Sermon Topics?

[KathleenGee]

True…people always know the blessing of being daily communicants.

There is also the prayer of the Church, and the monastic orders pray it 7 times a day. The clergy must pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day; secular lay of religious institutes pray twice a day…morning and night…or whatever prayers are used at the time they are able to pray the office.

 

[RebeccaJ]

I’m curous about this too.
I just looked online and could confirm it changes daily, so you would need to attend mass every day to cover all the scripture intended.

Or, read the daily readings every day. A lot of people do this and there are numerous resources made available for this purpose, both online and in print.

 

[RebeccaJ]

True…people always know the blessing of being daily communicants.

There is also the prayer of the Church, and the monastic orders pray it 7 times a day. The clergy must pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day; secular lay of religious institutes pray twice a day…morning and night…or whatever prayers are used at the time they are able to pray the office.

There is also the custom of the Angelus, three times a day.

 

[RebeccaJ]

That’s pretty interesting–that all Catholics will hear the same sermon from week to week. Is it ever appropriate for church leader to diverge from the cycle to preach about stories more relevant to current affairs? I’m just curious

Hello Sister Amy,

The readings usually define the homily, and can always be tied to how we should act or understand current affairs.

In the example of Luke 18:9-14, it teaches us that we are to live justly, which ability flows from God. It also teaches us prayer is a necessity. Both of these things are relevant, at all times, places and situations.

And as for prayer at a mosque, sometimes women are in a separate room, or area, or sometimes they’re just behind the men. It depends on the layout of the mosque, size of the crowd, etc. But to protect the modesty of the women praying, usually they’re never filmed or even photographed. When you see a big congregation praying overseas–it’s common to see video from the Haram in Makkah, for instance, there are lots of women praying there but they won’t video them. Partly, the women might not like being watched (I don’t like it myself, really), plus a lot of those women who cover their faces normally, in public, uncover them during the prayer–so they don’t want men to be able to see them then.

I like this too.

 

[VetA]

What about those who support dropping bombs on civilians?

idk is it sin for muslims to support terrorists who crash planes into buildings or blow up trains or attempt to spread anthrax to millions of civilians or attempt to put a bomb in thier shoes to blow up planes or take over hotels in India?

answer your own question…

 

[VetA]

idk is it sin for muslims to support terrorists who crash planes into buildings or blow up trains or attempt to spread anthrax to millions of civilians or attempt to put a bomb in thier shoes to blow up planes or take over hotels in India?

answer your own question…

or maybe that is ok to do because its the atheist, Christian, and pagan infidels?

 

[Sister_Amy]

idk is it sin for muslims to support terrorists who crash planes into buildings or blow up trains or attempt to spread anthrax to millions of civilians or attempt to put a bomb in thier shoes to blow up planes or take over hotels in India?

answer your own question…

Yes, it is. So it is a sin to support politicians who support drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan? (Find one who doesn’t.) It might be a sin to vote!

 

[KathleenGee]

Sister Amy,

Did you used to live in the Pacific NW?..I remember a Sister Amy who originated 4,000 posts.

I some times wonder about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. I read testimonies by people who have suffered by the Taliban…there is a place with holes dug in various spots. They used them for stoning people to death. We see girls with acid burned faces, cut up, married against their will to mean men, covered from head to toe, some men in Afghanistan having such a disdain for women that they don’t have reproductive facts straight in their minds.

It is really Iran that is preventing peace from coming to the Iraqi people. And Iran does not accept the reality that the Jews came from Israel, that the Holy Land is truly Jewish and Christian in origin, not Islam.

To take over other people’s religious holy sites, and to commit all sorts of crimes all for world domination and a type of one world religion is not of the One True God.

And the correct term for our Masses’ instruction is the ‘homily’, teaching about Scripture and how it applies to daily life, not ‘sermon’. A ‘sermon’ is about a particular instruction in doctrine or calling people to make major changes in our lives.

 

[KathleenGee]

Again referring to the phrase I shared from Hebrews, it implies that the teaching of Scripture, and learning it to the depths of our beings, is to give us new life in God.

 

[Sister_Amy]

Sister Amy,

Did you used to live in the Pacific NW?..I remember a Sister Amy who originated 4,000 posts.

