For many, my dear brother, the face in which the Word will be seen most clearly is yours, a feeble priest whom the Father soon will give a share in His Son’s Priesthood. Today, God the Father calls you to mediate “the Word within / The world and for the world.” You may the one who plants, or you may be the one who waters. But it is God of Jesus Christ who will give the growth.
This sermon was preached on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 at St. David Wales, Denton, Texas, for the priesting of the Rev'd Jacob Bottom to the priesthood, the first ordination administered by the Rt. Rev'd George Sumner of Dallas. It was published first on the website of the Diocese of Dallas.
For many, my dear brother, the face in which the Word will be seen most clearly is yours, a feeble priest whom the Father soon will give a share in His Son’s Priesthood. Today, God the Father calls you to mediate “the Word within / The world and for the world.” You may the one who plants, or you may be the one who waters. But it is God of Jesus Christ who will give the growth.
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This piece was first published at the Catholic liturgy blog, PrayTell. Chronological snobbery, C.S. Lewis’s felicitous phrase, is a perennial temptation. He used the term to describe the modern presumption that our contemporary philosophical perspectives are superior to those that preceded them. But there is a more pessimistic version of the error. In this schema, one assumes that things are worse than they have ever been (whether that “thing” is national politics, geo-politics, cultural morality, etc.). Conservatives are more likely to be chronological pessimists, which provides at least a sliver of insight into the ubiquitous presidential slogan, the one embroidered in white letters upon thousands of red baseball hats: “Make American Great Again.” Interestingly, commentators across the political spectrum have begun slowly to suggest that maybe American politics has entered a new sort of low. The two most disliked presidential candidates in American history is, well, noteworthy. |
AboutLaudate Dominum is the blog devoted to liturgy and theology, hosted by Fr Matthew Olver, Assistant Professor of Liturgics and Pastoral Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary. Archives
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