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The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has encouraged Christians to not allow the news of the moment to take over their minds, wills, and feelings.“Let us wage our invisible warfare against untruth and all that is trying to paralyze our will and seize our inner spiritual world,” Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said in a video message issued on April 1. Especially during the season of Lent, he said, Christians should evaluate whether “certain news that you read or see on television is news that tries to captivate your mind, will, or feelings, trying to become the inner occupier...

April 2nd 2022 commemoration of Saint Francis of Paola, hermit and saint The Church of Our Lady - Vor Frue Kirke, Aarhus, Denmark Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet First readingJeremiah 11:18-20 ©'Let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name may be quickly forgotten'The Lord revealed it to me; I was warned. O Lord, that was when you opened my eyes to their scheming. I for my part was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughter-house, not knowing the schemes they were plotting against me, ‘Let us destroy the tree in its...

“The Rejected Stone Is Our Cornerstone” (Luke 20:9-20) In our text today, from Luke chapter 20, Jesus is teaching in Jerusalem during Holy Week. Everybody is in town, Jesus, as well as his enemies, who are conspiring against him, plotting to get him arrested and put to death. The tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Jesus addresses that tension, with his enemies right there, listening to what he says. And what Jesus says in our text, he puts in two parts, using two different images. The first image is that of a vineyard, the second...

1 April 2022 Friday of the 4th week of Lent Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Lviv, Ukraine Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First readingWisdom 2:1,12-22 ©Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man and condemn him to a shameful deathThe godless say to themselves, with their misguided reasoning:‘Our life is short and dreary,nor is there any relief when man’s end comes,nor is anyone known who can give release from Hades.Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he annoys usand opposes our way of life,reproaches us for our breaches of the lawand accuses us of playing...

31 March 2022Thursday of the 4th week of Lent Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of Transfiguration, Lviv Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First readingExodus 32:7-14 ©Moses pleads with the Lord his God to spare IsraelThe Lord spoke to Moses, ‘Go down now, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have apostatised. They have been quick to leave the way I marked out for them; they have made themselves a calf of molten metal and have worshipped it and offered it sacrifice. “Here is your God, Israel,” they have cried “who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”’ the Lord...

“Faith for a Complicated World” (Luke 23:1-25) The world around us is a complicated place that can be hard to figure out. Life sometimes sends us a fair amount of pain and suffering. Whether you’ve come through a lot or been spared a bit, we all know this. And it can be perplexing. For instance, we can pray to God, but what about the prayers where he says, “no”? Or the prayers that seem to be met with silence? So it’s complicated, and we don’t know all that we’d like to know about how it all fits together. The world...

30 March 2022Wednesday of the 4th week of Lent The Entrance to the Cave of Saint John Climacus, Sinai Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First readingIsaiah 49:8-15 ©On the day of salvation I will help youThus says the Lord:At the favourable time I will answer you,on the day of salvation I will help you.(I have formed you and have appointed youas covenant of the people.)I will restore the landand assign you the estates that lie waste.I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out’,to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’On every roadway they will graze,and each bare height shall be their...

29 March 2022Tuesday of the 4th week of Lent St. Woolos Cathedral, Newport, UK Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First readingEzekiel 47:1-9,12 ©Wherever the water flows, it will bring life and healthThe angel brought me to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream came out from under the Temple threshold and flowed eastwards, since the Temple faced east. The water flowed from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar. He took me out by the north gate and led me right round outside as far as the outer east gate where the water flowed out on...

March 28th 2022 Monday of the 4th week of Lent St. Joseph's Church in Mandalay, Burma, ရှင်ဖရန်စစ်အစီစီကက်သလစ်ခရစ်ယန်ဘုရားရှိခိုးကျောင်း Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet First readingIsaiah 65:17-21 ©Be glad and rejoice for ever at what I am creatingThus says the Lord: Now I create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered, and will come no more to men’s minds. Be glad and rejoice for ever and ever for what I am creating, because I now create Jerusalem ‘Joy’ and her people ‘Gladness.’ I shall rejoice over Jerusalem and exult in my people. No more will the...

March 27th 2022 4th Sunday of Lent Catholic church, Rukminigaon, Guwahati, India Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet First readingJoshua 5:9-12 ©The Israelites celebrate their first Passover in the Promised LandThe Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have taken the shame of Egypt away from you.’ The Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal and kept the Passover there on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening in the plain of Jericho. On the morrow of the Passover they tasted the produce of that country, unleavened bread and roasted ears of corn, that same day. From that time, from their first...

