The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way.” (Mark 1:1-2)
As we enter into this new liturgical year, we hear again today from the Gospel of Mark. As I mentioned in last week’s article, we will be hearing almost all of Mark’s Gospel over the course of this year since it is year B in the liturgical calendar. As we begin to hear from this, […]
Isaiah 63: 16b – 17, 19b, 64:2 – 7
We begin Year B in the Sunday Liturgical Calendar this Sunday. The Gospel featured this year is Mark; the oldest Gospel and the shortest. And, as we do in year A, we will hear for the next three weeks from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. This Sunday, it is from the chapters that are often called Trito-Isaiah (56 – 66) and most scripture scholars assign to the time after the people have been allowed to return to Jerusalem. But, as […]
Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. …Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at the cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” (Mk 13:33, 36-37).
With these words, our Lord calls us to prepare us for his coming; he comes to bring us to God’s kingdom. As […]
On this, the last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year, the Church calls us to reflect on the kingship of Jesus Christ. It’s quite different from how we ordinarily think of a king. Rather than a ruler who makes his power known over his subjects, our God is like a shepherd tending his flock. As we hear in this Sunday’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, God will look after his sheep “as a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep” (Ez […]
Did you know that there have been nine National Eucharistic Congresses here in the United States of America? Many of us fondly recall the 41st International Eucharistic Congress that our archdiocese hosted in August of 1976. It was a great boost to our faith and followed a long line of Eucharistic Congresses held around the world since the first one in Lille, France in 1881! But, there have also been National Eucharistic Congresses – nine in all – beginning in 1895; the last one was in 1941. And, you will […]
As you may have noticed, I usually begin our Bible Study/Faith Sharing with the first reading and then review the Gospel; if there is time, I then reflect on the second reading. I do this because the first reading is usually selected to prepare us for the principal message for the week which is found in the gospel. This week, however, I would like to start with the second reading because it is through the lens of this reading that the other two readings make most sense. As we approach […]
Wisdom 6:12 – 16
This Sunday, we will hear from the Book of Wisdom. Again, the passage was clearly chosen to prepare us for the Gospel. We need to seek wisdom in our lives in order to prepare for the time when God calls us to his heavenly banquet. It has been awhile since we heard from Wisdom, so let’s review. This book is not part of the Hebrew Masoretic collection but is included in the Septuagint manuscript; there, it is known as the Wisdom of Solomon and is included in […]
Malachi 1:14b – 2:2b, 8 – 10
This Sunday, we will hear from the Book of the prophet Malachi. The last time we heard from Malachi was on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary time last year (in fact, it’s only these two Sundays that we hear from this prophet), so let’s look at its origin. The work itself has no dates to give an indication of when it was written or what period of time is being addressed. Since it addresses abuses that Ezra (priest from Babylon who returned to Jerusalem […]
This Wednesday, 1 November, we will join with the universal Church in celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints. We will celebrate a Vigil Mass on Tuesday at 6:00pm and will celebrate Mass at 6:30 and 8:00am and at 12:10 and 7:00pm on Wednesday. I encourage you to join in celebrating with all the saints who intercede for us in heaven. As we read so simply but powerfully written in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ document prepared for our reflection during this three-year Eucharistic Revival entitled The Mystery of […]
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Mt. 22: 21). As we hear in today’s reading from St. Matthew’s Gospel, when some of the religious leaders try to trap Jesus with a question about whether or not to pay the Roman taxes, Jesus reminds his listeners that everything belongs to God. After all, he is the creator of the universe and gives us all that we have. And so, on this Stewardship Weekend, I invite you to reflect on how we can all […]
