Lent: Ash Wednesday “Illegal”: Living Through The Passion of the Church – Father Linus Clovis
The Gospel According to St Luke 18 31-40
A Third Time Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written of the Son of man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon; 33 they will scourge him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” 34 But they understood none of these things; this saying was hid from them, and they did not grasp what was said.
Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar Near Jericho
35 As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging; 36 and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 And he cried, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped, and commanded him to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him…
As always with devotional threads, feel free to discuss any relevant issues, and post your favourite prayers and hymns.
Reminder: as usual, the blog will be closed to comments during Holy Week.
Comments (17)
I recall Fr. Linus Clovis speaking at the Catholic Truth conference you mention editor and you have prompted me to dust down his book for Lenten reading – A Biblical Search for the Church Christ Founded.
Crossraguel,
Nice to hear from you again – and glad you have happy memories of that conference. I well remember the queue for copies of Fr Clovis’ book so enjoy your “dusting”!
That’s a lovely homily, so fitting for the start of Lent. Father Clovis puts the current state of the Church, Covid etc into the context of scripture and gives us plenty of food for thought as we begin Lent.
Yes, it’s terrible that we can’t go to our churches without breaking the law but they can’t take away our faith. I plan to do some more spiritual reading and prayer today to mark Ash Wednesday as a special penitential day.
Thanks to Father for that uplifting homily.
MM
Yes, it’s a great sermon and a timely prompt to increase our attention to spiritual reading and prayer, as well as (as you say) marking the day as penitential. I’ve just viewed the Taylor Marshall video posted by Lily below, which certainly helps to focus minds on that central part of Lent.
Listening to that homily was a lovely way to begin Lent. I was especially touched by the bit about miracles. I hadn’t thought of them that way, that Jesus did not ask the Father to cure, but he did so himself, directly. That’s proof that he was God and that he knew it, so the priests I’ve heard saying that Jesus didn’t know for sure abut his divinity were wrong. I’ve not heard that for a while but there was a time a few years ago when that was often said.
I wish all bloggers here a peaceful Lent.
Josephine,
Excellent point about the miracles and the tendency of alleged “scripture scholars” to downplay them as evidence of the divinity of Christ. Well said.
Yes, it was a lovely homily to start off Lent with – I went to look for a favourite hymn to share but I found this Taylor Marshall video which I thought bloggers would find useful, about traditional Lent in the Roman and Eastern (Byzantine) rites.
Lily,
I’ve now watched most most of that Taylor Marshall video – it’s really excellent. In tracing the traditional law on fasting, he really does highlight our minimal rules at the present time.
Margaret USA will be pleased – as a Catholic of the Byzantine rite she often pops in here with nuggets about the differences between their Feast days etc compared to the Roman rite so the comparison in the video regarding Lenten customs will save her a lot of work 😀
I thought I would post my favourite Lent hymn as well – Lord of Mercy and Compassion:-
Lily,
That’s one of my all-time favourite Lenten hymns. Many thanks for posting it.
Fr Clovis’ sermon is indeed apt for the beginning of Lent, it is especially good to be reminded of the Passion of Lord. Also, the need to practice Penance.
I too remember Fr Clovis speaking at the Catholic Truth conference, thank you for reminding me Crossraguel about his book – A Biblical Search for the Church Christ founded. I too will be dusting it down as part of my Lenten reading.
Wishing everyone a peaceful Lent.
That was a great sermon from Fr. Clovis, a lovely priest and true shepherd of souls, and clearly a priest full of divine faith. God bless priests like this – who give hope in these troubled times.
I forgot to say that I was also quite impressed with the narrative of the little dog in the background who was clearly preaching his own little sermon, presumably to the postman!
I especially appreciated that Father was observing the season of Septuagesima, that preparation for Lent which was stolen from the Church by the liturgical vandals of Vatican II. I forget what their lying rationale for that theft was, but the real one was to drain away the Catholic substance from the Catholic Faith so that it became just another “Protestant” denomination.
Paul Vi spoke of the “auto-demolition” of the Church, but since those who planned and executed it were the enemies of the Church disguised as shepherds, it seems that it was only the appearance of an auto-demolition – that is, destruction from within. It was actually an eternal attack.
The soldiers hidden in the Trojan Horse, after all, were not Trojans – they were Greeks, they were the enemy, brought inside the walls by deception, disguised as a gift, welcomed by the foolhardy.
Fr Clovis’ sermon was excellent. If only there were more priests like him. I learned a lot from his homily. It’s a lovely start to Lent.
Here’s a priest from the Diocese of Motherwell, addressing the Scottish Parliament on Shrove Tuesday.
https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/time-for-reflection-february-16-2021
The current (March) newsletter includes a report about another priest in Scotland (a native Polish priest) also addressing the Parliament. Read that report (it’s online now – Newsletter page of our website) and listen to the above video clip, and you will need wonder no more why suddenly Catholic priests are so welcome to address the Scottish Parliament.
Is this really all that the Church and clergy have to offer? Food banks and phone calls ?
This is a reminder about death from Dr Taylor Marshall which has come just before we begin Holy Week so I looked for the last thread about Lent. I hope this is the best place to post this clip.
Comments are closed.