Gospel Reflections for Challenging Times

  Easter Sunday     Gospel – John 20:1-9 Alleluia Moment!   Church of the Transfiguration, Mt. Tabor In another couple of weeks, it will be my Dad’s birthday.   If he were still with us, that would be his 102nd birthday.   Wow!   Just WOW!   It’s been 20 years since his passing and not a day goes by that he is not thought of fondly or remembered with love and joy for a life filled with service and dedication and faith.   So his birthday will be a mix of emotions – sadness, loss, love, joy and gratitude, and most importantly a deep sense of faith that we will meet again in the resurrection of life and in the Kingdom. We celebrate today the holiest, most important feast of our Christian faith – the Resurrection of Jesus Christ!   It is through His death and Resurrection that He redeemed us of our sins and opened wide the gates of Heaven.   It is truly a day to shout out ALLELUIA!   Praise to the Lord! Alleluia!! It is a word we have not heard for 40 days.   A word missing

  Holy Saturday – Easter Vigil Gospel – Mark 16:1-7 Waiting and Hoping Roadside Tomb, Galilee Jesus’ Tomb, Church of Holy Sepulchre Today is Holy Saturday, one day after Jesus’ crucifixion and death on Good Friday and one day before Easter Sunday, Jesus’ Resurrection.   We are caught in this awkward in-between time.   Between the sorrow and pain of Good Friday and the sheer joy and happiness of Easter Sunday!   And yet, if you think about it, that is exactly what life is about – moments of pain and sorrow and moments of happiness and joy.   And if you really reflect on it, you would realize that most of our entire life is Holy Saturday moments, not Good Fridays or Easter Sundays! Yes there are days of pain and days of happiness.   But most of our days are perfectly normal, average days, days not full of intense emotion, days spent in-between sorrow and joy, days spent in waiting or anticipation.    Of course, even our ‘normal’ days can be filled with anxiety and fear, w

  Good Friday Gospel – John 18:1 – 19:42 The Sign of the Cross Church of Holy Sepulchre What was the first prayer you learned growing up?   Our Father?   Hail Mary?   Grace?   Now I lay me down to sleep? The Sign of the Cross!!!!   Too often we don’t think of it as only an intro to prayer, not a prayer itself!   But it is!   A simple sign of our faith, our belief: in God, in the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!!   It is a verbal reminder of our belief in God .   But the Sign of the Cross can also be something more.   We come today to the end of the Season of Lent.   It is a perfect time to reflect back on those 40 days and determine how well we observed the 3 practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving! Consider the visual aspect of the Sign of the Cross– we touch our head, our gut, and our shoulders!   Head – our thoughts! We are called to turn our thoughts to God, to pray to Him, to talk to Our Father OFTEN just as Jesus encouraged us to do. Gut –