WE ARE KNOWN BY OUR FRUIT This week, Jesus tells us that we must ex- amine our own inner selves, our attitudes and dispositions, virtues and faults, rather than judging others. What is in our hearts comes out in what and how we speak. If our hearts are filled with kindness and compassion, those qualities…
Sunday’s ReadingsLecturas del Dia LOVE AS GOD LOVESOur Gospel today continues Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, in which we heard Luke’s version of theBeatitudes. This week, Jesus gives us new “commandments,” telling us how to live and act in theworld as his disciples, rooted in the radical love of God for humanity. It reminds us…
FEELING BLESSEDCongratulations! Welcome to the Kingdom! Rejoice and leap for joy! Sounds a little like Easter,doesn’t it? Well, in a very real way, it is. This Sunday, the scriptures remind us that we are blessed and beloved, especially when we have difficulties and don’t feel especially blessed Jesus reminds us that God blesses us in…
THEOPHANIESToday’s readings recount three theophanies, or particular manifestations of God’s presence. The prophet Isaiah is caught up in a dramatic scene of heavenly worship, with a royal throne, burning embers, and seraphim singing, “Holy, holy, holy.” Isaiah is overwhelmed. In the responsorial psalm, the assembly adds its own worship to that of the seraphim: “In…
Sunday’s Readings: Jer 1:4-5, 17-19/Lk 4:21-30Lecturas del Dia TO BE A PROPHETToday’s readings show us what it is like to be a prophet. As Jeremiah recounts his call, God warns himthat he will need strength and perseverance to withstand the hostility he will face from “Judah’s kings and princes” and “its priests and people” (Jeremiah…
Sunday’s Readings: Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10/1 Cor 12:12-30/Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21Lecturas GOD’S LAWScripture has always held God’s law to be the path to human happiness. In today’s first reading, Ezra the priest reads the scroll of the law to the people returned from exile. They weep—then are joyful. Israel’s relationship with God had always been defined…
Sunday’s Readings: Is 62:1-5/1 Cor 12:4-11/Jn 2:1-11Lecturas del Dia REVELATION OF GOD’S PRESENCEToday’s first reading from Isaiah arises out of the ordeal of the people of Jerusalem and Judea as they anticipate the end of seventy years of exile in Babylon. Their sufferings and their oppression will end, and they are promised joy like that…
Sunday’s Readings: Is 42:1-4, 6-7/Acts 10:34-38/ Lk 3:15-16, 21-22 Lecturas del Dia BAPTISMAL DEATH AND RESURRECTIONAs we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, we also honor our own baptism as our initiation into the Christian life and community. In the Gospel, the baptism of Jesus, with his immersion and then emergence from the water, points…
JOURNEY TOWARD GODIn our celebration of the Epiphany, two interwoven themes are present in the readings today. God is beginning something new, and God gathers all of humanity to participate. For Isaiah, God’s bright light, manifested in the people of Israel, attracts and summons people from many nations to Jerusalem. In the letter to the…
Sundays Readings: Sir 3:2-6, 12-14/Col 3:12-21 or 3:12-17/Lk 2:41-52Lecturas del Dia FAMILY LIFEChristmas celebrates the Incarnation, the “enflesh-ment” of God as a human person. In Jesus, God is bodily present in the human story. Today we honor the Holy Family, helping us to see that God is active in daily family life. God is near…