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Showing posts from April, 2025

First Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Temptation of Jesus Lectionary:  22 Reading 1 -  Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17 Reading 2 -  Romans 5:12-19 Verse - Matthew 4:4b Gospel -  Matthew 4:1-11 One does not live on bread alone. Every year, we begin our Lenten journey in the same place: the desert.   The Gospel for this Sunday places Jesus in the wilderness, fasting and praying, confronted by temptation. In that stark setting we find the pattern of our own Lenten journey: a movement away from distraction toward the heart of God, a testing that reveals what truly sustains us, and a call to conversion that reshapes our lives.  Throughout our lives, we are frequently confronted with tests … and these tests generally reveal something about ourselves: In school, we demonstrate that we have mastered an academic subject with a test  in sports, we demonstrate our level of a particular skill with a contest  In life, we demonstrate the integri...
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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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