The BreadCast

(Is.42:1-7; Ps.27:1-3,13-14; Jn.12:1-11) "I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations." He has come "to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who dwell in darkness." "He establishes justice on the earth," and this justice is His bringing light to our darkness. But He could not release us from the dungeon...

(Is.50:4-7; Ps.22:2,8-9,17-20,23-24; Phil.2:6-11; Mt.26:14-27:66 or Mk.14:1-15:47 or Lk.22:14-23:56) "His blood be upon us and upon our children." "The whole people" cry out for the death of Jesus. "Let Him be crucified," they shout ever more loudly. The sins of us all demand the death of the Son. And though He would have us not bear such guilt – "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass fr...

(Ez.37:21-28; Jer.31:10-13; Jn.11:45-57) "My sanctuary shall be set up among them forever." Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise to "gather [His people] from all sides to bring them back to their land"; He is the "one prince for [us] all" by whom God makes complete the "everlasting covenant" with us: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." It is He "who make[s] Israel holy," who m...

(Jer.20:10-13; Ps.18:2-7; Jn.10:31-42) "He has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked." As Jeremiah's persecutors surround him on every side but are "put to utter shame" when he calls out to the Lord, so as the Jews "again tried to arrest Him," Jesus again "eluded their grasp." And so when "the breakers of death surged around [us], the destroying floods overwhelmed [us]..." so w...

(Gn.17:3-9; Ps.105:4-9; Jn.8:51-59) "Before Abraham came to be, I AM." Abraham is a great man, the blessed patriarch, to whom God made the promise: "I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you." So Abraham becomes "the father of a host of nations," not just by lineage, but b...

O chosen one of the Lord, how well you answered His call, giving yourself entirely to the angel's word and so conceiving in your womb the salvation of the world – pray, O Spouse of the Holy Spirit, that His voice might inspire in us your same commitment to the Word of God and its working in our lives; pray the Son be conceived in us as well that we too might serve to bring His salvation forth into...

(Is.7:10-14,8:10; Ps.40:7-11; Heb.10:4-10; Lk.1:26-38) "Behold, I come to do your will." Today we celebrate the fact that the Word became flesh, that God became man through Mary and dwells among us to take away our sins. In this is fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The Lord Himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name Him Emmanuel, which mean...

(Nm.21:4-9; Ps.102:2-3,16-21; Jn.8:21-30) "From heaven He beheld the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die." As the Lord has said to the Pharisees: "You belong to what is below; I belong to what is above." And truly, how could we come to where He is unless He reached down to lead us there? The Israelites show just how much they are of this world below when th...

O missionary shepherd whose love for the truth was a love for Christ and a desire for your flock to know Him and the way to glorify God, you who gave yourself for the Truth that is Christ and for His Church on earth, through whom He teaches all men and brings them into His fold – may we, too, lay down our lives and work as hard as you have done in the name of Jesus, that all our lives and the live...

(Dn.13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62; Ps.23:1-6; Jn.8:1-11) "Let the man among you who has no sin be the first to cast a stone at her." "Then the audience drifted away one by one, beginning with the elders." And no one was left to accuse her. In both our gospel and our first reading a woman is accused of adultery, one justly, the other unjustly. Yet both are freed. For under the old law the innocent were...

(Ez.37:12-14; Ps.130:1-8; Rom.8:8-11; Jn.11:1-45) "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." "You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people!" says the Lord God through the prophet Ezekial. "The one who raised Christ from the dead will give l...

(Jer.11:18-20; Ps.7:2-3,9-12; Jn.7:40-53) "Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more." With these words "they were hatching plots against" Jeremiah, and in the same way against Jesus. And so, "like a trusting Lamb led to slaughter," "like the lion's prey, to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue" are they. But "...

(Ws.2:1,12-22; Ps.34:17-21,23; Jn.7:1-2,10,25-30) "He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is His Father." And for such He shall be persecuted; for such He shall be killed. For to the wicked "He is the censure of [their] thoughts; merely to see Him is a hardship" for those who stray from the Lord's commands. And so, in vain attempt to spare themselves the just judgment of the Lo...

