Category: Lectionary A1

Today’s readings: Hebrews 11:1-7 Mark 9:2-13 By faith Noah… with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Hebrews 11:7 We had a baptism at Mass last Sunday, a rejoicing with the family and a chance to renew our vows as adult Christians making our covenant with the the new Child of God, to…

Today’s Readings: Genesis 11:1-9 Mark 8:34—9:1 Take up your cross. This phrase comes up whenever I meditate on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. As I contemplate the Mystery of Our Lord carrying his Cross for us I hear this reminder that I must carry my cross as well. We don’t do this “for Jesus”…

Today’s readings: Genesis 9:1-13 Mark 8:27-33 Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. Genesis 9:2-3 One way to view Genesis…

Today’s Readings: Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22 Mark 8:22-26 Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.Mark 8:24-25 Once a preacher described this as Jesus committing malpractice. Of…

Today’s Readings: Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10 Mark 8:14-21 …Great was man’s wickedness on earth, and… no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil… We will be reading about Noah (or Noe, as the Latin text calls him – which I like because of Noe Street, here in SF) over the next few…

Today’s Readings: Gen 4:1-15, 25 Mark 8:11-13 Why are you so resentful and crestfallen. If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.Genesis 4:6-7 This story of Cain and Abel is so…

Today’s readings: Sirach 15:15-20 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 Matthew 5:17-35 If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.Sirach 15:15-16 The traditional understanding of man’s freedom is set…

Today’s Readings: Genesis 3:9-24 Mark 8:1-10 Adam, where are you? Genesis 3:9 This is such a scene as no writer could invent. Sure, an all powerful Creator, that’s OK. Paradise is easy to imagine, as is a willful creature who runs away. But what writer (save one who knows this story by intimation or intellect)…

Today’s readings: Genesis 3:1-8 Mark 7:31-37 I’ve been re-experiencing JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit: this time in the glorious audiobook recording by Rob Inglis. He’s long been the “canonical” voice of Middle Earth for me. Back in the Wild West days of the Internet (’97 or ’98) I found a downloadable (illicit) collection of audio files,…

Today’s readings: Genesis 2:18-25 Mark 7:24-30 “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”Genesis 2:23 One of the Greek Myths that so parallels our creation story is, I think, from Plato: the gods…

Today’s readings: The Spirit Over the Waters: 2008 DHRpainter’s tape and ink on cardboard Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17 Mark 7:14-23 The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.Genesis 2:7 There is a whole anthropology in this…

Today’s readings: Genesis 1:1-19 Mark 6:53-56 In the Douay, the RSV, or the NABRE. Earth was still an empty waste, and darkness hung over the deep; but already, over its waters, stirred the breath of God.Genesis 1:2 (Knox) It’s quite a la mode to not dress up for anything except irony. I shall put on…

Today’s readings: Isaiah 58:7-10 Psalm 112:4-9 (Responsorial) 1 Corinthians 2:1-5  John 8:12 (Alleluia) Matthew 5:13-16 In the Douay, the RSV, or the NABRE. Share thy bread with the hungry, give the poor and the vagrant a welcome to thy house; meet thou the naked, clothe him; from thy own flesh and blood turn not away.Isaiah…