NATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS: A REFLECTION
As we continue to hear on Sunday from the Gospel of John’s Bread of Life Discourse, I would like to offer some reflections on the Eucharist and its essential role in our salvation. These reflections are based on one of the inspiring presentations given during the recent National Eucharistic Congress. This presentation was offered by Sr. Josephine Garrett. She began by summing up the state of the world before and after Christ and the state of each of our souls before and after we are initiated into the Christian mysteries. […]
TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Once again, our church’s beautiful stained glass windows feature an image that we hear in today’s readings, this time our first reading from the Book of Proverbs. This reading begins with: “Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns.” You’ll find that on the top of the fifth panel on your left in the nave of our church. The reading goes on to invite us to “come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed.” And, you will notice that under the […]
NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Have you ever had one of those mornings when you were running a little behind schedule to get to work or school or an important appointment and you just grabbed a piece of toast or maybe skipped breakfast all-together? Then – well before lunch time, you felt the consequences of that decision. You noticed your energy level was dropping; it was hard to concentrate, to be productive, to complete the tasks at hand. And, if you were struggling with any particular matter, you might have felt like Elijah in today’s […]
JESUS, THE BREAD OF LIFE AND THE FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION
JESUS, THE BREAD OF LIFE
If you have been paying attention to the Sunday Gospels over the past two weeks, you might have noticed that they were taken from the Gospel of John. If you noticed that, you might have thought it odd since this year, when we are in Year B of the three year Liturgical cycle, the Sunday Gospel is ordinarily taken from the Gospel of Mark. Since Mark’s Gospel is rather short, however, we have more Sundays than we have Marcan pericopes so periodically throughout the […]
EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life.” In last Sunday’s Gospel, we heard about Jesus feed a crowd of more than five thousand, and how the people, in their amazement, exclaimed, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” The prophet they were speaking about may have been Elisha who, as we heard in last week’s first reading, fed a crowd of 100 people with just 20 barley loaves and some fresh grain in the […]
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
“There was a famine in the land.” That’s how the section just before the passage we hear in today’s first reading begins and it’s important for us to know this as we listen to today’s first reading. At a time when travel was difficult and transcontinental transport was extremely expensive – you couldn’t go to your local ACME to pick up lamb chops from New Zealand or blueberries from Chile, or anything else you wanted for your next meal – everyone was dependent on the local rains to survive. […]