21ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Isaiah 22:19-23; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20 The first section of the Book of Isaiah provides this weekend with its first reading. The author of this section of Isaiah lived when the southern Hebrew kingdom, or the kingdom of Judah, still existed. Only later was this kingdom, and the other Hebrew […]

19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33 The First Book of Kings is the source of this weekend’s first reading. The two Books of Kings highlight the kings of the united kingdom of Israel — Saul, David and Solomon — but neither book ultimately is a political history. Both […]

17TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52 The First Book of Kings is the source of this weekend’s first reading. As might be supposed, the two books of Kings deal heavily with the kings of unified Israel — Saul, David and Solomon — but books are not just political […]

15TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. Isaiah 55:10-11; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-9 The third and last section of the Book of Isaiah is the source of the first reading for this weekend. This reading was composed when pious Jews easily could have become disillusioned and uncertain in their devotion to God. For decades Jews exiled in […]

13TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a; Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42 This weekend’s first reading is from the first of two books in the Bible that bear a name suggesting that they are about the kings of Israel. Kings indeed are mentioned, but from a very particular view. Kings were judged on […]

FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58 This weekend the church celebrates the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, or as perhaps it is better known, by its Latin translation, Corpus Christi. Feasts in the church have a dual purpose. They call Catholics to celebrate with faith the […]

FEAST OF PENTECOST Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23 This weekend the church celebrates the Feast of Pentecost, one of the most important feasts of its liturgical year. It is richly biblical in its background, and it is profoundly educational both in its own message as well as in its place in the […]

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21 The Acts of the Apostles once again this Easter season furnishes the first reading. In the readings of the weekends earlier in this season, the identity of the Apostles has clearly been given. The Apostles, absent Judas of course, had exercised the very […]

4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10 The Acts of the Apostles again furnishes the first biblical reading. As was the case last weekend, it is a passage recalling a time when Peter spoke in behalf of all the Apostles. This event occurred on Pentecost, an important Jewish feast. The […]

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9;John 20:19-31 As almost always in the Easter season, the Acts of the Apostles furnishes the Liturgy of the Word with its first reading. Acts claims to be, and scholars assume it indeed to be, the work of the Evangelist who wrote St. Luke’s […]