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  Saturday 33 rd Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 20:27-40 Just Wait! Renewing Vows, Chapel at Cana Hypocrisy – Round 2!   Today it’s the Sadducees turn to try and get under Jesus’ skin by asking a ridiculous question about heaven.   What if a woman ended up marrying 7 men (brothers)?   Then who is she married to when she gets to heaven?   Let’s be clear; the Sadducees don’t even want an answer from Jesus; they just want to make Him look foolish.   They don’t even believe in a resurrection, in any sort of life after death.   And that, I think, is the point.   Their only focus is on this life. They believe there is nothing after death.   They believe that any reward or punishment happens to us in this life, not the next.   So they can only conceive of heaven in human terms, in terms of marriage and human love.   Jesus sets them in their place.   He simply says there is no marriage or getting married in heaven.   What He means is that heaven is so completely beyond
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  Friday – St. Cecilia Gospel – Luke 19:45-48 Giving All They Had Church of Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem There’s a story about a little boy whose older sister was seriously ill; she desperately needed a blood transfusion but she had a rare blood type.   Luckily the boy had the same type.   So his parents asked if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.   He thought about it for a minute or so and then said “yes”. The next day the nurse began to hook up the IV to his arm and the blood slowly started to through the tubing.   The boy then looked up at the nurse and he asked “When will I start to die?” He thought he had been asked to give, not just his blood, but his life for his sister.   And he said YES!   He was willing to give his ‘all’, to give his life out of love for his sister.   What courage!   What faith!   What love! In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes a clear and unambiguous statement:   This is a House of Prayer!   But you have turned it into den o
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  Thursday – Presentation of Blessed Virgin Mary Gospel – Luke 19:41-44 Rise and Shine! Church of Dormition, Jerusalem   Every day of our lives, sunny or cloudy, stressed out or relaxed, we all rise and face a new day. Especially when we were little and getting ready for school, I can remember always standing before my mom as she made sure I was prepped and ready for the day.   Shoes were shiny, shirt tucked in, hair combed, and school bag packed.   She wanted to be sure we were ‘presentable’!   Today’s Feast of the Presentation of Mary is based on an ancient tradition that says Mary was taken up to the Temple in Jerusalem when she was 3 years old and dedicated by her parents, Joachim and Anna,   in service to God.   It is a recognition of Mary’s holiness from conception to Assumption and her faithfulness to the will of God. In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus at one of His most human moments.   He is entering Jerusalem for what He knows is the last time.   His suffer
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