De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

At this stage, I hope you've read the title of this post and are thinking to yourself, "I can't wait to see how he joins these things together!". I've given myself a bit of a job eh? In reality, this may well provide you with some insight as to the way in which my mind wanders from one thing to another, as it sketches out my thoughts over the course of a couple of days. If you enjoyed Father Kevin's homily on the Ascension , as well as my own, rather melancholic reflections, you might well be interested in the irrepressible, rambunctious, Cardinal Timothy Dolan's blog from yesterday: What did the bewildered, scared, confused apostles do upon Our Lord’s Ascension into heaven? They took our Blessed Mother Mary, locked themselves into a room, and . . . prayed! That prayer demanded perseverance, because it took nine days for Jesus to reply. The response He gave to that patient prayer of His Mother and best friends was beyond their most exalted hopes:...

I love the above image of the men of Galilee gazing upward at the Lord's departure. At Ascension I feel a lot like this...Left behind to some extent. After the ordeal of the Passion and death of Jesus, the disciples experienced the incredible shock of a fullness of life they could touch, see, talk to and with. This was called the Resurrection, that is, the same Jesus alive and living yet not the same but rather evasive and transcendent. The Ascension is a further step into the Mystery. How must they have felt confronted with the Resurrected Lord? And could they have understood His departure? Or would they have felt lost and alone after His departure? Could they have understood that, now, although Jesus is no longer seen or touched, He is nevertheless, alive and present, near, intimate. We are left, like them " staring  upwards, hoping and longing for a participation in God’s life". Of course this is what He came back to confirm; He is The Lord. And yet they re...

Welcome to this, the forty-second of my reflections on the theology of the Sunday readings at Mass. I have undertaken this project, regularly posting background information on the readings at Sunday Mass as part of my own prayer life. I have found it helps me to do a little study before I go to Mass about the readings, what the theme of the week is, how it follows on from the previous week's readings and what is being said. In sharing this, I hope to help you too get more from the Bible and Sunday Scripture readings. Perhaps it might give you confidence in the value and legitimacy of the Bible, or perhaps it might inspire you to pray the Divine Office or investigate the weekly readings for yourself. I see this as very clearly part of what the Church teaches about the Bible: This heaven-sent treasure Holy Church considers as the most precious source of doctrine on faith and morals. No wonder herefore that, as she received it intact from the hands of the Apostles, so she k...