Adult Faith Formation & Initiation

Lent is a season where, scripturally, we revisit the story of our salvation history.  It’s the story of where our great patriarchs and prophets met the Lord God, and how our relationship with God as a people continues to grow and evolve.  We also know from our review of the readings last week that our overarching theme for Cycle B is covenant.  After God’s covenant with Noah last week, we now visit the next great covenant, that between God and Abraham… The Word for the 2nd Sunday of Lent Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 Psalm 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19 Romans 8:31b-34 Mark 9:2-10 Our first reading, from the book of Genesis, is one of the great stories about Abraham.   By this point in the narrative God has already made a covenant with Abraham, but now God is putting that covenant to the test.  God asks Abraham to make a sacrifice of his young son Isaac.  Isaac, as we know, is the only child born by Abraham’s wife, Sarah (a birth promised by God).  By challenging Abraham to kill his son,

The Season of Lent is now upon us.  When you think of Lent most Catholics will say that it’s a season of penance, for giving something up, for prayer and for giving alms.  In fact, the phrase, “Pray-Fast-Give” has become a popular expression of Lent for many Christians.  These are all right, of course, but not entirely. According to the Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy promulgated from the Second Vatican Council, “The season of Lent has a twofold character: primarily by recalling or preparing for baptism and by penance, it disposes the faithful, who more diligently hear the word of God and devote themselves to prayer, to celebrate the paschal mystery.”   While those who are preparing for Baptism use this season of Lent as a period of “Purification and Enlightenment,” all Catholics are called to remember their own Baptisms.  As such, we will be looking to see where in our readings during this season the theme of Baptism becomes apparent. The Word for the 1st Sunday of Lent Genesis 9:8

This Sunday marks the end of our brief winter’s journey through Ordinary Time with our readings serving as an appropriate transition to the Lenten season by addressing the issue of how we treat those who are sick and in need.  How appropriate for what we’ve been living through this past year!  While we have an obligation to protect the greater population by separating out those who are sick, we sometimes forget that we also have an obligation to care for those in need.  Our readings this week give us the opportunity to examine these issues. The Word for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46 Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 11 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 Mark 1:40-45 Our first reading comes from the Book of Leviticus.  This second book of Moses takes its name from the priestly tribe of the Levites for whom this is a handbook for serving the Hebrew people.  Since this book is often referred to as “priestly law,” it is easy for us sometimes dismiss it or otherwise confuse it as dealing str

Why is there evil in the world?  Why does God let bad things happen to good people?  These are common questions we hear in society, and yet even as believers in God, as followers of Christ, we often feel inadequate to address these types of questions.  The fact is that we, humanity, have been struggling with these questions since the beginning of time and much has been written on the subject through the millennia.  Our readings this Sunday can give us some guidance: The Word for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time Job 7:1-4, 6-7 Psalm 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 Mark 1:29-39 We open with a passage from the Book of Job (pronounced with a long “o”).  The story of Job is fairly well known in Biblical circles, yet we Catholics only hear from the Book of Job twice during our Sunday Liturgy, both times this year in Cycle B.  It’s difficult to get a good understanding of this book with so little exposure to it, yet it is one of the best didactic (teaching) tools we have to exam