Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Gn 3:9-15,20; Ps 98:1-4; Eph 1:3-6, 11-12; Lk 1:26-38: This is our national feast in honor of the Mother of God. Today we gather around the Blessed Virgin Mary to celebrate her unique privilege of being conceived without original sin. Our Holy Father Pius IX proclaimed this truth that immerged from the prayer and reflection […]
Friday of the First Week of Advent
Is 29:17-24; Ps 27:1,4,13,14; Mt 9:27-31: The Lord our God comes with power, with the power of a shepherd, a good shepherd. It is not easy for us to relate to this image from the scripture and from another time and culture. A good shepherd is one who does not abandon the sheep; indeed, he […]
Thursday of the First Week in ADVENT
Is 26:1-6; Ps 118:1,8,9,19-21,25-27a; Mt 7:21,24-27: In Psalm 116 we pray, “I trusted even when I said, ‘I am sorely afflicted,’ and when I said in my alarm, ‘there is no man I can trust’” Betrayal, malicious or unintended, is the most painful human experience. The Lord Jesus knew this disappointment among his closest friends. […]
Wednesday in the First Week of ADVENT
Is 25:6-10; Ps 23:1-6; Mt 15:29-37: It’s not a pleasant thought, but we do sit down to eat in the sight of our foes. We cannot not feast in their sight. This painful image from Psalm 23 seems to be out of place in the Good Shepherd Psalm. There is such comfort from meditating on […]
Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
Is 11:1-10; Ps 72:1,2,7,8,12,13,17; Lk 10:21-24: Indeed in Him all the tribes on the earth are blessed and all the nations proclaim his happiness. The Prophet Isaiah uses impossible images from nature to draw a word icon of the wonderful new creation that is coming in the Advent of Our God, Christ the Lord. The Lord […]
Monday of the First Week of Advent
Is 2:1-5; Ps 122:1-9; Mt 8:5-11: The whole season of Advent is given over to rejoicing. The Third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete Sunday” in English that would be Rejoice Sunday. By the time this season rolls around we seem to be out of practice. Somehow we have forgotten how to rejoice. Indeed, we […]
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Rv 22:1-7; Ps 95:1-7; Lk 21:34-36: Seldom do we bow down in worship. Our bodies seem so uninvolved in our life of faith. Yet, our faith is so rich with the earth and the stuff of creation. The water, the salt, the wheat, the grapes, the light, the darkness, the silence, and the wind, everything […]
