Observation - September 10th, 2025, Wednesday

squash soup on the stove

butternut orange

the scent of smoked paprika

fried leeks and rice cakes

 

it is cool and humid in the house

 

the hum of the fan has returned

with the slow-rumble of traffic

coming through the open window

A Homily – The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

 First Reading – Isaiah 66:18-21 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 116(117) ©

Second Reading – Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

Alternative Acclamation – John 14:6

The Gospel According to Luke 13:22 - 30 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

The scriptures often point out for us what the promise of a good life should be, telling us that if we are to have good things; they will not come from God as if by magic…do not expect it.

We experience the good if we live a just life…together; if we live together as one people, caring for one another we will experience that as good.

The good life will come for everyone if and only if our society, our civil structures, our courts, and every other apparatus of government are structured in as vehicles of compassion, justice and mercy; then we will have fellowship and that will be good.

It will be good in our hunger and our thirst, in our sorrow and our joy, it will be good.

Be mindful!

The God of creation is the God of all people, of all nations. The God of creation cares for God’s children, God cares for everyone and touches all us with mercy.

Trust in God; have faith, it will lighten the burden of the way.

Know this:

You are loved; you will not be tested beyond what you can endure.

Though God made us into creatures capable of suffering, and we know this much to be true, we also know that God will not heap it upon us. God does not interfere in our lives in any way. God does not lift us up or lay us low, because God has made us and the entire creation free. We are free to do good and free to do evil, subject to sorrow and capable of joy. There is no system of rewards and punishments laced through the things we experience in this life, those things simply are.

Be Mindful.

The grace of God is not transactional.

Love fosters love, but there is always love and God is always with you.

Remember!

Jesus instructs us in the way to aid us in leading a truthful life, a life dedicated to the good of all God’s children; follow it!

When Jesus encourages us to seek the narrow path, he is encouraging us to live the best life we can, the best life we are able to live, we conceive of this as going through the narrow door, not because the path is delimiting, but because it is difficult and few will even attempt it…the door is merely narrow, it is not locked. The narrow door is the way of justice and mercy, of love and forgiveness, it is the way of salvation and well-being.

God knows how difficult it is, and only asks that we aspire to it, God will lead us through the challenges that rise before us.

Know this.

Jesus understands the human condition, he knows that nearly everyone desires to follow the way, but few can live it completely. He also knows that we make the world a better place in direct proportion to the efforts we make to live out our lives according to our divine purpose.

Our individual and collective well-being depends on our willingness to forgive those who injure us, to accept forgiveness from those whom we have hurt, to be compassionate, merciful and just.

Jesus is not the master who locks the door, God is not the judge who tells God’s servants that they are unknown to the divine. God knows each of us, even as we know ourselves. God knows where we come from, and God where we are going…God leads us along the way.

God knows what is in the heart of every person, God knows, God loves and God forgives.

If the gatekeeper seeks to lock out any of God’s children, they do so not because they are on the narrow path, but because they are on the other path, the same path that most of the rest of us are walking…they are on the broad path which is nevertheless a path, it is the way that most of us sinners follow, it is the way we share with the patriarchs; with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with the prophets, all of whom were sinners like ourselves, and who were nonetheless the objects of God’s loving ministry.

Every person is the object of God’s love, whether we are on the narrow path or the broad path, whether we are trying to hold the gate closed or keep it open, we are all welcome to God’s table. God is patiently waiting for us to join the divine convivium.

Remember.

The last will be first and the first will last…Jesus said so; think nothing of your place in society, of your office or of your power unless you are thinking of how to use those things for the benefit of others…then and only then will you e like the angels of God.

First Reading – Isaiah 66:18-21 ©

They Will Bring All Your Brothers from All the Nations

The Lord says this: I am coming to gather the nations of every language. They shall come to witness my glory. I will give them a sign and send some of their survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Moshech, Rosh, Tubal, and Javan, to the distant islands that have never heard of me or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory to the nations. As an offering to the Lord they will bring all your brothers, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, on dromedaries, from all the nations to my holy mountain in Jerusalem, says the Lord, like Israelites bringing oblations in clean vessels to the Temple of the Lord. And of some of them I will make priests and Levites, says the Lord.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 116(117) ©

Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.

O praise the Lord, all you nations,

  acclaim him all you peoples!

Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.

Strong is his love for us;

  he is faithful for ever.

Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13 ©

The Lord Trains the One He Loves

Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons? My son, when the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when he reprimands you. For the Lord trains the ones that he loves and he punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons. Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him? Of course, any punishment is most painful at the time, and far from pleasant; but later, in those on whom it has been used, it bears fruit in peace and goodness. So hold up your limp arms and steady your trembling knees and smooth out the path you tread; then the injured limb will not be wrenched, it will grow strong again.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – John 14:6

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.’

