Gospel Acclamation: Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, He has spoken to us through the Son.

Today's Gospel acclamation emphasizes the amazing new thing God has done in these “last days.” God has always spoken to His people. He sent messages through the prophets. He inspired Scripture. He guided Moses and David and the Maccabees. He manifested His will in many different ways.

Yet all of this was building toward a climax. Every message was preparing the way for something brand new, something never before seen or heard or experienced. Every word God spoke to His people was, in some way, getting them ready for the coming of His Word, His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Today as we mark the beginning a new year, we should take the time to reflect on how we will let God's Word speak to us anew each day by opening our minds and hearts to our encounters with our Lord in the sacraments and in Scripture, in the depths of our conscience and in other people. These may seem like many and varied ways, but in reality, they are all interactions with God's Word, come to us as Jesus Christ, God incarnate.

Gospel Acclamation: Christmas

A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord. For today a great light has come upon the earth.

On this Christmas, take some time out for quiet worship that you may bask in the great light that has come upon the earth. Let the light of Christ fill your mind, your heart, your soul, and your whole being. Step back from the busyness of the holiday to adore Him. Place yourself in an attitude of awe and wonder before the Baby in the manger, for indeed a holy day has dawned upon us.

Gospel Acclamation: Fourth Sunday of Advent

The virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.

These words come from Isaiah 7:14 but are applied directly to Jesus in Matthew 1:23. Isaiah meant the words as a prophetic sign, and of course, those prophetic signs operate on many different levels, most of which are not evident to the prophet and his contemporaries. Isaiah likely never imaged how his words would ultimately be fulfilled by God incarnate, coming among us Himself to save us from our sins and open the way to Heaven.

Jesus is truly Emmanuel, God-with-us. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the only-begotten Son of the Father, has become a human being, a tiny baby, in fact, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He has laid aside His glory to embrace suffering. He has become poor that we might become rich. Out of His infinite love, He has given Himself up for our salvation. He entered into our human condition in everything except sin so that He could make us God's beloved children, people of the New Covenant, and temples of the living God.

Gospel Acclamation: Third Sunday of Advent

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.

Our Gospel acclamation today comes from Isaiah 61:1. It is the beginning of a passage about a year of favor from God, a time when the brokenhearted will be healed, captives freed, and mourners comforted. The prophet is to proclaim joy and peace and love, and the people will worship God.

Jesus takes these words as His own at His baptism in the Jordan river. He is the fulfillment of this prophecy. He is anointed directly by the Holy Spirit, Who descends upon Him like a dove, and He enters into His public ministry to bring glad tidings to the poor.

Now Jesus passes this duty on to us. We, too, have been anointed by the Spirit. When we are baptized and confirmed, we become vessels of God. His indwelling presence is within us, and His grace fills us. We are called and commissioned to bring glad tidings to the poor, to tell people the good news of the Gospel, to introduce them to God, to proclaim His love for all of us, and to guide them on the path to God. We are to cooperate with our Lord in this important work as the Spirit of the Lord rests upon us, guiding us and filling us with His gifts.

Gospel Acclamation: Second Sunday of Advent

Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths: all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

In today's Gospel, we hear about John the Baptist and his proclamation of Isaiah's prophetic message. John and Isaiah both call us to prepare the way of the Lord and make straight His paths. But how do we do this?

First, we pray. This does not mean just mumbling a few prayers now and then but really opening the heart and mind to God and connecting with Him. Prayer is about intimacy with God. It is, as we read in the Catechism, “the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God” (#2559). It is, as St. Thérèse of Lisieux so beautifully remarked, “a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” In prayer, we make straight the path of God right into our lives and minds and hearts and souls.

Second, we receive the sacraments. We go to Confession and lay down our sins before God with contrite hearts. We receive the Eucharist with devotion, greeting our Lord with joy when He comes to us and allowing Him to burn away our venial sins in the fire of His love and strengthen us against mortal sins.

Third, we read and study the Scriptures. We listen closely to what God has to say to us in His Word, and then we make that message our own, embracing it, meditating on it, and putting it into practice.

Fourth, we do penance. We deny ourselves some things that are good so that we are ready to accept things that are better. The things of this world, even when they are good, can become a distraction. They can draw our minds and hearts away from God. So we deliberately set them aside so that we can focus on God first and foremost and then enjoy everything else in proper order and with gratitude.

Thus, we can prepare the way of the Lord and make straight His paths so that we can be ready to greet Him at Christmas, to embrace the salvation He brings, and one day, to joyously see Him face-to-face in Heaven.

Gospel Acclamation: First Sunday in Advent

Show us Lord, Your love; and grant us Your salvation.

As we begin the season of Advent, a season of waiting, reflection, and repentance, today's Gospel acclamation offers us a prayer that we can use throughout our Advent meditations.

As we ask our Lord to show us His love and grant us His salvation, we should open our hearts to receive both that love and that salvation. We should also remember that God wants to shower us in His love. In fact, He does so at every moment just by keeping us in existence. He does that because He loves us.

What's more, in 1 Timothy 2:4, we read that God “desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” We can be certain, then, that God will give us every bit of grace we need to be saved. He wants us home in Heaven with Him for all eternity.

Let us pray, then, throughout this Advent, that we can open our eyes to see God's love, our minds to know it, and our hearts to experience it. And let us pray that we will embrace the salvation that our Lord so lovingly holds out to us and prepare our souls for a full immersion in His love in Heaven.

Gospel Acclamation: The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!

Jesus is the ultimate Davidic king, the fulfillment of the covenant oath God swore to David that a king would arise from his line, a king who would reign forever. The Davidic kingdom would return in more glory than David himself could ever imagine, for it would be the Kingdom of God.

This is what we proclaim in today's Gospel acclamation on Christ the King Sunday. Jesus comes in the name of the Lord, for He is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He comes to unite us to the Trinity through grace and through the indwelling presence of God in our souls.

