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 ...

February 2nd is the date chosen by the Church to celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.  Since this date falls on a Sunday this year, we take a break from our readings for Ordinary Time to celebrate with these special readings: The Word for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Malachi 3:1-4 Psalm 24:7, 8, 9, 10 Hebrews 2:14-18 Luke 2:22-40 or Luke 2:22-32 While the Catholic Church today refers to this day as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, traditionally it has also been called the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and the Meeting of the Lord.  Prior to the Second Vatican Council, Candlemas was a time where beeswax candles were blessed for use throughout the year.  Today the celebration focuses more on the prophecy of Simeon, and Pope John Paul II chose it as a time for renewal of religious vows (not to be confused with priestly renewal of vows, which usually takes place on Holy Thursd...

The Word for the 22 nd   Sunday  of Ordinary Time : Sirach  3:17 -18, 20, 28-29 Psalm 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11 Hebrews  12:18 -19, 22-24a Luke 14:1, 7-14 If you had to describe this week’s readings with one word… it would be “humility.”  In our first reading from the book of Sirach, the author states this very clearly in the opening lines of the passage:  “… conduct your affairs with humility.”  Why is this important?  First, it’s good to remember that the book of Sirach falls under the category of “wisdom” literature in the bible, and because of it’s relatively late writing (around the 2 nd century BCE), has been excluded from the Hebrew and Protestant bibles.  Catholics, however, find the work to be inspired and includes it in our Canon.  Like all wisdom literature, it is a cross between popular non-fiction and catechetical text.  In today’s reading, the author reminds us that the more we h...

The Word for the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time:          Isaiah 66:18-21         Psalm 117:1, 2         Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13         Luke 13:22-30  Our first reading opens with the prophet Isaiah with a passage from the closing chapter. These later Isaiah passages speak of a new Heaven and a new Earth, and here the Lord says he will send fugitives to all nations to proclaim the Lord’s glory and lead them to the new Jerusalem. The choice of the word “fugitives” seems odd, but is a bit more understandable when you consider that the passage is from, for lack of a better description, Isaiah’s Final Judgment discourse. While what we read here seems pleasant enough (God calling all nations together), it is part of a larger prophecy that reminds us that not all will be coming to this new Jerusalem (using a rather unpleasant example of wh...

The Word for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time:         Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10         Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18         Hebrews 12:1-4         Luke 12:49-53 We open with a reading from the prophet Jeremiah. Our scene opens with the princes of Judah looking to King Zedekiah to have the prophet Jeremiah put to death. The princes throw him into an empty, muddy cistern to die, but the king orders that he be taken out. What’s going on here? Clearly Zedekiah doesn’t want Jeremiah to die, but there’s much more going on here. We need to remember that Zedekiah was the last king of Judah. The northern kingdom fell to Assyria only some 25 years before, and it was the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar himself that put Zedekiah on the throne in Jerusalem in an attempt to create an ally in the region. Since then, however, the princes have been plotting agains...

As we continue our long Summer journey through Ordinary Time, sometimes you hit a sequence of readings where you are forced to ask the question… what does this all mean? What am I supposed to get out of this? For me, this coming Sunday is one of those times. Perhaps with a little unpacking, we can find a theme we can grasp onto. The Word for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time:         Wisdom 18:6-9         Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22         Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 (or short version Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-12)         Luke 12:32-48 (or short version Luke 12:35-40) We open with a reading from the Book of Wisdom. First, it’s important to remember that this book dates itself to some 50 years before Christ… making it contemporary literature for the Disciples. Based on the date alone it’s no surprise that we see a lot of its teachings reflected in Chri...