Sermon Central
-
Vatican Ii
Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Oct 6, 2012 (message contributor)
- 1
- 2
- Next
-
1. Light Of The World
Contributed on Oct 6, 2012
As the Synod Fathers gather to begin the year of faith, we consider the role of the Church as she takes up the mission of Christ to bring together all the people of the world in praise and obedience.
October 8, 2012 Monday of 27th Week in Course Vatican II As we begin the year of faith this week, I feel called to begin a new sermon series, setting for my theme the Holy Father’s admonition to return to the Documents of Vatican Council II. The Fathers of the Church were particularly ...read more
-
2. Images Of The Church
Contributed on Oct 13, 2012
Jesus built a Church, and the Scriptures give us many inspiring images of the Church, especially for evangelization.
Monday of 28th Week in Course 2012 St. Theresa of Jesus Vatican II It is especially fitting that our readings today focus on the nature of man’s response to God’s initiative, because that response culminates in the assembly we call the Church. Lumen Gentium is the Church’s ...read more
-
3. Church The Body Of Christ
Contributed on Oct 20, 2012
The Council Fathers made much use of Paul's theology of the Church in writing the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, and it points us outward to a starving world.
Monday of 29th Week in Course 2012 Vatican II Documents The occurrence of the Letter to the Ephesians in our Lectionary right at the beginning of the year of faith, in which have begun to study Lumen Gentium, is quite providential. Here in chapter 2 of the letter, St. Paul makes a subtle ...read more
-
4. Holy People Of God
Contributed on Oct 27, 2012
The call to be the New Israel is a call to holiness and mission.
Monday of 30th Week in Course Lumen Gentium The Fathers of the Council looked at the Church from every direction, and gave us teaching on all the names of the Church. It seems to me that their favorite name for the Church is “People of God.” It, more than any other, shows the ...read more
-
5. Here Comes Everybody
Contributed on Nov 3, 2012
The Church, as the Council Fathers say, is both one and diverse. Our citizenship is not here.
Monday of 31st Week in Course 5 Nov 2012 Lumen Gentium If ever there were a set of Scriptures suited to the eve of the most contentious, vicious political contest in my lifetime, these are they. The one place where we must be one in mind and heart is in the family, and I mean the family of ...read more
-
6. To Give Instruction In Sound Doctrine
Contributed on Nov 9, 2012
The bishop has a special ministry of leadership, teaching and service in the Church.
November 12, 2012 Vatican II Documents Monday of 32nd Week in Course St. Paul writes today that “a bishop, as God's steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, ...read more
-
7. Not Abandoning Our First Love
Contributed on Nov 17, 2012
Christ loves us too much to let us coast.
Monday of 33rd Week in Course 2012 Vatican II–Lumen Gentium Not Abandoning Our First Love One of the greatest temptations of life is to coast. We come to a point of satisfaction in some area of our living, and just want that to last forever. So we stop taking risks, we stop putting ...read more
-
8. Joy And Hope: A Personal Encounter With Christ In The Church
Contributed on Nov 22, 2012
The Constitution on the Church in the Modern World gives us a kind of charter for the substance of the New Evangelization.
Monday of 34th Week in Course 2012 Documents of Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes The redeemed pictured in John’s Revelation stand in the Father’s house on Mount Zion, that is the heavenly mountain, and they are with the Lamb, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. What are they doing for ...read more
-
9. Jerusalem Lifted Up
Contributed on Dec 1, 2012
The Council envisioned a humanity integrated, not split apart, and entirely in the image of Christ
Monday of First Week in Advent 2012 Gaudium et Spes When Roman general Titus stood on Mount Scopus in March of the year 70 AD, and looked toward the rebel city of Jerusalem, he learned by experience what many before him had known. Like Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus and Herod, he ...read more
-
10. The Church's Healing Mission
Contributed on Dec 8, 2012
Jesus healed the whole person; so the Church has the mission to bring the world to His healing touch through the sacraments.
December 10, 2012 Monday of 2nd Week in Advent Gaudium et Spes Let’s be very clear about one thing in today’s lesson from Isaiah–the Judean desert is nothing to joke about. Hot, desolate and arid, it devours lost travelers just as easily as its scarce rainfall. The people ...read more
-
11. Piety: The Family Virtue
Contributed on Dec 15, 2012
The Christian has special duties to family. This is an important way to image Christ in our lives.
