Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“Some from among the people promptly went to the king, and he authorized them to introduce the way of living of the Gentiles. Thereupon they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to the Gentile custom.” –1 Maccabees 1:13-14 Mass Readings: November 20 First: 1 Maccabees 1:10-15,41-43,54-57,62-63; Resp: Psalm 119:53,61,134,150,155,158; Gospel: Luke 18:35-43 Listen to the Mass Readings Some of the chosen people were so spiritually blind that they made an alliance with the Gentiles to introduce to Israel a pagan way of living (1 Mc 1:11). They even volunteered to help brainwash and pervert themselves. This alliance with pagans eventually...

“Since you were dependable in a small matter I will put you in charge of larger affairs.” –Matthew 25:21, 23 Some of you are burning with love for God and, therefore, with love for all people. You want all to be saved (1 Tm 2:4), families to be holy, neglected children to be loved, peace for the world, justice for the poor, and babies in the womb to be rescued from abortion. You want to do great things for love of God and man. The Lord wants to entrust great things to us, but we must first be faithful in...

“They beheld stupendous wonders.” –Wisdom 19:8 Mass Readings: November 18 First: Acts 28:11-16,30-31; Resp: Psalm 98:1-6; Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33 Listen to the Mass Readings The whole Israelite nation had been enslaved in Egypt for several hundred years. They had no way of ever being freed. Then the Lord did a series of “stupendous wonders” (Wis 19:8) by which He set His people free, “for all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew” (Wis 19:6). The book of Leviticus prescribes that in the Jubilee Year, slaves are freed, debts are forgiven, and land is restored to its original...

“It will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.” –Luke 17:30 Mass Readings: November 17 First: Sirach 26:1-3,15-18,24; Resp: Psalm 31:4-5,8-9,20,24-25; Gospel: Matthew 25:31-40 Listen to the Mass Readings Jesus will return and the world will end: when we least expect it (Lk 12:40), when it is “business as usual” (see Lk 17:27-28), suddenly (see Lk 17:24, 31), after a most severe persecution of the Church (Lk 21:12), after “great earthquakes, plagues, and famines in various places – and in the sky fearful omens and great signs” (Lk 21:11), after the mass apostasy (2 Thes...

“Indeed, she reaches from end to end mightily and governs all things well.” –Wisdom 8:1 Mass Readings: November 16 First: Wisdom 7:22–8:1; Resp: Psalm 119:89-91,130,135,175; Gospel: Luke 17:20-25 Listen to the Mass Readings The writer of the Book of Wisdom had such a deep awareness of God’s wisdom that he personified wisdom and saw it as being more than a quality of God. He said of wisdom: “She, who is one, can do all things, and renews everything while herself perduring” (Wis 7:27). The writer of Wisdom may have had an intimation of the Trinity. If the Lord had never...