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 13:22 - 30 ©

The Last Shall be First and the First Last

Through towns and villages Jesus went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ He said to them, ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.

 ‘Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may find yourself knocking on the door, saying, “Lord, open to us” but he will answer, “I do not know where you come from.” Then you will find yourself saying, “We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets” but he will reply, “I do not know where you come from. Away from me, all you wicked men!”

 ‘Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves turned outside. And men from east and west, from north and south, will come to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.

 ‘Yes, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.’

 

A Homily – The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

A Homily – The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

First Reading – Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 39(40): 2-4, 18 ©

Second Reading – Hebrews 12:1-4 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Acts 16:14

Alternative Acclamation – John 10:27

The Gospel According to Luke 12:48 - 53 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

Do not confuse the works of human beings for the will of the divine.

Consider the trials of the prophet Jeremiah in the reading for today and know that these are the works of human beings, give them the credit for the mercy they exercised.

Credit God for establishing within us the desire and capacity to be good, to do good in spite of our worst inclinations.

Know this.

It was wise for the king to free the prophet. There is wisdom in mercy, and mercy is the only way to satisfy the demands of justice… the powerless should never perish at the hands of the powerful.

Give thanks for the wisdom of the psalmist who says:

God is the God of mercy, and God listens.

Stretch your feelings and you will find a path through the troubles of life on Earth, through all its filth and misery, as the psalmist says:

Seek salvation and freedom from your own sins; do not dwell on the sins of others.

When you are beset with difficulties do not look for other to blame, rather look to yourself, to your own transgressions, seek relief from them by following the way, which is to love one another.

Keep the way lit before you, be less mindful of the image of Jesus you cling to than of the way he taught to follow; be merciful, love justice and walk humbly all the days of your life.

Keep to the way, its course is not a race but a habit of life.

Know this.

Desire is the cause of all suffering, even the desire to be good, especially the desire to prove your goodness to others, even that can end in suffering, both for yourself and the community you live in. Do not be too eager to show it.

God will hear you, God is with you.

Consider this.

The sheep do not choose the shepherd, rather it is the shepherd who chooses the sheep.

The Word of God; in whom all that is comes to be, it is to the Word that everything belongs…the shepherd has chosen all of the inside or out of the sheepfold.

Listen for the voice of the shepherd, do not trouble yourself with how the shepherd speaks to you, in what language, in what text, do not trouble yourself with how the shepherd speaks to your sister or your brother, to your neighbors or the stranger whom you do not know.

The shepherd speaks to everyone, and all of us listen as we are able…or willing.

Everyone that is, all who are or who have ever been, everyone without exception, including all who will be, every-one-of-us is in the way, moving toward God…there is no other.

Do not trouble yourself if you do not understand the journey that another person is on; God is guiding them, as God is guiding you.

If you resist, God will be patient, God will wait, as God waits for everyone. The good shepherd is a vessel of love, and love is patient as love is kind.

Remember!

God will not lose a single one of us. Neither will any one of us lose God.

Consider the Gospel for the day; the passage is cryptic

It is fraught with tension. It engenders worry in the reader, as if the fire it points to is a thing to be feared, but in scripture fire is not a symbol of destruction, of punishment or of the judgement that leads to damnation. In scripture fire is a vehicle of refinement, of transformation and purification, not destruction and damnation.

Fire is the light of God, as a symbol it depicts our encounter with the divine, with the person of God, the creator of the universe.

In this passage the blazing fire that Jesus wishes would engulf the world; that fire is the fire of baptism, it is the grace of the Holy Spirit, a baptism which he sees coming to him, and through his teaching, to the rest of the world.

Jesus’ death, his trials and suffering; these did not transform the world, but they did light the way, which we and every generation after him is called to follow; the more radical our response is to that call, the more clearly we are divided from our old lives.

Be mindful.

Conflict will often ensue between a follower and their loved ones, especially when one member of a community hears the call while others remain caught up in the distractions of the world. Anytime the demands of truth and righteousness put us at odds with social conventions, mores and customs we face such opposition. Perseverance in the face of that opposition is what Jesus is speaking to when he speaks of the consuming power of the holy flame. 

We must endeavor to persevere.

First Reading – Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 ©

'Do Not Let the Prophet Die'

The king’s leading men spoke to the king. ‘Let Jeremiah be put to death: he is unquestionably disheartening the remaining soldiers in the city, and all the people too, by talking like this. The fellow does not have the welfare of this people at heart so much as its ruin.’ ‘He is in your hands as you know,’ King Zedekiah answered ‘for the king is powerless against you.’ So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the well of Prince Malchiah in the Court of the Guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the well, only mud, and into the mud Jeremiah sank.

