Tag: Moses

Sunday Lectionary: Extraordinary Grace

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As I said, I’ll still be producing these Lectionary Notes from time to time, as and when we have new people leading the JP2 Group’s Bible Study. This week Rob will be leading for the first time, so here are some notes…

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 30th, 2012

Our Readings this week concern God’s gratuitous gift of His Spirit.

In the First Reading, even though Eldad and Medad were not at the Tent of Meeting, God’s Spirit falls upon them. In the Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples not to hinder the work done in His name by others simply because they didn’t belong to their group. Jesus then gives them some warnings, exhorting them to cast off anything which hinders their entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. St. James in our Second Reading is handing out warnings too, especially to the rich.

The Sacraments are the “ordinary” means of God’s grace (although far from “ordinary”!), but God’s grace is not simply restricted to the Sacraments. So, as you go about this week, be on the lookout for God’s “extra-ordinary” grace at work…

grace

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Sunday Lectionary: The deaf will hear

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Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 9th, 2012

In our First Reading this week Isaiah consoles Israel, promising a time will come when wrongs will be made right, when “the ears of the deaf [will] be cleared” and the dry lands be refreshed. From the very beginning of the Bible, a Saviour was promised, a Messiah who would heal the rupture between man and God. Isaiah’s words find their fulfillment in this Sunday’s Gospel Reading as Jesus restores a man’s hearing, a sign that the long awaited Messiah had finally come…

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Sunday Lectionary: Take. Eat.

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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

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Sunday Lectionary: Holy Trinity Sunday

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Fairly terse notes today, I’m afraid…

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 

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Sunday Lectionary: Fire Fall Down

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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.

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Sunday Lectionary: Cleaning Out The House

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3rd Sunday Of Lent, 11th March 2012

The First Reading and the Gospel this week recall events of epic proportion.

The First Reading takes place three months after the Israelite exodus from Egypt. The Children of Israel have journeyed through the desert and found themselves at the foot of Mount Sinai. The stage is set for arguably one of the most important events of the Old Testament: the giving the Ten Commandments through Charlton Heston Moses.

The Gospel Reading contains no less drama! We read the account from John’s Gospel of the “cleansing of the Temple”. The Lord drives out the money lenders and animal sellers and, when challenged by the authorities, He speaks outlandishly about the destruction of the Temple and its rebuilding in three days…

Moses guarded the nation of Israel and, through God’s grace and guidance, acted as Israel’s leader, law-giver, mediator and intercessor. In Christ all these roles find their fulfillment and perfection.

The Temple has been cleansed. A new dawn is at hand…

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Glory Unveiled

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I’m late, but I’m back!  “Theology On Tap” and “Daughters Of The King” craziness is mostly over now so proper blogging should resume shortly…

2nd Sunday of Lent: 4th March, 2012

The Readings this Sunday are a source of encouragement to strengthen to us during this Lenten season.

In the First Reading we read the familiar story of the testing of Abraham. This patriarch was asked by God to offer what was most precious to him, his own beloved son. This Reading demonstrates the obedience of Abraham, but it also gives us a picture of the love of God the Father who “so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” – John 3:16.

The theme of Christ’s sacrifice is picked up by St. Paul in our Second Reading where he asks “[God] did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?”. 

Finally, in this week’s Gospel we read the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus, together with His “inner circle” ascend a mountain where His glory is unveiled. While transfigured, Jesus is visited by the two greatest figures in Old Testament history, Moses and Elijah.

As this Lenten season continues, let us be inspired by Abraham’s love of God, comforted by the love of the Father which made Him give His Son and humbled by the love of the Son that He would come be our redeemer. Let us too  become “transfigured”, transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ as we serve Him in the world.

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