So we proclaim Him blessed as He blesses us, and we proclaim the kingdom of God that has come, is coming, and will come definitively at the end of time.

Gospel Acclamation: Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, the Church invites us to reflect on the last things. We are encouraged to think about our own death and judgment, which are inevitable and may come unexpectedly. We are asked to meditate on the end of the world, which is also inevitable, and no one knows when it will arrive.

Therefore, we must be prepared. We must live in such as way as to be ready to go at a moment's notice whenever our Lord comes for us, whether that be our own death or the end times. This means constant prayer, reception of the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist, and a longing for God's will, no matter what it may be.

This acclamation also invites us to face the future with confidence. We are to stand up and raise our heads. We are to look forward with eagerness to the coming of our Lord, for He brings our redemption with Him. This is a very good thing, and we should be longing for our Lord to come, watching and waiting with attention and joy and love.

Gospel Acclamation: Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus Christ is the firstborn of the dead; to Him be glory and power, forever and ever.

Today's Gospel Acclamation is prime example of praise. Jesus is the firstborn of the dead. He is risen from the dead. He lives and will always live. And He will bring us to eternal life and resurrection with Him.

What does it mean to give Jesus glory and power? He has those already. We cannot add anything to them. Yet we can and must recognize and admit Jesus' glory and power. We must acknowledge His divinity and open ourselves to His work in our minds, hearts, and lives. We must embrace Him in His glory and power. We must tell others of that glory and power in our words and in our lives.

How often do our prayers turn to praise? Are we too busy asking God for what we want? As important as petitions are, we should always strive to begin and end our prayers with praise and expressions of love for God, Who has surrounded us with His love. Today's acclamation can provide an example and a starting point for our own praise as we turn our minds to how wonderful our God really is.

Gospel Acclamation: Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might have eternal life.

Now here is love. God the Father loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to suffer and die on the cross for us. The Father and the Son did not have to do this. God would only have had to will the world's redemption. He is God, after all. But the way He chose is so much more fitting, and it expresses His overwhelming love so much better.

In fact, we can look at what Jesus has done for us, knowing that He would have done the same thing if we were the only ones in need of salvation, and we can recognize the depths of His love and of the Father's love.

Our response to this love must, of course, be faith that works in love and is expressed in love. We can also look forward to the next great gift that God wants to give us: eternal life. We can start living this life already by God's grace, and we will experience it fully in Heaven when we will see Him face to face.

Gospel Acclamation: Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, and entrusting to us the message of salvation.

We live in a fallen world. With the sin of our first parents, our human nature fell, and all creation went with it. God could have left it at that. He didn't have to do anything about it. Adam and Eve had already shown that they would not obey Him but rather wanted to be “gods” in their own right, choosing for themselves what is “good” and what is “evil.”

But God loves us. He loved (and still loves) Adam and Eve, and He loves all of their sinful, broken, fallen descendants. So He refuses to leave us in our sinfulness and brokenness and fallenness. Instead, He sent His only Son to save us, to reconcile the world to Himself through Jesus' life and death, His passion and resurrection.

God didn't have to do it. He wanted to do it. He doesn't have to save us or forgive us. He wants to save us and forgive us.

But God won't do that without us. We have free will, and God wants us to cooperate with Him, to choose His mercy and love. And He wants us to spread the message of that mercy and love to others. He entrusts to us the message of salvation.

This is a major responsibility. We are all called to proclaim the Gospel in our words and our lives. We are called to cooperate in reconciling the world to God, uniting ourselves to Jesus Christ so that fallen humans and the fallen world can be raised up again.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The word of God is living and effective, discerning reflections and thoughts of the heart.

The “word of God” has multiple meanings within Christianity, so this Gospel acclamation can also take on more than one sense. Ultimately, of course, the Word of God is Jesus Christ Himself, the one Word spoken by the Father from all eternity. He always was; He is now; and He will always be living. He is, as He says, “the life.” And He is fully effective in atoning for our sins and drawing us back to the Father. He discerns the reflections and thoughts of our hearts better than we do, and He will tell us all about them if only we open our hearts and minds to Him in prayer.

Yet the “word of God” also refers to the Sacred Scriptures. These, too, are living, for the Holy Spirit continues to work through the words that He has inspired. When we read the Bible with faith, seeking understanding with an open mind and heart, the Holy Spirit will guide us into truth. In the Scriptures, Dei Verbum tells us, “the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them” (#21). God's message in the Bible teaches us about ourselves. It opens up the secrets of our hearts. It helps us discern where we are in our journey to God. It nudges us toward repentance and toward a deeper love of God.

Indeed, the word of God, both the Word Himself and the words He has spoken, is living and effective, discerning reflections and thoughts of the heart.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In all circumstances, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

God wills us to give thanks in all circumstances. What a challenge! How hard it is to deliberately give thanks when everything seems to be going wrong.

Yet there is a little addition to this statement that we should be mindful of. This is God's will for us in Christ Jesus. We can give thanks precisely because we are in Christ Jesus. It is Jesus Who gives us the ability to give thanks even when times are hard and we are suffering.

When we unite our suffering to Jesus' suffering, we realize the depth of meaning and the redemptive value that it has. We see how it can contribute to the subjective redemption of others, the spreading of grace and the opening up of people's hearts. This is a great grace and a great blessing, and it helps us give thanks in all circumstances, even those that seem the worst.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

The word of the Lord remains forever. This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.

The Word of the Lord is, ultimately, Jesus Christ, the Logos, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the only-begotten Son. He remains forever, for He is eternal.

Yet He has been proclaimed to us. He has taken flesh and walked among us. He taught and healed. He suffered and died. He rose again. And all of this shows us how much He loves us.

