Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C

St. Luke 1:39-45: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb".

“See how new and how wonderful this mystery is. He has not yet left the womb but he speaks by leaping; he is not yet allowed to cry out but he makes himself heard by his actions; he has not yet seen the light but he points out the Sun; he has not yet been born but he is keen to act as precursor. The Lord is present, so he cannot contain himself or let nature run its course: He wants to break out of the prison of his mother’s womb and he makes sure he witnesses to the fact that the Saviour is about to come” (St. John Chrysostom).  

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Genesis 2.7,15,18-24: "So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, 'This at last is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.'"

"The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children" (CCC 1660).

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 7.31-37: "They brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hands on him...Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha", that is, "Be opened". And immediately the man's eyes were opened, his tongue was released and he could speak plainly."

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 7.1-8,14-15,21-23: "There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile them, but the things that come out of a person are what defile them".

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. John 6.53,60-69: "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life". Simon Peter answered him, "Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life".

"Hold back nothing of yourself for yourself from Jesus. Give your all to him, who gave his all for you" (St. Francis of Assisi).

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. John 6.51-58: "Very truly I tell you whoever eats eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in them".

"I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth and more than that...God" (J. R. R. Tolkien)

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. John 6. 41-51: Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them".

In Holy Communion we die to sin and he gives us grace, we die to our own wills and receive the divine will, we humbly give him our stony hearts and have them returned to us softened and natural, we give him our humanity and he gives us his divinity. We commune with Christ's death and receive his life.

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. John 6.41-51: "I am the bread of life. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh".

"All people desire to leave a lasting mark. But what endures? Money does not. Even buildings do not, nor books. After a certain time longer or shorter, all these things disappear. The only thing that lasts forever is the human soul, the human person created by god for eternity" (Pope Benedict XVI).

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. John 6.1-15: "Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted".

O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 6.30-34: "...as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length".

"The Lord is my shepherd there is nothing that I lack, fresh and green are the pastures where he bids me rest. Near restful waters he leads me to renew my dropping spirits, he restores my soul" (Psalm 23).

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 6.7-13: "Jesus summoned the twelve and began sending them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for their journey except a staff - no bread, no haversack no coppers for their purses."

"I am on a mission and have become the bearer of that which another has committed to my charge" (Pope Benedict XVI).

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 6.1-6: "Then Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honour except in his hometown, and among his own kin, and in his own house'. And Jesus could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And Jesus was amazed at there unbelief".

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 5.21-43: "Jesus said to the woman suffering from hemorrhages, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease'".

"I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12.9-10)

The Birth of St. John the Baptist

St. Luke 1.75-66,80: "Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, 'What then will this child become?' For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him."

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 4.26-34: "The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts forth big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade".

Solemnity of Corpus Christi (the Body and Blood of Christ)

St. Mark 14.12-16,22-26: "While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, 'Take; this is my Body'. Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks gave it to them, and all of them drank from it'. He said, 'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many'".

"Let the whole of mankind tremble the whole world shake and the heavens exult when Christ, the Son of the living God, is on the altar in the hands of a priest. O admirable heights and sublime lowliness! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under the little form of bread! Look, brothers, at the humility of God and pour out your hearts before Him! Humble yourselves, as well, that you may be exalted by Him. Therefore, hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He Who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally" (St. Francis of Assisi).

Thursday, Ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 12. 28-34: "'Which commandment is the greatest of all?' Jesus answered, 'The first is Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbour as yourself'".

"As charity comprises the two commandments to which the Lord related the whole Law and the prophets...so the Ten Commandments were themselves given on two tablets. Three were written on one tablet and seven on the other" (St. Augustine).

Wednesday, Ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 12.18-27: "And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob'? "He is God not of the dead, but of the living".

"How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honoured with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and God,...to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heave with the righteous and God's friends" (St. Cyprian).

Tuesday, Ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 12.13-17: "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that are God's".

Monday, Ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 11.1-12: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes."

