Category: 15Ordinary

  • Swords and Pieces

    Swords and Pieces

    JMJ✙ The Readings for the 15th Monday, Tempus per Annum “I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” Matthew 10:34 THIS GOSPEL CAN BE Unnerving – especially if you’re used to “Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild” or if you want to imagine that. He’s not. He wasn’t. He won’t be. Nevertheless, this Gospel…

  • Seeds and Earthlings

    Seeds and Earthlings

    JMJ✙ The Readings for the 15th Sunday, Tempus per Annum “My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11 HOW OFTEN ARE WE ASKED in homilies “what kind of dirt are you”? The seed is the word of God and it…

  • What Did We Do?

    What Did We Do?

    The Readings for the 15th Saturday, Tempus per Annum (C2)Memorial of Our Lady of Mt Carmel Micah 2:1-5 Matthew 12:14-21 On that day a satire shall be sung over you. Micah 2:4a AT THE END OF the wonderful Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), Mr Wonka reads the riot act to Charlie and his…

  • The Liberal One.

    The Liberal One.

    The Readings for the 15th Friday, Tempus per Annum (C2)Saint Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor & Doctor of the Church Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8 Matthew 12:1-8 I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. Matthew 12:6 NASTY RELIGIOUS PEOPLE in today’s Gospel are trying to make the Disciples follow their mean nasty rules. Americans…

  • Like Jimmy Carter said…

    Like Jimmy Carter said…

    The Readings for the 15th Thursday, Tempus per Annum (C2)Memorial of St Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19 Matthew 11:28-30 Your name and your title are the desire of our souls. Isaiah 26:8 NOT REALLY SURE What the lectionary crafters are doing here. The translation “your name and your title” is an odd turn…

  • ABBAbandonment Issues

    ABBAbandonment Issues

    The Readings for the 15th Wednesday, Tempus per Annum (C2)Memorial of St Henry, King Isaiah 10:5-7, 13B-16 Matthew 11:25-27 No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Matthew 11:27b TO WHOM DO YOU PRAY? I’ve been wrestling with this a lot lately. So much Christian…

  • Turn, turn, turn, will be our death.

    Turn, turn, turn, will be our death.

    The Readings for the 15th Tuesday, Tempus per Annum (C2) Isaiah 7:1-9 Matthew 11:20-24 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. Matthew 11:21 WHOA, there! Jesus is being rather…

  • Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.

    Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.

    The Readings for the 15th Monday, Tempus per Annum (C2)Memorial of St Benedict, Abbot Isaiah 1:10-17 Matthew 10:34-11:1 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Matthew 10:40 THIS WHOLE PASSAGE can seem strange. Swords, dysfunctional family fighting, etc. Ranks up there with the cut off your hands and…

  • Very Near Indeed

    The Readings for the 15th Sunday, Tempus per Annum Deuteronomy 30:10-14 Colossians 1:15-20 Luke 10:25-37 Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” Luke 10:26 LET’S FIRST LOOK at Moses, speaking in Deuteronomy. Our NABRE translation uses the pronoun “it” in verse 14: No, it is something very…

  • Of Masks, Statues, and Jehoshaphat

    FRIDAY IN THE 15th WEEK, Tempus per Annum, the readings in the Daily Office all conspire as if someone had set up it on purpose. In the Office of Readings, David and the story of Jehoshaphat, in Morning Prayer, David again, Jeremiah and St Paul all come together in one great story. In the Office…

  • Actually He Did Say That

    Actually He Did Say That

    ✙ JMJ The Readings for the 15th Sunday, Tempus per Annum (C1): Deuteronomy 30:10-14 Colossians 1:15-20 Luke 10:25-37 Si tamen audieris vocem Domini Dei tui, et custodieris praecepta ejus et caeremonias, quae in hac lege conscripta sunt. If thou hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and keep his precepts and ceremonies, which are written…

  • The Subversion of Might

    ✙ JMJ The Readings for Monday in the 15th Week of Ordinary Time (B2) Isaiah 1:10-17 Matthew 10:34-11:1 Non veni pacem mittere, sed gladium. I came not to send peace, but the sword.  How very strange this sounds to our ears, who are so used to thinking of Jesus as some sort of Zen Anarchist…

  • Fright or Fop?

    ✙ JMJ The Readings for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B2) Amos 7:12-15 Ephesians 1:3-14 Mark 6:7-13 Qui benedixit nos in omni benedictione spirituali in caelestibus in Christo, Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places  It comes to me from time to time, walking up to communion,…