O righteous man called by God to be foster-father of His only Son and protector of His Mother, you who were obedient to the Spirit, who took Jesus by the hand and led Him from the temple in Jerusalem to the home in Nazareth where Mary made a place for Him – pray that we shall be built into the house of Abraham, the man of faith, into the house of David, your father, into the House the Holy Spirit...

(2Sm.7:4-5,12-14a,16; Ps.89:2-5,27,29,37; Rom.4:13,16-18,22; Mt.1:16,18-21,24a or Lk.2:41-51a) "I will be a father to him, and he shall be my son." It is through Joseph that Jesus is a son of David and so fulfills the promise to the king made by God: "Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever," for He is the heir "raise[d] up" after David "who...

O steadfast teacher of the faith whom exile could not keep from proclaiming the truths of Scripture and the Church, whose pastoral zeal called souls to the blessed chamber of our divine Lord Jesus Christ that we might unite with Him who united Himself with us to draw us unto Heaven – pray that the shepherds of the Church shall be just so diligent and faithful as you have consistently been in impar...

(Is. 49:8-15; Ps.145:8-9,13-14,17-18; Jn.5:17-30) "Just as the Father possesses life in Himself, so He has granted it to the Son to have life in Himself." Here the great mystery of the unity of Father and Son is revealed, and so also our salvation. God is life. The Father is the great I AM, He who will be what He will be and do what He will do – He who holds the world and all its wonders in His cr...

O great apostle to the nations who gave up your birthright of freedom for the benefit of others, who went forth in faith, Christ ever above you and before you and all around to protect you who were brought through trial to do His will in bringing God to unbelievers, you who never doubted – pray that we, too, shall spend ourselves for the sake of the Gospel and all souls yet to be gathered to the L...

(Ez.47:1-9,12; Ps.46:2-3,5-6,8-9; Jn.5:1-3,5-16) "There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High." Brothers and sisters, Jesus is our living water. In our first reading, Ezekial speaks of his heavenly vision of the river of God which runs from His holy temple. The water, which increases as it flows further from its source, eventually "empties into the s...

(Is.65:17-21; Ps.30:2,4-6,11-13; Jn.4:43-54) "You changed my mourning into dancing." Here in the midst of Lent we find the purpose of all our suffering, the hope to which we all are called. "At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing." And thus does this time of penance and fasting lead to the abundance found in Easter joy. For what is darkness but the world in which we dwell, a...

(1Sm.16:1b,6-7,10-13a; Ps.23:1-6; Eph.5:8-14; Jn.9:1-41) "I am the light of the world." And by that light alone we see. By this light which comes from God we who were born blind, who were born into sin, have our eyes opened. And so having escaped the darkness we "live as children of light." When David was presented before Samuel, immediately the prophet's eyes were opened to the one on whom God's...

(Hos.6:1-6; Ps.51:3-4,18-21,Hos.6:6; Lk.18:9-14) "As certain as the dawn is His coming, and His judgment shines forth like the light of day!" It is night. There is darkness. In this world of sin we are afflicted on account of our guilt, for our failures to love God. And so David cries out in our psalm, "Have mercy, O God, in your goodness"; and so the tax collector in our gospel "beat[s] his breas...

(Hos.14:2-10; Ps.81:6-11,14,17; Mk.12:28-34) "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!" "There is no other than He," and so what should we do but "love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, with all [our] mind, and with all [our] strength"? What promise the Lord makes to us if only we would return to Him and love Him: "If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk...

(Jer.7:23-28; Ps.95:1-2,6-9; Lk.11:14-23) "They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me." The Lord calls His people to "listen to [His] voice," to "walk in all [His] ways," that they "may prosper." But with whom is there obedience? How many harden their hearts against Him! Of the people of Jeremiah's time the Lord says, "Faithfulness has disappear...

(Dt.4:1,5-9; Ps.147:12-13,15-16,19-20; Mt.5:17-19) "What great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law?" "He has proclaimed His word to Jacob, His statutes and ordinances to Israel." The Lord in His grace "sends forth His command to the earth; swiftly runs His word!" And as the snow and the rain come down to nourish the land, to bring life to the earth, so His Word is fo...