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January 13, 2014Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Sm 1:1-8 There was a certain man from Ramathaim, Elkanah by name,a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim.He was the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu,son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.He had two wives, one named Hannah, the other Peninnah;Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.This man regularly went on pilgrimage from his cityto worship the LORD of hosts and to sacrifice to him at Shiloh,where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas,were ministering as priests of the LORD.When the day...

In the readings today, the Church presents for us a strong reminder and teaching on the resurrection. Jesus himself leads the charge against those who would deny the resurrection from the dead and the seven Brothers of the first reading along with their mother bring up the rear. Let’s take a look at what we are taught in three stages.I. Ridicule of the Resurrection - The Gospel opens with the observation that Some Sadducees, who deny there is a resurrection, came forward and put [a] question to Jesus. These Sadducees propose to Jesus a ridiculous example about a woman who...

November 30, 2013 Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle    Reading 1 Rom 10:9-18 Brothers and sisters:If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lordand believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,you will be saved.For one believes with the heart and so is justified,and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.The Scripture says,No one who believes in him will be put to shame.There is no distinction between Jew and Greek;the same Lord is Lord of all,enriching all who call upon him.For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But...

November 29, 2013 Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Dn 7:2-14 In a vision I, Daniel, saw during the night,the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea,from which emerged four immense beasts,each different from the others.The first was like a lion, but with eagle’s wings.While I watched, the wings were plucked;it was raised from the ground to stand on two feetlike a man, and given a human mind. The second was like a bear; it was raised up on one side,and among the teeth in its mouth were three tusks.It was given the...

November 28, 2013 Thursday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Dn 6:12-28 Some men rushed into the upper chamber of Daniel’s homeand found him praying and pleading before his God.Then they went to remind the king about the prohibition:“Did you not decree, O king,that no one is to address a petition to god or manfor thirty days, except to you, O king;otherwise he shall be cast into a den of lions?”The king answered them, “The decree is absolute,irrevocable under the Mede and Persian law.”To this they replied, “Daniel, the Jewish exile,has paid no attention to you,...

November 27, 2013 Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Dn 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his lords,with whom he drank.Under the influence of the wine,he ordered the gold and silver vesselswhich Nebuchadnezzar, his father,had taken from the temple in Jerusalem,to be brought in so that the king, his lords,his wives and his entertainers might drink from them.When the gold and silver vesselstaken from the house of God in Jerusalem had been brought in,and while the king, his lords, his wives and his entertainerswere drinking wine from...

November 26, 2013 Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Dn 2:31-45 Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar:“In your vision, O king, you saw a statue,very large and exceedingly bright,terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.The head of the statue was pure gold,its chest and arms were silver,its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron,its feet partly iron and partly tile.While you looked at the statue,a stone which was hewn from a mountainwithout a hand being put to it,struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at...

November 25, 2013 Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Dn 1:1-6, 8-20 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon cameand laid siege to Jerusalem.The Lord handed over to him Jehoiakim, king of Judah,and some of the vessels of the temple of God;he carried them off to the land of Shinar,and placed the vessels in the temple treasury of his god. The king told Ashpenaz, his chief chamberlain,to bring in some of the children of Israel of royal bloodand of the nobility, young men without any defect,handsome, intelligent...

November 24, 2013 Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe    Reading 1 2 Sm 5:1-3 In those days, all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said:"Here we are, your bone and your flesh. In days past, when Saul was our king,it was you who led the Israelites out and brought them back. And the LORD said to you,'You shall shepherd my people Israeland shall be commander of Israel.'" When all the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron,King David made an agreement with them there before the LORD,and they anointed him king of...

November 23, 2013 Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Mc 6:1-13 As King Antiochus was traversing the inland provinces,he heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais,famous for its wealth in silver and gold,and that its temple was very rich,containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weaponsleft there by Alexander, son of Philip,king of Macedon, the first king of the Greeks.He went therefore and tried to capture and pillage the city.But he could not do so,because his plan became known to the people of the citywho rose up in battle against him.So he retreated...

