Skip to main content

1st Sunday of Lent 2013

By
What exciting times we live in!  Not only is it the beginning of Lent, but the resignation of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, makes this one Lenten season one for the history books.  No doubt we'll be keeping up with all this news and the coming Conclave to elect a new pope.

This week our topic is "Divine Election".  What is Divine Election?  It recognizes that it is God who chooses us to be his people.  While we must individually come to accept that invitation, it is in fact, God, working through the Holy Spirit, that calls us to him, and inspires us to take this journey through Initiation.  Through these past few weeks we have been listening to the "call" of various prophets.  Now as we enter the season of Lent, we discern our own call to God.

The Word for the 1st Sunday of Lent:
        Deuteronomy 26:4-10
        Psalm 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
        Romans 10:8-13
        Luke 4:1-13

As we ponder our election to the Christian life, it is also a good time for us to reflect on the challenges we face in trying to follow the path Jesus has laid out for us.  Not only does the Christian message of "loving one another" seem contrary to our "every man for himself" society, but there is particular vitriol from some circles for the Catholic Church itself.  Is this justified?  What do we do?  Do we just turn the other cheek?  How do we stand up for ourselves?

Catholic Update:
Ash Wednesday:  Our Shifting Understanding of Lent
St. Therese’s ‘Little Way’”  Our Guide Through Lent
Advent Day By Day:  Home for a Better World
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ascension of the Lord - Cycle C

By
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). 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 Ascension of Jesus.  Also like most sequels, this “recap” of t...
Post a Comment
Read more

6th Sunday of Easter - Cycle A

By
If you want to have some fun, ask a Catholic (or any Christian) about the Holy Spirit.  The answers you get will likely be as varied as the people you ask.  Our faith is based on a “Trinitarian” view of God:  God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  As a Church we do quite well teaching about God the Father, and we do an excellent job teaching about God the Son (Jesus), but when it comes to the Holy Spirit we tend to treat the subject like a “third wheel” or “odd man out.”  We spend so much time learning about God the Father and God the Son that we end up with little time to spend on the Holy Spirit.  Perhaps our readings for this week can help us to better understand the Spirit: The Word for the 6th Sunday of Easter Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20 1 Peter 3:15-18 John 14:15-21 For this 6th Sunday of Easter we open with a story from Acts of the Apostles where we hear how Philip has had great success in bringing the Gospel to the p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Feast of the Lateran Cathedral

By
November 9th marks the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.  Why are we celebrating the dedication of a church?  Well, because this is perhaps the most important church in all of Western Christianity.  The official title of this church is:  The Cathedral Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist at the Lateran.  “The Lateran” in this case refers to the Lateran Palace which belonged to the Laterni family, an ancient noble Roman family.  The palace was acquired by Constantine and donated to the Pope in order to be the cathedral of the city of Rome.  This is where the cathedra, the Bishop’s Chair, sits.  Contrary to popular belief, St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City is not the Pope’s Cathedral.  The Pope is foremost the Bishop of Rome, so therefore his Cathedral Church is in the City of Rome (not Vatican City, which at the time of Constantine was little more than a hill outside of...
Post a Comment
Read more