Category: RRCreadings
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The True Story of Sleeping Beauty
The Readings for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary I wrote this in 2018. Reposting for the feast (which will be on Monday). LET ME TELL YOU A love story. This is a real love story, not a romance, such as we pass off today as love; nor is it a “chick flick” sort…
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Life Just Keeps Coming
JMJ✙ The Readings for the 19th Sunday, Tempus per Annum Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side. Matthew 14:22 BY WAY OF DISCUSSING THIS GOSPEL, let me link back to the story we heard on Wednesday in the first reading from the Book of Numbers: sending the…
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Final Cause
Readings for Memorial of St Ignatius of Loyola17th Monday After Pentecost A day late, but I keep rewriting… Only the one who has sinned against me will I blot out of my book. Exodus 32:33 WHY DID GOD MAKE ME? It’s the first thing the Baltimore Catechism offers us. God made me to know Him,…
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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…
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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…
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Peniel
JMJ✙ The Readings for the Memorial of St Benedict, Abbot14th Tuesday, Tempus per Annum “Because I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.” Genesis 32:30 THE AUTHOR is continually surprised at the different ways ancient stories are read by Christians as compared to Jews. The rabbinic tradition is…
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Barren Trees Die
JMJ✙ The Readings for the 8th Friday of Ordinary Time And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. Mark 11:14 (RSVCE) SO MANY SERMONS ON this passage make it out to be about Israel, or the Temple priesthood. In fact, the footnotes on the…
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Nothing Ordinary
JMJ✙ The Readings for the Visitation of Mary8th Wednesday of Ordinary Time The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17 (RSVCE) WHEN MARY Visits Elizabeth their…
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Overcoming the World
JMJ✙ The Readings for 7th Monday after Easter I have overcome the world. John 16:33 JESUS SAYS HE HAS OVERCOME the world. Yet, this is before his Crucifixion, before the Agony in the Garden – just before the High Priestly prayer. How has he already overcome the world? What does this mean for us? John…
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Types and Shadows
The Readings for the 2nd Thursday, Tempus per Annum (C2) They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” Hebrews 8:5 HEBREWS SPEAKS…
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Reading the Signs of Ordinary Times
The Readings for the 1st Saturday, Tempus per Annum (C2) The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit. As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and…
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More Ordinary Mysteries
The Readings for the 1st Wednesday, Tempus per Annum (C2) For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. Hebrews 2:18 THE ANONYMOUS AUTHOR of Hebrews, just for a shorthand, let’s give him a name… say… St Paul? Anyway, St Paul begins, “Since the children share…
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So, that was Christmas
The Readings for the 1st Tuesday, Tempus per Annum (C2) They were amazed at the way he taught, for he did not instruct them like the Torah-teachers but as one who had authority himself. Mark 1:22 HEY! PRESTO! It’s no longer Christmas, but Ordinary Time: tempus per annum. Epiphany had an Octave back in the…
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Hashtag Resist
The Readings for the 4th Thursday of Advent (A1) He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away. Luke 1:53 (KJV21) THE ANGELUS IS A favorite devotion of mine. (If you are not familiar with it I have included it at the end of this post.) I’ve used…
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Urbi et Orbi
The Readings for the 4th Wednesday of Advent (A1) The voice of the man I love! Here he comes, bounding over the mountains, skipping over the hills! Song of Songs 2:8 (CJB) DURING THE GLOBAL PANIC in March of 2020, watching bodies pile up, morgues overrun, hospitals sealing off units, the Holy Father did an…
Orthoparadoxy 