Every year in Holy Week we hear two lengthy accounts of Jesus’ passion. On Palm Sunday one of the first three Gospel narratives is proclaimed. On Good Friday we always hear the passion according St. John. It contrasts strongly with the versions read on Palm Sunday. Each story in what we call the synoptic Gospels […]
Good Friday, April 2, 2010 Read More »
Central to the story of the people of the Old Testament was their liberation from slavery and their ritual celebration of this each year at the feast of Passover. It was that occasion which Jesus used to inaugurate the new covenant He was to establish – a covenant that would completely transform our understanding as
Holy Thursday – Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2010 Read More »
There is a dramatic change between Jesus’ popularity on Palm Sunday and His stark loneliness on the cross; and a change too between the declared loyalty of His disciples and their cowardly desertion of Him. Perhaps the greatest change is in the people. The cries of “Hosanna†have gone and they now clamor for His
Palm Sunday – VI Sunday of Lent – Cycle “Câ€, March 28, 2010 Read More »
Today’s Gospel asks us to examine our own lives. Are we a people who happily throw stones at other people? Do we regard ourselves as righteous, and others as rubbish? Do we deal in oppression? Do we demand that others dance to our tune? Or can we tolerate difference? Can we cope with others’ failings?
Passion Sunday – V Sunday of Lent – Cycle “Câ€, March 21, 2010 Read More »
“This year we are commemorating the 113th Anniversary of the organization of the Polish National Catholic Church. All of the celebrations will reflect upon the fact that on March 14, 1897 Father Francis Hodur accepted the call of the Polish immigrants of the newly constructed St. Stanislaus Church on the South Side of Scranton, PA
Today’s parable has been called the parable of the second chance because it teaches that God offers people a second chance, as the apostles Peter and Paul could testify. The gardener tells the owner of the vineyard that it is necessary to give the fig tree another chance to produce fruit. This parable follows two
III Sunday of Lent – Cycle “Câ€, March 7, 2010 Read More »
As we enter the second week of Lent we hear the story of Jesus’ glorious transfiguration. It comes not long after Jesus has been telling the disciples that He is going to suffer and die, and that those who wish to be His disciples must let go of their own needs, take up their cross
II Sunday of Lent – Cycle “Câ€, February 28, 2010 Read More »
Today Jesus goes into the desert, but just before this St. Luke has given us an account of His baptism. Jesus goes into the desert to confront the temptations that Israel had faced. At the beginning of His public life He must defeat the forces that will test Him at the end of His life
I Sunday of Lent – Cycle “Câ€, February 21, 2010 Read More »
On first reading today’s Gospel, it might appear that Jesus was suggesting that poverty and all its consequences – hunger, sickness, infant mortality – could make people happy. Jesus was talking to people who had come to Him to be delivered from that type of wretchedness. They came because they wanted change in their world.
VI Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle “Câ€, February 14, 2010 Read More »
The three readings in our liturgy today focus on three different people who come to believe. But before they come to faith, they all respond with fear, with hesitation, or with a deep sense of their own unworthiness. Yet they become convinced of the reality of the presence of God, and it’s a presence to
V Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle “Câ€, February 5, 2010 Read More »