"Often the Church is called the building of God. The Lord compared himself to a stone which the builders rejected, but which was made into the cornerstone. On this foundation the Church is built by the apostles and from it the Church receives solidarity and unity" (CCC756).

Most Holy Trinity

St. Matthew 28.16-20: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

"We define that there are two, the Father and the Son, and three with the Holy Spirit, and this number is made by the pattern of salvation... [which] brings about unity in trinity, interrelating the three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  They are three, not in dignity, but in degree, not in substance but in form, not in power but in kind.  They are of one substance and power, because there is one God from whom these degrees, forms and kinds devolve in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit" (Tertullian).

Saturday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 11.27-33: "Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin? Answer me".

Memorial of St. Justin the Martyr

Collect on the Memorial of St. Justin Martyr: "O God, who through the folly of the Cross wondrously taught Saint Justin the Martyr the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, grant us, through his intercession, that, having rejected deception and error, we may become steadfast in the faith".

And this food is called among us the Eucharist ... For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh" (St. Justin, First Apology, 66).

Feast of the Visitation of Mary

St. Luke 1.39-56: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant".

"The Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat, is the song both of the Mother of God and the Church; the song of the Daughter of Zion and the new People of God; the song of thanksgiving for the fullness of graces poured out in the economy of salvation and the song of the "poor" whose hope is met by the fulfillment of the promises made to our ancestors, 'to Abraham and his posterity for ever'" (CCC 2619).

Wednesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 10.32-45: "Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 10.28-31: "Jesus said, 'Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age - houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions - and in the age to come eternal life'".

Monday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 10.17-27: "Jesus looking at the rich young man loved him and said, 'You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me'".

Pentecost Sunday

St. John 20.19-23: "'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you'. When he had said this he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any they are retained'".

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created.

And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Memorial of St. Philip Neri

Collect on Memorial of St. Philip Neri: "O God, who never cease to bestow the glory of holiness on the faithful servants you raise up for yourself, graciously grant that the Holy Spirit may kindle in us that fire with which he wonderfully filled the heart of Saint Philip Neri".

"Wherever you are on earth, however long you remain on earth, the Lord is near, do not be anxious about anything" (St. Augustine)

Friday, Seventh Week of Easter

St. John 21.15-19: "Jesus said to him the third time, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' Peter felt hurt because Jesus said to him a third time, 'Do you love me?' And Peter said to him, 'Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep.'"

"Jesus entrusted a specific authority to Peter: 'I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.' The "power of the keys" designates authority to govern the house of God, which is the Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his resurrection: 'Feed my sheep'" (CCC# 553). 

Thursday, Seventh Week of Easter

St. John 17.20-26: "The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me".

"Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schism, heresies and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers" (Origen).

Wednesday, Seventh Week of Easter

St. John 17.11-19: "As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth".

"...Evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the evil one, the angel who opposes God. The devil is the one who "throws himself across" God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ" (CCC# 2851).

Tuesday, Seventh Week of Easter

St. John 17.1-11: "I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one".

"What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her "Church"" (St. Clement of Alexandria).

Monday, Seventh Week of Easter

St. John 16.29-33: "The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you so that in me you may have peace".

Feast of the Ascension

St. Mark 16.15-20: "'Go into the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation'... So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God".

The Church was founded for the purpose of spreading the kingdom of Christ throughout the earth for the glory of God the Father, to enable all men to share in His saving redemption, and that through them the whole world might enter into a relationship with Christ. All activity of the Mystical Body directed to the attainment of this goal is called the apostolate, which the Church carries on in various ways through all her members. For the Christian vocation by its very nature is also a vocation to the apostolate. No part of the structure of a living body is merely passive but has a share in the functions as well as life of the body: so, too, in the body of Christ, which is the Church, "the whole body . . . in keeping with the proper activity of each part, derives its increase from its own internal development" (Eph. 4:16).

