All of us have been baptized into one and the same Spirit.  That same Spirit, the Advocate, our comfort and refreshment, was given as gift to the disciples to strengthen them to go forth in the name of the Lord, "to renew the face of the earth."

Jesus commissions His disciples to baptize in His name, reminding them that He is always present through His Spirit.  Having ascended to His Father amid cries of gladness, we are to be His witnesses for we have been gifted with His Spirit of wisom and revelation.  Let us, therefore, live in manner worthy of the call we have received.

We are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood" called to place our faith and trus in the Spirit of Jesus who guides the community of faith.

God has made Jesus both Lord and Messiah.  Through His wound we have been healed and have returned to our shepherd.  Let us listen to His voice and follow Him.

Through the blood of Jesus, we have been delivered from the power of sin.  We recognize Him in the breaking of the bread, the one whom God raised from the dead and who sits at His right hand forever.

Thomas believed because he saw the risen Jesus.  Although we have never seen Him, we believe in Him.  We give thanks to the Lord for this gift of faith, especially when we gather for the breaking of the bread and the prayers.

On this day of days we offer a joyful sacrifice of prise to the Father who raised His Son from the dead.  Let us be intent upon the life Christ offers us.  Christ our Passover who has been sacrificed.

Jesus, humbling himself out of love for us, did not shield His face from buffets ands pitting, but offered His life on the cross.  He relied on His Father's love.

Jesus is our resurrection and our life.  Because He has given us of the Spirit, we are no longer dead because of sin, but alive.  In Jesus is the fullness of redemption.

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Jesus satisfies our thirst for eternal life.  Through His Spiit His grace has been poured into our hearts.  God satisfies the thrist of the Israelites whose hearts had become hardened and rebellious.

Abram places trust in God's promise of making his name and descendants great on the earth.  In Jesus' transfigured glory is revealed that live and immortality will rob death of its power.

Like Adam and Eve, Jesus was tempted, but did not sin.  Our sinfulness is acquitted through one man, Jesu Christ, in whom we are justified.

Offer no resisteance to the one who persecutes you.  Rather, love your neighbor as you love yourself.  As the Lord is gracious and merciful, treat others in the same way, humbling yourself before the Lord.

In Jesus is revealed a new wisdom, a new law, a new way of living.  Happy are they who choose to keep His commandments and follow His ways.

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Blessed are the humble of the earth, blessed are the poor in spirit!  Such are the ones God has chosen to confound the strong of this world.

We have seen a great light Jesus, the Messiah, who hels us of our sin and who is our unity and peace.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the light of the nations who came to do the Father's will.  In Christ we have been called to be a holy people.

All nations are invited to sing the Lord's praises, for they have been called to hear the good news and worship the long-awaited Messiah and King with the gift of their lives.

We seek God's blessings as did Mary.  Because of her Son, we can confidently call God, "Abba"!

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In the person of Jesus, God has come to heal and save us.  Patiently yet joyfully, we await the fulfillment of His advent.

Reform your lives; live in God's peace so that justice may flourish.

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In Hebron, David is hailed as king of all the tribes of Israel.  Jesus is annointed king on the wood of His cross, a sign of paradox, of defeat yet final victory.  Through His cross we have passed from darkness into the kingdom of light.

Jesus teaches that His disciples will be persecuted as a necessary prelude to the parousia.  Through their perseverance, they will emerge victorious when the Lord comes again.  As we await the Day, let us conscientiously fulfill our Christian obligations.

In response to an attempt to ridicule His teaching about life after death, Jesus again proclaims a resurrection of hte dead, that life is indeed stronger than death itself.  This is our eternal consolation and hope.  Then will our jo be truly complete.

The Lord is full of mercy and compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness.  He has come to search out and save what was lost.  Let us be more concerned with doing the Lord's work that with idle speculation aout when He will come again.

Humility is the recognition that no matter what our accomplishments, we still stand in need of the Lord.  God hears the cry of the poor and of the oppressed, especially those who acknowledge their dependency upon him.  Having heard Paul's cries for help, the Lord crowned him with eternal salvation.

