Adult Faith Formation & Initiation

As we continue our journey through the Easter season we focus on the core truths of our faith.  This week we learn what it means to be church, not just as individual followers of Christ but how all of us together form the greater Body of Christ.  Though the term “Body of Christ” is not specifically used in our readings this week, these stories help form the foundation of what Paul and the Apostles will eventually see as how we as church form the Body of Christ and what that means. The Word for the 5th Sunday of Easter Acts 9:26-31 Psalms 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32 1 John 3:18-24 John 15:1-8 In our first reading from Acts of the Apostles we are introduced to Saul of Tarsus, a man whom the disciples feared, and with just cause.  Saul was a devout Jew who not only persecuted the followers of Christ but actively hunted them down to bring them to Jerusalem for trial.  Saul is also the same man whom we will come to know as Paul the Apostle.  As we pick-up the narrative in this week’s passage, S

During Lent the focus of our readings was on our Salvation History, but during Easter we focus on the basic truths of our faith – those taught to us by Jesus, and then through the Apostles, who slowly realized these truths as they set out to spread the Gospel.  In the Acts of the Apostles, we witness the evolution of both their ministry and their understanding of Jesus’ teaching.  This week, we see the Trinity at work in our readings – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all acting in concert to reveal to us God’s love and how we should live as his people. The Word for the 4th Sunday of Easter Acts 4:8-12 Psalms 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29 1 John 3:1-2 John 10:11-18 We begin with Acts of the Apostles where Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, finds the courage to speak up to the people and the elders.  His message is simple; the one you rejected is the one who can save you.  While the story is powerful in its own right, the context of the events surrounding the story

When we hear the word evangelize we often imagine earnest preachers exhorting us (often very loudly) on the joy of Jesus and the perils of sin.  We think of people like John the Baptist shouting “repent!” or some boisterous televangelist preaching loudly on the evils of secular society.  This perception, however, is fatally flawed, because it causes us to forget that as Christians we all have the responsibility to evangelize.  This is not a job for just a select few.  And we’re called to accomplish this evangelization in whatever way our gifts allow. The Word for the 3rd Sunday of Easter Acts 3:13-15, 17-19 Psalms 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9 1 John 2:1-5a Luke 24:35-48 In our first reading from Acts of the Apostles, we see that Peter (through the grace of the Holy Spirit) has finally found his voice.  Our passage takes place shortly after the Pentecost, where for the first time we see Peter and the Apostles preaching in the Temple courtyard, speaking with a power and authority we have never seen f

He is risen, Alleluia, Alleluia!  But before you start packing up the Easter decorations you need to understand that the party has just getting started.  Easter is not just one day but an entire Liturgical season!  Just as we spent 40 days in the desert with the season of Lent, we mirror that same 40 days in the light of Easter, reveling in the joy of the risen Lord until his Ascension to Heaven.  But wait there’s more!  We then spend 10 more days in the Easter season waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  During Lent we reflected on the story of our salvation.  Now at Easter we reflect on how we became a Church. The Word for the 2nd Sunday of Easter (Sunday of Divine Mercy) Acts 4:32-35 Psalms 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 1 John 5:1-6 John 20:19-31 Since our focus during Easter is on the beginnings of the Church, our first reading will be coming from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, that wonderful sequel to the Gospel of Luke.  Our passage for this Sunday gives us a pi

Growing up Catholic I was always taught that Easter was our most important holiday and for my family “Easter” meant Easter Sunday.  After all, that’s when the Easter Bunny left us treats.  As I grew into adulthood, however, with an ever-growing understanding into the depth and breadth of our faith, I learned that Easter Sunday wasn’t our most important Liturgical celebration.  Instead that distinction falls on the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday evening – the conclusion of our Paschal Triduum. The Word for the Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Day) Acts 10:34a, 37-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23 Colossians 3:1-4, or 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 John 20:1-9 While the readings for Easter Sunday are important, they are also just a very small piece of the story of our relationship with God.  It's like eating only one hors d'oeuvre at a banquet.  It gives you a foretaste of the great food to come but could hardly be considered nutritious or filling.  Unpacking the readings for this Sunday, like