We also think of the Scriptures when we speak of the “word of the Lord,” and this, too, is true. The Bible is the word of God in the words of human beings. For thousands of years, God's word has been speaking to us through Scripture, showing us God's love and God's will.

So do we listen? Do we recognize the Word of God in Jesus and the word of God in Scripture? Do we hear and obey? Do we read and study? Do we open our hearts to the message God wants to give us? Do we respond with love to the great love of God's word?

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.

This Gospel Acclamation is the same as last week's, for the Church wants us to reflect again on the nature of true wealth and on Jesus' great sacrifice for us. This week the acclamation is paired with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

The rich man has everything money can buy, but he lacks quite a few other important things, especially compassion. Perhaps he does not notice Lazarus lying at his gates with the dogs licking his sores. Perhaps he simply does not care. Yet he has more than enough to share, and Lazarus would have been happy with scraps.

The rich man could have given so much more than scraps. He had more than enough to spare. Yet he makes no move. Lazarus dies without any human compassion.

Lazarus is poor, extremely poor. He has nothing at all in this world but the few rags he drapes over his body. He is the image of poverty.

Yet when both Lazarus and the rich man die, we discover the true nature of wealth and poverty. Lazarus becomes rich, happy, and comfortable with Abraham, for he has pleased God by his patience in his suffering. The rich man, however, is now poorer than Lazarus ever was. His material wealth is gone, and he never had any spiritual wealth. So he is suffering more than Lazarus did in the flesh. Their conditions are reversed. The rich man loses everything. Lazarus gains everything.

May we recognize our own poverty, embrace the grace God gives us in Jesus, and become truly rich for all eternity.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.

Today's Gospel acclamation calls us to reflect on the true nature of rich and poor. Jesus, we are told, was rich and became poor for our sake. Jesus was, is, and will always be God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the divine Son, the Father's only-begotten. Yet He set aside the glory of His divinity when He chose to become man. He did not set aside His divinity, but He chose to take the form of a slave, a human being. He became the God-man, and He entered into a life of earthly poverty, misunderstanding, persecution, and finally, death on the cross.

Jesus did all of this that by His poverty we might become rich. We are poor, horribly poor. On our own, without divine grace, we are fallen, sinful creatures on the road to eternal death. But Jesus died for our sins that we might become rich. Through Him, we can embrace the true wealth of God's grace and mercy that lead us to eternal life.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

The world needed, and still needs, reconciliation with God. Through the first fall and the subsequent original sin, human beings lost their initial intimacy with God. Think of how Adam and Eve would walk with Him in the coolness of the evening in Eden. This was perfect intimacy. Yet our first parents chose to sin. They misused their free will, thinking that they could become like God and decide for themselves what was right and wrong. They fell, and they passed their fallen nature down to all of us. The intimacy was shattered.

But God did not allow this brokenness to remain. He longed for reconciliation, for a reestablishment of intimacy. So in His own perfect time, He sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to reconcile the world to Himself by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. We are still weak and sinful people. Our human nature is still fallen. But now we have the opportunity to receive and embrace God's saving grace and find forgiveness for our sins. We have a chance for intimacy with God now and then completely in Heaven.

Notice the second part of this acclamation. God entrusts to us the message of reconciliation. We are supposed to spread the good news about what Jesus has done for us. We must tell everyone of God's mercy and love and about the final destiny He desires for each of us, namely, eternal life with Him in Heaven.

Why are we not proclaiming this from the housetops? What is holding us back? Why do we not share the great gift that God has given us?

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Let Your face shine upon Your servant; and teach me Your laws.

Today's Gospel Acclamation puts a prayer on our lips, but it is one that we might have trouble praying sincerely, at least in part.

The first half of the prayer seems easy. We all want God's face to shine upon us. God brings us blessings and love, protection and care. Yet we have to remember something else, too. When the light of God's face shines upon us, that light can reveal all our flaws, all our darkness, all our sins, all the ways we have failed to love. This can be disturbing to say the least and sometimes even frightening.

We must, however, realize that only when we know ourselves as we are, in the fullness of our mess, can we fully repent and open the way for God's mercy and love to heal us and purify us. God shows us what we are to humble us because humility is necessary for us to return to God and embrace His love.

The second half of the prayer might make us hesitate just a little. Our culture tends to turn law into something negative. We may think of law as limiting our freedom and of the moral law in particular as restricting and inhibiting. But this is not at all true. God's law is perfectly suited to our human nature. He created us after all, so He knows exactly what we need, especially in our fallen state. He knows the boundaries that will keep us safe and close to Him, and this is why He gives us His law.

Therefore, we ask God to teach us His laws so that we can learn, at the same time, of His love. He gives us laws because He loves us and wants the very best for us. The moral law is not about constraining us and taking away our freedom but about keeping us safe and making us truly free to embrace truth, beauty, goodness, and our loving God.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Take My yoke upon you, says the Lord, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart.

It's easy to misunderstand this beautiful command from our Lord, especially when our modern perspective fails to grasp the depths of its meaning. We may automatically cringe at the word “yoke,” for instance, associating it with a burden and a loss of freedom. But here it actually refers to a partnership and to support. Our Lord joins us to Him, and He bears our burdens with us. The weight becomes significantly lighter when Jesus is carrying it, too, supporting us and keeping us going when we might otherwise have sat down and given in to despair.

When we are yoked to our Lord, we can truly learn from Him. He sets an example for us that we may model our lives after His own. He is meek. Here is another word that is often misinterpreted these days. We might think it refers to weakness and the inability to influence others. This is not true, though. A preacher once said that meekness is simply strength under control. Jesus' power is beyond our understanding and imagination, yet He humbles Himself to reach down to us. He even gives Himself to us in the Eucharist, hiding Himself there that He may come to us in a way we can accept.

Why, then, should we ever hesitate to take Jesus' yoke upon our shoulders? Why should we not allow Him to walk with us, carry our burdens with us, and give us true freedom? Why should we fail to imitate His meekness and humility by which Jesus reaches down to us to bring us up to Him?

