Today is Ash Wednesday the beginning of the Season of Lent. During this season we are called to repent. When we receive ashes on our forehead the minister proclaims: “Repent and believe in the gospel.” This phrase is taken from the Gospel of Mark and is Jesus first...
Give me just one more sign, just one more proof of God’s presence. In today’s Gospel some of the Pharisees are “seeking from Jesus a sign from heaven to test him.” While Jesus performed many healings, exorcisms, and extraordinary deeds it seems that people were...
In today’s Gospel we have this strange word “Ephphatha.” Mark helpfully translates this Aramaic word: “Be opened!” Aramaic was Jesus’ native language although he could also read the Scripture in Hebrew. All the Gospels were written in Greek but have a number of...
In today’s Gospel Jesus is in the Gentile territory of Tyre. He encounters a non-Jewish woman, “a Greek, a Syrophoenician woman.” She begs Jesus to heal her daughter who is possessed by a demon. Jesus first reaction is uncharacteristically off-putting: “Let the...
Today’s first reading describes the dedication of the First Temple in Jerusalem. This Temple was destroyed by the King of Babylon who also exiled the Jewish king and many of the political and religious leader to Babylon. After the return from the exile a Second...
