Sunday Mass Sermon- BE a Holy Priesthood

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 5.7.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

The Bishop explains 2 very important verses
from yesterday's Mass readings that many rarely consider,
one as our role in a Priesthood,
as was the conversion of the Jewish Priests in Acts 6:

7 And the word of God increased;
and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem,
and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

And from 1 Peter 2- we see how we are meant to br "living" stones,
to build the new temple of The Body of Christ:

4 Come to him, to that living stone,
rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious;
5 and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house,
to be a holy priesthood,
to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

14 min. YouTube link below:

Be A Holy Priesthood

[MurphsLaw]

A homily not just for those who think Mass is boring
and without meaning,
unworthy of the one hour out of a week.
Think Again.

[ebb tide]

The Bishop explains 2 very important verses from yesterday's Mass readings that many rarely consider, one as our role in a Priesthood,...

Do you consider yourself to be priest, Murph?

Do you offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in persona Christi? Do you hear confessions and absolve sins?

[MurphsLaw]

In a very real way,
the Eucharist is not only Christ’s sacrifice,
but our sacrifice as well.
The New Testament calls us “priests,” and priests are those who offer sacrifice.
“Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pt 2:5).
If there is only one sacrifice,
then somehow our priesthood associates us with Christ’s act of self-offering to the Father.

The Mass is also our sacrifice in that we join our own offerings to Christ’s.
First, we offer a sacrifice of praise and thanks.
“Eucharist means first of all ‘thanksgiving,’” says the Catechism (par. 1360).
We thank the Lord for His sacrifice,
which is for us and our salvation.
In the Eucharistic Prayer,
a long prayer of thanks to the Father uttered toward the middle of every Mass,
the celebrant speaks for us all.
He thanks God for the creation of the world and for its goodness;
he prays in thanksgiving for salvation history,
for the whole human race is offered salvation
through Jesus’ coming, death, and Resurrection.

But our Eucharistic sacrifice involves more than offering thanks for what God has done.
It means offering ourselves in response to His self-gift.
Note what Paul says in his letter to the Romans:
“I appeal to you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship”
(Romans 12:1).

In a way, this is what the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament symbolized.
Animals were very precious to the Israelites,
and only the best were considered worthy for offering to God.
These unblemished, perfect, animals represented —
even substituted for — the life of the person who offered them.
Sacrificing them was a sign of the worshiper’s complete gift of self to the Lord.