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father, except through Me.

Jesus' words in today's Gospel Acclamation are words that we could meditate on for our whole lives without reaching their depths. Jesus does not say that He shows the way (although He does). He says He is the way. Jesus does not say that He tells the truth (although He does). He says He is the truth. Jesus does not say that He gives life (although He does). He says He is the life.

These are statements that only God can make. Only the divine Being, the One Who is Being, can equate Himself with the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is declaring His divinity here, clearly and forcefully.

And Jesus adds that the only way to go to the Father is through Him. Only Jesus can get us home to Heaven, for He is the One Who died for us on the cross to open the way to Heaven. He is the One Who has freed us from our sins. He is the Son, and we are sons and daughters only in the Son. Jesus brings us to God the Father, and He is the only One Who can do that.

So we must cling to Jesus and accept Him as the way, the truth, and the life, the One Who can lead us home to the Father. 

Gospel Acclamation: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

My sheep hear My voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow Me.

We are the Lord's sheep, His people who have entered into a covenant with Him and whom He cares for and protects constantly. Sheep know their shepherd, and they follow him. But do we know our Shepherd and follow Him? Or do we try to strike out on our own and get tangled up in all kinds of trouble that we could have avoided if only we would have followed our Shepherd?

We often seem to get ourselves firmly stuck in the mire of sin, chased by predators who want to corrupt our minds, and floundering around in anxiety. Yet if we want to avoid these things, all we have to do is follow our Shepherd. It's simple, but it isn't easy. Sheep aren't the brightest of creatures and, often, neither are we. We are easily distracted and influenced by the world, the flesh, and the devil. And we run away from our Shepherd.

Yet Jesus knows all this very well. He knows us perfectly, inside and out, better than we know ourselves. He sees all our faults, all our stupidity, and all our sins, yet He loves us anyway. He also sees our potential, for He has created us for eternal life. And He will lead us all the way to Heaven if we just listen to His voice and follow Him.

Gospel Acclamation: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Stay awake and be ready! For you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

We are fragile creatures. Our lives can be over in an instant. Illness and accidents are constant threats. Yet many people behave like they are invincible, like death will never catch up with them. They ignore the eternal to focus on the temporal. They spurn the things of Heaven for the things of this world. They think they are living good lives, successful lives, rich lives, but really, they are living empty lives.

Jesus tells us to stay awake and be ready. We never know when He will come to get us. Then our earthly lives will be over, and we will stand before Him. Jesus loves us, but He will not force Himself on us. He will judge us on how we have lived...with Him or without Him.

So we must stay awake and be ready through prayer, the Eucharist, Confession, and study. We must get our priorities in order and concentrate on eternal life rather than temporal distractions. In everything we do, we must put God first so that we are ready when He comes for us, ready to stand before Him in love and joy.

Gospel Acclamation: Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

Who are the poor in spirit? They are the anawim, God's poor ones, the people who rely completely on God to meet their needs. No matter how many material possessions they have, they place themselves before God in total dependence upon Him. They use their goods according to His will and do not become attached to the things of this world. They are not controlled by their stuff. They do not allow it to own them. Rather, they use it for God's purposes.

Notice the blessing the poor in spirit receive. Theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Because they have let go of this world, they can enter into God's kingdom, already here on earth and fully in Heaven. They can focus on their relationship with God without as many distractions. They can grow in love without the strain of envy or snobbery. They can give of what they have and find true riches.

Indeed, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

Gospel Acclamation: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

You have received a Spirit of adoption, through which we cry, Abba, Father.

Do we realize what an immense blessing it is that we are invited, even commanded, to pray “Our Father”? When we are baptized, we enter into God's covenant people. A covenant creates a family bond, a kinship relation. What's more, when we are baptized, God enters into our souls. He dwells within us, closer to us than we are to ourselves.

We become God's children, and He protects us and cares for us as the best of fathers, even beyond the best of human fathers. He knows our needs better than we do, and He meets each one of them. He showers us with His grace and His love. He gives us everything we require to come to Him in an intimate, loving relationship.

God loves us, more than we can ever imagine, and He longs for our love in return. He desires us to be faithful, affectionate, trusting children who turn to our Father for everything, knowing that He will provide the very best.

Gospel Acclamation: Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.

Those who keep the word with a generous heart are called blessed in today's Gospel Acclamation. But what does that mean? To keep God's word is to read it, to hear it, to treasure it, to study it, to meditate on it, to love it, to agree to it, and to obey it. A generous heart is an open heart, an obedient heart, a prayerful heart, a heart that is willing to let go of itself and its opinions and embrace God's word.

Keeping God's word with a generous heart also requires perseverance. When times get hard and doubts creep in, we cling to the truths that God has revealed. We let go of ourselves and place everything in God's hands with a spirit of trust. We continue to pray, and we continue to believe. We hope, and we love. We make the choice to say “yes” to God no matter what. And then, God assures us, we will yield a harvest of blessing.

Gospel Acclamation: Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life; You have the words of everlasting life.

Your words, Lord, are Spirit. They enter into our hearts and change us if we let them. They grow and dwell within us, teaching us, comforting us, drawing us to You.

Your words, Lord, are life. They tell us about everlasting life, but they also open the way for that life to enter into us and for us to enter into that life. We hear. We believe. We love. We live.

Open our ears to hear Your words, Lord, and our minds to comprehend them and our hearts to treasure them. Amen.

Gospel Acclamation: Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Let the peace of Christ control your hearts; let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

The peace of Christ... This is not merely a lack of conflict or an absence of upset. The word for “peace” in Greek is eirēnē, and it refers to a wholeness in which all the parts of something are joined together in the right order. This is the peace that we are to allow into our hearts. Jesus wants us to be whole, to be complete, to be in the proper order in all ways. We cannot do this on our own, of course. So we need the peace of Christ, Jesus' own wholeness and completeness and order, to control our hearts that we may enter into His peace.

