“Go forth, the Mass is ended.”
As Transitional Deacon Grant Thies proclaimed those words at the end of the Chrism Mass on March 27 at St. Maria Goretti Church in Madison, he meant more than just a dismissal.
Tag: preach
Priests should preach about sin, Confession
To the editor:
As we enter into this extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, it is good to see the extra times set aside by our priests for the Sacrament of Confession. I am concerned that most priests will have a lot of reading time or time to visit with Our Lord as they wait for people to come to this sacrament of mercy.
We must not judge another person, but our priests need to teach from the pulpit what sin is. Today’s Church has forgotten to lead people, to be a teacher to us, more on dogma on the faith and not just love your neighbor.
Preaching the strange word
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About 15 years ago, I prepared an elective class at Mundelein Seminary which I entitled “The Christology of the Poets and Preachers.” In this course, I endeavored to explore the Catholic tradition’s non-technical, more lyrical manner of presenting the significance of Jesus.
I studied the literary works of Dante, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and G.K. Chesterton, and I also investigated in detail the sermons of many of the greatest masters: Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, Bernard, Aquinas, Newman, and Knox, among others.
What struck me with particular power, and caused me, I confess, to re-think things rather thoroughly was this: none of these figures — from the late second century to the 20th century — whose sermons we specially revere and hold up for imitation, preached the way I was taught to preach.