This Sunday the Season of Lent nears its completion as we begin our preparations for Holy Week – Palm Sunday and the Sacred Triduum.  Our Mass on Palm Sunday is a liturgy of transition, starting with the joyful celebration with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem only to experience the sadness and solemnity of his passion and death.  How quickly things can change!  The crowd that cheered his arrival into Jerusalem turns in a matter of a few days calling for his crucifixion… The Word for Palm Sunday Mark 11:1-10 or John 12:12-16 Isaiah 50:4-7 Psalms 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24 Philippians 2:8-9 Mark 14:1-15:47 or 15:1-39 The opening of the Palm Sunday Mass begins with the Gospel proclamation of Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem, with palms waving and crowds cheering.  But this triumph is short-lived once we settle into our seats for the Liturgy of the Word.   Our first reading is from second Isaiah where we hear his poetic lament of his prophetic calling.  The prophet

Our Cycle B readings bring the theme of covenant to a close this week (as next week we celebrate Palm Sunday).  Through our readings this Lenten cycle we’ve been witness to key covenant moments that God had, first with Noah, then Abraham, then Moses, then David.  As we know, however, in all these covenants, the people fell eventually away… turned away from God.  Now it’s time for something new… what we Christians understand to be the New Covenant… The Word for the 5th Sunday of Lent Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15 Hebrews 5:7-9 John 12:20-33 First we hear from Jeremiah, who’s prophecy covers the final days of the Kingdom of Judah.  This week’s passage comes from a time of trouble, where the end for Jerusalem is near.  Yet in the face of certain doom, Jeremiah is able to preach of a restoration where we here the Lord's desire to make "a new covenant with the house Israel and the house of Judah."  This prophecy of the restoration is echoed in our Psalm, which

This Sunday we continue our Lenten journey through Salvation History with a continued focus on covenant.  We’ve already given witness to the covenants with Noah, Abraham, and Moses.  This week we turn our attention to the Davidic Covenant (the covenant with King David), or more accurately, the covenant with the monarchy of Israel. The Word for the 4th Sunday of Lent 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23 Psalms 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6 Ephesians 2:4-10 John 3:14-21 Our first reading comes from the end of the 2nd book of Chronicles.  Though our intent this Sunday is to remember the Davidic Covenant, our Lectionary has chosen an interesting approach.  Rather than give us a story about King David, we are presented with a story from the end of the Babylonian Exile.  Why approach the covenant with David from this tail-end view?   It’s an approach that actually fits very well with the Book of Chronicles, for you see, the Book of Chronicles is much more than a retelling of the story we heard in books of Samu

Please note that some parishes/Masses may be celebrating the 1st Scrutiny for those in the RCIA.  For those Masses you will here the readings for Cycle A Our theme of covenant continues as we enter the 3rd week of Lent.  On the first Sunday of Lent, we heard the story of Noah reminding us of the first covenant.  Last week we heard the story of Abraham and Isaac reminding us of the second covenant.  This week we hear the Ten Commandments, which are at the heart of the third covenant set with Moses and the people of Israel. The Word for the 3rd Sunday of Lent Exodus 20:1-17 Psalms 19:8, 9, 10, 11 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 John 2:13-25 Our first reading comes from the book of Exodus and the passage that gives us the Ten Commandments.  Most of us know the story of how God had Moses go up the sacred mountain to receive the commandments written on stone tablets, at which point we assume Moses presented these commandments to the people.  But if you follow the text we see that God gives Moses the

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 our times!  While we have an obligation to protect the greater population by separating out those who are sick (a lesson we were reminded of by the pandemic), 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

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

Since the close of the Christmas season we’ve been following Jesus as he begins his ministry.  We’ve seen him Baptized by John (twice), we’ve seen him gathering his first Apostles (Andrew, Simon-Peter, James and John - twice), and this week we continue our journey as Jesus begins to preach, teach, and heal.  Jesus has many different titles, but this week we focus on three:  Prophet, Teacher, and Lord. The Word for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 Mark 1:21-28 Our first reading from the book of Deuteronomy gives us a clear understanding of what it means to be a prophet.  Here Moses says a prophet is one like himself – someone chosen by God to speak for God.  Now hearing this you might ask why God can’t speak for himself?  Addressing that exact point Moses continues by reminding the people that it was they themselves who requested that God speak through an intermediary – through a prophet.  It was at Mt. Horab where God ini

