Your All Saints Day Homily?

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What was you homily about for All Saint’s Day? I’m down here in FL and at the local “Happy Catholic” parish, the priest talked about how saints are our “Cheerleaders” and pray for us to go to heaven. Nothing about God. He refered to the first reading from Revelations to make the point and I had to go back and reread it!

This church has the Presider’s chair behind the altar and the tabernacle (with a white candle) off to the side. When the priest and the gaggle of EMHC’s came in they all bowed to the chair. :bigyikes:

(on Sunday, they did dim the lights except one over the altar for the concecration which was SO cool. My kiddies and I loved that)
 
My DH said his homily was super short, but super sweet – that the traditional definition of “saint” was one who knew God’s will and strove in every way to achieve it while here on Earth. Then he said “and so one has to wonder, why is it that we aren’t ALL saints? What’s holding you back?”

Or something to that efffect – I went am, he went pm…our homily was “ok” – nothing earth shattering; in fact, I’m having trouble recalling (not enough coffee yet…)
 
Our celebrant and homilist was Fr Ray Ryland (who used to be the chaplain at Catholic Answers). The homily was excellent with a detailed explanation of what a saint is, what the treasury of merit is, and how powerful the communion of saints is. He wrapped everything back up by stating that all these helps and example are used by God to lead us back to Him.

Fr. Ray is always good, so this was no surprise.
 
arieh0310 said:
Our celebrant and homilist was Fr Ray Ryland (who used to be the chaplain at Catholic Answers). The homily was excellent with a detailed explanation of what a saint is, what the treasury of merit is, and how powerful the communion of saints is. He wrapped everything back up by stating that all these helps and example are used by God to lead us back to Him.

Fr. Ray is always good, so this was no surprise.
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I am pea green with envy!
 
The homily I heard was somewhat questionable. The priest said that some people that the Church had proclaimed to be saints might not be in heaven. Isn’t the declaration of a saint infallible doctrine (that they made it to heaven right after death)?
 
Msgr gave a good homily at the Cathedral yesterday - pointing out Saints from families - husbands/wives who are both Saints, parent/child where both are Saints, siblings who are both Saints, and he mentioned an entire family where both parents and all 4 children are Saints!
 
AquinaSavio said:
The homily I heard was somewhat questionable. The priest said that some people that the Church had proclaimed to be saints might not be in heaven. Isn’t the declaration of a saint infallible doctrine (that they made it to heaven right after death)?
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There are three types of Saints: biblical Saints, canonical Saints, and traditional Saints.

Biblical Saints are infallibly in heaven because the Bible is inerrant. Canonical Saints are infallibly in heaven because canonizing a Saint is an infallible act of the Pope. Traditional Saints are those who we believe on pious tradition to be real people who are really in heaven, but the Church offers no infallible certitude that they are in heaven or even if they really existed (St Christopher or St Veronica, for example).

I would get clarification from the priest. However, I think it foolish for him to bring a topic like this up in a homily (of what possible catechetical value is it to raise doubts and possibly confuse people?)
 
arieh0310 said:
There are three types of Saints: biblical Saints, canonical Saints, and traditional Saints.

Biblical Saints are infallibly in heaven because the Bible is inerrant. Canonical Saints are infallibly in heaven because canonizing a Saint is an infallible act of the Pope. Traditional Saints are those who we believe on pious tradition to be real people who are really in heaven, but the Church offers no infallible certitude that they are in heaven or even if they really existed (St Christopher or St Veronica, for example).
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That’s what I thought…Thanks for the info.! 👍
I would get clarification from the priest. However, I think it foolish for him to bring a topic like this up in a homily (of what possible catechetical value is it to raise doubts and possibly confuse people?)
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I was upset about this, too. To those who didn’t know better, it seems that the Church is just guessing when they proclaim a person to be a saint.
 