Through continual prayer, we are open ourselves more fully to understanding God's will.  Through faith in the power of prayer, we experience God's love and assistance.  Our Christian life is nourished by the scriptures we read and by our received tradition.

The Lord has revealed His saving power to all the nations!  Naaman a Syrian, is healed and lepers are made whole, but only the Samaritan returns to give thanks.  Let us remain steadfast in faith and thankful for the Lord's blessings.

Faith is a gracious gift from God.  It can neither be earned nor bought, only responded to with works of love and service.  A vibrant faith can make us strong, loving, and wise, confident that God will guard us from all harm. He is the Rock of our salvation.

Amos condemns the complacency of the rich who seek only their own comfort.  In His parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus echoes Amos, exhorting those who have to share with those who have not.  Self-sufficiency must never blind us to the needs of others.  Only in this way do we keep God's commandments in integrity and in truth.

Amos cries out against those who exploit the poor for the sake of extortion and greed.  They seek to serve only themselves rather than the Lord.  By giving ourselves to God rather than to money, we can truly pray with blameless hands for all those in need, especially the poor whom the Lord will raise up.

Moses intercedes on behalf of the people who had turned away from the covenant.  The Lord delights not in sin, but in our turning back to Him, for a contrite and humbled heart God will never spurn.  He sent His Son into the world not to condemn sinners, but to save them

Who can comprehend the Lord's ways or conceive what the Lord intends?  True wisdom leads us to acknowledge our limitations and our idols of materialism as we seek to follow the Lord without reservation.  True discipleship calls us to forgive those who have wronged us.  May we gain wisdom of heart to discern more fully our call to take up the cross of Jesus.

Humility and self-knowledge go hand in hand.  Those who conduct their affairs with humility shall be exalted, while these who exalt themselves shall be humbled.  The humble shall rejoice and exalt before God in the assembly of the heavenly Jerusalem.

No one is to be excluded from the kingdom for all peoples are called to proclaim the praises of the Lord and confess His holy name.  No ethnic or religious group possesses exclusive right to the kingdom.  Suffering and pain are part of the human condition.

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The author of Wisdom speaks of "that night" of exodus from bondage in Egypt when the Lord delivered His chosen people from death.  Let us be prepared for the Lord who will come again, perhaps in the midst of night.  As we walk in darkness, our journey to our heavenly homeland is illuminated by faith.

Listen carefully to the voice of the Lord, set your heart on what will last forever.  We only find ourselves if we believe that our possessions will bring us happiness and life.  Instead, "grow rich in the sight of the Lord".

In bargaining with God, Abraham demonstrates a real persistence in prayer.  Jesus invites us to persist in prayer as well, to "ask...seek...knock".  May our prayer open us to God's will, and so build up His strength within us.  In baptism, we have died with Christ, and have been raised to life with Him.

Abraham, the just and upright man, graciously hosts three visitors.  As Mary and Martha host Jesus, He speaks of only one thing as necessary for us who follow Him being open to receive the message and person of Jesus, and being receptive so the "mystery of Christ" as He comes to us through one another.

The law of the Lord, the great commandment of love is not something "mysterious" or "remote".  Indeed, it is "very near" to us.  Yet how difficult it is to fulfill, being neighbor to whoever is in need.  But if we seek God, we must "go ahead and do the same" for we have been created in, for, and through Christ.

Let us boast of nothing but the cross of Christ.  Through it His grace and power are made known to His servants.  Tremendous deeds shall be performed in His name; the reign of God is proclaimed, peace is given as gift, and the forces of sin are overcome.

Elisha is summoned to follow the prophet Elijah and to succeed him.  Jesus insists that those who follow Him must abandon all material or psychological securities, walking ever forward without looking back.  It is the Lord alone who is to hold fast our lot.  Paul distinguishes between freedom and license.

Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, offers bread and wine as a blessing upon Abram.  Jesus fulfills this offering, giving us His own body and blood under the forms of bread and wine.  Thus is our hunger satisfied in abundance, as we make our pilgrim way to the heavenly banquet.

We are at peace with God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.  God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.  This Spirit, who is Wisdom itself, will lead us into all truth.  How wonderful the name of our triune God in all the earth.