Indeed, the organic union in this body and the structure of the members are so compact that the member who fails to make his proper contribution to the development of the Church must be said to be useful neither to the Church nor to himself.

In the Church there is a diversity of ministry but a oneness of mission. Christ conferred on the Apostles and their successors the duty of teaching, sanctifying, and ruling in His name and power. But the laity likewise share in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ and therefore have their own share in the mission of the whole people of God in the Church and in the world. (Decreee on the Apostolate of the Laity, Second Vatican Council).

Saturday, Sixth Week of Easter

St. John 16.23-28: "Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be complete".

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" (Jesus Prayer).

Friday, Sixth Week of Easter

St. John 16.20-23: "So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you".

"To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy. This is how Jesus expresses it in Saint John's Gospel: “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (16:22). We must think along these lines if we want to understand the object of Christian hope, to understand what it is that our faith, our being with Christ, leads us to expect"(Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi).

Thursday, Sixth Week of Easter

Acts 17.15,22-18.1: "Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, 'Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown I proclaim to you...while God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead'".

Wednesday, Sixth Week of Easter

St. John 16.12-15: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth".

"The mission of the Magisterium (the Pope and the bishops united with him) is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is the Magisterium's task to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the people of God abide in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church's shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals"(CCC# 890). 

Tuesday, Sixth Week of Eater

St. John 16.5-11: "I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you".

"Since Easter, the Holy Spirit has proved the word wrong about sin, i.e., proved that the world has not believed in him whom the Father has sent. But this same Spirit who brings sin to light is also the Consoler who gives the human hart grace for repentance and conversion"(CCC# 1433). 

Sixth Sunday of Easter

St. John 15.9-17: "You are my friends if you do what I command you, I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends...No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends".

"I knew that the Church had a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love...I saw and realised that love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that love embraces every time and every place, that love is everlasting. Then, nearly ecstatic with joy, I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found me calling! My call is love. I have found my role in the Church...In the heart of the Church I will be love" (St. Térèse of Lisieux).

Wednesday, Fifth Week of Easter

St. John 15.1-8: "Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me".

"If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that he has great designs for you, and that he certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat him to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the Cross, which Christ used for his own sacrifice of boundless charity" (St. Ignatius of Loyola).

Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter

St. John 14.27-31: "When the hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father, Jesus said to his disciples: 'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you".

"Love itself is the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest" (St. Augustine).

Monday, Fifth Week of Easter

St. John 14.21-26: "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you".

"Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eucharistic Prayer II).

Fifth Sunday of Easter

St. John 15.1-8: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit".

"From the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the mystery of the Kingdom to them, and gave them a share in his mission, joy and sufferings. Jesus spoke of a still more intimate communion between him and those who would follow him: 'Abide in me, and I in you...I am the vine, you are the branches'. And he proclaimed a mysterious and real communion between his own body and ours: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him'".

Saturday, Fourth Week of Easter

St. John 14.7-14: "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it".

"Jesus Christ, the one high priest of the new and eternal Covenant, 'entered not into a sanctuary made by human hands...but into heaven itself, now to appear on our behalf'. There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, 'for he always lives to make intercession' for 'those who draw near to God through him'" (CCC 662).  

Friday, Fourth Week of Easter

St. John 14.1-6: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me...I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me".

Feast of St Philip and St. James

First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 15.1-8: "I would remind you brothers and sisters of the good news that I proclaimed to you. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received".

"Ever family can be traced back to its origins. That is why we can say that all these great churches constitute that one original Church of the apostles, for it is by them that they all come. They are all primitive, all apostolic, because they are all one. They bear witness to this unity by the peace in which they all live, the brotherhood which is their name, the fellowship to which they are pledged" (Tertullain, From the Treatise on the Prescription of Heretics).

Memorial of Saint Athanasius

"Almighty and ever-living God, who raised up the Bishop Saint Athanasius as an outstanding champion of your Son's divinity, mercifully grant that, rejoicing in his teaching and his protection, we may never cease to grow in knowledge and love of you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever" (Collect for the feast of St. Athanasius).

