1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19; 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20; John 1:35-42 The First Book of Samuel is the source of the first reading for this weekend. Originally, First and Second Samuel were one volume. At some point in history, an editor divided them into two, and so two volumes appear in Bible translations today. As the […]

Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12 In Greek, “epiphany” means God is visible to humans. In celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord on this weekend, the church offers us the lessons to be drawn from this great feast, namely that in Jesus, the Son of God, the almighty and infinite, literally […]

Drawn to the divine presence itself 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38 The first reading for this weekend is from the Second Book of Samuel. The two Books of Samuel once were a single volume. Translations and editions over the centuries divided the one volume into two. David is the principal […]

God’s mercy is overwhelming Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11 2 Peter 3:8-14 Mark 1:1-8 The second part of the Book of Isaiah provides the first reading for this Second Sunday of Advent. When this book was written, God’s people were very happy. Their long, dreary exile of four generations in Babylon was about to end. They were […]

The King will never leave us Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28; Matthew 25:31-46 This weekend closes the church’s liturgical year of 2014. Next week, a new year will begin with the First Sunday of Advent. Closing the year means that the church has led us through 12 months of careful instruction about Jesus. […]

We are the church Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17; John 2:13-22 Last weekend, the church replaced the liturgy of the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time with the liturgy of the Feast of All Souls. This week, instead of the liturgy for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, the church celebrates the Feast […]

Exodus 22:20-26; 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10; Matthew 22:34-40 The Book of Exodus provides this weekend with its first reading. Exodus is among the first five books of the Bible, the books attributed to Moses. So in ancient Jewish tradition, Exodus came from Moses. Therefore, in a most special way, it was seen as the very word […]

Isaiah 25:6-10a; Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20; Matthew 22:1-14 The first part of the Book of Isaiah provides this weekend’s first liturgical reading. Understanding the cultural, social, political and economic context surrounding the composition of biblical texts always helps to capture their meaning. As a general rule, times rarely were good for the Chosen People. But now […]

Ezekiel 18:25-28; Philippians 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32 The Book of Ezekiel provides this weekend’s first reading. Pivotal in Jewish history was the time spent by Hebrew captives and their descendants in Babylon, the capital of the then powerful Babylonian Empire. This empire had overtaken the Promised Land militarily, in the process forever ending the two Hebrew […]

To follow Jesus is to bear out own cross Numbers 21:4b-9 Philippians 2:6-11 John 3:11-17 Whenever a feast supersedes a regular Sunday liturgy in the church, Catholics should realize that the church is interrupting the usual sequence of Sunday readings to provide us with a lesson that it considers to be especially important. Such is […]