“A Prodigal Son, a Prodigal Father, and a Pharisaical Brother” (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32) In our text today from Luke 15, the scribes and Pharisees are tut-tutting Jesus because he was hanging around with tax collectors and other obvious sinners. And he was not only welcoming them, Jesus was even having meals with them, table fellowship. “This man receives sinners and eats with them,” the scribes and Pharisees grumble--not even using Jesus’ name, just calling him “this man,” with a sneer in their voice. Yeah, this was too much for these pious and respectable religious leaders. They figured a true servant...

March 26th 2022 3rd Saturday of Lent St. Mary's parish, Alberta, Canada Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet First readingHosea 5:15-6:6 ©What I want is love, not sacrifice and holocaustsThe Lord says this:They will search for me in their misery.‘Come, let us return to the Lord.He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us;he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds;after a day or two he will bring us back to life,on the third day he will raise usand we shall live in his presence.Let us set ourselves to know the Lord;that he will come is...

Friday 25 March 2022 The Annunciation of the Lord, Solemnity St. Dismas Church, Waukegan, IL Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White.First readingIsaiah 7:10-14,8:10 ©The maiden is with childThe Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’ Then Isaiah said:‘Listen now, House of David:are you not satisfied with trying the patience of menwithout trying the patience of my God, too?The Lord himself, therefore,will give you a sign.It is this: the...

24 March 2022Thursday of the 3rd week of Lent Divine Providence Hospital. Chapel where Bishop Óscar Romero was killed. Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First readingJeremiah 7:23-28 ©Here is the nation that will not listen to the voice of the Lord its GodThese were my orders: Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Follow right to the end the way that I mark out for you, and you will prosper. But they did not listen, they did not pay attention; they followed the dictates of their own evil hearts, refused to face...

“When You See Such Blind Ignorance, What Do You Think?” (Luke 22:63 – 23:1) Tonight we’re going to look at how Luke describes the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin. Luke’s account is focused and shorter than the other gospels. It’s simplified, streamlined, stripped down. But what does Luke give us? Well, first, he tells us what those who had arrested Jesus were already doing to him, and from that it becomes clear where all this is going. Even before Jesus stands in front of the Sanhedrin, even before they have a chance to reject him, those who arrested Jesus...

23 March 2022Wednesday of the 3rd week of Lent St. Turibius Chapel at the Josephinum Pontifical College, Columbus, Ohio Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First readingDeuteronomy 4:1,5-9 ©Keep these laws and observe themMoses said to the people: ‘Now, Israel, take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today, and observe them, that you may have life and may enter and take possession of the land that the Lord the God of your fathers is giving you. ‘See, as the Lord my God has commanded me, I teach you the laws and customs that you are to observe in...

22 March 2022 Tuesday of the 3rd week of Lent St Agnes Catholic Church, Krabi Town, Ukraine Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First readingDaniel 3:25,34-43 ©Let our sacrifice to you today be a contrite soul and humbled spiritAzariah stood in the heart of the fire, and he began to pray:Oh! Do not abandon us for ever,for the sake of your name;do not repudiate your covenant,do not withdraw your favour from us,for the sake of Abraham, your friend,of Isaac your servant,and of Israel your holy one,to whom you promised descendants as countless as the stars of heavenand as the grains of sand...

21 March 2022 Monday of the 3rd week of Lent St. Demetrius Ukrainian Catholic Church, Fairfield, North Dakota Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First reading2 Kings 5:1-15 ©There were many lepers in Israel, but only Naaman, the Syrian, was curedNaaman, army commander to the king of Aram, was a man who enjoyed his master’s respect and favour, since through him the Lord had granted victory to the Aramaeans. But the man was a leper. Now on one of their raids, the Aramaeans had carried off from the land of Israel a little girl who had become a servant of Naaman’s...

March 20th 2022 3rd Sunday of Lent St. John Nepocene, Cleveland, Ohio Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White First readingExodus 3:1-8,13-15 ©'I AM has sent me to you'Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law priest of Midian. He led his flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing but it was not being burnt up. ‘I must go and...

“The Blood of the Galileans” (Luke 13:1-9) Whenever there’s a terrible tragedy in the news--a bombing that kills women and children in Ukraine, the police officer shot and killed in Bonne Terre on Thursday, a tornado that levels a town--people search for answers. They’re perplexed. They don’t understand. “Why?” they ask. “Why did this awful thing happen?” And they look for someone to blame. They blame the perpetrator, if it’s a crime. Sometimes they blame the victim, thinking they must have had it coming to them. Sometimes they blame God, who let this evil thing happen. Those are the standard...