"God became man so that man might become God" (St. Athanasius).

Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker

St. Matthew 13.54-58: "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? And is not his mother called Mary?"

"By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man cooperates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. he shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish" (Bl. John Paul II, Laborem Exercens).

Monday, Fourth Week of Easter

St. John 10.1-10: "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly".

Good Shepherd Sunday, Day of Prayer for Vocations.

St. John 10.11-18: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep".

"The source of every perfect gift is God, who is love" (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est).


"The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus" (Curé of Ars).

Saturday, Third Week of Easter

St. John 6.60-69: "Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life".

Explaining the mystery of the conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus during the words of consecration by the priest at the Mass a great Church Father said: "The power of the blessing prevails over nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed...Could not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature" (St. Ambrose of Milan).

Friday, Third Week of Easter

St. John 6:52-59: "Jesus said to them, 'Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day'".

"Because Jesus Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a whole change in the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation" (Council of Trent).

Thursday, Third Week of Easter

St. John 6.44-51: "I am the living bread come down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh".

"Christ, our Lord and God, was once for all to offer himself to God the Father through his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper, 'on the night when he was betrayed', he wanted to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world and it salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of sins we daily commit" (Council of Trent).

Feast of St. Mark

St. Mark 16.15-20: "After rising from the dead, Jesus, appeared to the Eleven and said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned".

"O God, who raised up Saint Mark, your Evangelist, and endowed him with the grace to preach the Gospel, grant we pray, that we may so profit from his teaching as to follow faithfully in the footsteps of Christ" (Collect from the Feast of St. Mark).

Tuesday, Third Week of Easter

St John 6.30-35: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty".

"What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh 'given life and giving life through the power of the Holy Spirit', preserves, increases and renews the life of grace received in Baptism. This growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum" (CCC#1392).

Monday, Third Week of Easter

St. John 6.22-29: "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you".

Lord, our hearts are restless until they rest in you" (St. Augustine).

Third Sunday of Easter (Year B)

St. Luke 24.35-48: "While they were talking, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you'. They were startled and terrified, and thought they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, 'Why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see that I have'".

Saturday, Second Week of Easter

Acts of the Apostles 6.1-7: "Select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.

"With regards to deacons, strengthened by sacramental grace they are dedicated to the People of God, in conjunction with the bishop and his body of priests, in the service (diakonia) of the liturgy, of the Gospel and of works of charity" (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, 29).

Friday, Second Week of Easter

St. John 6.1-15: "Jesus took the five loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted".

"By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning. Jesus' passing over to his Father by his death and Resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the Kingdom" (CCC# 1340).

Thursday, Second Week of Easter

St. John 3. 31-36: "The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath".

"Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary's womb because he is the new Adam, who inaugurates the new creation: 'The first man is of the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven'. From his conception, Christ's humanity is filled with the Holy Spirit, for God 'gives him the Spirit without measure'. From 'his fullness' as the head of redeemed humanity 'we have all received, 'grace upon grace'" (CCC# 504).

Wednesday, Second Week of Easter

St. John 3.16-21: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life".

"By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: 'In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he has loved us and has sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins'. God 'Shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (CCC# 604).

Memorial of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

St. John 3.7-15: "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit".

"No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now Go's Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of himself...When the Father sends the Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him" (CCC# 687, 689).

"I want to be a Christian, though I should die for it" (Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha).

Monday, Second Week of Easter

St. John 3.1-8: "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit".
"Baptism is called the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, for it signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one 'can enter the kingdom of God'" (CCC# 1215).

Divine Mercy Sunday (Second Sunday of Easter)

St. John 20.19-31: "He breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'"

"Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world" (Prayers from the Chaplet of The Divine Mercy).