Monday of 3rd Week in Advent Gaudium et Spes The outpouring of grief around the world over the murder of twenty-six innocent people, twenty of them children, in Connecticut has generated a number of Internet videos featuring one or the other version of the Pie Jesu, a text of the Requiem Mass. ...read more
-
12. Kairos And Chronos
Contributed on Dec 22, 2012
We need to spend time--chronos time--preparing ourselves and engaging in Kairos--God's time.
Vigil of Christmas 2012 Gaudium et Spes Kairos and Chronos Baruch Adonai Elohim Israel. Thus begins almost every Hebrew prayer to the Lord, the God of Israel, and so began the first words of the prayer Zechariah spoke at his son’s birth. These were words of thanksgiving and praise ...read more
-
13. Struggle Of Love With The Powers Of Darkness
Contributed on Dec 28, 2012
In the world we struggle with darkness, but we have the power of God's love, expressed in the Incarnate Word, on our side, and the victory is already won.
Monday in the Octave of Christmas 2012 Gaudium et Spes “The Word became flesh, and pitched his tent among us.” This literal translation of the words of John’s hymn to the Logos, the Word of God, sums up the Good News we celebrated this year as we celebrate it in every year. ...read more
-
14. The Purpose Of Liturgy
Contributed on Jan 4, 2013
We need to understand what the Council Fathers intended for Liturgy, and the two things most people think they wanted which are not what they actually said they wanted.
Monday after Epiphany 7 January 2012 Sacrosanctum Concilium The mission of the Church on earth is exactly the same as the mission of Jesus during His thirty-some years on earth. He was, and we must be, the fulfillment of the twin commandment of God: love God with all our hearts and love our ...read more
-
15. The Liturgy And Our Learning Obedience Through Suffering
Contributed on Jan 19, 2013
Just as Jesus learned obedience through suffering, so St. Agnes and all the saints; we celebrate this in every Mass.
Monday of 2nd Week in Course 21 Jan 2013: St. Agnes Sacrosanctum Concilium Jesus offered up prayers and supplications during his mortal life, with loud cries and tears, to the one who could save Him from death–His eternal Father, and He was heard. And He learned obedience through ...read more
-
16. The Sacrifice Of The Mass
Contributed on Jan 26, 2013
The one sacrifice of Calvary is re-presented daily in the Holy Eucharist--for our sanctification and the salvation of every human.
Monday of 3rd Week in Course January 28, 2013 Sacrosanctum Concilium The sacrifice which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, was a single historical event. But we must also acknowledge that from the beginning, the Church has recognized that we ...read more
-
17. The Banquet, The Summit
Contributed on Feb 1, 2013
Over and over in the Gospels we see the work of Christ culminate in a celebratory banquet, even in the healing of the little girl.
Monday of 5th Week in Course Feb 4 2012 Sacrosanctum Concilium The story of Jesus’s raising of the little girl, the daughter of Jairus, is one of the most touching in the Holy Gospels. The incident may have happened in Capernaum, St. Peter’s hometown, and it involved one of the ...read more
-
18. The Dignity Of Man
Contributed on Feb 9, 2013
The dignity of man affirmed by God in Scripture contrasts with the attitude of ancient and modern pagan cultures
Monday of 5th Week in Course February 11, 2013 Our Lady of Lourdes Gaudium et Spes “As many as touched the fringe of His garment were healed.” On this World Day of the Sick, it is particularly appropriate to look at the healing power and history of Jesus as it is displayed in the ...read more
-
19. Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
Contributed on Feb 16, 2013
The council fathers get specific about how we can help the poor.
Monday of 1st Week in Lent 2013 Gaudium et Spes You Shall Love Your Neighbor One of the great heresies of modern time is a subtle one based on the notion of sola fide or “faith alone.” That was Martin Luther’s great mistake, of course. The only place in the NT where we read ...read more
-
20. Promote The Good; Proscribe The Evil
Contributed on Feb 23, 2013
The call of Christ not to judge, not to condemn, is directed at our relationships with other humans, not evil actions themselves.
Monday of 2nd Week in Lent 2013 Gaudium et Spes Today’s Scriptures are most appropriate as follow-ups to the Gospel of Transfiguration we heard on Sunday. Jesus is seen on Mount Tabor conversing with Moses, the great lawgiver, and Elijah, the greatest prophet. Jesus has always been seen ...read more
-
21. Adapt The Delivery, Not The Message
Contributed on Mar 2, 2013
The stark message of the Gospel must be delivered in ways that will be heard by modern humans.
