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Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 31, 2016 – Year C
Readings: Jer 1:4-5, 17-19 / Ps 71 / 1 Cor 12:31-13:13 / Lk 4:21-30
by Rev. Louis Benoit, Guest Celebrant
Jesus goes to his hometown and proclaims the Good News of healing and liberation, and the people are impressed. But then they begin to say, “Wait a minute! Isn’t this Joseph’s son? Isn’t he the carpenter’s boy? Where did he get all this? We know where he comes from.” They begin to question. Jesus points out to them that sometimes people outside Judaism have greater faith than these people inside Judaism. And this really gets the people riled up! They want to throw him over the edge of the hill where the town is built, but he goes through their midst and is gone…
Of course, the tragedy is that Jesus, God incarnate in a human person, is among them and they don’t see it. Their vision is too narrow, and they miss it. (more…)
KEEP READINGSecond Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 17, 2016 – Year C
Readings: Is 62:1-5 / Ps 96 / 1 Cor 12:4-11 / Jn 2:1-11
by Rev. David Hyman, Guest Celebrant
Today’s gospel is the story of Jesus’ first miracle of changing water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana. This story was depicted on Facebook recently with a picture of a store window. At the top of the window was the word “WATER” and below it was displayed a row of wine bottles. Below the wine were the words, “JESUS WAS HERE”.
I like to begin my homily with a commentary like this as a springboard to the real story. I want to share some of the points of this story I find interesting and important.
KEEP READINGThe Baptism of the Lord
January 10, 2016 – Year C
Readings: Is 42:1-4, 6-7 / Ps 29 / Acts 10:34-38 / Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
by Rev. Richard Mooney, Guest Celebrant
In early December of 1952, I was baptized. It was something my parents did for me. I was about six weeks old. For a while, I thought it was something my parent had done to me. Later on I realized it was something my parents had done for me. And I think they did the best they could, especially while trying to raise six boys (I was the third of them). They had us all baptized as infants. (more…)
KEEP READINGHoly Spirit Prayer Ministry
August 11, 2015
Readings: (cited within the transcript)
by Bishop Arturo Bastes, SVD, D.D.
Let me recall what I know about the Holy Spirit. First of all, the Holy Spirit is the creator. In the beginning of the Bible, we read in the Book of Genesis, in the original Hebrew:
| בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ | 1:1 B’rëshiyt Bärä élohiym ët haSHämayim w’ët hääretz | 1:1 ¶ In the beginning God created heaven and earth. |
| וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם | 1:2 w’hääretz häy’täh tohû wävohû w’choshekh’ al–P’nëy t’hôm w’rûªch élohiym m’rachefet al–P’nëy haMäyim | 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. |
| וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר | 1:3 waYomer élohiym y’hiy ôr way’hiy–ôr | 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. |
| וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאוֹר כִּי־טוֹב וַיַּבְדֵּל | 1:4 waYar’ élohiym et–häôr Kiy–†ôv waYav’Dël | 1:4 And God saw the light, that [it was] good: |
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 2, 2015 – Year B
Readings: Ex 16:2-4, 12-15 / Ex 16:2-4, 12-15 / Jn 6:24-35
by Rev. Richard Mooney, Guest Celebrant
My name is Father Richard Mooney. I am a priest of the Diocese of Richmond, ordained thirty-six years. My present work is to be the volunteer Catholic chaplain to four state prisons that are scattered in that enormous stretch of territory south of Petersburg and north of the North Carolina line. I don’t have a commitment to a parish on Sundays, which leaves me free to come and be with you today and to spend a little time with you with Chapter Six of the Gospel of John today, the Bread of Life chapter.
If you’ve never actually read the whole chapter from beginning to end, do that, because it’s really a challenging piece of work and full of teachings. (more…)
KEEP READING6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 15, 2015 – Year B
Readings: Lv 13:1-2, 44-46; Psalm 32; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mk 1:40-45
by Rev. Louis Benoit
In today’s gospel, Jesus heals a leper. This is a little bit different from other healings that Jesus does. A leper was an unclean person and he was isolated from the rest of society. He had none of the support of society. He had to live apart. The only people he was living with were other lepers. The only thing to look forward to was death – a pretty miserable existence. (more…)
KEEP READING5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 8, 2015 – Year B
Readings: Jb 7:1-4, 6-7; Psalm 147; 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23; Mk 1:29-39
by Rev. Richard Mooney
This entire stretch of time between the end of Christmas and the beginning of Lent, we are spending in the first chapter of the gospel of Mark. In that first chapter, we are being introduced to Jesus. One way to get a lot out of it is to read the chapter as if you had never heard these stories before. When you do that, you are more likely to get a sense of the challenge that is built into these stories. (more…)
KEEP READING3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 25, 2015 – Year B
Readings: Jon 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 25; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mk 1:14-20
Rev. David Hyman
Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Come after me.” Those are the key phrases for me this morning.
“The kingdom of God is at hand” simply means that Jesus is here. The final revelation of God is here. Come after me, sign up – you and I have done it. We’ve been baptized, we’ve been confirmed, we belong to the kingdom of God. We’d like to think that we’re all coming after in the ways in which we’ve been shown and the ways we’ve chosen to do it. And so it is. (more…)
KEEP READING2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 18, 2015 – Year B
Readings: 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19; Psalm 40, 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20; Jn 1:35-42
by Rev. Louis J. Canino, ofm
This past week, I was in Syracuse NY for the funeral of an aunt who died at 102 years of age. It was quite a celebration of her life. I hadn’t seen some of my cousins and relatives in years. After the wake and funeral, we gathered together in my aunt’s house. There were about 30-40 of us. In one particular circle of people, I felt there were about 3 conversations going on at one time, and I didn’t know who to listen to. (more…)
KEEP READING20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 17, 2014 – Year A
Readings: Is 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67; Rom 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt 15:21-28
by Most Reverend Arturo Bastes, Bishop of Sorsogon, Philippines
The beautiful gospel has plenty of implications. First, this is the only recorded time that Jesus was in a non-Jewish territory. But most of all, it prophesied a very important doctrine that the gospel would be preached to all the nations, as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah in the first reading and fulfilled in the second reading during the time of St. Paul, when the gospel was preached to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected Jesus Christ, our Lord. However, St. Paul still had the hope that all the Jews would be converted to Christ someday, because they were the first chosen people of God. (more…)
KEEP READINGWednesday: 7:00 PM
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