The Sunday liturgies of the season of Lent offer us much material for reflection. For starters, the first Sunday of Lent always has the gospel reading about Jesus being tempted by the devil in the desert. This year’s version (there are three versions, one each from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke) is from the Gospel of Luke and outlines the three temptations from the devil we are accustomed to hearing: 1) “command this stone to become bread”, 2) “worship me” and “I will give you this power and glory”, and 3) “if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here…” Jesus did not succumb to these temptations; instead, he used Scripture to refute the devil. Interestingly, the gospel concludes with the sentence: “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time” (italics added). If the devil was going to tempt Jesus again, what will the devil do to us…and how will we respond?

Ordinary Time begins on Monday, January 13 and ends on Mardi Gras, the day before Ash Wednesday (March 5). This is the first season of Ordinary Time during the Liturgical Year; the second begins after Pentecost and lasts until Advent. Ordinary Time is not called this because it is lacking pizzaz or something special. It is so-called because it has a numerical, an ordinal, base; its Sundays are counted, as in the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (January 19), etc. During Ordinary Time, we walk with Jesus as he ministers to the people of this time, healing, forgiving, welcoming those around him and we hear his call to us to do the same today. Joan Chittister, OSB, in her 2009 book The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life, says that “Ordinary Time translates the life of Jesus into the very marrow of life itself” (p. 29). Ordinary Time is about the reality of Jesus’ life and our life as his followers…day by day, action by action.

December 1, 2024 is the First Sunday of Advent as well as the first day of a new liturgical year, Year C. We will hear from Luke’s gospel most of the Sundays during this new liturgical year. Luke’s primary audience was most probably Gentiles, or non-Jews; his primary message was one of God’s acceptance of and salvation for the poor, the outcast or marginalized, and the lowly. You can read about Luke’s gospel at the US Bishops’ website, bit.ly/BishopsLuke. You can also watch two videos about this gospel produced by the Bible Project; Part One: bit.ly/LukePartOne, and Part Two: bit.ly/LukePartTwo.

This month of November brings us to the end of liturgical Ordinary Time; we begin the season of Advent, and a new liturgical year, on December 1st. The readings of the first Sunday of November, November 3, remind us that we are to love God and love our neighbor; these are the two greatest commandments. The following week, November 10, Jesus compares the monetary contribution of the poor woman, the widow’s mite, as it is sometimes called, to the monetary contributions made by the rich, saying that the poor woman gave all that she had while the rich have contributed from their surplus wealth. A challenging message for many of us! The next Sunday, the thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, with its apocalyptic readings from the Book of Daniel and the gospel of Mark, focuses our attention on the end times; only God knows when the end will come, we are told. Finally, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King on November 24; this is the final Sunday of the current liturgical year. We remember that our King, Jesus, is the ruler of the entire universe, all of creation; he is thus not like other kings that the world has known. You can prepare for the Sunday readings at liturgy.slu.edu/.

We remain in the Church’s liturgical season of Ordinary Time this month, our attention focused on Jesus’ recorded words and actions in his time, and their meaning in ours. We are reminded of the great bond of marriage in the gospel on Sunday, October 6, (Mark 10: 2-16) and we hear that Jesus gave sight to the blind Bartimaeus on October 21 (Mark 10:46-52). The second reading on all of the Sundays of October is from the Letter to the Hebrews. The main theme of this “treatise” is the “sacrifice and priesthood of Christ”; this theme is developed so as to strengthen our own faith. From the Letter to the Hebrews we also hear that God’s word is living and effective (Hebrews 4:12), a good parallel to the words of Jesus from Mark’s gospel on that day, that all things are possible for God (Mark 10:27). You can read an introduction to the Letter to the Hebrews on the US Bishops’ Bible website at bible.usccb.org/bible/hebrews/0. And, as always, at the St. Louis University liturgy website, liturgy.slu.edu/ you can find means of preparation for each Sunday’s readings.

September is here. Amazing!!! Where did the summer go? With this month comes a spirit of freshness…the school year begins, organizations hold meetings, the Patriots start a brand new season. Listen to the song Holy Wisdom, Lamp of Learning (bit.ly/LampofLearning) to capture this sense of renewal. On the other hand, we experience constancy in our Church life as we continue to celebrate the Season of Ordinary Time. During September, we will listen to Sunday gospels which tell of Jesus’ mighty deeds and Jesus’ words that help us to become better disciples. This month, along with Jesus’ disciples, we are also asked the question “Who do you say that I am?” The daily and Sunday Mass readings are always available at bible.usccb.org; you can prepare for the Sunday readings at liturgy.slu.edu.

Summer Ordinary Time starts off with a liturgical bang, with Trinity Sunday and the Feast of Corpus Christi taking center stage on May 26 and June 2, respectively. Officially called the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Trinity Sunday is a celebration of one of the central tenets of our Catholic Christian faith: Three distinct persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in One God. The New Testament lectionary readings on Trinity Sunday refer to this mystery of our faith. The second reading, which is from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, reminds us that we are God’s children and, along with Christ, God’s heirs; the Spirit witnesses to our relationship with God, the Father. The gospel reading from Matthew is even more explicit, telling us that Jesus commissioned his disciples (and us) to bring his message to all the nations and to baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  This formula is one which we repeat every time we make the sign of the cross; it helps us to remember that our God is indeed One in Three persons.

Alleluia! This Hebrew word is a powerful prayer which means “Praise the Lord!” It is a prayer we now voice to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead; it was absent from our liturgies during the season of Lent. The liturgical Easter season extends from Easter Sunday through Pentecost Sunday, May 19. The season includes Divine Mercy Sunday (the Second Sunday of Easter, April 7) and Ascension Thursday, May 9. The Fourth Sunday of Easter, this year celebrated on April 21, is often called Good Shepherd Sunday because the gospel reading is always one of the stories about Jesus, the Good Shepherd. The Sunday first readings during the Easter season are from the Acts of the Apostles, the story of the early Church, while the second readings, which focus on our lives as Christians, are all from the First Letter of John. Most of the Sunday gospel readings are from John’s gospel. You can read about The Acts of the Apostles (outline, themes, etc.) on Fr. Felix Just’s Catholic Resources webpage, catholic-resources.org/Bible/Acts.htm. Fr. Just also has a webpage with many resources regarding the Gospel and Letters of John at catholic-resources.org/John/Intro.html. You can prepare for every Sunday’s readings at liturgy.slu.edu/.

“Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart…” So begins the first reading of Ash Wednesday, a reading from the Old Testament book of the prophet Joel. Just a bit later, the prophet further exhorts us to “[r]end your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God”. And so, Lent begins with a call to return to God genuinely and wholeheartedly, a call, perhaps a reminder, which we hear every year at this time. The gospel reading for Ash Wednesday, taken from Matthew’s gospel, tells us of three ways in which we can concretely express our return to God: giving alms, praying and fasting. (You can find the Ash Wednesday readings and all the daily Mass readings at bible.usccb.org.) These three spiritual practices are often referred to as the pillars, or disciplines of Lent. Here are some thoughts about how we can carry out each of these means of returning to and encountering God.