Religious Education - Children
Catechist BlogNaming the Team
Up to this point in his gospel narrative, Mark has shown his skills as a storyteller. He has already achieved a mounting tension in the narrative. Chapter 1 ends with Jesus’ fame and reputation as a healer spreading and the crowds seeking out Jesus (1:45). Then come...
How Do We Compare to Jesus?
In today’s Gospel, we can see what the ministry of Jesus was like, and the impact it had. So many people flocked to Jesus that He asked his disciples to get a boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. Such was the hunger and desire they had to be near...
Condemnation
It seems that people, especially religious people, are quick to accuse and condemn. Some Pharisees in today’s Gospel, “watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him.” The historical Pharisees were Jews who were...
The Sabbath, a time to focus on what’s important!
In her book Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul, Rabbi Naomi Levy writes about Henry, a member of her congregation. Henry’s internet startup was booming – he was making more money than he’d ever dreamed of. He was thirty-six, happily married with an...
New Wine
In today’s Gospel Jesus comes preaching a new message, a message with authority, a message of love and forgiveness. This new message, this new wine, cannot be contained in old wineskins: “no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the...
Sunday of the Word of God
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16–17) The Sunday of the Word of God in the...
Authority to Forgive
In today’s Gospel Mark continues to present Jesus as one with “authority.” Jesus claims that as the Son of Man he has the “authority” to forgive sins and to heal. The Gospel Story is a wonderful example of the community of faith. When the paralytic’s friends lower...
God’s Guidance
Today’s First Reading relates to the battle between the Philistines and the people of Israel. The people of Israel bring the Ark of the Covenant to the battle believing that if they have the holy Ark of God’s presence with them, then they will not lose the battle....
Restored
Today's Gospel is one that always needs 1st century context. Jesus has just been at the synagogue where he cast out an unclean spirit from a man. Then we read, "Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He [Jesus] approached,...
Authority
What does it mean to teach with authority? In today’s Gospel Mark emphasizes twice that Jesus teaches with authority. “Jesus taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes…a new teaching with authority” (Mark 1:22, 27). The people contrasted Jesus’...