For info on how to pray the Chaplet visit: http://thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/praythechaplet.php

Good Friday from the Holy Land

Isaiah 52.13-53.12: "He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed".

"It is love "to the end" that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life. Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died." No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all" (CCC# 616).

Holy Thursday from the Holy Land

The First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "'This cup is the new covenant in my Blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me". For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes'.
"It is Jesus who endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed him. In Abel he was slain, in Isaac bound, In Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb, persecuted in David, dishonoured in the prophets" (St. Melito of Sardis).

I am praying for you on this Holy Land pilgrimage, please pray for me as well.

Friday, Fifth Week of Lent

St. John 10.31-42: "The Father is in me and I am in the Father".
"The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him. To those who turn to him in faith he grants what they ask" (CCC#548).

Thursday, Fifth Week of Lent

St. John 8.51-59: "I tell you, before Abraham was, I am".
"Against all human hope, God promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit" (CCC#: 706).

Wednesday, Fifth Week of Lent

St. John 8.31-42: "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free".
"By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. 'For freedom Christ has set us free'" (CCC#: 1741).

Tuesday, Fifth Week of Lent

St. John 8.21-30: "I am going away, and you will search for me...Where I am going you cannot come".
"Finally, Christ's Resurrection -- and the risen Christ himself -- is the principle source of our future resurrection: 'Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep'. In Christ, Christians 'have tasted...the powers of the age to come' and their lives are swept up by Christ into the heart of divine life, so that they may 'live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised'" (CCC#: 655).

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

St. Luke 1.26-38: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your will".
"The Annunciation of Mary inaugurates 'the fullness of time,' the time of the fulfillment of God's promises and preparations".
CCC#: 484-486.

Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year B)

St. John 12.20-33: "The ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I Am lifted out of the earth, will draw all people to myself".
“The everlasting God has in his wisdom foreseen from eternity the cross that he now presents to you as a gift from his inmost heart. This cross he now sends you he has considered with his all knowing eyes, understood with his divine mind, tested with his wise justice, warmed with loving arms, and weighed with his own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with his holy Name, anointed it with grace, perfumed it with his consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all merciful love of God” (St. Francis de Sales).

Saturday, Fourth Week of Lent

St. John 4.40-53: "Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, 'Why did you not arrest them?' The police answered, 'Never has anyone spoken like this!'"
"Who do you say that I am?" (St. Matthew 16.15).

Friday, Fourth Week of Lent

St. John 7.1-2,10,25-30: "The one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me".
"For, amen, I say to you, many prophets and just men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them" (Matthew 13.17). 

Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent

St. John 5.18,31-47: I have a testimony that is greater than John's. The works that my Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me".
"Don't be satisfied with a theoretical or formal faith. Rather let your faith be living, genuine, loving and loyal" (Bishop Francis Van Thuan).

Wednesday, Fourth Week of Lent

St. John 5:16-30: "Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father".
"Christ is the Lord of eternal life. The Father has given "all judgement to the Son". Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to his works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love" (CCC#679).

Tuesday, Fourth Week of Lent

St. John 5.1-16: "'Do you want to be made well?' The sick man answered him, 'Sir I have no one to put me into the pool'. Jesus said to him, 'Stand up, take up your mat and walk'".
"On the banks, on both sides of the river that flows from the Temple, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing" (Ezekiel).

Solemnity of St. Joseph

St. Matthew 1.16, 18-21,24: Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit".
"St. Joseph is that just man, that wise and loyal servant, whom you placed at the head of your family. With a husband's love he treasured Mary, the virgin Mother of God. With fatherly care he watched over Jesus Christ, your Son, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Preface of the Solemnity of St. Joseph).

Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year B)

St. John 3.14-21: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life".
"Christ's sacrifice is "the source of eternal salvation...his most holy Passion on the wood of the cross merited justification for us" (Council of Trent).
CCC#662.

