Sunday reading

Reading for pleasure, but if I learn something along the way, that's gravy...

Saint Anthony Of Padua Relics Coming To Canada For 750th Anniversary Tour

Every year Toronto renews its connection with St. Anthony of Padua, but this year the city will welcome the saint’s relics on the 750th anniversary of their discovery by St. Bonaventure and the 782nd anniversary of his death.

St. Anthony died June 13, 1231. St. Bonaventure’s Franciscan parish in Don Mills will host the visiting relics of St. Anthony June 12 and 13 with three special Masses and veneration throughout the two days. Read more »

Church Celebrates The Immaculate Heart Of Mary

The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is related to the festival of the previous day, the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

As we celebrate the love of God in the heart of his Son, Jesus, we celebrate today the perfect response of a human being to this love, the response of Mary.

In the Catholic understanding, Mary represents the most complete response of a human being to the Creator. Read more »

Church Celebrates The Most Sacred Heart Of Jesus

No feast in the Church’s calendar, except Christmas, has ever come close in popularity to that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

For the last two centuries, devotion to the Sacred Heart was one of the cornerstones of Catholic piety, whether in the universal church or in our homes. Read more »

Gospel Story: Jesus Entered A Town Called Nain

The poet Dante called Luke “the scribe of Christ’s compassion”, and this little episode brings out this characteristic very clearly.

As Jesus enters the village of Nain, a short distance away from his own hometown of Nazareth, he meets a funeral procession.

A young man has died, the only son of his widowed mother. The woman therefore is twice bereaved. Read more »

Christ The Teacher: Which Is The First Of All The Commandments?

The Gospels record many of Jesus’s exchanges with the scribes and Pharisees as ‘controversery’ stories, that is, a dispute over some matter or other, ending with a ‘pronouncement’ from Jesus.

Unusually, this story is not one of bitter controversy, but rather of a question posed by a scribe, which earns him praise from the Master.

The scribe asks Jesus: “Which is the greatest commandment ?”, in the sense, which is the parent commandment from which all others flow? Read more »

Pope Francis: The Corrupt Love Themselves And Harm The Church

Sinners and saints were the focus of Francis’ mass in St. Martha’s House this morning.

Francis spoke about the corrupt who “were sinners like all of us, but they have taken a step beyond that, as if they were confirmed in their sin”.

The mass was attended by priests and staff of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and a group of Gentlemen of His Holiness. The Vatican Radio website has published excerpts from the Pope’s homily. Read more »

Christ The Teacher: Render To Caesar

Jesus had his share of controversies and some of these were political, not religious.

In his time, Judaea was a colony of Rome subject to Roman taxation. The tax had to be paid in Roman silver coinage which bore the head of the reigning emperor.

This occasioned more than a little tension among the Jews. Some of them objected to handling the coins as being tantamount to idolatry. Others objected on nationalistic grounds. But everyone resented having to pay the tax at all, even when compelled to do so. Read more »

Church Celebrates Most Holy Body And Blood Of Christ

Was the Last Supper a Passover Meal?

It would seem so, though the essential elements of the meal (lamb, bitter herbs and sauce) never figure in the narrative. What appears is just the unleavened bread and a cup of wine, probably the third ‘cup of blessings’.

There’s a reason for this: Jesus is less concerned with celebrating the rite of the Passover, and more concerned with celebrating his own “passing from this life to the Father.” Read more »

Church Remembers Saint Joan of Arc – Patroness Of Soldiers And France

Joan of Arc was born in 1412 to a poor peasant family in the little village of Domremy, in the province of Lorraine.

This was during the era known as the hundred years war. One day, while she was watching her sheep, St Michael the Archangel, the patron of her country, told her, “Daughter of God, go save France!”

For three years she heard the voices of saints calling her to action. When she was sixteen, she began her mission. Read more »

Pope Francis To Lead Global Holy Hour On June 2

For the first time in the Church’s history, Catholics worldwide will be simultaneously participating in an hour of Eucharistic adoration on Sunday, led by Pope Francis.

The Holy Hour, to be broadcast from St. Peter’s Basilica on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, will take place on June 2 from 5-6pm local time.

Its theme, “One Lord, One Faith,” was chosen to testify to the deep unity that characterizes it, the Vatican says. Read more »

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