Greeting (see Second Reading) God loves you and has chosen you and had the Good News brought to you. May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. R/ And also with you. Introduction by the Celebrant 1. God and Caesar We love our country, and it
Year II and Gospel. When St. Paul speaks to us about God’s power at work in us and in Christ and the Church, in parallel passages he says this is the work of the Spirit. The Spirit unites and animates the Church. He is the Spirit of wisdom. He is the same Spirit of whom
Year II. Ephesians continues to praise God. In Christ we have received the truth as found in the gospel, and we were given the Spirit. We are God’s own people, whose task is to give praise and glory to God. Gospel. Christ continues to denounce the Pharisees. In the contradictions of a life that wants
Year II. From this week until Thursday next week, we read from Ephesians, which is perhaps not written directly by Paul. Today’s reading is a long “blessing’ in the Jewish style, a thanksgiving for our salvation in Christ. God has chosen us and destined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ, who is to become
Year II. Christ has liberated those who believe in him from the Jewish law, but that does not mean that they can do just anything. Freedom is not licentiousness, for that would make them slaves again, of what Paul calls “the works of the flesh.” They are now free and urged to do the good
Year II. Paul insists that our freedom comes from our faith in Christ and we should never again give away that freedom. The only thing that matters is faith working through love. Gospel. In today’s gospel, Jesus reacts against pious Jews who stress the observance of the externals – laws, rules, customs – without inspiration
Year II. In a rather difficult passage, Paul speaks to us today of freedom: We are born free as Christians, as people of the New Testament. Now that Christ has set us free, we should see to it that we are never enslaved again. Paul himself is a striking example of this “liberating freedom”: he
Greeting (See First Reading) The Lord has prepared for all people a feast of rich food, a banquet of fine wines. He will wipe away the tears from every cheek. May the Lord of our joy be always with you. R/ And also with you. Introduction by the Celebrant 1. Feasting With The Lord Happy
Year II. The disciplinarian of whom Paul speaks was the slave in charge of the education of the young. That was the role of the Jewish law. But now that Christ has come, that educator is no longer needed. Faith has come and has made us children of God, whether we are Jews or pagans,
Year II. Abraham, our Father in the faith, was a man who lived according to the gospel before Jesus proclaimed his Good News. He trusted God; he followed God’s call without questioning God and demanding proofs. All he got was a promise to believe in, and of that promise he himself – as God told him – would never