Memorial of St. Patrick

Collect of the Memorial of St. Patrick:
"O God, who chose the Bishop Saint Patrick
to preach your glory to the peoples of Ireland,
grant, through his merits and intercession,
that those who glory in the name of Christian
may never cease to proclaim your wondrous deeds to all".

"Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lay down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise...
I arise today through a might strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through belief in the threeness, through confession of the oneness, of the Creator of creation" (St. Patrick's Breastplate)

Friday, Third Week in Lent

St. Mark 12.28-34: "Which commandment is the first of all? 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength...and your neighbour as yourself'".
"I want to be a Christian, even though I should die for it" (Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha).

Thursday, Third Week of Lent

St. Luke 11.14-23: "Jesus was casting out a demon...But some of them said, 'He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons'".
"The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing" (Lateran Council IV).
CCC#391-395

Wednesday, Third Week of Lent

St. Matthew 5.17-19: "Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill".
"For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call upon him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as the entire law that I am setting before you today?"
CCC#577-582.

Tuesday, Third Week of Lent

St. Matthew: 18.21-35: "'How often should I forgive? As many as seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'Not seven times, but I tell you seventy-seven times'".
"God does not accept the sacrifice of a sower of disunion, but commands that he depart from the altar so that he may first be reconciled to his brother. For God can only be appeased by prayers that make peace. To God the better offering is peace, brotherly concord and a people made one in the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit" (St. Cyprian).

Monday, Third Week of Lent

St. Luke 4.24-30: "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown".
"My soul is thirsting for the living God; when shall I see him face to face" (Psalm 42),

Third Sunday of Lent (Year B)

St. John 2.13-25: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up".
"No temple was ever more systematically destroyed than was His body. The dome of the temple, His head, was crowned with thorns; its foundations, His sacred feet, were riven with nails; the transepts, His hands, were stretched out in the form of a cross; the Holy of Holies, His Heart, was pierced with a lance" (Bishop Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ).
CCC#584.

Saturday, Second Week of Lent

St. Luke 15.1-3,11-32: "We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found".
"Only the heart of Christ who knows the depths of his Father's love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy".
CCC#1439

Friday, Second Week of Lent

St. Matthew 21.33-43,45-46: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone".
On the foundation  of Christ "the Church is built by the apostles and from it the the Church receives solidarity and unity" (CCC# 756).
"If we open our eyes, isn't what is said in the parable actually a description of our present world?" (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth).

Thursday, Second Week of Lent

St. Luke 16.19-31: There was a rich man...And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus".
"Graciously accept this oblation of our service, that of your whole family; order our days in your peace, and command that we be delivered from eternal damnation and counted among the flock of those you have chosen" (Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer I).
CCC# 1035

Wednesday, Second Week of Lent

St. Matthew 20.17-28: "Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?"
"The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many".

Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

St. Matthew 23. 1-12: "All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted".
Great site for Catholic resources: Catholic Answers at www.catholic.com

Monday, Second Week of Lent

St. Luke 6.36-38: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful".
The heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion.
CCC# 2843.

Second Sunday of Lent (Year B)

St. Mark 9. 2-9 "Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!'"

Tuesday, First Week of Lent

St. Matthew 6. 7-15: "Pray then in this way: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name'".
The Lord's Prayer "is truly the summary of the whole gospel" (Tertullian).
CCC# 2761-2764.

Monday, First Week of Lent

St. Matthew 25. 31-46: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left".
The Final Judgement. 
CCC# 1041.

First Sunday of Lent (Year B)

St. Mark 1. 12-15: "He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan".
"Alas! My soul also was beautiful, when it received thy grace in baptism; but I have disfigured it since by my sins" (St. Alphonsus Liguori).

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

St. Luke 5. 27-32: "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance".
The supreme proof of his love will be the sacrifice of his own life "for the forgiveness of sins".
CCC# 545.

Friday after Ash Wednesday

St. Matthew 9.14-15: "The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?"
"Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her".
"As head he calls himself the bridegroom, as body, he calls himself bride" (St. Augustine).
CCC# 796.  

