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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A profoundly difficult scripture text confronts the Church this Sunday, one whose very imagery has caused some to find the Judeo-Christian tradition troubling and not worthy of belief. The reading is the so-called sacrifice of Isaac, the moment when Abraham was ordered by God to offer his own son—his only legitimate child—in sacrifice to the […]
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Gospel –Mark 1: 12 – 15 The tone for Lent was set on Ash Wednesday when we heard the call to pray, fast and give alms. The First Sunday of Lent continues this as it addresses temptation, prayer and fasting through one of the synoptic Gospels. This year we hear the Gospel of Mark and […]
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Only twice in the three-year cycle of Sunday readings do we hear from the Book of Leviticus. This middle book of the Torah is concerned with many topics related to worship, morality, and the conduct of one’s everyday life. As Catholics we should appreciate the deep care with which our Jewish forebears observed the call […]
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