer service trying to make a sale, and/or the preacher is preaching about his weekend fishing expedition that has little or no connection to the readings, then hit the road and seek a parish home where preaching imparts the Gospel.

If the parish is closing its doors due to a lack of congregants, bishops and priests along with their trendy directors of music and liturgy should take a long hard look in that parish mirror and ask themselves, 'What have we done wrong?', or 'What could we be doing differently?'.

FYI - Traditional Mass Links

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PSALM 37

Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right : for that shall bring a man peace at the last.

POPE LEO XIV

The right to freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, religious freedom, and even the right to life are being restricted in the name of other so-called new rights, with the result that the very framework of human rights is losing its vitality and creating space for force and oppression. This occurs when each right becomes self-referential, and especially when it becomes disconnected from reality, nature, and truth.

ST AUGUSTINE

The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.

SAINT PHILIP NERI

The greatness of our love of God must be tested by the desire we have of suffering for His love.

ANTONIN SCALIA

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility. Liberal Education makes the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life. These are the natural qualities of a large knowledge, they are the objects of a university. But they are no guarantee for sanctity of even for conscientiousness; they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless.

MARCUS AURELIUS

There is but one thing of real value - to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.

MARK TWAIN

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.