Many of us were able to attend Easter Sunday mass in person this year, in contrast to last spring when most Catholic churches around the country were closed due to the early days of the COVID epidemic. As a result, we may have witnessed the baptism of new members of our parish congregations, a critical […]
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As we near the end of the Easter Season the readings point to what is in store for us as we remain connected and nourished as branches on the vine of Christ. It is through this connection that we experience the Holy Spirit and become fruitful branches. In this weekend’s Gospel the phrase, “bear fruit” […]
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“The stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11). These words we hear in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles should sound familiar to us: we encounter them again in the responsorial Psalm (which Saint Peter is quoting as he makes his speech in Acts) and similar […]
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Gospel – Luke 24; 35 – 48 Three weeks ago, was Easter Sunday but time does not separate us from the joy of the Resurrection. The Gospel today took place on Easter Sunday. The two disciples who left Jerusalem to return to Emmaus gave the Impression that after the Passion and Death of the Lord, […]
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Over the past several months we have followed along the course of Jesus’ public ministry, from its beginning, marked by the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, through the accounts of his preaching and healing, to the events of his passion, death, and resurrection remembered during Holy Week and the Easter Triduum. Now we […]
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Gospel – John 20; 1-9 The celebration of Easter begins in darkness on Holy Saturday Night with the Vigil Mass. The darkness soon gives way to the small flicker of the Easter Fire and the procession with the freshly lit Paschal Candle. As the procession proceeds up the main aisle of the church the flame […]
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The special nature of Palm Sunday is marked in several ways, for instance, by the congregation’s festive entrance into church, by the blessing of palms, and by the fact that we hear not one but two Gospel readings this Sunday. The first takes place before the mass begins, as the priest or deacon proclaims the […]
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Gospel – John 12 : 20 – 33 “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Scripture scholars speculate that the Greeks who made this request were probably Gentile converts to Judaism. They made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to observe the Passover and heard that Jesus was there. As converts they were probably had the desire […]
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On three Sundays during the Lenten season the Church offers the possibility of reading key passages from the Gospel of John at mass even in years when the Lectionary is following a different sequence of texts. The three optional readings, one of which occurs this week, have been chosen to accompany the so-called “scrutinies” of […]
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Gospel – John 2 : 13 – 25 Our first reading from Exodus tells of God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses. With the first commandment, God elaborates on his desire that we be faithful to him. He describes himself as being a “jealous God.” He wants nothing to distract us from loving Him and […]
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