Dad Talk guide to the Sunday Mass readings

There are only three times in the entire Gospel of Mathew where Jesus speaks out loud to God the Father, and this Sunday's Gospel reading is one of them. When Jesus shows us how to pray, we should listen! We'll discuss the lessons Jesus imparts - and unpack a potentially confusing passage from Paul - in this week's Dad Talk. Please share with a friend, and God bless!

This Sunday's Gospel reading includes one of Jesus's most difficult challenges to his apostles - and to us: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me." Does Jesus really mean all this? We'll dig into that an...

It can be difficult to speak the truth about God and human flourishing in today's hostile culture. But it's not any more difficult than it was for the apostles or the Old Testament prophets. In this week's Sunday readings, Jeremiah and Jesus have some advice for how we should go about doing that. We'll discuss their wisdom in this week's Dad Talk. Please share with a friend, an...

Our Sunday Mass readings carry an important theme: keeping our covenant with God. Along the way, this week's Dad Talk will also focus on additional lessons we can draw about apostolic succession and what it means to be "saved." Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad

Jesus's true presence - body, blood, soul, and divinity - in the Eucharist is one of the Catholic Church's distinctive doctrines, the source and summit of our faith. And though the mystery of the Eucharist is revealed in the Bible beginning in Genesis and continuing all the way to the Book of Revelation, the readings for this Sunday's Solemnity are key pieces of the puzzle. We'll d...

This week's readings are short, but they contain beautiful and eternal truths about the Most Holy Trinity. They also give us a choice. We'll discuss all that - and conduct a refresher on what it means to have a "Solemnity" - in this week's Dad Talk. Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad

As Pope Leo the Great explained, "the law was given on Mount Sinai fifty days after the immolation of the paschal lamb. Similarly, after the passion of Christ in which the true Lamb of God was killed, just fifty days after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit fell upon the apostles and the whole group of believers. Thus, the earnest Christian may easily perceive that the beginnings of the Old Co...

Unless you're in the Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha, or Philadelphia Dioceses, then this Sunday you're celebrating the Ascension of the Lord. In this week's Dad Talk, we'll explore the many wonderful details of the readings associated with that celebration. Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad

This Sunday's readings are filled with references to the Holy Spirit, the paraclete. In this week's Dad Talk, we'll unpack those references and discuss how we should be thinking about the Holy Spirt in our prayer life. Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad

In this Sunday's first reading, we see the consecration of the Church's first deacons! We'll talk about that passage at length, as well as our own role in teaching and evangelizing the Good News. Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad

This week's readings include the difficult teaching that suffering is our vocation as Christians. We suffer for Christ, our Good Shepherd, because he suffered for us. We'll discuss that subject - and why it was such a big deal for the early Christians to call Jesus "Lord" - in today's Dad Talk. Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad

The common thread between this Sunday's three readings is that God planned to save us through Jesus's passion, death, and resurrection from the beginning of time. And the readings' details are amazing - from how Jesus died in atonement for our sins to the institution of the Mass, including the Eucharistic celebration. We'll discuss it all in this week's Dad Talk. Please share w...

This weekend, we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, a devotion that came from the life and writings of Saint Faustina. What's amazing is that our Gospel reading is about Jesus instituting the Sacrament of Reconciliation by giving the Apostles the power to forgive sins—one of the most merciful acts imaginable. We'll discuss that—and how God wants to refine us like gold until we are Saints—in to...

We'll take a quick look at all the readings from the Easter Vigil (and there are many) because collectively, they contain the entirety of salvation history. We'll conclude with Jesus's encounter with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary in Matthew's Gospel, which is a beautiful reminder that we need to know and understand the Bible and the Church's teachings AND ALSO have a person...

As we enter into the holiest week of the year, it is especially important to pay attention to all the details in our Sunday readings. Hidden inside Jesus's passion narrative are countless prophecies from the Old Testament, plus lessons about how we must be disciples. There's SO much to discuss in this week's Dad Talk. Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad

This week's Gospel reading includes two powerful messages: suffering often glorifies God, and Jesus has the power to defeat death itself. But along the way, the passage throws a few curveballs, such as the curious fact that Jesus "remained for two days in the place where he was" after learning that his friend Lazarus was ill. In today's Dad Talk, we'll dive deeply into the de...

During this Sunday's Gospel reading, we learn that it is not Jesus or the blind man (who can now see) who are on trial but rather the Pharisees - who persist in their spiritual blindness. In today's Dad Talk, we'll discuss how Jesus calls us to the light, and how we must respond when we see darkness in the world. Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad

St. Augustine famously wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” That's absolutely true. But sometimes we forget that Jesus's heart is also restless until we rest in Him . This week's Dad Talk will unpack the Gospel story about the Samaritan woman at the well, and how that story's details serve as a powerful reminder of what...

Anthony the Great explained that Abraham's response to God's call—to do as God directed and leave everything behind—is the model for how we should respond to Jesus's call to repent and follow Him. In today's Dad Talk, we'll discuss the circumstances that make Abraham's response so remarkable, and what following Jesus means for us today. Please share with a friend, and God b...

This Sunday's readings contain the entire history of our fallen nature, from Original Sin in the Garden of Eden, to the resulting concupiscence passed to each generation, to our redemption in Christ's death and resurrection.  We'll examine the connections between these readings—and the incredible symbolism of what was going on in the Garden—in this week's Dad Talk.  As we enter int...

As an anonymous early Church Father explained, Christ's commandment contains the law, but the law does not contain Christ's commandment. In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus walks through several of the 10 Commandments, then elevates them by explaining how we must avoid sin interiorly as well as exteriorly. We'll explain what that means in today's Dad Talk. Please share with a friend...

In this Sunday's Gospel reading, Jesus exhorts us to be salt and light for the world. But what does he mean by that? And how are we supposed to live that way? We'll explore that subject in today's Dad Talk. Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad

We may tend to move quickly through the Beatitudes in today's Gospel, but they teach us something very important - how to live like Jesus, leading to salvation and evangelization.  We'll discuss how in greater detail in today's Dad Talk.  Please share with a friend, and God bless!  Dad

Like Abraham, the Apostles in today's Gospel reading heard God's call and immediately left everything behind to do what God asked. We'll discuss what that means for us—and why we hear about Zebulun and Naphtali in both the first reading and  the Gospel—in today's Dad Talk. Please share with a friend, and God bless!

When John the Baptist sees Jesus, he cries out, "Behold, the Lamb of God." What does he mean by that? We'll explore that comment - and how Paul calls us to be holy - in today's Dad Talk. Please share with a friend, and God bless! Dad