Adult Initiation & Sacrament Preparation

With last week’s solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ we conclude our special post-Easter celebrations as our Sundays return to the cycle of Ordinary Time.  As we join Jesus and his disciples on their travels, we are faced with a hard decision:  What does it take to be a follower of Christ? The Word for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time 1 Kings 19-16b, 19-21 Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11 Galatians 5:1, 13-18 Luke 9:51-62 Our first reading from the 1st book of Kings has the great prophet Elijah choosing his successor, Elisha.  The scene from our reading seems fairly straightforward, but to better understand this moment we need to look deeper into the context of this story:  Here Elijah, once again, is a man on the run.  The great drought and famine is over and King Ahab and the people are rejoicing in the Lord.  Unfortunately, that rejoicing included slaughtering all the prophets of Baal (one of the great Canaanite gods).  This infuriated...

This Sunday we have the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, in which we celebrate the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Word for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Genesis 14:18-20 Psalm 110:1, 2, 3, 4 1Corinthians 11:23-26 Luke 9:11b-17 We open with a short passage from Genesis, where we are introduced to the priest Melchizedek, king of Salem.  Here he offers bread and wine while giving God’s blessing to Abram (after his having defeated the forces and allies of the king of Elam).  While this is the one and only story we have in Scripture about Melchizadek, his legacy has carried through to the Psalms, the New Testament, and even to our Liturgy in the First Eucharistic Prayer.  Not only is he the first named priest of God Most High, but during his encounter with Abram we see the first time bread and wine as a blessed as an offering.  These “firsts” play through many important themes in scripture, including bread as a ...

With last week’s celebration of Pentecost we officially put the Easter season behind us, but in typical Catholic style, we’re not quite ready to bring the party to an end.  We open this period of Ordinary Time with two very important Solemnities:  This week, the Most Holy Trinity (Trinity Sunday) and next week, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). The Word for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Proverbs 8:22-31 Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15 Now that we are in Ordinary Time, our first reading returns to the Hebrew scriptures.  We open this Solemnity with a reading from the Book of Proverbs.  One of the early wisdom books, a large portion of this book is considered to be a collection of the sayings from King Solomon.  While portions of the text do date to the early monarchy, scholars also believe the book continued to be edited and developed through to the post-exilic period.  One of the trademarks of wisdom literatu...

This Sunday the Easter Season comes to a close with the celebration of Pentecost with that moment when the Holy Spirit came upon the Disciples and whose gifts allowed them to leave the upper room and spread the Gospel to Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria, and throughout the world.  It’s the birthday of the Church! The Word for Pentecost Sunday Acts 2:1-11 Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34 1st Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Romans 8:8-17 John 20:19-23 or John 14:15-16, 23b-26 The readings for Sunday open with the Pentecost story from the Acts of the Apostles.  It is after the Ascension and the Apostles have gathered again in the upper room, along with Mary and some of the other women.  The remaining 11 Apostles have just selected Matthias to take the place of Judas, and now with everyone present, our passage describes the moment of the descent of the Holy Spirit. From the upper room our scene then jumps to the busy street below… busy because there is a lot of activity this...