Adult Initiation & Sacrament Preparation

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 2 nd  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 promis...

With the season of Lent now upon us, we enter a period of penitent reflection that includes an increased emphases on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  Our readings for Sunday Mass not only remind us of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, but our three-year lectionary cycle also allows us to explore that story in the light of an over-arching theme for the season.  For Cycle B (Gospel of Mark), that theme is covenant.  Covenant is that agreement between God and his people that marks the special relationship we have with our God.  It is a word we will hear in our readings this Sunday, and a word we will continue to hear in our readings throughout this Lenten season. The Word for the 1 st  Sunday of Lent Genesis 9:8-15 Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 1 Peter 3:18-22 Mark 1:12-15 Our first reading for this 1st Sunday of Lent starts with one of the first covenants between God and his people – that between God and Noah at the end of the great flood.  Also known...

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 ...

For this second week of Lent we continue our journey through Salvation History. Whereas last week our readings focused on sin (through Adam) and redemption (through Jesus), this week’s readings remind us that even with our faults, we have been chosen by God. This is not an arbitrary choice, but a conscious, willful intervention by God to become closer to his creation. The Word for the 2nd Sunday of Lent Genesis 12:1-4a Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22 2 Timothy 1:8b-10 Matthew 17:1-9 Our first reading from later in Genesis gives us the story of Abram (who we will later know as Abraham) and his first call by God. Up to this point Abram has been living with his wife (Sarah) and his entire extended family in the land of Haran when God comes to him and tells him to “go forth from your land… to a land that I will show you.” God is asking Abram to leave his ancestral home for a place far away that he knows nothing about, all on the promise of his blessing. Not only does this show us Abram’s level...

Lent is a time to reflect… to see where we have been, determine where we are, and chart our course ahead.  Similarly, our readings for this Lenten cycle also show us where we have been as a people, help us to see where we are, and show us the road we as Church should follow.  We call this walk through the scriptures the “history of our salvation, ” and throughout this season of Lent, we will be listening to stories from some of the most pivotal moments of our history as a people of God. The Word for the 1st Sunday of Lent Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17 Romans 5:12-19 Mathew 4:1-11 Most appropriately, we begin our journey at the very beginning… with our first reading from the Book of Genesis and  the story of “mans fall from grace.”  This is the same “necessary sin of Adam” we sing about during the Easter Vigil’s Exultet. In our passage from Genesis this week we witness God’s creation of man and the creation of the garden.  From there our text ...

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 ...

With Memorial Day behind us, we Americans mark the beginning of the Summer holiday.  For some, school is already out, and for many others, school will be ending shortly.  With Easter and Pentecost now in our rear-view mirror, we approach a long spell of Ordinary Time... but before we slip into the ma-laze of the season, we focus on the most significant gift Jesus left us... his real presence in the Eucharist - the Body and Blood of Christ. The Word for the Body and Blood of Christ:        Genesis 14:18-20        Psalm 110:1, 2, 3, 4        1 Corinthians 11:23-26        Luke 9:11b-17 As one might expect, our readings all present images of bread and wine.  Our first reading from Genesis shows us a religious celebration attended by Abram, in which the priest Melchizedek offers bread and wine.  Our second reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians i...

The Word for the 2nd Sunday of Lent:         Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18         Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14         Philippians 3:17-4:1         Luke 9:28b-36 We open with a reading from Genesis, where we witness God's first covenant with Abram.  It was Abram's faith in God that built the trust for this covenant, and echoed in our Psalm.  For as it was Abram's actions that built trust with the Lord, Paul tells the Philippians that in order to be right with God, they only need follow his example, and focus on the greater, higher good.  This takes us to our Gospel, where we hear Luke's story of the Transfiguration.  This is a moment of enlightenment for the Apostles (Peter, John, and James) who were witness, and were stunned by what they saw and heard.  One could argue that this is the moment a new covenant is established......