The word of Christ... Do we hang on every word Jesus speaks? We should be. We should spend time each day reflecting on Scripture, which is the Word of God, and especially on the Gospels that provide us with Jesus' teachings. These words should become part of us, and they should grow within us as we allow the Holy Spirit to show us their truth, reveal the depths of their meaning, and apply them to our lives. Then the word of Christ will indeed dwell in us richly.

Gospel Acclamation: Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening; You have the words of everlasting life.

This Gospel acclamation is a compilation of two Bible verses, one from the Old Testament and one from the New. When we pray them together, we first express our invitation to God to speak to us and our assurance that are minds and hearts are open to hearing and obeying. Then we acknowledge that God's words lead to everlasting life.

The first clause Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening comes from 1 Samuel 3:10. The young Samuel has been sleeping in the house of the Lord where the Ark of the Covenant is. Just think of sleeping in peace before God like that. But Samuel is not having a particularly peaceful night. Someone keeps calling his name. Three times, Samuel thinks the priest Eli is calling him, and he gets up and goes to Eli at once. But Eli has not called. Finally, the third time, Eli realizes what is happening. God is trying to talk to Samuel. Eli tells the boy what to do, and when Samuel hears his name again, he says with a humble confidence, “Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening.” With those words, Samuel presents himself to God in an openness that is willing to hear and obey God's words.

The second clause You have the words of everlasting life is first found in Psalm 19, but Peter makes it his own in John 6:68. Jesus has been speaking to the Jews about how He is the bread that has come down from Heaven and how everyone must eat of this bread of life. Many of those who have been following Jesus leave Him at this point. Jesus turns to the apostles and asks if they, too, will go. Peter replies, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Eternal and everlasting life. Peter recognizes that such is only found in Jesus. Like Samuel, he opens his mind and heart even though he does not fully understand.

Gospel Acclamation: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever.

What a promise our Lord gives us! First, He gives us Himself as the living bread. The One Who has come down from Heaven becomes our food. He enters into an intimacy with us almost beyond what we can imagine, entering into our bodies, truly present within us, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. He does this because He loves us and wants to be with us, to draw us closer and closer to Him all the way to Heaven.

In fact, Jesus tells us that whoever eats this Bread will live forever. When we receive the Eucharist in a state of grace, our venial sins are wiped away. We receive a foretaste of Heaven, an increased intimacy with God. This draws us onward, increasing our desire for eternal life, strengthening us against sin, providing us with increased grace that we may continue our journey home to Heaven.

Gospel Acclamation: Most Holy Trinity

Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to God Who is, Who was, and Who is to come.

Sometimes we struggle to express our faith in the Blessed Trinity. We are, of course, faced with a mystery beyond our human comprehension. We will never fully understand how God is one God yet three Persons, but we believe that it is true because God has revealed it to us.

So we give glory on this Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. We praise and worship our one God in three Persons as we marvel at the mystery. We stand in awe before the eternal God, Who is, Who was, and Who is to come. We bask in the love of this God Who has created us and sustains us in existence at every moment.

We wonder that the Father would send His beloved Son to become one of us, fully human while remaining fully God, and to die for us that we might be freed from our sins and receive eternal life. We are amazed that the Father and the Son have given us the Holy Spirit, the eternal love of God so strong as to be a divine Person, to enter into our souls and dwell within us.

And so in gratitude and love, we exclaim, “Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to God Who is, Who was, and Who is to come. Amen.”

Gospel Acclamation: Pentecost Sunday

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love.

Fire. The Holy Spirit comes to set us on fire. We read in Acts how tongues as of fire descended upon the Apostles as a sign that the Holy Spirit had come upon them and filled them with His gifts and with the fire of His love.

At our Baptism and again at our Confirmation, the Holy Spirit has come upon us in a special way as well, infusing us with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. He has poured faith, hope, and love into our hearts, minds, and souls. He has set us on fire that we might know and defend our faith with courage and love and grow ever closer to the Blessed Trinity.

But do we accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Do we open our hearts that He may fill them? Do we put His gifts to good use? Or do we tuck them away, unwilling to allow them to move and work in us?

Let us pray on this Pentecost Sunday that the Holy Spirit may indeed come and fill our hearts and set them on fire with faith, hope, and love. Amen.

Gospel Acclamation: Ascension

Go and teach all nations, says the Lord; I am with you always, until the end of the world.

“I am with you always.” These are Jesus' words to us. He is with us always. There is never a moment when He is separated from us. He loves us continually, supports us constantly, and offers us His grace always.

Today we celebrate the Ascension, but we should not think of it as Jesus “going away” or saying goodbye. Quite the opposite is true. Jesus ascends to the Father so that He may be closer to us than ever. We receive Him Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist, taking Him into ourselves in a most intimate way and basking in His love.

Jesus also tells us to go and teach others about Him. This ability to spread the Gospel grows from the intimacy we experience with Jesus. As we grow closer and closer to Him, we can't help but want to spread the word and draw others to Him. So we allow Jesus to speak and act through us, opening ourselves to Him and becoming channels of His love.

Gospel Acclamation: Sixth Sunday of Easter

Whoever loves Me will keep My word, says the Lord, and My Father will love him and We will come to him.

What beautiful words of comfort from Jesus. He and the Father want to come to us and be with us and love us.

Will we let Jesus and the Father and the Spirit dwell within us? Will we love Jesus and keep His word? Will we open ourselves up to the divine presence? Will we take Jesus up on His incredible offer?

Gospel Acclamation: Fifth Sunday of Easter

I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you.

