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 …

(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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

When I think of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, I am reminded of an old African folk tale that speaks of three blind men who examine an elephant to try to determine what sort of animal it might be. One grabs hold …

Today we have a solitary reading taken from the Letter of Jude (Jude 1:17, 20‑25).   Jude is a very short letter, consisting of just one chapter of 25 verses.  Our reading comes from the latter part of the letter.  In general, the letter …