Sep 30, 2024

(Job 3:1-3,11-17,20-23;   Ps.88:2-8;   Lk.9:51-56)

“My soul is surfeited with troubles

and my life draws near to the netherworld.”

After sitting in silence seven days, scraping the boils from his skin, finally, “Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.”  Finally he cries out against all his troubles, asking,...

Sep 28, 2024

(Nm.11:25-29;   Ps.19:8-10,12-14;   Jas.5:1-6;   Mk.9:38-43,45,47-48) 

“Would that all the people to the Lord were prophets!

Would that the Lord might bestow His Spirit on them all!”

There is of course a striking similarity in our first reading and our gospel today.  In one, Joshua, “who from his youth had been...

Sep 22, 2024

(Prv.3:27-34;   Ps.15:1-5;   Lk.8:16-18)

“The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked,

but the dwelling of the just He blesses.”

Light fills the house of him “who walks blamelessly and does justice; who thinks the truth in his heart and slanders not with his tongue,” for he who does these things is as...

Sep 21, 2024

(Ws.2:12,17-20;   Ps.54:3-8;   Jas.3:16-4:3;   Mk.9:30-37) 

“Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,

there is disorder and every foul practice.”

And can there be any greater foul practice come from jealousy and selfish ambition than that of which we hear in our first reading from the Book of Wisdom, for here the...

Sep 14, 2024

(Is.50:5-9a;   Ps.116:1-6,8-9;   Jas.2:14-18;   Mk.8:27-35)

“I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living.”

A simple enough statement made by our psalmist today, or so it seems.  For what does it mean to walk with Jesus along the way of the Almighty God?  What does such travel entail?  Is it but to impart a...