Thursday in the Octave of Easter
Octave of Easter Thursday 8 April 2010 Incredulous for Joy Alleluia! And happy Easter! Today we celebrate the fifth day in the Octave of Easter. Like all other days in the Octave, today is a solemnity, the highest feast of the Church. But of course, most of our country has already left Easter far behind. And most likely, we too have been back to work this week – the daily grind of everyday life.
Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
Signs of resurrection are all around us, especially after this hard winter. There is new growth on the trees, new life springing forth from the earth, and we can even experience new life in the abundance of birds singing in the mornings. These signs along with the ever brightening sun are sufficient to make our souls smile. Yet, these are just the beginning of the discovery process for indeed the whole universe is wired to reveal resurrection.
Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
Today we continue to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, which is emphasized in the Gospel reading for today. In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we find St. Peter’s important speech, wherein he explains how we are saved: repent and be baptized (2:38). If we pay careful attention to this passage we see that St. Peter explains that this is for children as well as adults, “to you and to your children” (2:39). The fact that he is speaking to a Jewish audience (2:5, 11, 14, and 36) underscores how this message would of course be interpreted as including children (i.e., infant baptism), since Jews circumcised sons on the eighth day, and baptism and repentance are here seen as the new entrance rite into the covenant family.
Monday in the Octave of Easter
Monday in the Octave of Easter 5 April 2010 Share the Unbounded Easter Joy! Alleluia! Christ is risen, alleluia! For most people in the United States, Easter has come and gone. It is over in one day; even the Easter candy is now on sale. But for the Church, Easter Sunday is only the beginning of the Easter season. Today, Monday, is the second day in the octave of Easter. All of the days from Easter Sunday through to the following Sunday rank as solemnities, the highest holy days in the liturgical year of the Church.
Easter Sunday - The Resurrection of the Lord
Rejoice! Alleluia! Christ is risen! Today we celebrate Easter, that most joyous of liturgical celebrations, so joyous that, as with Christmas, one day is insufficient to contain the joy, and so we extend the celebration over an entire eight days, known as an octave. The fifty days of Easter are especially joyous, but the first eight even more so, and those eight begin with today, Easter Sunday.
Holy Saturday
Holy Saturday (from Sabbatum Sanctum, its official liturgical name) is sacred as the day of the Lord's rest; it has been called the "Second Sabbath" after creation. The day is and should be the most calm and quiet day of the entire Church year, a day broken by no liturgical function. Christ lies in the grave, the Church sits near and mourns. After the great battle He is resting in peace, but upon Him we see the scars of intense suffering...The mortal wounds on His Body remain visible....Jesus' enemies are still furious, attempting to obliterate the very memory of the Lord by lies and slander.
Good Friday of the Lord's passion
I want to reflect today mostly on the Isaiah passage (Isaiah 52:13—53:12), not because the reading of the passion (John 18:1-19:42) isn’t intensely important, but because when it comes to Good Friday and the crucifixion, I think that meditation on the cross, and the liturgy of the day, speaks for itself. What more could I possibly say? If you have a chance at all to get to a Good Friday service, go.
Holy Thursday - Mass of the Lord's Supper
Today begins our Triduum. Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil), are deep with meaning that colors not only this particular day, but the whole of the Christian life. The paschal mystery expressed in this Triduum is at the heart of all we do.
Wednesday of Holy Week
We are half way through Holy Week and Triduum is only hours away. This said today is a good day to take stock of our Lenten journey. Hopefully these forty days have helped us set our face like flint to our own sinfulness. Hopefully these days have helped us recognize that there is no disgrace in doing our best to turn away from all that distracts us from God. In short, reflect upon how this journey has brought us closer to the Lord.
Tuesday of Holy Week
Today we continue our journey through Holy Week. Although we are still only at the beginning, we know how it ends, not with death and sorry, but with Easter joy. And of course, the end is just the beginning, 50 days of Easter joy. We celebrate the greatest mystery of our with Triduum and Easter, the solemn celebrations which conclude this week. All of these mysteries: the Last Supper, Jesus’ passion and death, and His resurrection, are events that cannot be easily separated from one another.
Monday of Holy Week
With Palm Sunday yesterday, we began what is known as “Holy Week,” which includes the last of Lent and the Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. We are now quickly moving toward Jesus’ passion and death; we are hastening toward Jerusalem. Today’s first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah is one from the Old Testament that our Church has always understood Christologically. In other words, although it was written before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, we look at this passage as applying to Christ.
