Fat Things

Back in this post, I tried to illustrate the crazy way the wheels of my mind turn around and in on each other as I try to think about a talk I'm supposed to be preparing. I'm still trying to find the right topic for the talk in question, but I think I've decided.

Since I'm going to be speaking on the Sunday which would have otherwise been the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, I cannot resist making use of him. But which of his sermons should I use? Well, that day would have been the third Sunday after Pentecost for him, but that sermon doesn't seem so accessible for the purposes of a communion brunch. So then I thought that maybe I could find the corresponding sermon to the gospel that we will hear that day in the modern Roman liturgy. No luck. The gospel for that day does not come up on a Sunday in older Missale Romanum, and I only have Anthony's Sunday and festal sermons.

Well, that day isn't so long after the feast of Corpus Christi this year, so maybe I can use Anthony sermon In Cena Domini, for the Lord's Supper, I thought.

As I look at it, I can see various advantages for a communion brunch. First of all, Anthony starts out by quoting Isaiah on our invitation to a convivium pinguium, a 'feast of fat things,' which is what a Sunday brunch usually approximates on the earthly level. Second, I also notice that he quotes Petrus Comestor a couple of times, Peter the Eater, who is always fun to talk about.