2024

Those of us in the Sacramento Diocese invite you to celebrate with us the 135th anniversary of the dedication our Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament! Today’s readings are about Jesus as the giver of life. The Gospel consists of two related stories, one subsumed within the other, a typical structure that Mark frequently uses in His […]

St. Peter “I do so love St. Peter,” says a friend of mine. “Whenever he opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it.” She is right, of course. Whatever else St. Peter may be, he is not the model of a wise and noble hero. Yes, he walks on water – but then panics and starts

Today we come to the end of the sad story of Israel’s degradation and humiliation – the second deportation (2 Kings 25:1‑12). Yesterday we saw how Mattaniah, renamed Zedekiah, had been made a vassal king of Judah, the southern kingdom, by Nebuchadnezzar. He was no improvement over his predecessors. The passage which comes between yesterday’s and today’s

For the past few weeks, we have been following the stories of a succession of Jewish Kings, and by inference the Jewish people, in the 600-700 years before the birth of Jesus.  We have seen how the Jewish society split into two kingdoms, Samaria (also called Israel) in the north and Judah in the south.

In today’s Old Testament reading (2 Kings 22:8‑13; 23:1‑3) takes place some 100 years after yesterday’s. King Josiah (641‑610 BC) is now on the throne of the southern kingdom of Judah. Hilkiah, the high priest, tells Shaphan, an expert in the Scriptures, that he has found the “Book of the Law” in the archives of the Temple. This

Had yesterday not been the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, it would have been the Monday of Week 12 in Ordinary Time Year II.  The Old Testament Reading prescribed for that day (2 Kings 17:5‑8, 13‑15, 18) continues the tragic tale of the Kings of Israel and Judah and the punishments

Apart from Mary and Joseph, John the Baptist is the only saint who has two feasts to himself: One, in August, that celebrates his death; and one, in June, that celebrates his birth. This is as it should be, for as Christ himself said, John was the greatest of the sons of men.  John, it

Yesterday I had to look deep to see the connection between the Scripture readings.  That is not the case today.  The theme seems to be that God reveals himself by calming stormy water. During the Sundays of Ordinary Time this year, we are reading from Mark’s Gospel. Mark gradually reveals to us who Jesus is,

When I first read today’s readings (2 Chronicles 24:17‑25 and Matthew 6:24–34), they did not seem to belong together.  Chronicles tells us about King Joash seeming to have learned nothing from the consequences of a sinful society, even though he himself had been saved from death through God’s intercession in yesterday’s readings.  The story relates a now

If we thought Queen Jezebel was bad, wait until we read about Queen Athalia (2 Kings 11:1-20).  She was a daughter of King Ahab, but Jezebel probably was not her mother.  Her influence on King Jehoram, her late husband, however, paralleled that of Jezebel on King Ahab. When her son, King Ahaziah died at the