Did your priest preach on the Ascension today? Or was it business as usual?

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PhilotheaZ said:
No, our priests preached on the Ascension on Thursday. Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter in our diocese (Scranton).
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We also celebrated Ascension Thursday as a Holy Day of Obligation. And ironically, our Priest spoke about how other Archdioceses didn’t celebrate this Holy Day until today, the 7th Sunday of Easter. We were encouraged to honor and appreciate these special days…
 
Ascension was mentioned for about 15-20 seconds and then the homily went all over the place on sobriety, be like children in behavior and attitude (no mention of childlike faith), death, feelings, coming to church (not called the Mass) because of the music and because of the warm fuzzy feeling of having friends there (coming to worship God and the Eucharist were very briefly mentioned but not the focus). The homily last week was a quiz that he made the entire congregation take. Don’t ask me how that related to the reading beyond needing to be able to answer but this standard for this priest.
 
Yes he did, Father gave a beautiful homily on the Ascension. Though I’d say about 99.999999999% of his homilies are great so…
 
No, because we had Ascension Thursday mass and actually the mass on Thursday was better attended than today’s was.
 
I went to Mass on Saturday (anticipated Mass for Sunday). We had a guest priest from Bombay, India. He did talk about the Ascension in his homily. That was the whole theme of his homily. He said that the apostles thought it was the end when Jesus ascended, but it was just the beginning. Jesus told them to preach and baptize, and that He would be with them always. They would be receiving the Holy Spirit, so more was definitely coming. The priest said that more is to come for us as well. Then he mentioned the importance of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance. It was an excellent homily. 👍
 
We went to the Saturday Vigil Mass in a nearby town, as we had tickets to the symphony in that town.

The homily was great. The priest, known for his good homilies, spoke of the three readings and likened them to road signs on the trip of life.

UP: Jesus was raised UP

DOWN: The Holy Spirit came DOWN on the Apostles

GO: Go forth and spread the Word.

He elaborated of course, but it was a great one. Most priests I see limit their homilies to the scriptures of the day, which I understand to be the proper methodology.

TBL
 
I am very, very blessed to have a parochial vicar who is very attuned to the feasts of the Church. In his homily, he preached that amidst Easter and Pentecost, the Feast of the Ascension is sometimes viewed as a footnote, an after-thought, if you will.

He noted that Jesus didn’t merely unzip his body and ascend up to His Father in a spirit globe like Glenda the good witch in the Wizard of Oz. He took His Body with Him. This certainly contradicts the heresy of gnositicm which pretty much says body bad, spirit good.

Furthermore, Jesus is the walking marriage between God and Man. Therefore, he cannot disassociate Himself from His Body. Our parochial vicar added that where the Head is, the Body will soon follow. Christ is our Head and we are His Body, the Church. He also added that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass prepares us for the heavenly liturgy. It was a magnificent homily.

Our pastor also talked about the Ascension; however, his focus was more on discipleship and community. I really like our pastor, but, lately, I thnk our parochial vicar got it down pat.