Jesus speaks these words at the Last Supper. He is about to go to the Cross, and He has given His disciples His own Body and Blood in the first Eucharist. Now He gives them a new commandment, something that is radical, something that may even seem impossible. We are to love each other as Jesus has loved us.

Think about how Jesus loves us. He sacrifices Himself for us. First, He takes on our human nature, joining it to His divine nature. Then He dies on the Cross for us to save us from our sins and open the way to Heaven. He lays down His life completely, with no hesitation and even with great anticipation. That is how much He loves us.

We might wonder how we, small, selfish, weak people that we are, could ever love like that. Yet that is exactly what Jesus tells us to do, to love as He has loved. Jesus does not command anything impossible, so there must be a way to fulfill this commandment.

St. Therese of Lisieux figured out the way when she asked Jesus to love her sisters, her fellow nuns, in and through her. Only Jesus' own love can fulfill His commandment, so she decided to embrace that love, open herself to it, and let it flow through her freely to everyone around her.

We must do the same if we want to obey Jesus. We must let Him love others in and through us, embracing His love and allowing it to flow, so that we can truly love each other as He has loved us, even to the point of sacrificing ourselves in that love.

Gospel Acclamation: Fourth Sunday of Easter

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know My sheep, and Mine know Me.

Reflect for a few minutes on all the tasks a shepherd performs for his or her sheep. The shepherd feeds and waters the sheep, making sure they get enough to eat and drink and leading them to new pastures that are green and waters that are fresh. The shepherd keeps the sheep clean (and they tend to get very dirty) and cares for their bodies, especially when they are sick. The shepherd rescues the sheep when they get into trouble (and they do that a lot because sheep aren't particularly bright). The shepherd guards the sheep, providing a safe place for them to rest and preventing predators from coming near them.

Now think about what Jesus does for us. He does all of this and more. He feeds us with His own Body and Blood. He keeps us clean, first with Baptism and then through Confession, healing us when we are sick with sin. He rescues us when we get into trouble. He guards us from our enemies, providing a safe place for us in His arms.

So why do we not follow our Good Shepherd? Why do we stray like stupid, selfish sheep?

Gospel Acclamation: Third Sunday of Easter

Christ is risen, creator of all; He has shown pity on all people.

Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He is our God, the Creator of all. Yet He does not stand apart from us. He loves us more than we can ever imagine, and He has shown great pity on all of us by saving us from our sins and opening the gates of Heaven.

We didn't and don't deserve it. We have sinned, and we continue to sin. Yet Jesus continues to hold out His mercy to us. He wants to forgive us and draw us back to Him, again and again and again. He knows how weak and frail we are.

Now that's pity. And even more, that's love.

Gospel Acclamation: Second Sunday of Easter

You believe in Me, Thomas, because you have seen Me, says the Lord; blessed are those who have not seen Me, but still believe!

Poor Thomas! He has never been able to live down his “doubting Thomas” label. He certainly did doubt, but we should ask ourselves what we might have done in his place. Would we have believed the other apostles as they chattered excitedly about the risen Lord, or would we have wondered if they had been drinking a little too freely of the wine?

Thomas, of course, declared that he would not believe unless he put his finger in the nail marks in Jesus' hands and his hand into His opened side.

Then, a week later, Jesus appears. This time Thomas is with the others in that upper room. Jesus tells him to go ahead and put his finger in the nail marks and his hand in His side, but most of all to leave off his unbelief and believe.

We do not even know if Thomas took Jesus up on His offer to touch His glorified wounds. But Thomas certainly begins to believe at that very moment. In fact, he does not just stop at believing that Jesus has risen from the dead. Rather, he says, probably with great awe and wonder, “My Lord and my God!” Thomas has faith indeed. He quickly understands and embraces the fact that if Jesus has risen from the dead, then He can only be God Himself.

Jesus responds to Thomas in the words of our acclamation, inviting us to share Thomas' faith. We have not seen Jesus standing before us, but we do believe. Let us proclaim more confidently than ever in this Easter season, “My Lord and my God!”

Gospel Acclamation: Easter Sunday

Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed; let us then feast with joy in the Lord.

Christ, the Lamb of God, has indeed been sacrificed. He has died for our sins, going to the cross out of unimaginable love for us. He willingly suffered and laid down His life for us, sinners that we are, that we might receive sanctifying grace, the indwelling presence of God in our souls, and eternal life in Heaven with Him.

Like the blood of original Paschal lamb, Christ's blood has been poured out for us that we might live. Only we do not just escape physical death like the Israelites of old. We escape spiritual death, eternal death, separation from God. The Paschal lamb is a type, a foreshadowing, of Christ, but Christ is the fulfillment beyond our wildest dreams, God-made-Man Who dies for us.

Unlike the little white, fluffy animals the Israelites sacrificed, though, Jesus Christ, God-made-Man rises from the dead, conquering death. Death cannot hold Him, and this is what we celebrate at Easter, the Resurrection of Jesus, our Lamb Who lives again to intercede for us eternally.

The Passover of the Israelites was not complete unless the people ate the lamb. This was symbolic of receiving life and entering into communion. We, too, must eat our Lamb, Jesus Christ, and we do so in the Eucharist. Jesus gives Himself to us Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. We eat our Lamb, coming into communion with Him and through Him with each other and receiving an outpouring of divine life, not symbolically but really and truly.

So let us feast with joy in the Lord, for our Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed for us and has risen again to bring us to new life with Him.

Gospel Acclamation: Palm Sunday

Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.

On this Palm Sunday, take some time and re-read the Passion Narrative. Mediate on Jesus' obedient suffering. He endured it for you. Express your gratitude and your repentance for sin. Unite your sufferings to those of Jesus, and recognize that His suffering gives meaning to yours. His death and resurrection give you eternal life.

As we enter into Holy Week, keep Jesus' Passion firmly before your eyes, and ask Him to fill you with His love and His life.

