Pentecost Sunday (Year C) May 27 (Acts 2:1-11/1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13/Jn 20:19-23 or Jn 14:15-16, 23b-26)

Pentecost was not only the birth of the church, but the rebirth of humanity.

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), Aug. 5 (Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23; Psalm 90; Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21)

What is real? We have so little time on earth — what is the most important thing in life? These are questions that people have asked for millennia and they are addressed by both testaments of the Bible.

Seventh Sunday of Easter May 20 (Acts 7:55-60, Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20/John 17:20-26)

It is all too easy to pass judgment on the people found in New Testament crowds. Why can they not believe? Why do they react so negatively and violently to the proclamation of the apostles?

Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C)  May 13 (Acts 15:1-2, 22-29/Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23/John 14:23-29)

They decided not to impose any burden greater than was absolutely necessary. It seems to be a case of obvious common sense, and yet so often common sense is not common at all — it’s in rather short supply.

Second Sunday of Advent (Year A) Dec. 9 (Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72; Romans 1515:4-9; Matthew 3:1-12)

The people of the first millennium B.C. were no different than we are. They had seen — and experienced — their share of tragedy, violence, war and natural disaster. They were certain that there was a tragic and dreadful flaw in the world, and they longed for the arrival of someone who would fix everything.

First Sunday of Advent (Year A), Dec. 2 (Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44)

When we say “utopia” or “paradise” peace usually pops into our mind. Isaiah doesn’t disappoint us, for he uses some of the most beautiful and evocative language in the Old Testament to set human hearts afire with hope and determination: Swords into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks — an end to war and even thinking about war.

Christ the King (Year C) Nov. 25 (2 Samuel 5:1-3; Psalm 122; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43)

Words can communicate with precision and unite people. But they are sometimes divisive, as when groups of people use the same word but have profoundly different understandings of its meaning. Throughout the Bible, “power” and “king” are two such terms.

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Nov. 18 (Malachi 3:19-20; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19)

For the prophet Malachi the visitation of God is a dreaded and awesome event, with the destruction of the arrogant and wicked as its aim. But he hastens to assure the faithful and devout that they have nothing to fear, for God will grace them with righteousness and healing.

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Nov. 11 (2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14; Psalm 17; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5; Luke 20:27-38)

Sometimes suffering and negative experiences can lead us into a deeper understanding of ourselves and of God. Such was the case with the people of Israel during their persecution at the hands of the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the second century BC.

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Nov. 4 (Wisdom 11:22-12:2; Psalm 145; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10)

An encounter with other cultures, ideas and philosophical systems should never leave us unchanged. Often it is an enriching experience, as it was for the Israelites. They did not leave Egypt or Babylon empty-handed. In Egypt they borrowed some of the customs they would later practise, and later they would adopt portions of Egypt’s wisdom tradition. In Babylon they refined their views of God by adapting and transforming Babylonian creation myths. It was during this sojourn that they developed a theology of angels and of the resurrection of the dead.