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Showing posts from April, 2025

Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Raising of Lazarus Lectionary:  34 Reading 1 -  Ezekiel 37:12-14 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 130:1-8 Reading 2 -  Romans 8:8-11 Verse - John 11:25a, 26 Gospel -  John 11:1-45 Lazarus, come out! LESSON: The Power of God Through Those Who Believe We’re a week away from the start of Holy Week. Our Lord now has his sights set on Jerusalem, and the pace is quickening. In these next two weeks, we’re living just one part of the Gospel passage from today: an encounter with the reality of suffering and death. Jesus is asking us to have faith in him. In today’s First Reading the prophet Ezekiel reminds us of the Lord’s promise to not only to bring us back to life but to bring us home. The background of this passage is the famous "Valley of Dry Bones." The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. They weren't just sad; they were spiritually and nationally "dead." Their common saying was: "Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off." They d...
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Second Sunday of Easter (Cycle C) - "Divine Mercy Sunday"

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Sunday of Divine Mercy Lectionary: 45 Reading 1 -  Acts 5:12-16 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 Reading 2 -  Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19 Alleluia -  John 20:29 Gospel -  John 20:19-31 LESSON: The Ultimate Revelation of God's Mercy Each Sunday we commemorate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, but in this period after Easter, Sunday takes on an even more illuminating significance.  This Sunday, as we conclude the eight-day solemnity of Easter and continue into the liturgical season of Easter, we celebrate the gift of Divine Mercy. So why is today Divine Mercy Sunday? Saint Faustina Kowalska [koh- VAHL-skuh] was a nun with the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Krackow, Poland. Beginning in 1933, Christ granted her a series of apparitions which, at his request, she recorded in a diary now known as Divine Mercy in My Soul . He gave her a mission, saying: “Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want ...
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Holy Week - A Retrospective

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It has now been seven (7) months since my ordination (Sept 21); and now that I have finally become more comfortable with the general format and structure of the liturgy (and my functions within it), along comes Holy Week where everything changes and the cues I have established to prompt my specific participation have become nearly useless ... which means that once again, I find myself alternating between anxiety and panic that I will make an inevitable mistake (although few probably noticed them, I did, and that is enough). The Deacon in the Liturgy Chants from the Roman Missal Holy Week is the most important week in Catholicism. This week of great reverence and reflection spans the final eight days of Jesus’ life—from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.   Palm Sunday [Passion Sunday]  commemorates the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, during which palm branches were placed in his path, before his arrest on Holy Thursday and his crucifixion on Good Friday. It thus marks the begin...
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