Sunday in the 1st Week of Advent: Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:33-37. We are reminded at the beginning of Advent that we are entering a liturgical season of special significance: one where we pare back distractions and excesses as we wait for the birth of Christ. …
Wednesday in the 20th Week of Ordinary Time: Ezekiel 34:1-11, Matthew 20-1-16. Today’s gospel reading presents us with the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. It seems to me that the heart of this reading and the Old Testament reading from Ezekiel is the question of the work we …
Thursday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time: Hosea 11:1-4, 8e-9, Matthew 10:7-15. All week, we are reading St. Matthew’s account of the great sending of the Apostles, the “Mission of the Twelve.” Today’s readings delve into the heart of the matter: these chosen 12, symbolic of the new tribes …
Monday in the 14th Week of Ordinary Time: Hosea 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22, Matthew 9:18-26. Today’s readings broach a subject dear to the heart of the Church: the espousal of the Church to Christ, her Bridegroom. Perhaps it’s my gender, perhaps the era in which I grew up, but this image …
Tuesday in the 13th Week of Ordinary Time: Amos 3:1-8, 4:11-12, Matthew 8:23-27. The definition of God — really any god in any tradition — contains within it an amount of power far beyond human abilities. In Greek mythology, Hermes has the power of speed so unimaginably fast that he …
Saturday of the 12th Week of Ordinary Time: Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19, Matthew 8:5-17. Today’s readings combine a first reading from the seldom-used Book of Lamentations with what is for me one of the crucial texts for my experience of the Mass. They combine to shed even more light on …
Friday of the 10th Week in Ordinary Time: 1 Kings 19: 9a, 11-16, Matthew 5: 27-32. Today’s readings cap off a week of readings about Elijah and about Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. We explored earlier this week how Elijah’s life in exile harmonizes with Jesus’s lessons in the Beatitudes …
Monday – Wednesday in the 10th Week of Ordinary Time: 1 Kings 17-18, Matthew 5: 1-19. The first three days of this week (see Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday readings) give us consecutive readings from the first book of Kings in the Old Testament and the Sermon on the Mount from …
Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion: Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12, Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9, John 18:1 – 19:42. With so much evil at work in the events of the Lord’s Passion and Crucifixion, it feels almost like an oxymoron to call this “Good” Friday, but Truth that is Christ, the Word …
Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:1-15. We know the readings of the Easter Triduum well, as we should; it is our highest of feasts, the culmination of Christ’s mission and ministry. On this Holy Thursday, the Lord is ready; …