Gospel Acclamation: Fifth Sunday of Lent

Even now, says the Lord, return to Me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful.

Today's Gospel Acclamation provides us with a comforting message from our Lord. If we return to Him with our whole heart, if we repent of our sins and confess and fall into God's embrace, He will accept us. He will not turn us away.

Why? God answers that question for us. He is gracious and merciful. God wants to save us. He wants to forgive us. He wants to shower us with His grace.

However, God does not force Himself on us. We have free will. That is one of God's gifts to us, one of the ways we have been made in His image and likeness, and He does not violate it. So God waits for us to return to Him in humility and love.

Will we take God up on His offer?

Gospel Acclamation: Fourth Sunday of Lent

I will get up and go to my Father and shall say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

The youngest son in our Gospel for today has gotten himself into a real pickle. He thought he could be free of his father and his father's estate and all the work it entailed, so he demanded his inheritance and left. His father would not have had to give in to his demands, but he knew the young man needed to learn a tough lesson, and that is exactly what happens.

The young man squanders all his money and ends up starving and caring for pigs, about the worst position a young Jew could end up in. The young man sees his predicament and recognizes how good he really had it at home. In fact, his father's servants are much better off than he is at this point. He decides that he will go home, confess his sin, and ask to be a servant to his father because he knows he is not worthy to be a son.

In this acclamation, we are invited to make the young man's words of repentance our own. We are invited to recognize that, like the young man, we have gone away from our Father, God, to follow our own paths, and we must repent and return. The young man received a welcome and forgiveness beyond his wildest imaginings, and so will we when we get up, return to our Father, confess our sins, and find ourselves surrounded by love.

Gospel Acclamation: Third Sunday of Lent

Repent, says the Lord; the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Repent. Admit that we are weak, sinful people who offend God frequently.

Repent. Examine our consciences thoroughly.

Repent. Look straight at our sins realistically, and admit that we have done wrong.

Repent. Express contrition for our sins, deep sorrow that we have offend the God Who loves us more than we can ever imagine.

Repent. Confess our sins.

Repent. Deliberately turn away from sin, and resolve to sin no more.

Repent. Humbly ask for God's forgiveness, knowing that we do not deserve it yet that He is pleased to grant it in His great mercy and love.

Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all of my sins because of Your just punishments, but most of all because they offend You, my God, Who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Your grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.

Gospel Acclamation: Second Sunday of Lent

From the shining cloud the Father’s voice is heard: This is My beloved Son, hear Him.

Imagine that you are with Peter, James, and John on the mountain. You have come apart with Jesus for a while to pray, but you do not realize that Jesus has something truly remarkable in store for you. You pray for a while, as Jesus does, but then you get sleepy and start to nod off.

Something startles you, and your eyes pop open. Your jaw drops. Jesus is standing there before you, but He is glowing, radiating. His face looks different, and His clothes are so white they shine. Two men stand beside Him, and you somehow recognize Moses and Elijah. They are speaking to Jesus about His upcoming exodus. You have no idea what that means, and you don't even know what to say or do. You just sit their with your mouth hanging open and your eyes wide. Jesus is so beautiful, so glorious.

Peter, of course, is the one who speaks up, mumbling something about making tents. You know he is thinking about the Feast of Tabernacles and how Jesus is the Messiah, but he hardly seems to realize what he is saying.

Suddenly a cloud descends over you, and you are actually immersed in it. You fall on your face, terrified, for you know that this the shekinah, the glory cloud, the same one that led the Israelites out of Egypt, the same one that descended on the mountain as Moses received the law, the same one that descended on the Tabernacle and the Temple. It is a sign of the intense, overwhelming presence of God.

A voice rings out from the cloud. “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him.” Then when you dare to look up, Jesus is there alone. He touches you and tells you not to be frightened. But you are a little anyway, for you have just experienced something perfectly divine.

Gospel Acclamation: First Sunday of Lent

One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

Bread alone. The material world. All the stuff that we rely on to make our lives “good” and “prosperous” and “happy.” We need material things, and they are usually not bad in and of themselves. We humans are body and soul, and we must tend to the body. But we cannot let our body dominate. We cannot let the material world control us, for that is exactly what happens when we give it pride of place. Our stuff starts to own us.

Every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. This is life for our souls. It refers to God's grace, to the Scriptures, to Tradition, to the sacraments, to our encounters with God in prayer. We are to take in every drop, every word, every small bit of inspiration. We are to focus on God, putting Him first in our lives, above all else. This is true life. This is the beginning of eternal life that we can experience in part now and fully in Heaven.

Gospel Acclamation: Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Shine like lights in the world as you hold on to the word of life.

Jesus once said that no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel basket or under a bed. That would be foolish. Rather, people put a lamp on the lampstand where it gives light to the whole house.

Jesus has made us into lights. When we are baptized, we are filled with sanctifying grace, with the divine presence. God Himself dwells within us, lighting us up from the inside out with His love. When we remain in a state of grace, that light remains in us, and we are to shine that light to the world, allowing the world to catch a glimpse of God and His love by our lights.

But do we shine like lights in the world? Or do we crawl under the proverbial bed or retreat into the bushel basket and hide the light of our Catholic faith because we fear to offend or long to be accepted by the world.

We are meant to sit on a lampstand and allow the light of God to shine through us. This isn't putting ourselves on a pedestal. It is living our faith and love with holy boldness and allowing God to use us as He will.

In order to be lights in the world, we must hold on to the Word of life, Jesus Christ, the Light of the world. Only He can give us the grace we need to proclaim our faith while remaining humble and little so that He can shine through us.

Gospel Acclamation: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you.

This commandment is both a precious gift and a demanding challenge. How has Jesus loved us? He gave Himself up to death on the cross to save us from our sins and open the way to eternal life. He has loved us to the extreme in a complete, self-sacrificial love that know no limits.

