Christmas (C) ; 12-25-2024 Is 9:1-6. Ps 96. Ti 2:11-14. Lk 2:1-14 Deacon Jim McFadden Christmas celebrates God’s overwhelming desire to be united with us. Sometimes we wonder, why does he bother? He’s perfect—he doesn’t need anything since he is the great I AM. The Psalmist wondered the same thing, when he intoned, “What…
4th Sunday of Advent (C); 12-22-2024 Mi 5:1-4a. Ps 80. Heb 10:5-10. Lk 1:39-45 Deacon Jim McFadden The Old Testament foretells the Good News of salvation history which is fulfilled in the New Testament. It’s important to keep in mind that the Gospel writers did not write in a linear fashion, but more in a…
Third Sunday of Advent (C); December 15, 2024 Zep 3:14-18a. (Ps) Is 12. Phil 4:4-7. Lk 3:10-18 Deacon Jim McFadden Last Sunday, John the Baptist, the precursor to the Messiah, called us to repentance, to conversion which is a necessary condition if we are to receive the Good News. Continuing the 3rd chapter of…
2nd Sunday of Advent (C); December 8, 2024 Bar 5:1-9. Ps 126. Phil 1:4-6,8-11. Lk 3:1-6 Deacon Jim McFadden The beginning of Luke’s gospel chapter 3 seems a bit pedestrian. As we plow through all the details of rulers and their territories, we feel a bit impatient with all this historical detail. If Luke…
1st Sunday of Advent (C); December 1, 2024 Jer 33:14-16. Ps 25. 1 Thes 3:12-4:2. Lk 21:25-28,34-36 Deacon Jim McFadden There is much anticipation in the air. At the start of a new liturgical year, Advent begins as we eagerly await the Christ child among us and all the blessings and transformations that this…
The Solemnity of Christ the King (B); 11-24-2024 Dn 7:13-14. Ps 93. Rv 1:5-8. Jn 18:33-37 Deacon Jim McFadden The last Sunday of the Liturgical Year ends with the affirmation by Jesus who says, “I am a king” (Jn 18:37). He utters these words in front of Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator of Palestine,…
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); 11-17-2024 Dn 12:1-3. Ps 16. Heb 10:11-14,18. Mk 13:24-32 Deacon Jim McFadden Many decades ago as a graduate student at Tulane University in New Orleans, I was out for an evening jog in the grassy area near the dorms. Behind me, I hear this abrupt command: “Stop where…
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) November 10, 2024 1 Kgs 17:10-16. Ps 146. Heb 9:24-28. Mk 12:38-44 Deacon Jim McFadden The scene in today’s Gospel takes place inside the Temple of Jerusalem, where Jesus is looking at what’s happening in this most sacred place in Judaism, where heaven and earth are supposed to…
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); November 3, 2024 Dt 6:2-6. Ps 18. Heb 7:23-28. Mk 12:28-34 Deacon Jim McFadden Mark’s gospel, the first written in the mid-60s, is the shortest of the four gospels consisting of only 16 chapters and is one of breath-taking action after another. As such, not a word, sentence,…
The Cross is the Way Home 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A); August 30, 2026 Jer 20:7-9. Ps 63. Rom 12:1-2. Mt 16:21-27 Deacon Jim McFadden After establishing Peter as the rock of his Church, Jesus then begins to speak…
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (A); August 23, 2026 Is 22:19-23. Ps 138. Rom 11:33-36. Mt 16:13-20 Deacon Jim McFadden Midway through his public ministry, Jesus ventured with his disciples to the northern reaches of the Promised Land, to the…
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A); August 16, 2026 Is 56:1,6-7. Ps 67. Rom 11:13-15,29-32. Mt 15:21-28 Deacon Jim McFadden Today’s Gospel (Mt 15:21-28) presents us with a unique example of faith in Jesus’s encounter with a Canaanite woman,…
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