The Psalms are unique in the Bible because on one hand, they are prayers of people pouring out their hearts to God; but at the same time, they are the words of God. When we pray with them, our thirst for him meets his thirst for us. The psalms reveal HIS heart while they bare […]
ADD SCRIPTURE TO YOUR LENTEN DIET
How about adding something to your Lenten diet this year, in place of the things you abstain from? I’m not talking about adding food. As Jesus famously said, we don’t live just on bread, but on “every word” that comes from God (see Matthew 4:4). Lent is a great time to see the truth of […]
Good Friday, Holy Saturday; ENTERING THE DARK AND THE SILENCE
Today we enter the darkness. We feel the betrayal of Judas, then stand at a distance with Peter, deny Jesus ourselves. Like Peter, we are afraid. What use is there, for all this suffering? On Good Friday, we enter into it. We stand horrified beside the cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” […]
Palm Sunday: ENTERING THE NEW COVENANT
Readings for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. At the Procession with Palms: Mk 11:1-10 or Jn 12:12-16. At the Mass: Isa 50:4-7; Psa 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24; Phil 2:6-11; Mk 14:1 – 15:47. My most vivid childhood memory of Easter is the Palm Sunday morning we visited a community of religious sisters. I must have […]
5th Sunday of Lent: ANNOUNCING THE NEW COVENANT
Readings for the 5th Sunday of Lent: Jer 31:31-34; Ps 51:3-4, 12-15; Heb 5:7-9; Jn 12:20-33 (if you hear different readings, your parish may be using the Year A readings that go with the Scrutinies for RCIA) The night before I turned sixteen, I couldn’t sleep for crying. High school wasn’t easy for me. Not […]
4th Sunday of Lent: CALLED BACK TO COVENANT
Readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent: 2 Chr 36:14-16,19-23; Ps 137:1-6; Eph 2:4-10; Jn 3:14-21 (if you hear different readings, your parish may be using the Year A readings that go with the Scrutinies for RCIA) The honeymoon didn’t last long. In fact, it hadn’t even started. The people were still wearing their wedding clothes, […]
3rd Sunday of Lent: COVENANT WITH MOSES
Readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent: Ex 20:1-3, 7-8, 12-17; Ps 19:8-11; 1 Cor 1:22-25; Jn 2:13-25 (if you hear different readings, your parish may be using the Year A readings that go with the Scrutinies for RCIA) “Sarah, do you take Mark for your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day […]
2nd Sunday of Lent: COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
Readings for the 2nd Sunday of Lent: Gen 22:1-2,9A,10-13,15-18; Psa 116: 10,15,16-17,18-19; Rom 8:31B-34; Mk 9:2-10. Our third child was being baptized, and the priest did something at the end I’ve never seen before or since. “Lay the child on the altar,” he said. We walked forward, and Mark laid Clay down on his back […]
1st Sunday of Lent: COVENANT WITH NOAH
Readings for the 1st Sunday of Lent: Gen 9:8-15; Psa 25:4-9; 1 Pe 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15 Adam was not aware. He lived in blissful beauty, he did not know the primal chaos. He couldn’t know the bleak facts of life without God: darkness; void; formless waste. He did not witness the glory of land rising […]
Lent, Year B: GOD HAS A PLAN!
As we plunge into Lent, settling into patterns of prayer and fasting and giving to others, the lectionary points us to the reason for it all. Each week until Easter, I’ll be musing on the Sunday readings: specifically, through the lens of the first (Old Testament) readings. Read in turn, these take us on a […]
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