Thine Own Service

Thine Own Service

Monthly Archives: November 2016

Homily for Advent I 2016

27 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Homily

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advent, homily, liturgical year, liturgy, plainchant

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Detail from the Church of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal, Richmond

https://thineownservice.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/fr-bradley.mp3

 

It is always a very great pleasure for me to come to this parish and to visit a place that has such a wonderful and rich liturgical life. Your Pastor has helped to create for you here a place in which we can truly experience what a mediæval English carol called “heaven and earth in little space.” In the beauty and reverence of the Sacred Liturgy we come into the realm of the natural and peer into the realm of the supernatural. We catch a glimpse of the reality of heaven through the signs and symbols of the liturgical celebration on earth, and so understand more and more what it is to be members of the mystical Body of Christ, joined as we are in our worship to the worship of the saints in the kingdom of heaven. We experience in the “little space” of our church building the worship of heaven here on earth.

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Homily for Christ the King 2016 (OF)

20 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Homily

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christ the king, homily, politics

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Christ the King, Saint Alban’s Abbey, Hertfordshire

The recent presidential election here in the United States happily coincided with the start of a new television programme entitled The Crown, which traces the life of Queen Elizabeth II at the time of her marriage, the death of her father, King George VI, and her subsequent accession, as well as the early years of her reign. Themes of duty, honour, and fidelity, are very present and the character of Sir Winston Churchill, then serving his second term as Prime Minister, is at pains to instill in the young sovereign these laudable traits; characteristics that ensure the Crown remains greater than the crowned.

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Homily for a Mass for the Dead

18 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Homily

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homily, mercy, requiem, year of mercy

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The Holy Souls in Purgatory, Saint Casimir, Baltimore, MD

The Missa pro defunctis of the Roman rite is a particularly eloquent expression of that idea first found in the writings of Saint Prosper of Aquitaine: legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi. To paraphrase: the law of prayer establishes the law of belief. The proper texts and rituals of the Requiem Mass, a part of the law of prayer, point to Christian doctrine (that is, the law of belief) and in particular what the Church believes about those who have died. Each word and action this way of celebrating the Mass, offered this evening in its solemn form, beautifully demonstrates what we believe to be our role as the Church militant with respect to our deceased brethren, the Church expectant. There is no doubting that in this somewhat stark and precise liturgical rite we discover a fulsome and rich theology of the dead. By it, echoing the words of the Introit, we offer a true hymn of praise to God, and in particular do so on behalf of our beloved dead: “Thou, O God, art praised in Sion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem: thou that hearest the prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come” (Ps. 65). In union with the supreme Eucharistic oblation, then, we here present ourselves and our prayers for those “who have gone before us sealed with the seal of faith, and who sleep the sleep of peace,” beseeching the Lord God to grant them “the abode of refreshing, of light, and of peace;” an abode that is found and offered to the faithful in Sion; the heavenly Jerusalem.

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Homily for Sunday XXXIII of the Year

12 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Homily

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advent, homily, liturgical year, virtue

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Crucifixion, Germany, c. 1200, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

As we come to the end the great swathes of green Sundays of the Year, over the course of the past few weeks the Church has begun to hint at the arrival of a new liturgical season. Next Sunday she will celebrate the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, and the following Sunday she will be clothed in violet as she begins that majestic season of Advent; the time when those who are one with Christ in baptism celebrate his threefold coming. As Saint Bernard says: “In the first coming he comes in the flesh and in weakness; in the second, he comes in spirit and in power; in the third, he comes in glory and in majesty.”

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