Pentecost Sunday (Cycle A) - Mass during the Day

-
Pentecost (Day) Lectionary:  63 Reading 1 -  Acts 2:1-11 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34 Reading 2 -  1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 Alleluia Gospel -  John 20:19-23 Receive the Holy Spirit LESSON: The Church's Work: Reuniting Mankind Today our 50 day Easter season concludes with Pentecost Sunday, commemorating that day in the early Church … when the Father and the Son poured out the Holy Spirit in a special way upon the Apostles … who then took up the mission of proclaiming the Gospel throughout the whole world.  This makes Pentecost one of the most significant moments in our Christian faith. However, before it was a Catholic feast, it was a Jewish feast … and when we look at Pentecost in that context, we add a deeper and richer understanding of what it all means for us today. In its Greek origin, the word “Pentecost” means simply “fifty” … and … for Christians … occurs 50 days after the Easter Resurrection of our Lord Jesus and marks ...
Post a Comment

Review: Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature

-
Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature by Angus Fletcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting review of several [25] literary devices that apparently have neurological explanations for why they are so effective. It is this physiological connection that I found most interesting. It opens strong with a quick nod to how the Illiad incorporated a revolutionary version of the paean or battle chorus to replicate an oxytocin boost to provide us with a "connection to the cosmic human community.” Then we move quickly to the story of Job, and how it was rewritten to have such a powerful impact on the human empathy. Some of the “inventions” are more of how previous inventions were combined to make them more effective … most of those seemed to be a stretch or something I just didn’t understand well enough to appreciate it. Regardless, it did give more a different take on a lot of the classic literature that I struggled with in school.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#Wonderworks #NetGalley

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dominican Inquirer

-
Image
  Technically speaking, this is really more of an independent, unstructured, investigation of a particular Lay Dominican Fraternity, where you can attend meetings as a guest with no particular commitment ... sort of a "try it before you buy it" approach to see if you and the fraternity members are even remotely compatible.  Given some of the conflict within the American Church today ... this might not be a given.  As might be expected, there can be strong personalities and intense beliefs about how to approach the faith within the fraternities that can reflect the same divisions that are seen in the Church at large.   However, there are also some additional questions to contemplate to see if you might be a fit for the Dominican Family in general.  Each of the Major Orders that have tertiaries (third orders) share their specific charisms (gifts) with their lay members, so in addition to a general desire for a deeper spiritual devotion to the faith, there are elem...
Read more

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector   Lectionary: 150 Reading 1 -  Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 [sic] Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23 Reading 2 -  2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Alleluia -  2 Corinthians 5:19 Gospel -  Luke 18:9-14 '... for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.' In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents us with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. This story is closely connected to the one which comes just before it about the persistent widow who secures a just decision from a dishonest judge. While the first encourages us to pray and never give up. The second reminds us how, and in what manner, we ought to pray. However, to fully understand the example Jesus gives us, we should look more closely at first the century audience that He initially spoke to. A faithful Jew at that time would have assumed two things: That the Pharisee was a very holy and devout man.  And that...
Read more

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
Lazarus and the Rich Man (Dives)   Lectionary: 138 Reading 1 -  Amos 6:1a, 4-7 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10 Reading 2 -  1 Timothy 6:11-16 Alleluia -  Cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9 Gospel -  Luke 16:19-31 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.' Justice, both socially and spiritually, is at the heart of today’s readings. Social Justice is about seeing the “unseen”… remembering the “forgotten” in our society. It’s about the men, women and children who only want a better life in a world that God has given to all of us, just not a select few. In our first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, we hear from Amos, the prophet of social justice. God called him to speak to the rich of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The country was about to be destroyed by the Assyrians while the wealthy “lie on beds of ivory” and “drink wine from bowls,” confident that “the ruin of Joseph” ...
Read more

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
Teach Us To Pray Lectionary: 111 Reading 1 -  Genesis 18:20-32 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8 Reading 2 -  Colossians 2:12-14 Alleluia -  Romans 8:15bc Gospel -  Luke 11:1-13 Today we’re celebrating the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time; and our readings for the Mass invite us to reflect deeply upon the power and nature of prayer. From Abraham's bold intercession on behalf of Sodom, to Jesus teaching His disciples how to pray, we are called to a renewed understanding of our relationship with God. But first we should probably talk about what is prayer … If we look up “prayer” in the English dictionary, we see prayer defined as: a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God .   It come to us from a French word that is based on the Latin precarius, which means ‘obtained by entreaty.’ For many of us, this is what first comes to mind when we pray … we are asking for something from God; after all, it was easy for the Israel...
Read more