Certainly not to be outdone, here is a snippet from the Holy Father’s Regina Caeli address for the Feast of the Ascension (I like to look at these as mini-homiliies0:
In his farewell discourses to the disciples, Jesus greatly insisted on the importance of his “return to the Father,” the crowning of his entire mission: Indeed he came into the world to bring man back to God, not at the level of ideas – like a philosopher or a master of wisdom – but in reality, like the shepherd who wants to bring his sheep back into the sheepfold.
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This “exodus” to the heavenly homeland that Jesus experienced in the first person, he went through completely for us. It was for us that he came down from heaven and for us that he ascended into heaven, after having been made like us in all things, humiliated unto death on a cross, and after having touched the abyss of the maximal distance from God. It was precisely because of this that the Father was pleased with him and exalted him (Philippians 2:9), returning to him the fullness of his glory, but now with our humanity.
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God in man – man in God: Now this is not a theoretical truth but a real truth. For this reason, Christian hope, founded in Christ, is not an illusion but, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, “in him we have an anchor of our life” (Hebrews 6:19), an anchor that penetrates heaven, where Christ has gone before us.
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And in every age, what does man need more than a firm anchoring of his existence? Here again is the stupendous meaning of Mary’s presence among us. Turning our gaze to her, like the first disciples did, we are immediately directed to the reality of Jesus: The Mother points to the Son, who is no longer among us physically but awaits us in the Father’s house.
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Jesus invites us not to stand there staring into the sky, but to be joined together in prayer, to invoke the gift of the Holy Spirit. Only to those who are “reborn from above,” that is, by the Spirit of God, is the entrance to the Kingdom of heaven opened (cf. John 3:3-5), and the first one “reborn from above” is precisely the Virgin Mary. Because of this we turn to her in the fullness of Easter joy.
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To be quite frank with you, I am disappointed that the Province of Texas chose to translate the feast to Sunday. Have we become so lazy as a Church that it pains us too much to go to Mass twice a week? Sure, we’ll go to the movies or to junior’s soccer games (or, if his team makes the play-offs, to the next round) or, we’ll go to dance clubs on Friday and Saturday nights, but, when it comes time to go to Mass, it’s too difficult a feat to accomplish.
 
I heard our pastor talked extensively on volunteering. I attended mass with our associate pastor and he talked of the Ascension. I must admit though, when the readings began and the gospel was read, I had no idea it was the Ascension or that I should have been following May 1 rather than May 4. :confused:
 
Lepanto said:
Did your priest preach on the Ascension today? Or was it business as usual? :hmmm:

The pupose of moving it to Sunday (from the original Thursday) is that so more people would participate in it.

There was no mention of the Ascension at all at the Mass I attended. The homily was about volunteer activities. :whistle:

A whole generation of Catholics is growing up completely oblivious to many of our feasts and solennities.
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yes, ours did. We had the bishop due to our ground breaking. So our priest did a bit of a homily then the bishop. They both talked about the Ascension. 🙂
 
We had First Holy Communions this weekend. He started with the line from the Gospel, “I will be with you always, until the end of the ages”, and talked to the children about how Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist…but this was not a watered-down talk. He noted the high number of Catholics who don’t believe in the True Presence, and he really reiterated not only “Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinty”, but what that meant. Then he went on to talk about the Holy Spirit, and how next week we would celebrate how the Lord kept his promise, by sending the Holy Spirit.

Then he went back to the “go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations”, and pointed out to the parents that they had a mission field: AT HOME! He encouraged everyone present to go home and talk around the dinner table about what Eucharist means to each one in the family…and if you don’t live with your family, call them! Or call a friend! Talk about this! Share your faith!

So yes, you could say he talked about Ascension. 👍
 
Lepanto said:
Did your priest preach on the Ascension today? Or was it business as usual? :hmmm:
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What does “business as usual” mean?

Our pastor is a great homilist. Actually, the deacons are very good, too. By that I mean:
  1. Every homily is based on the Scriptures just proclaimed, the Gospel in particular. If there is some topic that they are supposed to hit that weekend, they either find a way to tie it in or they talk about the Scriptures first, and then whatever other thing they are charged by the bishop to talk about. They never neglect the Word. In fact, they very often tie it in with what was heard in previous weeks, what is to come, or the greater Scriptural context of the short passages read.
  2. The homily has a point. Not no point. Not twelve points, or, worse yet, ten points with five sub-points each. One point, treated fully. (OK, maybe two, but these either complement or are done sequentially.) It is a great thing when a homilist refrains from telling you everything he knows or every reflection that pops into his head about the Scripture readings!
  3. The homily is constructed so as to be remembered after being heard. There are stories and even jokes, but they serve to help the listeners remember the point. You don’t need a clipboard and a pen to remember what was said.
  4. The tone is challenging without being accusatory. We are neither spanked nor let off the hook. This is primarily done by the homilist pointing out what the challenge is, how we fail, how he fails, followed by some encouragement, advice, or both to do better in a meaningful way.
For our homilists, we are very thankful. I would rather hear a good homilist talk for 20 minutes, than to suffer through a poor one talking for only five. The one who leaves you hungry, though, that is the worst. (Correction: a homily that teaches error is far worse than no homily at all.)
 
