This Sunday’s readings encourage us to turn towards growth and transformation out of pain and suffering. The prophet Jeremiah in the First Reading makes a great proclamation…
This fourth Sunday of Lent is traditionally known as ‘Laetare (Rejoice!) Sunday’, and our readings today suggest many reasons for rejoicing. The First Reading from Chronicles describes the destruction of Jerusalem and the days of exile. But God, working through the Persian king, Cyrus, not only brings the Jewish people home to where they belong but also helps them rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem…
As we enter this third week of Lent, our readings remind us of God’s love for us, soon to be witnessed in the suffering and death of Christ Jesus…
Trust in the Lord is the theme that links all this week’s readings. As we continue our Lenten journey, we are reminded of the extent of the Lord’s…
We began our Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday. This first Sunday of Lent now leads us immediately into Jesus’s own journey into the desert…
The theme of today’s readings is God’s loving compassion and healing. We, too, are called to be loving, as well as…
This Sunday, the readings invite us to look more deeply into the experience of human suffering. It is only through Christ that our…
The readings this week reflect the Psalm response: O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your heart. This was the response of the Israelites when they grumbled at…
In the First Reading, Jonah takes the word of God to the people in Nineveh. They hear it, are inspired to change their evil ways, and God shows them his mercy. God’s love and forgiveness are at the heart of the Psalm, as we pray…
Today’s readings conclude the feast of Christmas and begin the new season of Ordinary Time. In the First Reading we hear the Lord’s dramatic call of Samuel, and how Samuel fails to hear and discern it properly at first. The young Samuel might well have grown up praying with words like those in today’s Psalm…
Today’s feast is telling us that for God there are no foreigners, no outsiders. From his point of view, all are equally beloved children. We all, whatever external physical or cultural differences there may be between us,.…
The Gospel for today presents the head of the Holy Family, Joseph, faithfully obeying God’s law given through Moses concerning the purification of the mother and the redeeming of the child by presenting Mary and the Baby Jesus in the Temple.…
King David wanted to build a fine temple in which God would dwell among the people. But God did not choose a building made of stones and mortar for a dwelling place but the womb of the virgin Mary.…
The readings on this Gaudete (Rejoice!) Sunday are full of encouragement, resonating with joyful hope as we draw closer to the birthday of Jesus: God’s Son coming to live among us.…
Advent is a sacred time of longing and preparation for the Lord; a time for waking up to listen to the Spirit calling deep within us…
As we begin the season of Advent, the readings continue to focus not just on the coming of Christ at the end of time, but also on…
The scripture texts of this solemnity, on the last Sunday of the Church year, sum up what we have been reading, listening to, and pondering all year. We have watched as Jesus…
The readings in this final week of Ordinary Time Year A remind us again of the need to be always prepared for…
Running throughout the readings this Sunday are themes of longing, seeking, and purposeful attentiveness…
In our readings for this Sunday, we hear how easy it is for human pride and laxity to diminish…