Ascension Sunday Background: Today, with the alternate second reading, we get both Luke’s long description of the ascension of Jesus in Acts and the short version in his gospel. Both end with prayerful expectation, with a portrayal of a community in prayer waiting for the Holy Spirit to empower them for evangelization and ministry. And in […]

You can reflect on questions for every Sunday of the year by clicking here. First Sunday of Lent Background: To understand this Sunday’s gospel, we need to realize that we are jumping back over the unfolding of Jesus’s ministry in Galilee that we have been reading in the early Sundays of Ordinary Time and returning to

You can reflect questions for every Sunday of the year by clicking here. Epiphany Background: Matthew’s predominantly Jewish audience would have been a bit startled by the three Gentile “wise men” who come to adore the newborn King of the Jews. Yet Second Temple Judaism through the writings of the prophets had inherited a universalist component—as

You can find reflection questions for every Sunday of the year by clicking here. 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Background:  You have to travel light if you want to journey with Jesus. Any teacher loves an eager student, and this young man who runs up and wants to do his best wins Jesus’s love. He seems

You can get reflect questions for every Sunday of the year by clicking here. 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Background:  Jesus is still in Galilee, now in his hometown, pursuing the ministry of teaching and healing. Both of these are prophetic activities, not because they predict the future (one meaning of “to prophesy”) but because they