Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the Pentecost Sunday – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 7th Sunday of Easter – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the Feast of the Ascension – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 6th Sunday in Easter – Year C. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
The image and witness of John the Baptist informs us that the call of this Advent season is for us to break out of whatever our comfortable space is and to process to encounter the Christ Mass with neediness and zeal and abandon.
In regards to our call to keep watch and to be on guard (i.e. for ourselves and for the community) against those things that might harm the house of the Lord (i.e. ourselves and the Church), there are three reasons why we tend to fail to do so consistently.
While humans are incapable of creating truth and keeping promises outside of God’s grace, the beautiful thing about the Divine Symphony is that it is the one example we have on earth that God always keeps His promises.
When we consider Our Lord’s procession into Jerusalem through the light of the liturgy, we are drawn to the fact that the Holy Mass is filled with processions; from the entrance procession to the offering, to the communion procession, to the lectors, deacons, and priest all processing from one point to another, until to the dismissal – the Ite, Missa Est; everyone is processing to either give or to receive Christ Jesus.
According to our liturgical calendar, today is the last and 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time and the close of another liturgical year. Beginning next Sunday, we will begin our procession through Advent and into the Christ Mass. It is something beautiful to consider that right before we turn our attention to the infancy narratives of Christ Jesus, we pause to reflect on the inheritance of His Kingship and on our dependence on Him
In regard to the liturgy of the Holy Mass, there is no more of a dangerous thought than the one that advances the notion that we should bring what belongs to the world into the liturgy. We seem to be more interested in bringing the world into the liturgy, than bringing the liturgy into the world. We seem to be more interested in using the finite things of the world to change the liturgy, than using the infinite things of the liturgy to change the world. This peculiar notion is how we found gay masses and clown masses and ethic masses and the so-called ‘liturgical inculturation’ of the mass.
Through its litany of prayers and confessions, it is the liturgy of the Holy Mass that prepares us to make us worthy of our calling. The Holy Mass is that one unceasing sign from God that He will have mercy, preserve, and Passover His children who turn to Him with humble and contrite hearts.
The liturgy of the Holy Mass not only offers us a perfect path to process up to Calvary, but with the hosts of angels and the communion saints gathered around our sacred space as we adore Him and consume Him, the Mass shows a foreshadowing of what Heaven will be like when we see Christ in His full glory, raised high above His throne.
The liturgy of the Holy Mass intends to fill us with the light of humility by modeling dependence and reliance on God through giving us what to say and when to say it; what bodily gestures to use and when to use them. To pray and to confess not just with our mouths, but with our whole heart, mind, body, and soul.
Altogether, the readings at the Holy Mass for this 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time offers us a perfect model of the People of who the liturgy is teaching and training us to be.
Together, the readings at the Holy Mass for this 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time offers us a perfect image of the type of People of God who the liturgy is forming us to be.
In a world today when faithful Catholics are being called ridged just because they hold fast to the letter and to the tradition, and when faithful Catholics are being fired from teaching positions and banned from teaching positions in the Church, while those who reject the dogma are being celebrated for their sins, the exhibition of this virtue of fortitude is becoming so vitally important to cling to. It is also the virtue that the liturgy and the Readings at Mass for this 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time are instilling in us.
While, the readings at the Holy Mass last Sunday for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time pointed to the things that the liturgy is teaching us to exalt in this life so that we might find true wealth, the readings for this Holy Mass are teaching us how to govern our lives so that we might live in truth wealth in this life and then in eternity.
Together, these readings at the Holy Mass this Sunday point to the things that the liturgy is teaching us to exalt so that we might find true wealth. True wealth does not come by the methods of dishonest gain found in the world that we heard from the First and Gospel Readings today. Rather, paradoxically, true wealth is found in the poverty of Christ Jesus, who had nothing to ransom for our salvation, but His very life.
Together, these readings at the Holy Mass this Sunday remind us of the fact that like a young boy in love God trips over Himself; going through extreme measures to court us, to woo us, and to bring us home. The liturgy not only celebrates this undying love of God for His People, but it also forms us to be a type of People who are always making themselves present to their Creator so that He might be more fully present to them all the days of their lives.
Together, these readings at the Holy Mass this Sunday point to a central intent of liturgy. Through repetition of speaking and singing not our own words, but those of the Church, and through kneeling and standing and sitting not according to our own time, but in union with the Church, the liturgy is teaching us that God is completely other than us and that we are completely equal with one another.
Together, these readings at the Holy Mass this Sunday point to a principal lesson of the liturgy. The liturgy intends to form and shape us into a humble people so that we might worthily receive the one thing that we can never earn in this life, but is also the one thing that we were created to receive.
Together, these readings at the Holy Mass this Sunday sings of how the liturgy strengthens our faith in the hope of the coming of the New Jerusalem.
Together, these readings at the Holy Mass this Sunday address the most important mission of the memorial sacrifice; that is, to be a remedy for our chronic condition of sin, so that we might have peace in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Together, these readings at the Holy Mass on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother Mary remind us how Mary’s life is the example, par excellence, of who the liturgy prepares us to be in the world.