Now Jesus tells us to do the same, to love one another like that. And He is not just asking us or giving us the option. This is a commandment. We are to obey.

Of course, we wonder, and rightly, how in our weakness and sinfulness we can ever love other as Jesus has loved us. It seems like an impossible task, but Jesus never orders us to do what is impossible.

St. Therese of Lisieux once asked Jesus to love her sisters in her, for only then would she be able to really love them as He loves her. Here is the key. We must ask Jesus to love others in and through us, and then unite ourselves to His love. We must allow His love to flow through us and embrace that love. We must pray to our Lord for this grace, the grace to fulfill His commandment and love with His own love.

Gospel Acclamation: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven.

Living our Catholic faith is not easy. In fact, at times it can be dreadfully difficult. The world scoffs at us, scorns us for our belief in God and our insistence upon holding fast to His moral laws. We are sometimes persecuted, sometimes ignored, sometimes slandered, sometimes hated. Yet Jesus experienced all of this before us, and He warned us that what happened to Him would happen to us.

Yet look at Jesus' promise here. We are to rejoice when we are persecuted for our faith. We are to unite our sufferings with those of Christ. We are to take up the cross and follow after Him. We are to keep on holding fast to our faith, growing in intimacy with God, speaking the truth, loving our neighbors, even those who are our enemies, and praying for those who persecute us. Then, Christ promises us, our reward will be great in Heaven.

Gospel Acclamation: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Come after Me and I will make you fishers of men.

In today's Gospel, Jesus extends an invitation to Peter, Andrew, James, and John. They are all fishermen, simple, hardworking fellows who catch their livelihood from the Sea of Galilee. But now their lives will change drastically if they accept Jesus' summons. These four men, however, drop everything and follow Jesus.

Jesus calls us, too. He invites us to come after Him, to walk in His ways, to follow His will, to perform His tasks, to serve His people with love. We are called to be fishers of men, to catch them and draw them to Christ by our words and actions.

How is Jesus calling you? How are you responding?

Gospel Acclamation: Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

The Lord sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives.

Last week we talked about Jesus' proclamation of these words in His hometown of Nazareth at the beginning of His public ministry. This week we need to apply these words to ourselves, for we are all sent to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives.

We can, of course, bring glad tidings to the poor by meeting the physical needs of people who are materially poor and captive in their poverty. This is extremely important. We can support or even volunteer at a local food shelf or homeless shelter. We can contribute to the many excellent charities that are working to combat poverty across the globe. This is all excellent.

But there is another group of poor people we also cannot neglect. These are the spiritually poor, the ones who lack faith in God, the ones who are mixed up in their views of the world, the ones who do and promote evil. These people are horribly impoverished, and their poverty is more serious than material poverty. Their poverty may lead them to turn their backs on eternal life. It is truly holding them captive.

This is why we must bring glad tidings to the spiritually poor. We must proclaim the Gospel by our words and actions. We must not be afraid to speak the truth, to proclaim Jesus Christ whether people accept our message or not. We must answer questions, enter into debates, and be ready, as St. Peter says, to account for the hope that is within us. We must sometimes correct, sometimes practice “tough love,” sometimes even offend people. But we might just plant a seed in their minds, an extremely valuable seed that someday might open their hearts and minds to God.

Gospel Acclamation: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Lord sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives.

These words originally appear in Isaiah 61:1. God's Servant declares that He has been anointed to spread the message of God to those who need it most and to free people held in captivity.

In Luke 4:18, Jesus applies these words to Himself. He is in the synagogue in His hometown at Nazareth, and He has been chosen to read from the Scriptures. He knows exactly what He will read, and when the attendant hands Him the scroll of Isaiah, He quickly rolls it to this passage.

Imagine the sound of Jesus' voice as He reads Isaiah's words. It is a voice of authority and confidence. These are the words of God spoken by the Word of God even though the people in the synagogue do not realize this.

All are silent when Jesus finishes. They know that something remarkable has just happened, but they do not understand what it is. They have never heard Scripture proclaimed like this before. Jesus looks around at them all as they stare at Him and declares, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Servant of God so mysteriously prophesied by Isaiah is right in front of the people in that synagogue at Nazareth. Most do not recognize Him.

Gospel Acclamation: The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

God has called us through the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Read this acclamation slowly a couple times, and let it sink in. We are called to possess the glory of Jesus. We are called to share in the divine life of God. We are called to be children of God, members of His divine family, participators in the covenant, heirs to the Kingdom.

We receive this call through the Gospel, through Divine Revelation in writing but also in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, as we enter into intimacy with Him.

How, then, do we answer this call to glory? Do we read and reflect on Scripture? Do we pray? Do we repent of our sins and ask for God's mercy? Do we embrace the sacraments? Do we welcome Jesus into our hearts in the Eucharist? Do we reach out for intimacy with Him?

We are called to glory, and this glory will find its fulfillment in Heaven when we see God face to face.

Gospel Acclamation: The Baptism of the Lord

The heavens were opened and the voice of the Father thundered: This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.

As Jesus comes up out of the waters of the Jordan River, the heavens open up; a dove descends upon Jesus; and the Father's voice rings out. Here we have a portrait of the Blessed Trinity. The dove represents the Holy Spirit. God the Father speaks, identifying Jesus as His beloved Son. Jesus stands there, dripping wet, fully human yet also fully God.

In your imagination, put yourself on the bank of the Jordan witnessing this scene. What do you see? What do you hear? Are you startled? Afraid? Hopeful? Confused? What are you thinking as you look at Jesus and see the dove and hear the mysterious voice ringing out above you?

Now ask yourself: Do you obey the Father? Do you recognize Jesus as the beloved Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God-and-man? Do you listen to Him? Do you seek to know Him and to follow His perfect will for your life? Do you allow the Holy Spirit and God's grace to descend upon you and fill you? Are you also the Father's beloved child?