November 22, 2013 Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr    Reading 1 1 Mc 4:36-37, 52-59 Judas and his brothers said,“Now that our enemies have been crushed,let us go up to purify the sanctuary and rededicate it.”So the whole army assembled, and went up to Mount Zion. Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month,that is, the month of Chislev,in the year one hundred and forty-eight,they arose and offered sacrifice according to the lawon the new altar of burnt offerings that they had made. On the anniversary of the day on which the Gentiles had...

November 21, 2013 Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary    Reading 1 1 Mc 2:15-29 The officers of the king in charge of enforcing the apostasycame to the city of Modein to organize the sacrifices.Many of Israel joined them,but Mattathias and his sons gathered in a group apart.Then the officers of the king addressed Mattathias:“You are a leader, an honorable and great man in this city,supported by sons and kin.Come now, be the first to obey the king’s command,as all the Gentiles and the men of Judahand those who are left in Jerusalem have done.Then you and...

November 20, 2013 Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 2 Mc 7:1, 20-31 It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrestedand tortured with whips and scourges by the king,to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law. Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother,who saw her seven sons perish in a single day,yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord.Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart with manly courage,she exhorted each of themin the language of their ancestors with these words:“I do...

November 19, 2013 Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time   Reading 1 2 Mc 6:18-31 Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes,a man of advanced age and noble appearance,was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork. But preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement,he spat out the meat,and went forward of his own accord to the instrument of torture,as people ought to do who have the courage to reject the foodwhich it is unlawful to taste even for love of life. Those in charge of that unlawful ritual meal took the man aside privately,because of...

November 18, 2013 Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Mc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63 [From the descendants of Alexander’s officers]there sprang a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes,son of King Antiochus, once a hostage at Rome.He became king in the year one hundred and thirty sevenof the kingdom of the Greeks. In those days there appeared in Israelmen who were breakers of the law,and they seduced many people, saying:“Let us go and make an alliance with the Gentiles all around us;since we separated from them, many evils have come upon us.”The proposal was agreeable;some from among...

November 17, 2013 Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Mal 3:19-20a Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,and the day that is coming will set them on fire,leaving them neither root nor branch,says the LORD of hosts.But for you who fear my name, there will arisethe sun of justice with its healing rays. Responsorial Psalm Ps 98:5-6, 7-8, 9 R. (cf. 9) The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.Sing praise to the LORD with the harp,with the harp and melodious song.With trumpets and the sound...

November 16, 2013 Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Wis 18:14-16; 19:6-9 When peaceful stillness compassed everythingand the night in its swift course was half spent,Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal thronebounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree.And as he alighted, he filled every place with death;he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth. For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew,serving its natural laws,that your children might be preserved unharmed.The cloud overshadowed their camp;and out of what had before...

November 15, 2013 Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Wis 13:1-9 All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God,and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is,and from studying the works did not discern the artisan;But either fire, or wind, or the swift air,or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water,or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods.Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods,let them know how far more excellent is the Lord...

November 14, 2013 Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Wis 7:22b–8:1 In Wisdom is a spiritintelligent, holy, unique,Manifold, subtle, agile,clear, unstained, certain,Not baneful, loving the good, keen,unhampered, beneficent, kindly,Firm, secure, tranquil,all-powerful, all-seeing,And pervading all spirits,though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle.For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion,and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.For she is an aura of the might of Godand a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty;therefore nought that is sullied enters into her.For she is the refulgence of eternal light,the spotless mirror of the...

November 13, 2013 Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin    Reading 1 Wis 6:1-11 Hear, O kings, and understand;learn, you magistrates of the earth’s expanse!Hearken, you who are in power over the multitudeand lord it over throngs of peoples!Because authority was given you by the Lordand sovereignty by the Most High,who shall probe your works and scrutinize your counsels.Because, though you were ministers of his kingdom, you judged not rightly,and did not keep the law,nor walk according to the will of God,Terribly and swiftly shall he come against you,because judgment is stern for the exalted–For the lowly may be...