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Showing posts from May, 2025

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 ...

Sixth Sunday of Easter (Cycle C)

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Sixth Sunday of Easter Lectionary: 57 Reading 1 -  Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 Reading 2 -  Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 Alleluia -  John 14:23 Gospel -  John 14:23-29 During these last days of Eastertide before the Feat of the Ascension, we liturgically “re-live” the end of the forty-day period the Apostles spent with Jesus as he prepared them for his departure.  We have no direct record of Jesus’ teachings during this time, either in Acts or the Gospels.  So the Church turns to Jesus’ discourse in John during the Last Supper ... which suits very well, because in it, Jesus speaks extensively about His imminent departure and the coming of the Holy Spirit.  It is also a reminder that, as they later “remembered” what He had said, and what had been written about Him, and had been done to Him, the original inability of the disciples to understand the words and deeds of Jesus would be overcome … This “ remembering ” w...