I some times wonder about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. I read testimonies by people who have suffered by the Taliban…there is a place with holes dug in various spots. They used them for stoning people to death. We see girls with acid burned faces, cut up, married against their will to mean men, covered from head to toe, some men in Afghanistan having such a disdain for women that they don’t have reproductive facts straight in their minds.

It is really Iran that is preventing peace from coming to the Iraqi people. And Iran does not accept the reality that the Jews came from Israel, that the Holy Land is truly Jewish and Christian in origin, not Islam.

To take over other people’s religious holy sites, and to commit all sorts of crimes all for world domination and a type of one world religion is not of the One True God.

And the correct term for our Masses’ instruction is the ‘homily’, teaching about Scripture and how it applies to daily life, not ‘sermon’. A ‘sermon’ is about a particular instruction in doctrine or calling people to make major changes in our lives.

Yep, I moved to Texas last month. Just nine more months here in the desert and I’ll be back up there, God willing.

Anyway, nobody here should be voting for the Taliban, or Iran or Iraq or other countries. But I was talking about American politicians, since someone else mentioned how it’s apparently sinful to vote for politicians who support abortions or homosexuality. Seems a case of people liking to control others, but not take responsibility for what they do themselves. For the second to last comment you made, it might deserve a response but not today, and not in this thread.

And thanks for the vocabulary lesson!

 

[KathleenGee]

Many Catholics, including myself, did not know the difference between homily and sermon.

War is punishment for sin. I read ‘FastForward’ Magazine whose authors work to objectively record witnesses to human genocide. One fellow remarked that what is needed are new scholars in the world to teach human beings not to exterminate each other in whatever label it may be.

Our current system is totally entrenched with atheistic secularism. The right to commit an abortion, the killing of an unborn child, was the work of some lawyers and a vulnerable woman used to bear compromised testimony…and the liberal end of the Supreme Court.

My home state, Washington, was the first in the country that had a referendum by the people who voted abortion as a right. However, the truth of the matter was that the wording was so twisted that people opposing abortion ended up confused and voting to legalize it, so it was a compromised victory again (1973).

People hear the spin over and over again, that the lie becomes believable as truth. Many of our young are indoctrinated in our school system to believe that religion has caused more deaths in the world, when in fact it is secular.

And regarding the clergy abuse in the Catholic Church in America, the number was actually about 1,000 or so priests—yes, 1,000 or so too many, but in fact we have the smallest numbers of abuse.

The greatest amount of sex abuse is coming from the secular society with the side effects of pornography and now human trafficking, children being exposed to sex ed and other social factors as early as kindergarten, the destruction of our children’s innocence…the destroying of innocence of our people, natural boundaries of respect between genders.

People should do a search on the background of the Kinsey Report, and see how this was used to substantiate guilt free sex. Hollywood made this monster into a hero. So many good parents teach their children the right way, but as soon as the child is on the computer or watching TV, or at school, even Catholic school, you will have a teacher or other parents or instructions that interestingly enough wipe out the child’s faith and causes him to challenge God given authority be that of his parents, church, and society for the common good.

But I met a Protestant woman who said they received an inspiration from the Holy Spirit that the people of our country had to see all this come to light. My own father saw many things coming years ago that are now in control.

We are praying very much. And Muslims should pray to realize the good of our country and work with it and with other faiths, because what pleases God the most is when we treat our neighbor as brother and sister, irregardless of what religion or political party or economic class, or society we are in.

Brotherly love is God’s answer to the world’s problems. And this is our priests’ constant and daily theme for their homilies at all our Masses around the world.

 

[Sister_Amy]

Bold statements, there.

 

[KathleenGee]

It comes from seeing how society was in the 1950’s, then into the 60’s, the 70’s, and so on.

I am an old woman.

What you are seeing today … it was not like this in the past. It was a different world. It had its problems. That is why so many middle and working class people are so angry. We have been marginalized and treated as nothing.

I am even hearing my 20 year old son say he wished we were back in the 1950’s…in fact now the liberals are wishing just like the conservatives that we go back to what we had before the atheists took over with their media, and all their ‘experts’ who violate all the 10 commandments.

 

[Sister_Amy]

Tonight I went to a lecture that was a linguistic explanation of the Qur’an. We read a few ayaat from Surah Qalam and the shaykh explained the meanings of the words in their origins and their forms.

