After the feasts and solemnities of recent weeks, we finally return to the regular Sundays in Ordinary Time. For the next few weeks, our New Testament Reading we will come from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians and, for the remainder of this year, we will be working sequentially through the Gospel of Mark.
The Readings this week make heavy use of plant imagery. So, dig out your trowel, dust off your gardening gloves and let’s get stuck in!
Life continues to be a bit hectic so I’m afraid these notes will be rather brief again…
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ: June 10th, 2012
This Sunday is the feast of “Corpus Christi” (Latin for “Body of Christ”), a feast which came about during the 13th Century. Our First Reading describes the institution of the Yahweh’s covenant with Israel through the Patriarch Moses. While instituting the Eucharist in our Gospel Reading, Jesus speaks about a new covenant in His blood. In the Second Reading we hear more about this covenant, brought about through Christ, our great High Priest.
Every time we go to Mass we renew our covenant with the Lord. Let us approach the Eucharist this week mindful of this great covenant, purchased for us by the very blood of Christ.
In all He did from the Incarnation to the Cross, the end Jesus Christ had in mind was the gift of the Eucharist, his personal and corporal union with each Christian through Communion. He saw in It the means of communicating to us all the treasures of His Passion, all the virtues of His Sacred Humanity, and all the merits of His Life. -St. Peter Julian Eymard
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: June 3, 2012
Last week we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost and this week we have another great celebration: Trinity Sunday. The Holy Trinity is one of the central truths of the Christian faith, declaring that there is only one God and in that Godhead there are three persons: Father, Son and Spirit.
The truth of the Trinity was something which was revealed by Christ, although there are hints found in the Old Testament. For example, the use of the first person, plural pronouns found in the Creation account:
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:26–27
Some Fathers also saw a hint of the Trinity in the call of the angels before God’s throne:
I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robefilled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” – Isaiah 6:3
Although revealed in the New Testament, the word “Trinity” is not found in Sacred Scripture. However, the word “Trinity” does describe the truth which is found in Scripture. The word is first used to describe God in the third century by Tertullian (although the word first makes its appearance in Christian theology in 170 AD through the writings of Theophilus of Antioch).
At every Mass we confess the truth of the Trinity in the Nicene Creed when we confess that Christ is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father”.
This Trinity is one God from Whom, through Whom, and in Whom all things exist – St. Augustine
If you are leading a Bible Study of these Readings, I would suggest reading them in the following order: Gospel, First Reading, Second Reading, Psalm.
Pentecost Sunday: May 27, 2012
This week is probably my favourite feast in the Church’s liturgical year: Pentecost. On the day the Holy Spirit came, three thousand people entered the Church. Let us pray to the Holy Spirit that we might see this again in our days…
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
In addition to being the Seventh Sunday in Easter, this Sunday is also Ascension Sunday. This has been an insanely busy week – sorry I didn’t get this posted earlier.
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord: 20th May, 2012
This Sunday we hear a glorious mystery! The Second Glorious Mystery to be precise! Yes, this Sunday we celebrate Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven.
In recent weeks, life among the Apostles had been, to put it mildly, a bit rocky (and not “rocky” in the good, “Peter” kind of way). In fact, things had been pretty awful. The Master had been betrayed, beaten and then killed on a cross. Dark times.
But then, something happened… He rose from the dead! For several weeks He had been appearing to His disciples! Life was good again! But then…what?…He left?
Huh? Things were finally starting to look up! Why did He leave? Did the Lord abandon His Church?
The Readings this week start to wrap up our Easter Season prior to the Feasts of Ascension and Pentecost.
In the First Reading we read about that great moment in Church History when the first Gentiles received baptism and entered the Church. In our Second Reading, we conclude our study of St. John’s First Epistle by hearing about the love of God. Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus unpacks His teaching concerning His metaphor of “the vine and the branches” which we heard last week.
As we come to the Eucharistic table this week let us come with thankful hearts. God’s love is so great that He came to redeem us, call us His friends, pour His Spirit into our hearts and make us members of His family.
Continuing my attempts to produce these Lectionary Notes in under four hours…
Fifth Sunday of Easter: 6th May, 2012
The Readings this week focus around life in Christ.
We begin with an account of St. Paul’s failed attempts in Jerusalem to commune with Christ’s Body, the Church. Strangely enough, it turns out that people tend to be a bit stand-offish if you’ve previously tried to kill them! In our Gospel Reading, Jesus teaches his disciples using the metaphor of the vine, showing us that union with Him is essential if we are to live. He gives us a warning too, that if we do not produce fruit, we will be cut off from Him and deprived of His Divine life. St. John restates this sentiment in the Second Reading, exhorting his readers to “love not in word…but in deed”.
Let us come to Mass this week thirsty for the grace of Christ which is communicated through His Church. Let us drink deeply, returning to the world refreshed, ready to share the life of Christ and to bear fruit which will last.
This Sunday we hear a glorious mystery! The 
