The Better Part

Luke 24.13-35 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection On this third Sunday of Easter, we hear an account of people meeting Jesus raised from the dead. It occurs on the afternoon of the Resurrection, after the women who find the tomb empty proclaim that Jesus is Risen. Only St. Luke records this event. Take a moment to read or listen to the Word of God. Then we can think about what St. Luke might want us to understand. What happens in this account? Two disciples leave Jerusalem

John 20:19-31 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection The Gospel reading for this second Sunday of Easter has two parts. It begins on the first Easter Sunday, the evening of the day that Jesus rises from the dead, and continues exactly one week later, on the second Sunday of the first Easter. St. John dictating the Gospel, looking over his shoulder for inspiration from the Holy Spirit St. John begins the reading with, When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week We

John 20:1-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection For many of us, this is a favourite Gospel passage. However, the closer we look at it, the more confusing it becomes. Everyone seems to see and yet not see . The reading begins, Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark... Already we know that without light, seeing is difficult. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran... We do not know if she sees th

Matthew 27:24-54 (full reading: Matthew 26.14 - 27.66 ) (Begin by reading the portion of the Gospel provided. Sometimes it is good to have someone read it to you. The Word is meant to be heard.) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday as Holy Week begins, the Church gives us two Gospel readings to consider: Jesus entering Jerusalem while the crowds wave palm branches, and St. Matthew's whole account of Jesus' Passion from the Last Supper to his death. We get a pictur

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, Jesus does the most miraculous—he raises Lazarus from the dead. We know that miracles are signs of what the Kingdom of God is like. In this Gospel passage, Jesus shows us stunningly that our God is the God of Life . We could, we should, we need to rest in that knowledge for a few moments every day! Our God is the God of Li

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 performs a miracle. We know that miracles reveal to us something of the Plan of God. They are signs of what the Kingdom of God is like. In fact, in the Gospel for the fourth Sunday of Lent, Jesus seems determined to give the disciples a sign. When he sees a man who has never been able to see, he says, he was born blind so that God’s wo

John 4.5-15 , 19-26 , 39-42 (full reading: John 4.5-42 ) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection   (full reading: John 4.5-42 ) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection When we read the Bible, we can ask ourselves, "What is God doing?" In the reading for this Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Lent, at first it does not appear that Jesus does much at all. He sits by a well and has a conversation with a woman from Samaria. No miracles. No parables. Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar,

Matthew 17.1-9 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection The Gospel for the second Sunday of Lent always features the Transfiguration. This strange event occurs in Jesus' life not long before he leaves Galilee, turning his face toward Jerusalem—toward the cross, toward his death and resurrection. Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. St. Matthew makes a point of telling us that the four of them go away "by themselv

Matthew 4.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection On Wednesday, the church entered a new season called Lent , the time of preparation   for the great feast of Easter. At Easter, we will celebrate Jesus dying and rising to the full life of God that begins to spread to all people throughout all of creation. But before we celebrate, we prepare . There will be six purple Sundays of Lent to prepare for the feast. Each year, on the first Sunday of Lent , we listen to what happens

Matthew 5.17, 20-24, 27-28, 33-34, 37++   full reading: Matthew 5.17-37 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n For several Sundays now, we listened to parts of a long section in St. Matthew's Gospel called, "The Sermon on the Mount." We call it this because Jesus preaches to people while sitting on the hillside of a mountain. People gather from all over Galilee to hear him. In the Gospel for this Sunday, we hear him say, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or

Matthew 5:13 -16   Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus continues to teach his disciples. He sits on the mountain looking out at them all—all of them looking back at him, waiting, listening. They come from all over just to listen to him. They come from across the land; they come from across time— we are here, too. Does Jesus know that we are here, listening? He says, “ You  are the light  of the world . What do these words reveal? Ho

Matthew 5:1-12   Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n The most incredible thing about Jesus is that, by dying on the cross, he defeats death. God fills him with abundant, eternal life—he can never die again. God turns everything we know upside-down. Life is stronger than death. Does Jesus spend his whole life waiting to die and rise again? Of course not. He spends his adult life telling all he knows about the Kingdom of God. Now Jesus enjoys the fullness of the life of G

Matthew 4:12-23   Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n This Sunday is the Sunday of the Word of God. The Word of God is a great gift to us. We enjoy our gifts. We play with them. So, each week, and in particular this week, we enjoy the Word. We play with it, turning it over and over, noticing how it touches our deepest needs, and delighting in the new aspects we discover. The Gospel begins with disturbing news. John the Baptist has been arrested. In the midst of reading

John 1:29-34   Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n After weeks of preparing and celebrating the feast of Christmas, we return to Ordinary Time. The church changes the colour back to green. However, in only a few short weeks we will enter another season of preparation and we look toward the feast of Easter. Always, Jesus' death and Resurrection is with us. In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, though, Jesus' death and Resurrection is still in his future. He just got bap

Matthew 3.13-17 Click here to listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n At the close of the Christmas season, we leave the secret years of Jesus' childhood behind and join the grown-up Jesus in the waters of the Jordan river. The feast of Christmas that celebrates God becoming human like us comes to an end with a particular look at Jesus' baptism. We have to ask ourselves, why does Jesus need to get baptized? John the Baptist sees a problem with this. Surely Jesus does not h

Matthew 2.13-15 , 19-23 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n Last week, we thought about Joseph who never speaks in the Gospels, but whose actions speak louder than words. God speaks, and Joseph acts. He listens to God who speaks to him in his dreams. In the Gospel reading this Sunday, we hear about three more of those dreams. In the first dream, God speaks and Joseph takes his family away to Egypt when it is no longer safe for them to stay in their home country of Israe

Matthew 1:18-24 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In Advent, we usually spend a lot of time with St. Luke's Gospel, thinking about the Annunciation to Mary—when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus. This Sunday's Gospel comes from St. Matthew. It allows us to consider the Annunciation to Joseph—how Joseph discovers who this child is to be. Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engag

Matthew 11.2-11 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n This Sunday we light the third candle of the Advent wreath for Gaudete  Sunday, the Sunday of rejoicing . Last Sunday, we heard about John the Baptist, the one with the disturbing message about cutting away the dead wood, preparing us for the new abundant life that Jesus brings. Now, stuck in prison, he hears rumours about Jesus and he wonders. “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” He asks if

Matthew 3.1-12 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n Each Advent , as we prepare  ourselves for the feast of the Light of God coming into the world, we hear about John the Baptist. We might even think of him as the   preparation  person. He prepares  people for Jesus, the Light of the World. Photo by Robert Thiemann on Unsplash In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “ Repent , for the Kingdom of God has come near.” This is the one

Matthew 24.37-44 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n This Sunday we begin the season of Advent . It is a time of preparing  for the feast of God coming into the world as one of us. God, who knows what it means to be cold and hungry, who knows what it is like to dance and to play sports, to laugh with friends, to be nervous before a test. God, who knows us . It is a good feast. To prepare, we change the colour of the season to purple . We notice that the reading today co