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

St. Luke 9. 22-25: "If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves take up their cross daily and follow me".
"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world , but lose or forfeit themselves".
CCC#1435.

Ash Wednesday

Joel 2.12-18: "Even now," says the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with morning; rend your hearts and not your clothing".
"Repent and believe in the Gospel" (Formula for the reception of ashes).
CCC# 1434-1439.

Tuesday, Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 9.30-37: "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all".
We are truly "slaves of Christ".
CCC# 876

Monday, Seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 9.14-29: "I believe; help my unbelief".
God really wants to help us.
CCC#: 2610.

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 2.1-12: "I say to you stand up...And he stood up"
Isaiah 43.18-25: "I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins".

Saturday, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 9.2-13: "And he was transfigured before them".
"You Truly are the splendor of the Father" (St. Thomas Aquinas).
CCC#: 554-556.

Wednesday, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 8.22-26: "Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he saw everything clearly".
"Having received the gift of love, let us die to sin and live for God" (St. Fulgentius).
CCC#: 1394.

Memorial of Sts. Cyril and Methodius (February 14)

"Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?"
Collect: "Grant that our hearts may grasp the words of your teaching, and perfect us as a people of one accord in true faith and right confession".
Sts. Cyril and Methodius are co-patrons of Europe.

Monday, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 8.11-13: No sign will be given to this generation
God seeks to give us so much, he loves to bless us.
CCC# 548.

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

St. Mark 1.40-45: The healing of a man with leprosy
'If you choose, you can make me clean'...'I do choose. Be made clean!'.
St. John Chrysostom: "Even if we have thousands of acts of great virtue to our credit...it is by mercy that we shall be saved.
CCC# 1443

Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes (February 11)

(World day of prayer for the sick)
"Grant, that we, who keep the Memorial of the Immaculate Mother of God, may, with the help of her intercession, rise up from our infirmities".
Lumen Gentium 67.
CCC# 490-493.

Friday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

St. Mark 7.31-37
"Jesus sighed and said to the man 'Ephphata'. And immediately his ears were opened".
From the Rite of Baptism: "May he soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father."
CCC#549

Thursday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 7.24-30. 
"Even the dogs under the table eat the childrens' crumbs".
Humility in prayer.
St. Augustine: "Man is a beggar before God".
CCC #2557.

Tuesday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 7.1-13

Memorial of St. Paul Miki and his Companions

February 5th

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Job 7.1-4,6-7; St. Mark 1.29-39

Saturday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 6.30-34

Friday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 6. 14-29

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

St. Luke 2. 22-40

Wednesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 6.1-6

Tuesday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

St. Mark 5.21-43

Monday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

2 Samuel 15.13-14,30; 16.5-13; St. Mark 5.1-20

Fourth Sunday on Ordinary Time (Year B)

Deutermonomy 18.15-20; 1 Corinthians 7.32-35; St. Mark 1.21-28

Saturday, Third Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

2 Samuel 12. 1-7,10-17; St. Mark 4. 35-41

Friday, Third Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

2 Samuel 11.1-4,5-10,13-17; St. Mark 4.26-34

Memorial of Sts. Timothy and Titus

2 Timothy 1.1-8; St. Luke 10.1-9

Conversion of St. Paul

Acts 22.3-16; St. Mark 16.15-18

Tuesday, Third Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

2 Samuel 6.12-15,17-19; St. Mark 3.31-35

Monday, Third Week in Ordinary Time (Year A)

2 Samuel 5.1-7,10; St. Mark 3.22-30

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Jonah 3.1-5,10; 1 Corinthians 7.29-31; St. Mark 1.14-20.

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

1 Samuel 3.3-10,19; 1 Corinthians 6.13-15,17-20; St. John 1.35-42.

Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

Isaiah 60.1-6; Ephesians 3.2-3,5-6; St. Matthew 2.1-12.