Monday of 3rd Week in Lent Gaudium et Spes Adapting the Delivery, Not the Message Those commentators who are not very familiar with the documents of Vatican II, but who count themselves experts on the “spirit” of Vatican II frequently see the Council as creating a break with the ...read more
-
22. Your Child Will Live
Contributed on Mar 9, 2013
Wisdom gently attracts the mind of humans to a quest and a love for what is true and good through the beautiful. The modern mind no less than the ancient mind needs God.
Monday of 4th Week in Lent 2013 Gaudium et Spes Most commentators–even those who wrote in the first millennium–believe that John’s Gospel was the last one written. The historian Eusebius quotes Clement of Alexandria as saying that John, aware of the other three Gospels, wrote ...read more
-
23. They Know Not What They Do
Contributed on Mar 16, 2013
The horror of living a life of willful ignorance leads to enslavement to passions and sin.
Monday of 5th Week in Lent 2013 Gaudium et Spes “Vos autem nescitis.” “But you do not know.” These words of Jesus in today’s Gospel reverberate through the Gospel of St. John. Over and over again Jesus tells the Jews–and, by extension, us–that we do ...read more
-
24. How To Participate In The Resurrection
Contributed on Apr 1, 2013
The witness of the apostles to the Resurrection challenges us to face the mystery of our own existence and life, and adopt a way of life that would inspire others at our own funerals.
Monday of Easter Week Gaudium et Spes Fifty-one days. What a difference fifty-one days can make, if Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Jesus Christ permeates those days. Look at the followers of Jesus in the wake of His arrest, torture and execution. They were cowering in a little upper room in ...read more
-
25. Honoring The Incarnation With Estate Planning
Contributed on Apr 6, 2013
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ, Son of God, manifest the Divine Mercy that we can continue to show to the world during and even after our deaths.
Solemnity of the Annunciation 2013 Honoring the Incarnation with Estate Planning It doesn’t feel like March 25, but for the Church, today is that day–the Solemnity of the Annunciation, our Festival of the Incarnation of the Son of God. Easter came very early this year, the second ...read more
-
26. Lower The Nets For A Catch
Contributed on Apr 7, 2013
Jesus calls us to lower the nets for a catch, even though it means persecution and rejection. We must learn the four steps of evangelization of our surroundings, friends and coworkers.
Third Sunday of Easter 2013 Vatican II About forty years ago, acting on the directions of the Fathers of the Council, a team of expert Scripture scholars and liturgists gave the Church what is called the “expanded Lectionary” for Mass. The exact words of the Liturgy Constitution ...read more
-
27. Believe In The Son And Walk The Talk
Contributed on Apr 13, 2013
The answer to the new atheism is the old faith, belief in Christ and reception of his forgiveness and grace.
Monday of Third Week in Easter 2013 Gaudium et Spes It’s been a while, but some years ago I used to hear Christians using the phrase “walk the talk.” That means that what you profess with your lips you have to live with your whole person. Today we are given the first ...read more
-
28. Good Shepherd And Church Unity
Contributed on Apr 20, 2013
The Council Fathers recognize the obstacles to human unity, and the key to bringing humans together under the leadership of the Good Shepherd.
Monday of 4th Week in Easter 2013 The Good Shepherd The prophet Isaiah complained, with the voice of God, “all we like sheep have gone astray.” This was truly said of the Hebrew people, and their Jewish descendants. Every time God rescued them from the results of their own bad ...read more
-
29. When The Law Of Unintended Consequences Harms Our Work
Contributed on Apr 26, 2013
The actions of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra help us to discover how to appeal to those around us.
Monday of 5th Week in Easter 2013 St. Catherine of Siena Gaudium et Spes The Fathers of the Council taught that “God, Who has fatherly concern for everyone, has willed that all men should constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of brotherhood. For having been created in ...read more
-
30. Answering The Atheist Challenge
Contributed on May 4, 2013
Our witness to modern culture has an ally in the fundamental weakness of atheism.
Monday of 6th Week in Easter 2013 Gaudium et Spes “It is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that man comes by faith to the contemplation and appreciation of the divine plan.” (GS 15) These words of the Council Fathers remind us that we are approaching the great Solemnities of ...read more