Adult Faith Formation & Initiation

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 literature in the Bible is that wis

This Sunday the Easter Season comes to a close with the celebration of Pentecost, 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 time of year in Jeru

Following the traditional calendar, the Solemnity of the Ascension falls on a Thursday, 40 days after the Resurrection, and 10 days before Pentecost.  But since the Ascension is such an important moment for us as Church, many dioceses, including our own, have moved this celebration to this coming Sunday (in place of the 7th Sunday of Easter).  But regardless of when we celebrate it the readings for this Cycle are the same: The Word for the Ascension of the Lord Acts 1:1-11 Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9 Ephesians 1:17-23 or Hebrews 9:24-28, 10:19-23 Luke 24:46-53 Our first reading is from the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles.  While it might be more appropriate that this reading should follow our Gospel reading for today (as it naturally follows after Luke’s Gospel), the book-end effect of these two readings remains intact, reminding us how this was a pivotal moment for the Church.  Like most sequels, our reading opens with a recap of where we left off at the end of Luke’s Gospel with the