As I did with Fr John Corapi, I will encapsulate his talk in notes as best as I can. Maybe the Holy Spriit can make me go faster in writing since I have never taken shorthand! Will be thinking of you my dear…
Conference with Father B. Groeschel November 5, 2005
His homily at Mass:
The great jewel of the Catholic Faith which has many jewels, it has the army of the Saints.
The Catholic Church is under great attack from the media: the gates of hell.
The great scandal of the Church (sex scandal) which defies the imagination, this unthinkable thing, pray to understand the victim’s bitterness.
Other errors as well, playing down Eucharistic Adoration…there is even a denial: consistent attack.
The church is being punished for a kind of infidelity from its departure from its basic mission.
The place of change needs to be done in Catholic colleges and universities.
There is apostasy in Catholic higher education.
Church needs penance and reform.
We are on the threshold of reform.
The reformers were always focused on the Eucharist.
The Society of the Blessed Sacrament is a hidden movement in France.
We may be preparing for a great persecution by the media.
If it happens, the Church will rally before the Eucharist.
We must think of what Christ wants to do: reform must always start with me, in the human heart, reform is the work of Divine Mercy.
Why work for reform? So that we may become more worthy before the Eucharist.
The gates of hell is slamming down on the Catholic Church…the place to go is to the Eucharist. This is the only thing that can turn the tide and this is what Christianity is all about.
The Holy Father’s first document will be on the Eucharist and why the collapse. Be ready for important changes.
There is never irreverence from Buddhists, Shinto’s, etc
There is a great deal of irreverence in the Church today.
Attention and participation: not bad in participating…sp involved in the wrong thing or in something less desirable: noise, confusion, talking.
There is a lot of blah-blah: discourteous, unkind because there are people trying to pray, it has turned into a meeting hall. Liturgical enthusiasts of 25 years ago would not use the word ‘Church’…place of worship, etc.
Pope Benedict will use paschal mystery.
Mystery: it cannot be seen. Something is there but your eyes can’t see it. Magic is the opposite.
We belong to a religion of mystery: when it rationalizes mystery, it bites its own tail. Loss of a sense of mystery. In Europe, people had mystery in their blood.
In the Eastern Church, they have seven Mysteries as we have seven Sacraments.
Mass is celebrated with dignity in the Eastern Church.
The Paschal Mystery is:
the Incarnation
the Birth
His holy life
His suffering, agonizing death
His resurrection
His ascension
His second coming.
We go through the Mysteries in the Rosary.
It brings you back to the salvation of your souls.
In order to celebrate the Death/Resurreciton/Ascension/2nd Coming, He gave us the Eucharist.
If we could see, there would be living flames of fire around the altar.
Reverence and awe of the giving of myself.
The focus of the Mass is in the mystery of Christ.
He prays everyday that communion in the hand will be over.
The vestments should be simple and reverent.
Being reverent makes up for a lot of things.
The scandal happened because they were unfaithful. Like society, they followed the signs of the times.
You must follow Catholicism: it is the gospel of the Lord.
“The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religion.” - Albert Einstein
God’s Mercy: more than forgiveness or kindness to someone
From ‘misericordia’ a Latin word which means a pain in the heart.
Goodness is the giving of itself away: God gives Himself totally to His Son.
Our new Holy Father fixes his sights on ‘nonsense’
For 10-15 years there has been an undermining of the divinity of Jesus…example: the Da Vinci movie that is being shown shortly after the book.
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