Sundays Readings: Acts 2:1-11; Psalms 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3B-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23 SEND OUT YOUR SPIRIT LORDIn today’s responsorial psalm the Church sings out: “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.” All three readings describe how God has answered that prayer already. In the first reading from…
Sunday’s Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Psalms 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; Ephesians 1:17-23; Mark 16:15-20 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ASCENSION The theological unity, or perhaps even the temporal experience of the early community, made it seem that Jesus’ resurrection and his ascension were inseparable aspects of a single mystery. Only in the later writings of Luke and John has…
Sunday’s Readings: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; Psalms 98:1, 2-3, 3-4; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17 THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT We have a unique episode in the Acts of the Apostles today. A whole roomful of people are baptized with the Holy Spirit before they are baptized with water! The verb used—“the Holy Spirit ‘fell’…
Sunday’s Readings: Acts 9:26-31; Psalms 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8 BEARING FRUIT Few of us, even when we meditate on the image of the vine and branches, stop to really think about how God “prunes” us. For some there is the danger of thinking that we are already producing fruit for the…
Sunday’s Readings: Acts 4:8-12; Psalms 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18 RESPONDING TO THE CALLDo we truly know the voice of Christ? Do we truly respond to the voice of our shepherd with our own distinctive voice? How often we attempt to imitate those around us, appropriating the response of another…
Sunday’s Readings: Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; Psalms 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9; John 2:1-5; Luke 24:35-48 FULFILLMENTIt is interesting that during the Easter season, when we do not hear a reading from the Old Testament, it becomes so important. This is particularly true today. Peter’s speech begins with a prayer formula familiar to Jews: “The God of Abraham…
Sunday’s Readings: Acts 4:32-35; Psalms 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31 DOUBTThe desire to be able to prove the existence of a divinity has troubled humanity since human consciousness first became aware of the divine. To this very day we are fond of saying that any number of things—from sunsets to hot fudge sundaes—are…
Sunday’s Readings: Acts 10:34, 37-43; Psalms 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9 REJOICE AND BE GLADDuring the first three or four centuries of Christianity, if you asked a Christian to name the feast days of the church, your answer would have been a puzzled stare, for there was only one feast: the Resurrection of the…