June 2026

Today’s Old Testament reading (1 Kings 18:20-39) again features the Prophet Elijah taking on King Ahab and the practice of Baal worship. Many Israelites detested Baal worship, not just because it was a challenge to the worship of the true God, but also because it was a fertility religion. The people worshipped Baal by magic […]

Today I am going to reflect on two Old Testament readings, one from today’s Mass readings, and the other from today’s Office of Readings. Both have the same message, presented in slightly different ways:  God will Provide. Our Old Testament Mass reading for today (1 Kings 17:7‑16), is a continuation of yesterday’s reading.   Elijah

Today’s Old Testament reading (1 Kings 17:1‑6) tells the story of Elijah taking on King Ahab and his trouble-brewing wife, Jezebel.  Jezebel, it seems, convinced Ahab to abandon worshiping Yahweh in favor of adopting the “new” regional religion of Baal.   This apostasy, warned Elijah, would lead to great troubles for the Jewish people, starting

(CORPUS CHRISTI) Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). This Solemnity is celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, or as in the United States, on the Sunday following Trinity Sunday.   While this Solemnity was not celebrated by the Church until the 13th Century, the reason for

Our first reading today (2 Timothy 4:1-8) is our last from 2 Timothy.  It is organized into two parts. The first consists of an exhortation to Timothy to be unwavering in his work of evangelizing and preaching. In the second part, Paul looks back on his own record as an evangelizer. It is clear that

In today’s First Reading (2 Timothy 3:10-17), Paul continues to urge Timothy to make Paul’s teaching and behavior the model for Timothy’s own life. Paul had very clear shortcomings, of which he was well aware, but he also knew that it is because of his weaknesses that the power of Jesus shines so strongly through

Today Paul reminds Timothy (2 Timothy 2:8‑15) that the heart of his preaching is that Jesus not only is one of us, descended from human beings (David and Mary), but also is God, as evidenced by his rising from death to life.  Since Jesus shares our human nature, he rightfully offers himself as a sacrifice

For the remaining four days of this week, we will be reading from the Second Letter to Timothy, one of the so-called “Pastoral Letters”. There are questions about the letter’s real authorship, but it is presented as a letter from the Apostle Paul to one of his most faithful assistants and companions, Timothy, who came

Yesterday we began the first of only two readings that we will have from the Second Letter of Peter (2 Peter 1:2‑7).  Today is the second reading (2 Peter 3:12‑15, 17-18).  Scripture scholars believe this letter was written by one of Peter’s disciples, sometime between 60-150 AD.     The letter begins by asserting the

Since Pentecost, our scripture readings have focused on our rejecting the allure of “false” teachings in favor of following the” true” teachings of Jesus.  One of the most serious of these false teachings, during the early years of the Church, was that of Gnosticism.  Gnosticism was composed of aspects of Greek philosophy, Jewish mystical traditions,