Category: Catholicism

Sunday Lectionary: Saving Shepherd

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Producing these Lectionary Notes has been taking too long again. Therefore I’m giving myself a time limit of a few hours. Let’s do this…

Fourth Sunday of Easter: April 29th, 2012

The Readings at Mass this week focus around the person of Jesus Christ and his unique, fundamental place in Salvation History. In our First Reading, St. Peter boldly proclaims that “There is no salvation through anyone else”. In our Psalm we sing the words quoted by Peter in that speech to the Sanhedrin, declaring that Jesus is “the stone rejected by the builders [which] has become the cornerstone”. In the Gospel Reading, Jesus declares that He is “the good shepherd”  who “lays down his life for the sheep” and, as we hear in our Second Reading, because of this we may truly be called “the children of God”.

At this Sunday’s Mass, confident in the goodness of our Shepherd, let us firmly put our trust in Him.

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever – Psalm 23

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Sunday Lectionary: A Father who keeps His Promises

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Third Sunday of Easter: 22nd April, 2012

Happy Easter! Yes, it’s still Easter! This week we celebrate the third Sunday of the Easter season as we continue on the road towards Pentecost.

For our Gospel Reading we hear another resurrection account, this week from St. Luke. In it, the Lord appears to His disciples and demonstrates to them that He has risen bodily from the dead. He then “opens their minds” to see how all that had come to pass was the will of the Father, His plan and His promise from the beginning.

In our Responsorial Psalm, David speaks of a God who comes to the rescue, bestowing light and peace to those in trouble. God’s rescuing love finds its fullest expression, of course, in the coming of Jesus Christ and in our First Reading we hear St. Peter proclaim this Good News to the crowd. Peter explains that through Christ’s saving sacrifice can be saved and in our Second Reading St. John reflects upon this and upon our call to respond in obedience to this great love of God.

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Music for the soul

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I just spent a wonderful morning with a good friend. We had breakfast, caught up on news and then spent the rest of the morning playing guitar together and singing. It was absolutely wonderful. There really is something about music which both soothes and enlivens the soul:

“Music is the vernacular of the human soul” – Geoffrey Latham

Why stop now?

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For the last six weeks Catholics have been abstaining from meat on Fridays as part of their Lenten observance. Lent is over!…Easter is here!…does that mean that we can stop now?

In centuries past

Christians have historically done penance on Fridays to remember our Lord’s Passion, as well as on Wednesdays to recall Judas’ betrayal:

…fast on [Wednesday] and [Friday] – The Didache (1st Century), Chapter 8

What about now?

There has been some confusion over this subject in recent years, but Canon Law states:

The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent – Canon 1250

So, it’s clear that every Friday is a penitential day. But what kind of penance is required?

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