The responsorial psalm for this Sunday is the great penitential psalm often referred to by its Latin name, the Miserere (Psalm 51). According to the first verses of the psalm, it was written by David at the time he was accused of adultery and murder by Nathan the prophet for his scheme to eliminate Uriah the Hittite after David had impregnated his wife Bathsheba. Adultery and murder have...
As our nation remembers the events of September 11, 2001, the Scriptures for this Wednesday of the 23rd Week of Ordinary Time seem particularly fitting. While remembering those who perished in the terrorist attack is definitely on the minds of most Americans today, St. Paul reminds us that there is something that we must do beyond remembering:
If then you were raised...
Though the term is not used as much as it used to be, today's passage from the Letter to the Colossians reminds me of the "indelible" mark we each received through the Sacrament of Baptism. This concept derives from the writings of St. Paul as we read today: For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every...
The first reading for today's liturgy continues our continuous reading of St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians. We have reached the verse in the first chapter that every CUSAN knows by heart: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church . . . (Colossians 1:24).
The...