The Better Part

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 This Sunday is a new feast. We celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. We call this feast Pentecost, and the colour of the feast is red. Last Sunday, we heard about Jesus returning to God in heaven. Before he goes, he asks his disciples to go and make new disciples in all countries of the earth. How can they do this, if they do not speak all the languages of the earth? This Sunday we find out what happens next. When the day of

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

Acts 2.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples and Mary in Jerusalem. We consider this day the birthday of the Church, because on this day, 3000 people are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. The light of Jesus' Risen life begins to spread. Image by Holger Schué from Pixabay The account of Pentecost is filled with sound. there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it fill

John 14.15-21 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Last Sunday we listened to Jesus remind the disciples that the Good Shepherd goes ahead of his sheep. Jesus tells them that he will go ahead to prepare a place in his Father's house so that they can be together. He says these things because the disciples are upset. They do not want him to leave them. Jesus knows this, and he knows that they are still worried. In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus continues to reassure them--to

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 20:19- 22 (full reading John 20:19-31) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We know that early in the morning, after Jesus rises from the dead, Mary Magdalene sees Jesus in the garden. He calls her by name and then she knows—Jesus is Risen to new life, never to die again. Jesus tells her to go and tell the disciples, so she does. The Gospel reading for this Sunday begins in the evening of that very same day that Jesus rises from the dead never to die again. When it wa

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 20:19-31 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 4.5-15 (full reading: John 4.5-42 ) Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We have had two Sundays of Lent; now we come to the third one. On this Sunday, we hear about Jesus taking a break after walking from one town to another on a very hot day. We know what happens when we walk or work or play in the hot sun. We get tired and thirsty. We need rest and water. Does this happen to Jesus, too? So Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar... Jacob’s well was there, and Je

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 5:1-12 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n We know that in the Bible, Jesus walks from town to town teaching about the Kingdom of God . People follow him because they love to hear his voice. In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus takes a break from walking. He sits down. But Jesus does not stop teaching about the Kingdom of God . Oh no. The people still get to listen to his voice. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his dis

John 1:29-34 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n Once again, this Sunday, we hear about John the Baptist. We might remember that John the Baptist is a cousin to Jesus. Jesus' mother, Mary, and John the Baptist's mother, Elizabeth, are cousins (Luke 1:36). That means their children are cousins, too. In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus and John the Baptist are both grown-up men. Jesus comes to John to get baptized. The next day, when John the Baptist sees Jesus again,

John 1:29-34 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n After weeks of preparing and celebrating the feast of the Light coming in the world, we now return to Ordinary Time. The church changes the colour to green. In many parts of the world, snow covers the ground; there is no green. When we finally see green poking though the snow and green beginning to cover the bare branches of trees, we know spring comes. Things grow. Ordinary Time is a good time for growing—growing in Go

Luke 21.5-19 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus seems to take a perfectly ordinary conversation and turn it upside down. When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” Jesus' disciples seem to praise the beautiful Temple built for Go

John 2.13-25 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n This Sunday, we celebrate the oldest Catholic basilica found in Rome. A basilica is an impressive palace-like church that stands as a reminder of the glory of God. In the Gospel reading, Jesus arrives at the Temple in Jerusalem to pray. Like our basilicas, the Temple stands as a visible dwelling place for the invisible God whose great mercy brought the people out of slavery to freedom. The Passover of the Jews was nea

Luke 12:49-53 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n (Adults, this reflection considers simply the first verse of the Gospel reading,...

Luke 12:49-53 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n (Adults, this reflection considers simply the first two verses of the Gospel...

Matthew 16.13- 19 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n The Gospel for this Sunday occurs after the disciples travel with Jesus for...

Matthew 16.13- 19 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n At the beginning of the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus asks the disciples two...