This is the translation of the passage we went over:

And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer
[And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip -
A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful,
Cruel, moreover, and an illegitimate pretender.
Because he is a possessor of wealth and children

 

[KathleenGee]

That is interesting…the part that stands out to me is the one who wants to possess…

Possessiveness leads to lust and reducing the other to an object. Possessiveness is a form of greed…

We are taught in various circles to value the discipline of detachment. The Lord is the Creator of all things, He makes all things exist, and without Him, they would not. Christ said if someone steals from you, to not fight him, but give him more…we have to detached and not possess…

 

[Sister_Amy]

It doesn’t really mean possession in that sense. It’s the Arabic way of describing something and sometimes words get confusing in translation. What it’s saying is that the person, or people, they swear a lot, so the swearing has little meaning anymore, it’s just worthless, and then they poke fun at people, and go around aggressively trying to humiliate people and cause trouble, they hold back when it comes to doing good, especially with their money (like taking care of the poor or orphans), and they cross the limits sinfully, meaning they are sinners in their heart doing things they know are wrong to the point that they don’t even feel bad about it anymore. And they’re cruel, and on top of all of that they’re just useless. And why do they think they can be that way? Because they have wealth, and they have children. The two things that were signifiers of status in the pre-Islamic Arab world. Wealth obviously–that still connotes status today. But children because if you had a lot of children (sons, especially) and got into a fight, they’d fight for you. Personal army. Tribal thing.

And Allah says they’re useless. They think they’re all high and mighty but they’re worthless.

 

[Oldtimer_7]

Sister Amy, your comments remind me that I have a book in my library called Through Peasant Eyes, which looks at the parables of Luke from the viewpoint of Palestinian peasants. The author lived there for around 30 years and it makes for some great insight as to how the material is understood in that culture. Now for confession of my own sin, I borrowed the book from a friend some years ago and have never returned it.

I had not thought of the prayers as being public, but according to the author, these prayers would have been offered at the Temple during one of two sacrificial services that were held during the day. The faithful would have gathered at that time to offer their prayers during the sacrifice. The Pharisee would have stood apart because even touching the garments of a non-Pharisee ( al haaretz) would have made him unclean. The tax collector would have stood apart because he saw himself unworthy to join in the congregation.

I had thought of this as being a matter of private prayer, but the custom was for prayer out loud. Most prayed in a prostrate position, so the Pharisee standing would have made him very visible. His prayer then took the form of preaching, and he would have singled out the tax collector as the example of a sinner.

I envision a scene of being in church and having one of the congregation offer up prayers for me in the following manner:

“Dear God, I thank you for making me a proper follower of your word. I pray for Oldtimer, that he may change his ways and let the bottle go, so he does not come in here looking like death warmed over, wearing dirty clothes and stinking up the whole church with his foul odor. Let the people of God say, Amen!”

Thanks for your different point of view on the parable and thanks for reminding me to get that book back.

 

[dconklin]

That’s pretty interesting–that all Catholics will hear the same sermon from week to week. Is it ever appropriate for church leader to diverge from the cycle to preach about stories more relevant to current affairs? I’m just curious

Hello Sister Amy-

Our observation is not quite accurate. We Catholics hear the same readings everyday/week. We have an Old Testament reading (Jewish scriptures), a New Testament reading (after Jesus died - the beginning of the Christian Church) and the Gospel (Good News) about Jesus’ life and teachings. The readings are tied together in some way.

The sermon or homily is usually different depending on the priest celebrating the Mass. Each priest has studied theology extensively but all have different abilities to explain the readings. I knew a priest that had a deep knowledge and love for the scriptures. He could preach for hours on just two or three lines of text. Others are more philosophical. Some use pre-written homilies.

Yes, the priests do often go “off-topic” if there is just cause. For the past month our parish has been concentrating on stewardship, so each homily had that topic woven into it - usually after an explanation of the readings.

 

[KathleenGee]

The priest is supposed to preach on the Word of God at every Mass. On weekends, when everyone can go…either Saturday vigil or Sunday…then the community events are added to the homily at the end. And then parishioners also come up to expound right before the final blessing and dismissal.

Yes, the priests are very learned, and draw as well on the particular needs of the community and their faith level to fit the Word to their daily lives. My pastor draws on the events and particular times in Scripture to give us a background of what it was like in the ancient world, the tribalism and mores, the struggles, as well as how people then are like the people of today…

Where priests can quickly slide down the slippery slope is when they get into current affairs and politics…they will always get a guffaw or a shaking head by somebody…and it usually gets the topic quickly back on track.