THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year A)
Welcome to my annotated commentary on Sunday’s readings. The purpose of my commentary is to give you the background for each reading, a little better understanding of its message and the message that all of the Sunday readings together provide us. I hope you find it helpful! Wisdom 6:12 - 16 This Sunday, we will hear from the Book of Wisdom. Again, the passage was clearly chosen to prepare us for the Gospel. We need to seek wisdom in our lives in order to prepare for the time [...]
Emerency Aid to Hurricane and Wildfire Victims/St. Charles Seminary Annual Appeal
Emergency Aid to Hurricane and Wildfire Victims As if the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t already have us in its fearful grip as the daily count of those infected and killed continues to rise, it seems that very day we hear more tragic stories about new hurricanes obliterating towns in Florida and throughout the Gulf Coast and the seemingly endless wildfires throughout the west. Just as we probably all know someone who has been stricken – and, perhaps, even killed – by COVID-19, we probably have family and friends living in the [...]
ALL SAINTS DAY – November 1, 2020
Revelation 7:2 - 4, 9 -14 This Sunday, we interrupt our ordinary celebration of Sundays of the Year because an important Solemnity happens to land on Sunday: All Saints. This feast gives us the opportunity to reflect on a very important aspect of our faith: our belief in God’s promise for everlasting life with him in heaven. Before we review the readings that are recommended for this Sunday, let’s review the development of belief in everlasting life in the history of our faith. As I have mentioned in the past, [...]
Stewardship Weekend
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Mt. 22: 21). As we heard in last week’s Gospel, when some of the religious leaders try to trap Jesus with a question about whether or not to pay the Roman taxes, Jesus reminds his listeners that everything belongs to God; after all, he is the creator of the universe and gives us all that we have. We read in the Bible that, after God had created the heavens and the earth, he planted a garden [...]
THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year A)
Welcome to my annotated commentary on Sunday’s readings. The purpose of my commentary is to give you the background for each reading, a little better understanding of its message and the message that all of the Sunday readings together provide us. I hope you find it helpful! Exodus 22:20 - 26 This Sunday, we will hear from the Book of Exodus. Although it is just a small part of a long expansion of the Decalogue (cf. 20:1-17 and 21:1 – 23:33 and finally the mention of Moses writing down [...]
MISSION SUNDAY IN PREPARATION FOR STEWARDSHIP SUNDATY
“Go, make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19). After Jesus overcame death by his Resurrection, he did not just return to heaven to sit at the right of the Father. Before ascending to the Father, he commissioned those who had come to believe in him to make disciples, that is, others who would come to believe in the one, true God and his son, Jesus, who came to save us. That is the ongoing mission of the Church; we are the [...]