Our readings this week focus on a core theme that runs through Jesus’ ministry – repentance.  There is no sin so grave that cannot be forgiven with true contrition and a return to God.  This was the message that John the Baptist proclaimed, and the message Jesus continued to proclaim as he took up his own ministry.  This theme not only runs through the gospels but is one of the major themes that binds the entire Bible into a cohesive volume.   The Word for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20 Our first reading comes from the book of Jonah.  The story of Jonah is well known in both Jewish and Christian circles, yet for all its popularity, we only hear it in the Sunday Liturgy this once.  For this reason, many Catholics only have a passing familiarity with Jonah’s story.  They know his name and that he was swallowed by a large fish (or whale), but that’s about it.  In our passage this week, God asks Jonah to go through

We Christians love the Christmas Season because it allows us to dwell on the story of the Nativity and those first special moments in the life of Jesus and the Holy Family.  For as much as we love these stories, however, they’re not that important in the larger narrative of Jesus’ life.  Mark and John don’t even mention these moments in their Gospels because they didn’t find them relevant to their telling of the story.  The infancy narratives are like the hors d’oeuvres of Christian scripture – something to whet our appetites for the larger story to come, which begins now as we leave Christmastide behind and enter into Ordinary Time. The Word for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time 1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19 Psalm 40:2, 7-8, 8-9, 10 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20 John 1:35-42 We ended the Christmas season with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord (which this year was the Monday after this past Sunday’s celebration of the Epiphany).  This is where John is passing the torch – ending his own

If Easter is our highest holy day, the Epiphany is rightly the second (not Christmas or the Nativity as many people might think).  The importance of this holy day is noted by its change in the Western Calendar to the First Sunday after the New Year (as opposed to its traditional date of January 6 – following the 12th Day of Christmas).  The Epiphany is the celebration of the realization that through Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection that God's salvation is a gift for all people, everywhere.  It is this feast that defines us as Christians, revealing not only that this child, Jesus, is the Christ, but that the grace of reconciling the people to God is not exclusive – it is a universal invitation for all people. The Word for the Epiphany of the Lord Isaiah 60:1-6 Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13 Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6 Matthew 2:1-2 Our first reading comes from the later chapters of Isaiah (third or trito -Isaiah).  Here the prophet sees a glorious vision for Jerusalem:  The city

The first Sunday after the Nativity of the Lord is always celebrated as the Christmas Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  Since the Christmas season is a celebration of the Nativity, it seems only appropriate that we focus on the family in which Jesus was born.  It should be no surprise then that our readings focus on parental and family themes… The Word for the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 or Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3 Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 or Psalm 105:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 Colossians 3:12-21 or Colossians 3:12-17 or Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19 Luke 2:22-40 or Luke 2:22, 39-40 Our readings for this Sunday offer quite a variety of options from which the presider may select, so those of us in the assembly will want to listen carefully.  Since most presiders select the first of the options, that is what I will unpack for us here: Our first reading comes from the Wisdom of Ben Sira, which we also know as the Book of Sirach.  This ancient catechism c

This 4th Sunday of Advent we focus on the Incarnation:  God made manifest through the birth of Jesus.  Nothing captures this moment better than our Gospel, but as we will see, our other readings would suggest that this meeting between God and his people has been coming for some time… The Word for the 4th Sunday of Advent 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27-29 Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38 To better understand our readings for this week, I think we should first look at our Gospel.  In a story that is unique to Luke’s Gospel, we hear the angel Gabriel coming to Mary to announce God’s plan for the birth of his Son.  It’s not hard for us to imagine Mary’s amazement in this moment.  Not only is this humble girl from Nazareth (already likely anxious over her betrothal to Joseph) being approached by an angel, a messenger for the Lord, but the angel’s message is almost unbelievable:  God has chosen her to bear his Son.  But Mary isn’t naive and challenges Gabriel about this pla