Friday of 1st Week in Lent Personal Responsibility — Eucharist and Reconciliation Often we blame the community and “the system” for the evils of society and for the sins we commit. This shrugging off of responsibility is a timeless device of escape. Christ dealt with it and so did Ezekiel before him. Ezekiel tells […]
Category Archives: Daily Readings
Thursday of 1st Week in Lent I Have No Helper But You Prayer discloses all the riches of God’s goodness to us. God cannot resist us when we turn to him in our misery, in our needs, in our joy, even in our silence when we don’t know what to say. But […]
Wednesday of 1st Week in Lent Conversion Even for pagans, even for those known for their cruelty, like the people that enslaved the Jews, it is possible to be converted. When the author of the Book of Jonah told this to the Jews, it was an astonishing message to them. For Jews, yes, […]
Tuesday of 1st Week in Lent Word from God and Word to God God speaks his word to people in many ways: first of all, his word-in-action, that is, his saving deeds; his words written down in the Bible again, more the language of action than of words; the words he speaks through […]
Monday of 1st Week in Lent STS. PERPETUA AND FELICITY, Martyrs Today we celebrate two women martyrs from Carthage, North Africa. Perpetua was a noblewoman, Felicity a slave girl. Both were arrested in a raid on Christians. Each had recently given birth and the Roman authorities tried to use their first newborn babies […]
First Sunday Of Lent With Jesus in the Desert At our baptism, through our godparents, we said NO to Satan and his temptations before we said YES to the covenant of love, which God offered to us. There we joined Jesus in his NO to Satan and his temptations that tried to make him abandon […]
Saturday AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Re-creating Encounter Jesus came to call sinners. It is they that need him, not so much the just, the righteous. It is the sinners who need healing. We are among them, and so we need healing. The Pharisees considered themselves just, but there was little mercy in them; their […]
Friday AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Why Fast? People in the Old Testament ask: What is the use of fasting? God seems not to be near when they fast. The prophet tells them because real fasting consists in justice and love. Since God has made a covenant with his people, that covenant comprises also justice […]
Thursday AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Fidelity Brings Life — Time of Penance Faithfulness is not easy except if we are intensely committed to a person we love. If we are loyal, we share in the joys and trials of the other person and we never lose our serenity or basic happiness. This is also […]
ASH WEDNESDAY Here is Lent, Our Favorable Time Lent begins today. It is a “favorable time,” a season of grace. We are called to go up with Christ to Jerusalem, the place where he will suffer and die before he will rise in glory. This means that we are called with him to […]