Thursday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time [II]
1 Peter 2:2-5,9-12  +  Mark 10:46-52
May 26, 2016

“Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands.” [Psalm 100:1]

“You listened to this psalm when it was being sung, brothers and sisters.  … let us examine it very carefully to find out what it is so clearly trumpeting and, insofar as the Lord enables us, how its call is to be spiritually understood.  Whatever instrument God’s voice employs, God’s voice it is still.  Nothing but His own voice sounds sweetly in His ears.  When we speak we delight Him, as long as He speaks through us.”

That’s from the first section of Saint Augustine’s exposition of Psalm 100, from which today’s Responsorial Psalm comes.  This exposition is important for us because Psalm 100 is one of the four invitatory psalms of our breviary.  These four psalms—Psalms 95, 100, 67 and 24—invite the Church to prayer at the beginning of each day. Continue reading →

Tuesday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time [II]
1 Peter 1:10-16  +  Mark 10:28-31
May 24, 2016

“The Lord has made His salvation known:  in the sight of the nations He has revealed His justice.” [Psalm 98:2]

Saint Augustine, in his exposition of today’s Responsorial Psalm, teaches us that:  “Our Lord Jesus Christ is God’s right hand, God’s holy arm, and also his salvation.  All these are one and the same; for he it is of whom Scripture promises, ‘All flesh shall see the salvation of God.’[1]  “Simeon acknowledged Him under this title when he took the baby in his arms, praying, ‘You give your servant his discharge in peace, now, Lord, for my eyes have seen your salvation.’[2]

“‘The Lord has made His salvation known.’  To whom has He made it known—to a part only, or to the whole?  Not to any part alone, certainly.  Let no one deceive you, no one hoodwink you, no one tell you, ‘Look, here is Christ! or, There he is!’[3]; for anyone who speaks in terms of ‘here’ or ‘there’ is directing you toward a sect.  … Continue reading →

Monday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time [II]
1 Peter 1:3-9  +  Mark 10:17-27
May 23, 2016

“He has given food to those who fear Him….” [Psalm 111:5]

The Octave of Pentecost, as you well know, was removed from the Church’s Sacred Liturgy following the Second Vatican Council, although the Octave did endure in the Extraordinary Form of Holy Mass.  One of the many spiritual benefits of the Pentecost Octave is to highlight the three-week period following Pentecost Sunday.

This three-week period, moving as it does from Pentecost to the Most Holy Trinity, to Corpus Christi, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (as well as the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Ordinary Form) is the Church’s transition from Paschaltide to Ordinary Time.  The grace of Pentecost—the outpouring of the Holy Spirit—helps us enter more fully into the Church’s celebrations of these sacred mysteries. Continue reading →

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity [C]
Proverbs 8:22-31  +  Romans 5:1-5  +  John 16:12-15
May 22, 2016

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.”

The Church throughout the world celebrates today the central mystery of our Christian Faith.  The life of the Most Holy Trinity is the mystery from which all other mysteries of our Catholic Faith flow.  Yet the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is difficult to wrap our heads around. Continue reading →

Saturday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time [II]
James 5:13-20 +  Mark 10:13-16
May 21, 2016

“Let my prayer come like incense before you; the lifting up of my hands, like the evening sacrifice.” [Psalm 141:2]

Saint Augustine notes that “this verse is customarily understood of Christ the Head, for as the day drew on toward evening, the Lord laid down His life on the Cross in order to take it up again.  It was not snatched from Him against His will.

“All the same, we too were prefigured there, for what was it that hung on the Cross?  The body Christ had taken from us.  Moreover, how could it ever happen that God the Father should forsake and abandon His only Son, who most certainly is one God with Him? Continue reading →

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity [C]
Proverbs 8:22-31  +  Romans 5:1-5  +  John 16:12-15
May 22, 2016

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.”

Continue reading →

Friday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time [II]
James 5:9-12  +  Mark 10:1-12
May 20, 2016

“He crowns you with kindness and compassion.” [Psalm 103:4]

One of my brothers-in-law is a deacon in the Coptic Orthodox Church.  During the more than thirty years that he and my sister have been married I’ve had several opportunities to witness the Coptic Divine Liturgy.  Those experiences have shaped my understanding and celebration of the Sacred Liturgy in the Roman rite of the Catholic Church. Continue reading →

Thursday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time [II]
James 5:1-6  +  Mark 9:41-50
May 19, 2016

“Like sheep they are herded into the nether world; death is their shepherd….” [Psalm 49:15]

Saint Augustine of Hippo, in his exposition of this psalm, asks, “Whose shepherd?”  That is to say, when the Psalmist proclaims that “death is their shepherd”, whose shepherd does he mean?

St. Augustine answers: “The people whose entire concern is present affairs, who give no thought to the future”.  Or in other words, those “who think this life is the only life, whereas in reality it is more justly called death.”[1] Continue reading →

Pentecost
Acts 2:1-11  +  1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13  +  John 14:15-16,23-26
May 15, 2016

“When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.” 

It’s common to hear the Holy Spirit referred to as a source of freedom and independence, of innovation and novelty.  It’s easy to imagine someone saying, “The Spirit moved me to quit my job and become a missionary in South America”.  But it’s less easy to imagine someone saying, “The Spirit moved me to get up at 5:00 a.m., do a load of laundry, fix breakfast for the family, and then go to the office for eight hours.”  We don’t tend to think of the Holy Spirit in terms of routine, but rather, in terms of what breaks us out of our routine:  what introduces change into our lives. Continue reading →