All of us have been baptized into one and the same Spirit, and live by that same Spirit.  That same Spirit, the Advocate, was given as gift to the disciples to remind them of all that Jesus said and did, and to strengthen them to go forth in the name of the Lord, "to renew the face of the earth."

Jesus commissions His disciples to baptize in His name, reminding them that He is always present through his Spirit.  Jesus ascended to his Father amid cries of gladness, entering into the heavenly sanctuary.  We are to be His witnesses, mindful of the great hope to which we are called.

By listening attentively to the Spirit promised by Jesus, the early Church resolves the question whether Gentile converts need to observe certain Jewish ritual practices.  All are called to dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem, founded on the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

At the conclusion of their missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas tell the Antioch community all that the Lord had accomplished in their preaching the kingdom of God.  This kingdom, to be marked by our love for each other, will reach its fulfillment in new heavens and a new earth.

Know that Jesus is the Lord, the lamb on the throne who will shepherd His flock and give them eternal life.  In His name, Paul and Barnabas proclaim the word of God to Jew and Gentile alike.

Jesus appears to seven of His disciples, among them Peter who proclaims his unfailing love for the Lord.  Jesus commissions him to feed the sheep.  Later, in the face of persecution, Peter and the apostles proclaim the name of Jesus, the Lamb who was slain and who rescues us from death.

As Thomas believed because he saw the risen Jesus, so too were many brought to faith through the various signs and wonders wrought by the apostles.  They proclaimed as Lord "the stone rejected by the builder", "the First and the Last of the One who lives."

Alleluia!  The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone!  If we have died with Christ, we shall also rise with Him and pass from death to life.

Jesus, humbling himself out of love for us, did not shield His face from buggets and spitting, but offered His life on the cross.  He relied on His Father's love.

The story of the raising of Lazarus takes place immediately after Jesus made several claims to being the Son of God.  John the Evangelist plunges us into the cosmic realm whereby the evil forces of this world and the power of God's glory are at ware with each other.

In this Gospel, Jesus goes against the traditions of His day.  The beginning of the story of the Man Born Blind challenges this view of inherited evil:  Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him."

The grace of God is always there for everyone.  Regardless of the entanglements of our lives, He values all of us enough to actively seek us, to draw us to His intimacy.  There are many people who thirst for healing, but they do no know how to go about encountering Jesus - perhaps they are too afraid, unsure or embarrassed to talk to God; perhaps they feel excluded or intimidated by others whose main agenda is to recognize and highlight their faults.

Abram's faith is sealed with a covenant initiated by God, our light and our salvation.  The transfiguration of Jesus prefigures the transformation in glory to which we are called by our sharing in the paschal mystery - the dying and rising of Jesus.

Moses recounts great events of salvation history which find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.  We confess Him to be Lord, for God raised Him from the dead.  He is ever faithful, resisting temptation to forsake His Father's mission, trusting in God's love.

The fruit of our speech and actions will wither and die unless we first recognize the plank in our own eye.  By humbly admitting our own sins, we can more fruitfully persevere in the work of the Lord.

In baptism we are called to mirror and image the mercy and forgiveness the Lord has won for us.  As David would not harm Saul, his enemy, so we are challenged to love and pardon those who wrong us.

Blest are they who trust in the Lord.  Blest are they who are poor who endure insult, for their reward shall be great: eternal life.

Isaiah, a man of unclean lips, beholds the Lord's glory in the temple and is sent on mission.  Simon, a sinner, responds to the mission of Jesus by becoming a disciple.  Paul, the persecutor, speaks of his call to preach nothing but Christ crucified and risen.

"No prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown."  Thus did Jeremiah and Jesus encounter opposition and lack of faith; thus did both place their hope in the Lord.  Paul speaks eloquently of the greatest of all the gifts: love.

Ezra proclaims the word of the Lord which gives spirit and life.  Jesus proclaims himself the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets.  In Him we have become one body with many members.

At Cana in Galilee, Jesus performed the first of his signs, revealing his glory to his disciples, and later to the nations. He has revealed as well the manifestation of the Spirit who distributes different gifts as he chooses.

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All nations are invited to sing the Lord's praises, for they have been called to hear the good news and worship the long awaited Messiah and King with the gift of their lives.