Religious Education - Children
Catechist BlogHail Mary
The “Hail, Mary” is probably one of the first prayers most of us learned. As we see in today’s Gospel, most of the words of this prayer are taken from the words of Luke’s Gospel. The angel Gabriel greets Mary with these words: “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with...
Transformed
The enemies are on the horizon. Judah is in a time of darkness or uncertainty, waiting for a light to show there is a better future coming. Today's first reading is from Isaiah 29:17-24. Beginning with the first verse the reading lets us know that something new and...
Showing the Rock to Others
It is so easy for us to develop and then maintain a relationship with God based on natural religiosity. This leads us to only pay lip serve to God without any significance. We also develop a self-righteousness. We begin to judge and condemn others. As Catholics we...
Living The “In-Between Time” With Hope and Generosity
Advent is in-between time. We live in the in-between time - between Jesus’ historical birth and his second coming. The prophet today announces that the veil that covers our lives and our hearts will be eliminated, giving rise to a new time, a new creation. That is a...
Peasants and Royalty
The entire first reading (Isa 11:1-10) gives us a prophetic vision of the coming Messiah, a figure who will bring justice, peace, and harmony to all creation. Today’s first reading also offers two quite famous verses we have all encountered: “But a shoot shall sprout...
Mountain Climbing
In today’s first reading we hear Isaiah’s great vision of peace and joy: “In days to come, the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills.” All people and nations are invited to climb up to the mountain of the...
Millennial Fever
In today’s first reading we hear how an angel seizes Satan and imprisons him in the abyss for a thousand years. This passage has been the source of much speculation and endless calculation as people catch “millennial fever” trying to figure out when this 1,000-year...
Thanksgiving
Today, Thanksgiving, is a special day to give thanks. We as Christians gives thanks in a special way in the Eucharist. The word Eucharist comes from the Greek verb, “to give thanks.” Paul uses this verb in our second reading: “I give thanks to my God always on your...
Song of Redemption
What if I simply came to the ambo for the homily and said “Oh, say can you see” and then paused. I feel pretty sure that what would come to your mind is the Battle of Ft. McHenry in Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812 - the event that served as the source and...
Living Through the End Times
This is the last week of our liturgical year in the Church. This week the readings all speak of the end times. We are fascinated with the end times, the end of the world, the final judgement, the Parousia. We want to know the secrets of the time and events that signal...