The Better Part

John 6.51-59 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday has a great long name: The SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST. Sometimes we call it by a shorter name: Corpus Christi. Either way, we think more about who Jesus is and who we are with him. In the Gospel for this Sunday, he says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. He tel

John 3.16-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is called Trinity Sunday. We say that God is Trinity—One God, three Persons. It does not seem to make a lot of sense. It is mystery. On this Sunday, we stop to think a bit more about this mystery—about who God is. Long before Jesus was born, we hear in the Bible of a man named Moses who asks God what he should say if someone should ask him for God's name. God says to Moses, “I AM who I AM.” This is a strange name, i

Acts 2.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Last week, we heard about Jesus ascending into heaven to oversee the building of the Kingdom. We also heard that the Lord works with them to build it. We wondered how this could be. How can Jesus sit at the right hand of God, overseeing the work, and at the same time be with us? We are missing something. Something has to happen between Jesus ascending, and the beginning of the building of the Kingdom. This Sunday, we celebrate t

Matthew 28.16-20 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection On Ascension Sunday, or the Feast of the Ascension, we celebrate the moment in Jesus' Risen life—forty days after the Resurrection to the full life of God—when he returns to his Father in heaven. "Ascend" means to rise from a lower level to a higher level. It can also mean to take the throne. We often call Jesus the King—the King of kings—and we celebrate the day that he takes his place on the heavenly throne. Once, when a

John 14.15-21 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday's Gospel continues the discussion from last week that Jesus has with his disciples at the Last Supper. Before he dies and rises to new life, Jesus needs the disciples to understand that there is going to be a new way for them to be together. Jesus says, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever." An advocate is someone who stands up for someone else, who speaks in their p

John 14:1-12 (read verses 1-7 for the 6-9 year old) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection The reading for this Sunday takes place at the Last Supper, before Jesus dies and rises to the full life of God. St. John tells us that before his death, Jesus reminds the disciples of what they know and gets them to think about who he is. Jesus says, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not

John 10:1-10 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Here it is, one of the best loved parables! Or, at least, here is one part of the parable. It is interesting that the church picks this part of the parable to proclaim this Sunday, because in it we hear trouble seven times. In the Bible, seven means perfect. In this reading then, we have the perfect storm of trouble. Three times Jesus mentions thieves, twice he mentions bandits, and twice he mentions strangers. A thief might st

Luke 24.13-35 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection The Gospel for this Sunday again takes place on the day that Jesus rises from the dead, full of the new life of God. This moment in Jesus' life, his birth into the Risen life of God, is so important that the Church returns again and again to the events of that day. This reading takes place in the afternoon of that day. Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and

John 20:19- 23 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection The Gospel for this Sunday actually begins on the evening of the day that Jesus rises from the dead, so full of the Risen Life that he can never die again. Although Mary Magdalene knows that Jesus is Risen and told the disciples, they hide in a house with all the doors locked. Fear fills them. Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘ Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the

John 20:1-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We know that when Jesus is born, a new moment begins in the History of the Kingdom of God. Never before this, throughout all of creation, throughout all the universe and its many wonders, has God become human. Never before has the Creator become one of the Created. This is brand new. And throughout his life on earth, Jesus does many things that have never been done before. But it is the moment after he dies and is buried—the

Matthew 26:17-35 (full reading: Matthew 26.14 - 27.66 ) (Adults, begin by reading aloud the portion of the Gospel provided here, unless the child is a very fluent reader.) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week when, all over the world, the Church thinks deeply about the events of Jesus' dying and rising to new life. This Sunday we hear two Gospel readings: Jesus entering Jerusalem while the crowds wave palm branches, and St. Matthew'

John 11.3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45 (full reading: John 11.1-45 ) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection In the Gospel for this Sunday, the fifth Sunday of Lent, we hear about a miraculous thing that Jesus does. He has a family of close friends, two sisters and a brother—Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Lazarus becomes very ill, and before Jesus arrives at their house, he dies. We hear that, Jesus began to weep. Of course Jesus cries. He grieves. He is full of sorrow because he loves Laza

John 9.1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38 (full reading: John 9.1-41 ) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, Jesus gives sight to a man who has never been able to see. He heals him. This is a miracle and it is marvellous, and it is one of many examples of Jesus healing people. Healing and faith go hand in hand. There seems to be a certain order to faith and healing. Look at these three other accounts of healing and faith: 1. Jesus turned, and seei

John 4.5-15 (full reading: John 4.5-42 ) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection On the third Sunday of Lent, we hear a conversation Jesus has as he takes a break from walking from town to town. His disciples have gone into a city to buy food. Meanwhile, Jesus waits by a well in the hot sun. He does not have a way to get the water that lies in the well. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” This is a strange thing for Jesus to do. It is

Matthew 17.1-9 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection In the Gospel for the second Sunday of Lent, Jesus takes three of his best friends, Peter, James, and his brother John, away by themselves for what seems at first to be an ordinary hike up a mountain. But in the Bible, when we hear about people going up a mountain, that is a sign for us. There is going to be an encounter with God. People who live near the Rocky Mountains in Canada or the United States, people who have seen p

Matthew 4.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We enter a new season in the church called Lent , a time of preparation for the great feast of Easter. At Easter, we celebrate Jesus dying and rising to new life—so full of the life of God that he can never die again! But before we celebrate, we prepare . There will be six purple Sundays to prepare for the feast. On the first Sunday of Lent , we hear what happens right after Jesus gets baptized. Jesus goes into the deser

Matthew 5.17, 20-24, 27-28, 33-34, 37++ full reading: Matthew 5.17-37 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n The Gospel reading for this Sunday is part of a long talk that Jesus gives while sitting on the hillside of a mountain, surrounded by so many people who gather to hear him. He says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets ; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill . Abolish means to put an end to something, or to get rid of it. Jesus s

Matthew 5:13 -16 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus sits on the mountain with his many disciples gathered around him, listening. He has told them how to be people of the Kingdom of God. He has shown them what pleases God. Then he looks right at each one of them and says, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and tramp

Matthew 5:1-12 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Bible, we often hear Jesus teaching people about the Kingdom of God. Jesus understands that we need to know about the Kingdom. He knows that when we set out to play a game with our friends, we first sit down to work out the rules. We want to know who can play. We want to know how to play well. Jesus understands that we need to know these things about the Kingdom of God. So he sits down and lets us look for a mo

Matthew 4:12-23 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n This Sunday is called the Sunday of the Word of God. Sometimes Jesus is called the Word of God made flesh. God gives the Word a body and a voice, something we can see and hear. We can see the Word of God in our imagination, and we hear it speak to us in our heart. In the Gospel, we hear Jesus, the Word Made Flesh, calling four people to come follow him. There are two pairs of brothers: Andrew and Simon (who is also