The Better Part

John 14.15-21 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection The Gospel for this Sunday picks up where we left off last Sunday in the long conversation that Jesus has with his disciples at the Last Supper before he dies and rises to eternal life. Jesus reassures them that he will not leave them orphaned but will send the Holy Spirit to live in them so that they can make Jesus known to the world. Through them, the world can see Jesus, and the world can then receive the Spirit. Throughout

John 14:1-12 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Unlike the other Gospels, St. John's Gospel records a great long conversation Jesus has with his disciples at the Last Supper. It seems that before he dies and rises to new life, Jesus wants his disciples to think deeply both about who he is, and about who they are because of him. Jesus tells his disciples that he goes to prepare a place for them in his Father's house. They are not to be troubled, because they will join him the

John 10:1-10 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Many of us are very familiar with the image of the Good Shepherd. The Gospel for this Sunday, however, includes an image that may not be as familiar. Jesus says, I am the gate for the sheep. The gate? How can he be both gate and shepherd?? Some scripture scholars—people who study the Holy Bible—suggest that this is a mini-parable inserted into the bigger parable of the Good Shepherd. We can look at the parables separately or to

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

Luke 23.35-43 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n This Sunday is the last Sunday of the Church year. The year ends with a feast—Christ the King. The Gospel reading for this Sunday takes us to the moment of the crucifixion. It seems a little strange that the celebration of Christ the King should include scripture about Jesus dying on the cross. Would it not make more sense to celebrate the Resurrection? Why proclaim his death? And the people stood by, watching; but the l

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 7.11-17 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n Each year we celebrate All Saints Day on November 1st and then All Souls Day on November 2nd. On All Saints, we remember the crowd of people that the Church knows for sure are filled with the Risen Life of God. On All Souls, we remember the crowds of people who died before us. We begin this month, the last month of the Church year, thinking about death. Why? Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large

Luke 18.9-14 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells another parable about prayer. We know that prayer is conversation with God, both listening and speaking. Conversation deepens relationships. This parable, then we can say, is about relationship with God . “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The people listening to Jesus know Pharisees and tax collectors. Pharisees are good people

Luke 18:1-8 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells us a parable about prayer. We know there are different kinds of prayer, different reasons for praying. We can pray in thanksgiving for the blessings we enjoy. We can praise God, telling all the world how great and good God is. The kind of prayer that most people know, though, is prayers of petition or intercession—asking for God's help for ourselves or for someone else. This is th

Luke 17.11-19 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n Much of the time, Jesus preaches to the people about the Kingdom of God. He...

Luke 17.5-10 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n Sometimes, the things that Jesus says just seem wonky. In the Gospel for this...

Luke 16.19-31 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells another parable. This is his best way...

Luke 16 .1-13 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells an odd parable about a manager who did...

John 3.1 3-17 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. To...

Luke 14:25-33 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells the large crowds of people following...

Luke 14:1, 7-14 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus gathers with a bunch of people for...

Luke 13.22-30 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells a parable about entering the Kingdom...

Luke 12:49-53 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n Usually, we think about Jesus being calm and in control. He is the man of peace,...

Luke 12.32- 40 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n Jesus looks around at his small band of followers. How much he loves this little...

Luke 12.13-21 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n The Gospel for this Sunday has a shocking beginning. Someone asks Jesus for help...

Luke 11.1-13 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n In order to have a relationship with someone, we know that we have to spend time...

Luke 10.38-42 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n (I consider this Sunday the feast day of this website. When you read the...

Luke 10.25-37 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n The Gospel for this Sunday contains one of Jesus' most famous parables. Knowing...

Luke 10.1-12, 17-20 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflectio n One of the great things about Jesus is that there is no difference between...

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...

Luke 9.11b-17 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of the Body and the Blood of Christ. A feast...

John 16.12-15 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We know that all God desires is to gather us all together into God—for the Kingdom of...

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...

Luke 24.44-53 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Soon we will reach the end of the forty-nine days of the Easter season and soon we...

John 14.23-29 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday we celebrate the sixth Sunday of Easter. The season of Easter continues...