Easter Sunday
Acts 10:34,37-43  +  Col 3:1-4  +  Jn 20:1-9
April 21, 2019

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.

Easter is not just the single day of Easter Sunday, but a season of seven weeks plus one more day.  The Church celebrates Easter for fifty days in order to ponder thoroughly the mysteries of this holiest season of the Church’s year.  There are three mysteries of our Faith that the Church gives special attention to during Eastertide.  They are the first three Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.  Here, consider just the first and third.  Consider how they relate to each other. Continue reading →

Holy Saturday (before sunset)
April 20, 2019

…suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell….

How ought Christians spend Holy Saturday morning and afternoon?  Is this time simply an extension of the tenor and tone of Good Friday?  What happened to Jesus during the time between His Death and Resurrection? Continue reading →

Good Friday
Isa 52:13—53:12  +  Heb 4:14-16;5:7-9  +  Jn 18:1—19:42
April 19, 2019

We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.

What is most striking about the scene in Gethsemane is not the betrayal of Judas, but the wandering of the other apostles.  Only two continued to follow Jesus after his arrest, Peter and John.  They follow Jesus, bound and carried away by the soldiers, at a distance:  their faith is wavering.  We know that before the night is over, Peter denies his Lord and Savior three times. Continue reading →

Holy Thursday—Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Ex 12:1-8,11-14  +  1 Cor 11:23-26  +  Jn 13:1-15
April 18, 2019

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that His Hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.

You might be tempted to think that Jesus, knowing that in just a few hours He was going to be nailed to a cross, would have had more important things on his mind than a meal.  If someone came up to you, and told you that you were going to be killed in less than 24 hours, would you sit down for a meal?  Many people would skip eating all together:  after all, if you really knew that you were going to die in less than 24 hours, why feed your body?  Wouldn’t there be more important things to put first? Continue reading →

Wednesday of Holy Week
Isaiah 50:4-9  +  Matthew 26:14-25
April 17, 2019

…from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

Recent scandals in the Church prompt reflection upon the person of Judas Iscariot.  Why did Jesus choose him to be an apostle?  Didn’t Jesus know that Judas would betray Him?  Or is that precisely why He chose Him? Continue reading →

Tuesday of Holy Week
Isaiah 49:1-6  +  John 13:21-33,36-38
April 16, 2019

So Judas took the morsel and left at once.  And it was night.

On the last two days of Lent before the Sacred Triduum starts, the Gospel Reading focuses on Judas Iscariot.  Yet while tomorrow’s passage from Matthew looks solely at Judas, today’s passage from John also looks at Peter, another apostle who will betray Jesus. Continue reading →

Monday of Holy Week
Isaiah 42:1-7  +  John 12:1-11
April 15, 2019

Here is my servant whom I uphold, / my chosen one with whom I am pleased….

The Old Testament’s Book of the Prophet Isaiah contains four brief passages called “servant songs”.  Isaiah never names the servant who is described.  But in the earliest years of the Church, these servant songs were sung in praise of Christ, who fulfilled during Holy Week what they proclaim. Continue reading →

Palm Sunday [C]
Lk 19:28-40  +  Isa 50:4-7  +  Phil 2:6-11  +  Lk 22:14—23:56
April 14, 2019

“… he humbled himself, / becoming obedient to the point of death, / even death on a cross.”

The Roman Missal is the book from which Father offers most of the prayers at Holy Mass.  During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, it rests upon the altar of sacrifice.  Within this book, in the header for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, it states:  “In the Dioceses of the United States, the practice of covering crosses and images throughout the church from this Sunday may be observed.” Continue reading →

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Ezekiel 37:21-28  +  John 11:45-56
April 13, 2019

So from that day on they planned to kill him.

This morning’s Gospel Reading bears a sense of anxious anticipation.  Its final verse leaves us on the edge of our pew:  “They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, ‘What do you think?  That he will not come to the feast?’” Continue reading →