The Better Part

Matthew 14.13-21 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflection Each Gospel reading for the last four weeks has been filled with parables. Our heads swim in parables! In fact last week, in considering the parable of the Kingdom of God like a net that was thrown into the sea...we thought, we swim in it, right now! How can this be? This week, Jesus is through with parables (for now). He is finished talking. Now he acts. Jesus performs a miracle. Miracles, we know, are signs of the Ki

Matthew 13.44-52 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflection In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus again gives us three parables. Three parables and then an instruction that sounds like yet another parable. Perhaps he thinks we can handle all this! Let's think about what he can mean. Photo by Sebastian Pena Lambarri on Unsplash Jesus begins with two parables that sound very similar:, “The kingdom of God is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his

Matthew 13.24-43 Listen here to the Gospel and Reflection For the third Sunday in a row, Jesus talks about farming and sowing. Two weeks ago, we heard about taking his yoke, and we considered ploughing the earth to make ready the soil for sowing. Last week, we heard about the sower who flings wide the grain so that all the earth might produce wheat. This week we hear three parables: 1) the sower of the Wheat and the sower of the Weeds; 2) the person who sows a mustard seed; 3

Matthew 13.1-9 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection The Gospel for this Sunday has some great visuals. As we listen, we can imagine ourselves somewhere in the scene. Jesus leaves the house where he has been staying, and heads down to the beach by the Sea of Galilee. He only sits for a moment before people start to gather. They always come. This would tire most people out, but Jesus does not show it. He is so generous with his time. He will give the people what they want. A boa

Matthew 11.25-30 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus speaks of carrying burdens. He knows people work hard. He knows they tire. At first, it seems Jesus offers a trade, one burden for another: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is

Matthew 10.37-42 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Last Sunday, when we heard Jesus preparing his disciples to go out to teach, we thought about the fortitude needed to build the Kingdom of God. In the Gospel this week, Jesus continues with his instructions, and as he does so, he repeats one word over and over. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s

Matthew 10.26-33 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday, we hear Jesus preparing his disciples to go out into the world to spread the Good News about the Kingdom of God. It seems like a kind of pep talk, to get them pumped up before they go out. Why do the disciples need such encouragement? Three times Jesus tells the disciples not to be afraid: So have no fear of them... Do not fear those... So do not be afraid... Let's face it, those disciples are afraid. They are

Matthew 9.36 - 10.8 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection During Jesus' time on earth, he speaks often about the Kingdom of God. He shows people glimpses of the Kingdom of God, too, when he performs miracles. Always, always, he invites others to share in his work of bringing about the Kingdom of God here on earth. In the Gospel for this Sunday we see the beginning of this sharing of the work of the Kingdom. When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they wer

John 6.51-59 and the first reading: Deuteronomy 8.2-3, 14-16 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is the SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST. Jesus helps us to understand who he is and what he does. In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus begins with something that every one of the people who gather about him recognize: I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Every person gathered knows about the bread that came down from heaven. They all kn

John 3.16-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is Trinity Sunday and our Church asks us to stop and think for a while about the mystery of who our God is. Because it is a mystery, we cannot solve it, but by thinking closely about who God is, we draw closer to the mystery and deeper into the love of God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” These words of Jesus tell

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

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 that we speak of in the Creed: "He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty." Forty days after the Resurrection to the full life of God, Jesus returns to his Father in heaven. Frankly, this does not seem like the best of feasts. Imagine the disciples standing there on the mountain as Jesus

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,...