Adult Initiation & Sacrament Preparation

With our special celebrations and feast days behind us, the Church now enters a long stretch of Ordinary Time.  This also means that our lectionary – the order of our readings for Mass – falls back to some basic patterns for the cycle and the season, and our themes become more varied. The Word for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time Zechariah 9:9-10 Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14 Romans 8:9, 11-13 Matthew 11:25-30 We open with a reading from the book of the prophet Zechariah.  It is helpful to remember that Zechariah’s prophecy comes from the early post-exile era, around 520 BCE, around the same time as Ezekiel and Ezra, and is attributed to two different authors (1st Zechariah forming Chapters 1-8, 2nd Zechariah forming chapters 9-14).  Our passage for this Sunday comes from 2nd Zechariah with a vision of a restored Jerusalem with a new king.  This vision of a new King should sound very familiar, because to our Christian ears this sounds very much like Jesus.  W...

On this 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, our readings focus on what we call the “cost of discipleship”.  It is a reminder that when we choose to become Christian, a follow of Jesus, we also take up his Cross. The Word for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time:         Zechariah 12:10-11, 13:1         Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9         Galatians 3:26-29         Luke 9:18-24 Our first reading is from the prophet Zechariah.  In this reading the prophet has God pouring out a “sprit of grace” on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as they mourn the loose of that “whom they have pierced.”  What exactly is going on here?  Reading this through a Christian prism, we readily recognize the pierced one as Jesus… the one whom we “pierced.”  We must take the blame for his crucifixion, mourning the loss as one “grieves over a firstborn.”  Yet the prophet cont...