Passion, Power, Majesty, Judgment, Authority Mark 14-15 Today in his Gospel, Christ has us witness again his suffering and death on the cross. Already last week at daily Mass, the prayer called the “preface” spoke to our heavenly Father of the suffering and death of Christ on the cross. For through the saving Passion of your Son the whole world has received a heart to confess the infinite power of your majesty, since by the wondrous power... Read more
How can this be? For the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. Hebrews 10:4-10 Isaiah 7:10-14 & 8:10 Luke 1:26-38 Today the Word of the Lord tells us he has given us the sign … deep as the nether world, or high as the sky! The sign is Emmanuel, which means “God is with us!” With us in person with human flesh, human emotion, human intellect, and human will! As such, he grew to the fullness... Read more
Whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. What? John 12:20-33 for the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Today, Christ gives us a strong, strange and violent lesson. Like a grain of wheat, we are to bring forth much fruit by falling and dying. If we love our life in this world, we lose it. If we hate our life in this world, we preserve it for eternal life. Christ does not tell... Read more
Light from Light came down from heaven and became as one of us. For the Fourth Sunday of Lent 2 Chronicles 36:14-16,19-23 Ephesians 2:4-10 John 3:14-21 In today’s Gospel reading it is night, and a man, Nicodemus, has come from the darkness of the world to visit Christ, the Light who came into the world. God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God … came down from heaven … and became man. Christ... Read more
Zeal for His Father’s House, Zeal for His Father’s Children. Exodus 20-1-17, 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 and John 2:13-25 for the Third Sunday of Lent. In today’s first reading God gave the Ten Commandments. Eight of them forbid sundry sins. In the first God says: I, the Lord am your God…. You shall not have other gods besides me. In today’s Gospel, in the Jerusalem Temple that Israel built for God, Christ strode in as if he owned... Read more
On the readings at Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent. In the first reading today, the Word of the Lord tells us about an ancient father, Abraham, who, obeying his covenant with God, raised his knife on Mount Moriah to kill his only-begotten son and burn him to ashes as a sacrifice to God. That was a foreshadowing of God who so loved the world that he gave his only Son to be offered up on Mount... Read more
On Ash Wednesday, we took ashes upon us to begin this season that ends when we take water upon us on Easter, either by receiving Baptism or renewing our Baptismal promises. So, this season of Lent and its sacrifices ready us to make or remake the promises of Baptism. Christ received a different kind of baptism from John at the Jordan River. Then he went right into the empty wilderness for forty days. We hear of that in the... Read more
Matthew 6:1-6,16-18 for Ash Wednesday. In this Gospel, Christ says our Father will recompense, reward, or repay us when we offer the secret, righteous deeds of almsgiving, prayer and fasting for our Father alone. Prayer deals with our Father. Almsgiving deals with my neighbor. Fasting deals with my own self. Our Father, my neighbor, my self— the three kinds of personal relationship I can have. Although fasting, almsgiving and prayer turn in three different directions— myself, my neighbor,... Read more
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, maker of the body which he loves, saves and raises from the dead. Mark 1:40-45 for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today Christ stretched out his hand, touched a man’s sick body and gave a command: Be made clean. Be made clean— such words from Christ have power beyond welfare of the body only. Such words from Christ are also salvation from SIN. Because... Read more
Everybody is looking for you. Mark 1:29-39 for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. In his Gospel today, Christ received a sort of “vocation” through one of his own disciples. At nightfall, the whole town was gathered outside the house where Christ was staying. Yielding to their wishes, he cured all the ill and freed all the possessed. The next morning, he did not sleep in. Before sunrise, he left for a deserted place to pray alone.... Read more
Turn. Love. Repeat.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In