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Showing posts with the label Lent

Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Lent, Year A

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The Raising of Lazarus Caravaggio [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) Readings   (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)    Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   John 11:1-45   (English Standard Version, Anglicised) There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’  On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’  Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the ...

Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday of Lent, Year A, 15 March 2026

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Fr Noel O'Neill with Myeong Sek Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) Readings   (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   John 9:1-41   (English Standard Version, Anglicised) [For the shorter form (9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38) omit the text in brackets and italics.] At that time: As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.  [ And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said these things, ]  he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said ...

Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A, 8 March 2026

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Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well Guercino [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) Readings   (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel  John 4:5-42   (English Standard Version, Anglicised) [For the shorter form (4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42) omit the text in brackets.] At that time: Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ...

Lenten Misery Misses the Point

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Detail, "The Fight Between Carnival and Lent", Pieter Brueghel the Elder. (1559) In this bit, Lent's winning. It's Lent and I'm a Catholic. So how come I'm not sitting in some dark corner, reflecting on doom, gloom, and how perfectly rotten I am? Or at least moaning and wringing my hands over the world's dreadfully dire state: as illustrated in my news feed. Basically, it's because neither will help me line myself up with Jesus: doing prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Work on lining myself up, that is: it's a job that lasts as long as life does.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Being miserable is not the goal of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during Lent; following Jesus is. Plus a look at the history of fashionable melancholy.)

Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Lent, Year A, 1 March 2026

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Transfiguration Cristofero Gherardi [ Web Gallery of Art ] He was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him  (Matthew 17:2-3; Gospel). Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) Readings   (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Matthew 17:1-19   (English Standard Version, Anglicised) At that time: Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and o...

Sunday Reflections, 1st Sunday of Lent, Year A, 22 February 2026

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Landscape with the Temptation of Christ Joos de Momper [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) Readings  (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Matthew 4:1-11   (English Standard Version, Anglicised) At that time: Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’ Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the Temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you”, and “On their ha...

Jesus acknowledges her sin but sends her away forgiven. Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Lent, Year C

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From   The Gospel of John   (2003) directed by Philip Saville Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,) Readings   (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   John 8:1-11  (English Standard Version, Anglicised) At that time: Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?’ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said t...

'Fortunately for us, God never fails in his faithfulness' (Benedict XVI). Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday of Lent, Year C

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T he Return of the Prodigal Son Rembrandt [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,) Readings   (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Luke 15:1-3, 11- 32  (English Standard Version, Anglicised) At that time: The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ So he told them this parable: ‘There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.” And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that co...