Saturday of the Third Week in Lent

Hos 6:1-6; Ps 51:3,4,18-21; Lk 18:9-14:  Why is the LORD not pleased with sacrifices?  Why does he not spurn a humbled and contrite heart?  From the first days of The Covenant, the LORD wanted his people to love him and to love their neighbor.  Why does God want our love, fickle and weak as it […]

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Hos 14:2-10; Ps 81:6-17; Mk 12:28-34:  Every now and then we get a glimpse of what the LORD has in store for us.  It is so often fleeting and so easily dismissed as an illusion.  We think we are fooling ourselves; we think such glory is not possible.  Then, on second thought, it comes to […]

Thursday of the Third Week in Lent

Jer 7:23-28; Ps 95:1,2,6-9; Lk 11:14-23:  If you harden your heart you can’t listen; if you are deaf you can’t hear.  Hearing is a prerequisite for listening.  Anyone who prays the Liturgy of the Hours is very familiar with our responsorial psalm in today’s mass.  Psalm 95 is often used as the invitatory psalm for […]

Wednesday of the Third Week in Lent

Dt 4:1,5-9; Ps 147:12,13,15,16,19,20; Mt 5:17-19:  Without the Word of the LORD there would be no People of God.  The glory of Jerusalem and the praise of Zion is that God has spoken to his people.  In speaking through Moses and all the Prophets the LORD has made his command clear and his ordinances available.  […]

Tuesday of the Third Week in Lent

Dn 3:25,34-43; Ps 25:4-9; Mt 18:21-35:  Humility is truth.  To be humble is to live in the truth of total dependence upon the mercy of God.  In English the word humility comes from the same root as humus.  The humus is the good soil that is able to capture and nourish the good seed.  We […]

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the LORD

Is 7:10-14;8:10 Ps 40:7-8a,8b,9-11 Heb 10:4-10 Lk 1:26-30:  Behold he comes. Behold the Word, who was with God and who is God, is made flesh and dwells among us.  He comes to do the will of the Father.  The sacrifices and oblations of the past are no longer sufficient. For the one who comes to dwell among […]

Saturday of the Second Week in Lent

Mi 7:14,15,18-20; Ps103:1-4,9-12; Lk 15:1-3,11-32:  Distance, great distance, unimaginable distance, this is what the LORD places between us and our sins. In Psalm 103 we hear the echoes of a heart singing, of a soul blessing, the Holy Name of the LORD who is kind and merciful.  “For as the heavens are high above the earth, […]

Friday of the Second Week of Lent

Gn 37:3,4,12,13a,17b-28a; Ps 105:16-21; Mt 21:33-43,45-46:  Only the LORD has pure motives.  They are sometimes hidden from our sight, but they are always pure.  All through Lent, we remember the marvels the LORD has done.  He has done many great things, and He has always done them out of love, pure and simple love.  When […]

Thursday of the Second Week in Lent

Jer 17:5-10; Ps 1:1-4, 6; Lk 16:19-31:  They are like chaff which the wind drives away. Who are they?  They are the wicked.  What a great metaphor.  What a great image.  Today’s psalm and today’s first reading are almost identical.  This comparison is proclaimed in both.  The wicked are not just clueless.  They are deliberately clueless.  […]

Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent

Jer 18:18-20; Ps 31:5, 6, 14-16; Mt 20:17-28:  Psalm 31 is the prayer of Jeremiah and the prayer of Jesus, and it should be our prayer.  When was the last time you prayed, “in your hands is my destiny; rescue me from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors”? Seldom do we even realize that […]

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary  

2Sm 7:4-5a,12-14a,16; Ps 89:2-5,27,29; Rom 4:13,16-18,22; Mt 1:16,18-21,24a It is the kindness and faithfulness of God that is celebrated in this Lenten Solemnity.  This festival of Saint Joseph is not inappropriately dropped out of the blue into the springtime of our faith.  Indeed, we celebrate a great festival of the Blessed Mother next week, the […]

Monday of the Second Week in Lent

Dn 9:4-10; Ps 79:8,9,11,13; Lk 6:36-38:  We are our own worst enemy. We remember our iniquities and sometimes even find such memories titillating.  At such moments we can take refuge in the prayer of today’s responsorial psalm, “LORD, may your compassion quickly come!”  Without the LORD and his constant mercy and faithful compassion, we do not […]

Saturday of the First Week in Lent

Dt 26:16-19; Ps 119:1-5,7-8; Mt 5:43-48:  Our true beatitude is found in following the Law of the LORD.  As Pope John-Paul II proclaimed to the youth in Toronto in 2002, “My dear young people do you want to be happy?  I will tell you how to be happy.  Embrace the cross of our Lord Jesus […]

Friday of the First Week in Lent

Ez 18:21-28; Ps 130:1-8,6; Mt 5:20-26:  What is plenteous redemption?  It is something beyond kindness.  It is found with the LORD, the one who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities. This season of Lent beckons us to consider plenteous redemption.  In this desert retreat, we dare to ponder the wonder of being heard from the […]

Thursday of the First Week in Lent

Est C:12,14-16,23-25; Ps 138:1-8; Mt 7:7-12:  The Lord Jesus continues to teach his disciples about prayer.  The Psalm Response and the First Reading are used by the liturgy to reinforce the Divine Teacher’s instruction.  Psalm 138 is full of thanksgiving.  Indeed, we echo such an attitude when the LORD answers our most basic prayer: “Forsake […]

Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

Jon 3:1-10; Ps 51:3,4,12,13,18,19; Lk 11:29-32:  Again the great Psalm of repentance, again we are summoned to pray for mercy.  It is the goodness of God that we long would fill us.  It is the compassion of God we depend upon. Only the LORD has what it takes to wipe away our offenses.  He alone can […]

Tuesday of the First Week in Lent

Is 55:10,11; Ps 34:4-7,16-19; Mt 6:7-15:  All through Lent the church prays, “Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit.” This urgent plea comes from Psalm 51; it is King David’s act of repentance and ours as a church on this Lenten Pilgrimage.  Already, the LORD has begun to answer our prayer.  […]

Monday of the First Week in Lent

Lv 19:1,2,11-18; Ps 19:8-10,15; Mt 25:31-46:  The words of the LORD are Spirit and Life.  The LORD speaks, and we listen.  His Word is all we need to live and to live abundantly.  The Word of the Lord became flesh and dwelt among us.  This Word is not only available; it is within us Spirit […]

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Is 58:9-14; Ps 86:1-6; Lk 5:27-32:  Who is abounding in kindness?  The LORD is abounding in kindness and him alone!  It is the beginning of Psalm 86 that teaches us the way of the LORD so that we may walk in his truth.  The truth is we have occasionally cried out to the LORD.  We […]

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Is 58:1-9; Ps 51:3-6,18,19; Mk 9:14-15:  What a rare thing indeed: a heart contrite and humbled.  Yet, this is what Lent is supposed to produce.  In this desert retreat, we are bound to encounter our demons and our weakness, and it is just such encounters that are supposed to initiate a conversion of heart.  Of […]