Our homily was given by our seminarian intern and was along the lines of “How did they do it? How did they get to be Saints?” He spoke about the grace of God in our lives. It was 6:30 am Mass, so it’s a little fuzzy.

This young man seems like he is going to be an awesome priest. God willing, he’ll be ordained in June.
 
The saints as powerful patrons and as role models. The communion of saints including those whom the Church has said so, and who are publicly venerated, and those whom we don’t know of but are in heaven. Exposition of the saintly virtues, with a reminder of the obligation to bring up children in the faith amidst materialism, etc. as saintly parents may have done, squeezed in.
 
acadian said:
Our homily was given by our seminarian intern and was along the lines of “How did they do it? How did they get to be Saints?” He spoke about the grace of God in our lives. It was 6:30 am Mass, so it’s a little fuzzy.

This young man seems like he is going to be an awesome priest. God willing, he’ll be ordained in June.
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Please note the following which I found on Catholic Answers :

At my parish they have a seminarian who is doing his “pastoral year,” and they sometimes have him preach the homily “to practice for what he will have to do later.” Surely that is allowed.

The prohibition of the admission of laypersons to preach within the Mass applies also to seminarians, students of theological disciplines, and those who have assumed the function of those known as “pastoral assistants”; nor is there to be any exception for any other kind of layperson, or group, or community, or association (66).

Go to the GIRM 66…This is not permitted…Has nothing to do that your seminarian is a great guy and I’m extremely happy for you…A seminarian is still laity until he receives his ordination as a transitional deacon…Then according to GIRM 66 he could start preaching the homily and taking on some other roles…

If this was me, I would politely remind the pastor about what GIRM 66 says about this…
 
We went to the local Carmelite monastary and Fr Aróstegui, OCD, General Superior was visiting (first time in NW USA in over 500 years). He spoke of the communion of the Friars, the Sisters, and the Secular and how the contemplative graces are extended to all the world through their prayer for the world. His english was hard to understand. His homily did not focus greatly on the Holiday since he would probably never have another chance to speak to the OCD communities present.

After mass, the 4 Western Washington OCDS communities were introduced and one community from BC. After some more interaction, there was a little time to speak with him individually (I did not, I had time to say some words with Fr Stephen Watson, American Definitor and we spoke of Thomas Aquinus’ remark that the Contemplative overflowing into action is the highest calling, the mixed life) then they entered the cloister to visit with the nuns.

I am not a Carmelite, I just snuck in with my Carmelite wife 😉
 
Our homily was a comparison of parents who desire wonderful things for their children, seeing some talent the parent prizes (football player and actress), but the follow-through on the children in adulthood was less than stellar because the children did not have the “dream” and did not have the “attitude”. How often, however, does somebody hear a parent say, “Yep, there goes my little Johnny. Some day, he’s going to be a saint.” God our Father would like all of us to be saints. All we have to do is share the dream and have the “be” attitude (get it?).
 
Our homily was done by our pastor at the Children’s mass. It was done with the children in mind and very appropriate. In addition, our 3rd and 4th graders were dressed as saints and later in the day had a living museum that the whole school could attend. They were behind a rope but close enough for the children to touch the hand of the saint…a little sticker was on their hand.And when the other kids came forward to touch the sticker, they would hear the child recite the story of the saint that they were dressed as. Almost 50 kids were dressed as saints. It was an amazing altogether day.
 
stbruno said:
Our homily was done by our pastor at the Children’s mass. It was done with the children in mind and very appropriate. In addition, our 3rd and 4th graders were dressed as saints and later in the day had a living museum that the whole school could attend. They were behind a rope but close enough for the children to touch the hand of the saint…a little sticker was on their hand.And when the other kids came forward to touch the sticker, they would hear the child recite the story of the saint that they were dressed as. Almost 50 kids were dressed as saints. It was an amazing altogether day.
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What a wonderful way for children to learn!
I’m going to suggest this for our parish next year.
 
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