Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion: Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12, Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9, John 18:1 – 19:42. The sad and wonderful day is here. We must mourn with Mary because her most perfect Son has been tortured and killed, and this is a grievous wrong. But we must marvel at …
Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:1-15. The Easter Triduum begins tonight with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. As I consider the readings for tonight’s Mass, I am struck by the tightly knit, condensed sequence of action and …
Wednesday of Holy Week: Isaiah 50:4-9a, Matthew 26:14-25. Today’s gospel is devoted to the problem of Judas Iscariot. He is a problem, isn’t he? As the betrayer of Christ, he’s a problem for the continued ministry of Jesus in the world; but on another level he’s a problem for us: …
Tuesday of Holy Week: Isaiah 49:1-6, John 13:21-33, 36-38. Today, we hear part of John’s account of the Last Supper when Jesus offers Himself to and through Judas, always giving Himself even in His own betrayal. As we contemplate the Word of God recorded by St. John, let us be …
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion: Mark 11:1-10, Isaiah 50:4-7, Psalm 22, Philippians 2:6-11, Mark 14:1 – 15:47. Holy Week is upon us. Three liturgical celebrations stand out in the life of the Church over the course of a year: The Nativity of Our Lord, Palm Sunday, and Easter. While …
Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent: Ezekiel 37:21-28, John 11:45-56. Today, the momentum gathering for Holy Week is palpable, both at home and in the daily readings. Tonight we sing first Vespers for Palm Sunday, and the antiphons will sing of the beginnings of the Passion. In today’s readings, …
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent: Jeremiah 20:10-13, John 10:31-42. I feel that I have less and less to say about the readings as we approach Holy Week. This could be a result of the distractions at home and in work or it could be because the weekday readings …
The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord: Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10, Hebrews 10:4-10, Luke 1:26-38. Today’s readings should be very familiar to us. We hear God promise the virgin birth and the name Emmanuel, we hear St. Paul tell us that “the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once …
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent: Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95, John 8:31-42. Ah, freedom, a major aspect of today’s gospel reading. Who knows more about freedom than the American (so we tell ourselves)? There was an article in one of our local news outlets, the Deseret News, just before …
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent: Numbers 21:4-9, John 8:21-30. For me, today’s readings expose the limits of language to convey God’s plan. More than language, really, it’s a limit to our very capacity to understand. The reason we call these things the mysteries of our faith is not …