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
Today we celebrate Palm Sunday and we enter Holy Week. This is the most solemn week in the liturgical calendar and concludes with the joyous 50-day Easter Season. In today’s Liturgy, we celebrate when the people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem, with palm branches, welcoming the Messiah, Jesus the Davidic King, with cries of “Hosanna!” And yet we are entering the week which commemorates Jesus’ Last Supper, His rejection, His arrest, His torture, and His death—all of which we must pass through liturgically before we enter into the liturgical celebration of His resurrection.
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
In today’s first reading, the prophet Ezekiel writes of how the LORD God will gather the people of Israel together again from their exile. God promises to heal their divisions, to cleanse them from their sinfulness, and to help them obey His commands. He promises to set up make a new and eternal covenant with them. He promises to make a sanctuary, a place to worship Him properly, that will last forever. As Catholic Christians, although we would acknowledge that the Jewish people may have other legitimate ways that they would see a passage such as this fulfilled in their own history, we interpret this passage primarily as relating to the coming of Jesus and to the establishment of the Church. Much of the passage is understood metaphorically- we do not seek to control a particular piece of land upon the earth but instead to be united to God as one “People of God” who are spread out all over the earth. In our understanding, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist means that God dwells with us constantly in the tabernacles of our various Church communities.
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
With the coming of Holy Week and spring and all the end of the school year activities that happen around now, my life feels quite busy – to the point that I’m flagging quite a bit in my Lenten disciplines. Back when Lent started, I had all sorts of ideas about how my fasting and prayer life would go, much like the exaggerated advertising claims you hear on television: “Have a Holier Life in ONLY six weeks’ time! Join Now!”
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
It is a striking coincidence that in the middle of Lent we celebrate this Solemnity of the Annunciation. It is a reminder to us that although we are in the season of penance and preparation for the resurrection and Easter season, we are only nine months away from Christmas. Today we celebrate the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, and hence we also celebrate the conception of Christ within her blessed womb. In a society that often does not consider conception as the beginning of life, this solemnity stands as a marked reminder that for Catholics, conceptions do matter, as does responding to God’s will. It is also a reminder to us that pregnancy takes time. Our Advent preparation for Christmas is remarkably short compared to the nine months of Mary’s preparation for the Nativity.
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
The Rites of Christian Initiation (Sacraments of Baptism, First Eucharist, and Confirnation administered to adults during Easter vigil) entitle Lent as “The Period of Purification and Enlightenment.” This whole season has included ritual possibilities for our candidates and catechumens to be purified. The Lenten season is of course full of opportunities for all Christians to grow away from sin and become more faithful to the gospel. For any of us who have been trying to stay true to our Lenten sacrifices, we know that when faced with giving into temptation, some days are better than others. Sometimes the stress of the day can push us in directions that lead us away from God. Purification occurs when we stay true to our faith commitments. Although purification is at times painful, its process often leaves us healthier and holier. What is not always clear at the beginning of the process is what will be the end results?
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s Gospel reading provides us with a clue to a Christian typological reading of our first reading today from the Book of Numbers. In our first reading from Numbers, we find the Israelites dying in the wilderness. They are dying because of their sins. This might not at first be apparent, since their proximate cause of death was the seraph serpents God sent among them. But the serpents are sent among them in response to their sinful murmuring, impatience and complaining against God, and thus the serpents were a means of blessing, a means by which the people were incited to turn back to the Lord. The difficult time of the wilderness, combined with the deaths from the serpents, assisted the people in their repentance and turning back to God, following the instructions of Moses. And Moses’ instructions were simple: look up at the seraph Moses had made, lifted up on a pole.
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Yesterday began our fifth and penultimate week of Lent. As we continue along our journey this week, our eyes are focused ever more intently on Jesus and his journey to Jerusalem, to his passion and crucifixion. Our first reading today comes from the book of Daniel and contains a story that is at once tragic, dramatic, and joyful. Susanna, a holy and beautiful woman, is unjustly accused by elders who have lusted after her. She is on the verge of being put to death unfairly when a young boy named Daniel steps in and comes to her defense by challenging the elders.
Fifth Sunday of Lent
(Reflection based on Cycle C Readings)
Today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah announces something new for Israel. The imagery shows that Isaiah envisions a new exodus event which brings water to the desert. This oracle shares similarities with the vision in Jeremiah 31 of a new covenant God will make, again depicting it as a new exodus event. In St. Luke’s Gospel, and elsewhere, Jesus’ mission in Jerusalem, His passion, death, and resurrection, is depicted as that new exodus event.
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
There is an interesting interplay in today’s readings between our expectations or knowledge and God’s work.
In the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, we hear the emphasis on God as the one who knows all, “I knew their plot because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings” (Jer 11:18). All knowledge comes from God yet, like Jeremiah, we don’t always realize what God is telling us.