Adult Initiation & Sacrament Preparation

The first Sunday after Christmas Day is reserved for the Feast of the Holy Family.   By Church standards this a relatively modern celebration, established in 1921, first celebrated the first Sunday after Epiphany, but later moved to first Sunday after Christmas in 1969.   Coming as it does at this time of year, it crystallizes for us the importance of family life in our creation and formation.   Jesus, as the Incarnation, was born into a family and raised by that family.   Mary and Joseph may have had a sacred trust in parenting the Son of God, but it is also growing up in that ordinary family structure that brings Jesus closer to us.   Our readings this week offer a number of alternatives, but all focus on the importance of family life.   As it is most likely you will be hearing the first of all our selections, I will focus on these... The Word for the Feast of the Holy Family Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 or Genesis 15:1-6, 21:1-3 Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 or ...

The Word for Easter Sunday 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 If you were a person who only attended Mass on Easter Sunday, your exposure to the whole Story of Salvation would be limited to just these four passages used every Easter Sunday.  If someone were to attend Mass every week, they would find themselves exposed to over 600 different passages from Scripture.  If they were to do this for only one year they would get at least 200 different passages.  My point is, our beloved "Easter Catholics" are only getting a very small part of the story.... yes, a very important part, but 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 we do every week in the RCIA, gives me the same problem.  I can't really give you a sense of the importance of these r...

This Sunday marks the end of our Church year with the Feast of Christ the King.  By church timelines, this feast day is very much born in the modern era.  In response to the growing nationalism and secularism of the early 20th century, Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in his 1925 encyclical letter Quas Primas.  At the time the world was still recovering from the Great War (World War I), but as we all know, the turmoil that followed created the economic and social instability that would eventually bring on the Great Depression and World War II.  Revolutions in Russia, China, and Spain were sparking unrest worldwide, and calling into question the their models of governance and economics.  It is in this chaos that Pope Pius understood the need to refocus our attention on who it is that we must serve. The Word for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe         2 Samuel 5:1-3     ...

The Word for the 18 th of Ordinary Time : Ecclesiastes 1:2;   2:21 -23 Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17 Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 Luke   12:13 -21   Our first reading comes to us from Ecclesiastes (classified as one of the books ofwisdom)… a book ascribed to Qoheleth, who in the text describes himself as the son of David and King of Jerusalem. Now wait a minute… isn’t it Solomon who succeeds David to the throne? Of course it is… so why the pseudonym? It’s not a name, but a title, which means “collector” or “assembler.” In this case, an collector of saying ascribed to Solomon (who didn’t actually write the book). But back to the text… “Vanity of vanities!” is how the book (and our reading) begins, and is the major theme that runs through this work. In short, the book wants us to answer the question… we toil all day long, both physically and mentally, and to what end? In other words, the author telling us that we need to re-evaluate our priorities. The wor...

The Word for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time         Genesis 18:20-32         Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8         Colossians 2:12-14         Luke 11:1-13 We open with another story from Genesis about Abraham. In a story that follows shortly after our reading from last week, we meet Abraham traveling to the city of Sodom (most likely because his nephew, Lot, and his family live near there). As he is traveling, the Lord comes to Abraham wanting to know if the “outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah” is as great as he has heard. Abraham fears the Lord will “sweep away” the cities as punishment for their sins, so he queries the Lord, asking if he would spare the city if there were 50 innocent people. The Lord relents, so Abraham ups the ante… if there were only 45 innocent people, only 40 innocent people, and so on. With each request, Abraham fears t...

The Word for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time:         Genesis 18:1-10a         Psalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 5         Colossians 1:24-28         Luke 10:38-42 Hospitality is one of the running themes through our readings this 16th week of Ordinary Time. First is a reading from Genesis, in which Abraham (no longer just Abram) has an encounter with... well, who? The text isn't clear... first calling it a visitation from the Lord, but then a visit from three men who were traveling through the area. While the likely interpretation is that Abraham didn't realize it was a visitation from the Lord until after the events of the story came to fruition, it is clear that Abraham takes his job as host to these travelers very seriously. In fact, it would not be wrong to connect this story with last week's Gospel of the Good Samaritan, with Abraham showing us a ...

I hope everyone had a good Independence Day holiday. It’s a great time to gather with friends and family and enjoy the color, light, and sound of the fireworks as we celebrate the birth of our nation. Oddly enough, this holiday also reminds me of the birth of our Church. Just as the members of the Continental Congress sought freedom from the taxes and burdens of the British Crown, Jesus and his disciples sought the freedom to engage in relationship with God without the taxes and burdens of the Sanhedrin and the Temple hierarchy. Just as the British Crown had grown bloated and complacent to the colonists, the Temple had grown bloated and complacent to the followers entrusted to their care. July is the month of new beginnings. For many, July marks the beginning of the new fiscal year. July is also when many pastors and administrators start their new assignments in the Archdiocese (as we celebrate the 5th anniversary of Fr. Ray coming back to OLR as her pastor). This theme of new beginn...