EasterJoy said:
What does “business as usual” mean?

Our pastor is a great homilist. Actually, the deacons are very good, too. By that I mean:
  1. Every homily is based on the Scriptures just proclaimed, the Gospel in particular. If there is some topic that they are supposed to hit that weekend, they either find a way to tie it in or they talk about the Scriptures first, and then whatever other thing they are charged by the bishop to talk about. They never neglect the Word. In fact, they very often tie it in with what was heard in previous weeks, what is to come, or the greater Scriptural context of the short passages read.
  2. The homily has a point. Not no point. Not twelve points, or, worse yet, ten points with five sub-points each. One point, treated fully. (OK, maybe two, but these either complement or are done sequentially.) It is a great thing when a homilist refrains from telling you everything he knows or every reflection that pops into his head about the Scripture readings!
  3. The homily is constructed so as to be remembered after being heard. There are stories and even jokes, but they serve to help the listeners remember the point. You don’t need a clipboard and a pen to remember what was said.
  4. The tone is challenging without being accusatory. We are neither spanked nor let off the hook. This is primarily done by the homilist pointing out what the challenge is, how we fail, how he fails, followed by some encouragement, advice, or both to do better in a meaningful way.
For our homilists, we are very thankful. I would rather hear a good homilist talk for 20 minutes, than to suffer through a poor one talking for only five. The one who leaves you hungry, though, that is the worst. (Correction: a homily that teaches error is far worse than no homily at all.)
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Sounds like my Parish 🙂
 
We were out of town visiting a Parish - it was FHC, and Father did a good homily that was appropriate for FHC.
 
Ascension was celebrated on Thursday here. Sunday was 7th Sunday of Easter (and also First Holy Communion for the 2nd graders).
 
EasterJoy said:
What does “business as usual” mean?

Our pastor is a great homilist. Actually, the deacons are very good, too. By that I mean:
  1. Every homily is based on the Scriptures just proclaimed, the Gospel in particular. If there is some topic that they are supposed to hit that weekend, they either find a way to tie it in or they talk about the Scriptures first, and then whatever other thing they are charged by the bishop to talk about. They never neglect the Word. In fact, they very often tie it in with what was heard in previous weeks, what is to come, or the greater Scriptural context of the short passages read.
  2. The homily has a point. Not no point. Not twelve points, or, worse yet, ten points with five sub-points each. One point, treated fully. (OK, maybe two, but these either complement or are done sequentially.) It is a great thing when a homilist refrains from telling you everything he knows or every reflection that pops into his head about the Scripture readings!
  3. The homily is constructed so as to be remembered after being heard. There are stories and even jokes, but they serve to help the listeners remember the point. You don’t need a clipboard and a pen to remember what was said.
  4. The tone is challenging without being accusatory. We are neither spanked nor let off the hook. This is primarily done by the homilist pointing out what the challenge is, how we fail, how he fails, followed by some encouragement, advice, or both to do better in a meaningful way.
For our homilists, we are very thankful. I would rather hear a good homilist talk for 20 minutes, than to suffer through a poor one talking for only five. The one who leaves you hungry, though, that is the worst. (Correction: a homily that teaches error is far worse than no homily at all.)
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Sounds like my priest, esp. the part about remembering what was said and using scripture…and jokes and stories, too.🙂
 
kimaz said:
Sounds like my priest, esp. the part about remembering what was said and using scripture…and jokes and stories, too.🙂
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Well, I’m glad to see that the majority of posters on this thread have found our various parishes to be in accordance with the Church calendar with reference to homilies.

😃
 
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