Ebed-melech came out from the palace and spoke to the king. ‘My lord king,’ he said ‘these men have done a wicked thing by treating the prophet Jeremiah like this: they have thrown him into the well, where he will die.’ At this the king gave Ebed-melech the Cushite the following order: ‘Take three men with you from here and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the well before he dies.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 39(40): 2-4, 18 ©

Lord, come to my aid!

I waited, I waited for the Lord

  and he stooped down to me;

  he heard my cry.

Lord, come to my aid!

He drew me from the deadly pit,

  from the miry clay.

He set my feet upon a rock

  and made my footsteps firm.

Lord, come to my aid!

He put a new song into my mouth,

  praise of our God.

Many shall see and fear

  and shall trust in the Lord.

Lord, come to my aid!

As for me, wretched and poor,

  the Lord thinks of me.

You are my rescuer, my help,

  O God, do not delay.

Lord, come to my aid!

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 12:1-4 ©

We Should Keep Running Steadily in the Race We Have Started

With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running steadily in the race we have started. Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne. Think of the way he stood such opposition from sinners and then you will not give up for want of courage. In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Acts 16:14

Alleluia, alleluia!

Open our heart, O Lord, to accept the words of your Son.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – John 10:27

Alleluia, alleluia!

The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice, says the Lord, I know them and they follow me.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 12:48 - 53 ©

How I Wish It Were Blazing Already!

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!

‘Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; the father divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

A Homily – The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

A Homily – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (Year C), A Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading (vigil) – 1 Chronicles 15:3-4,15-16,16:1-2

Responsorial Psalm (vigil) – Psalm 131(132):6-7,9-10,13-14

Second Reading (vigil) – 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

Gospel Acclamation (vigil) – Luke 11:28

The Gospel According to Luke (vigil) 11:27-28

 

First Reading – Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 44(45):10-12,16

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Gospel Acclamation

The Gospel According to Luke 1:39-56

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

These myths are metaphors. The woman represents the Church, but only insofar as the Church adheres to the way. This is a dramatic narrative, written for a Christian audience living through a time of persecution, seeing their fledgling movement under an existential threat.

It was from a place of fear that the author of the Apocalypse imagined the Church as ruler of the world, casting its institutions and offices as the artificium of empire. In keeping with this expectation he twists the future expectation of the Gospel into something grotesque, making the threat which the dragon in his vision portends, into something of a fate accompli. He displaces the woman who is full of light from her role as Church, and in-so-doing the Church becomes the thing which it abhors…the dragon itself.  

Be mindful.

The proper content of Christian hope is not the hope for political and secular power; the proper content of Christian hope is the hope for peace and love and goodwill between all people. These hopes cannot be achieved through violence, usurpation or coercion, they must be arrived at through humility, kindness and compassion.

 Know this.

 It is an exercise in vanity to allegorize a life in service to the divine as to a royal wedding. Our service will not be rewarded with gold and perfumes, with flowing gowns and feasts...those who are following the way quickly come to understand that the fruit of our labors is found in the seed of our intentions…doing good is its own reward and nothing else should be expected. God’s servants are more likely to be beaten and killed, marginalized and imprisoned than to be regaled with ceremonious pomp, and only after much time has passed, if they are remembered at all, are the recognized for their service and what they gave us.

 Remember.

 God is not a king or a maker of kings, and God has no enemies.

 When God’s servants pass away from the world they go to join the creator, as do all whom God loves…which is everyone.

 Those who go to their labor early receive the same wage as those who come late in the day. There is no special-boon granted to those who found the divine and loved God while they were alive and, in the flesh; they only the joy that comes of its own for living justly, walking humbly and providing loving service to those in need.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle who understand the way and knows that we, humanity, were created all-together in the divine unity of being. In God we are one creation…in our failures of faith and in our triumphs, we are one. 

 Consider the Gospel reading for today and pay attention to the differences in the narrative traditions of the early Church.

 The writers of Mark begin their story when Jesus of Nazareth, otherwise known as Joshua son of Joseph, was at the beginning of his public ministry and already an adult. However, the early Christians wanted more, and so the authors of Luke took their narrative a step back in time and presented a fable about his conception and birth. In this fable, they attempted to tie up various loose ends in the stories that were being told about Jesus, and by doing this they had hoped to unite different factions of Christians who were already dividing themselves from one another over matters of ideology and doctrine.  

 The particular narrative we are given today was meant to appeal to the followers of John the Baptist, by bringing forth the notion that Jesus and John were actually cousins, and that even though John was older, he was a follower of Jesus from the time he was in the womb, and they double-down on this context by subordinating John’s mother to Mary.

 Remember…this is a fable, a myth; the whole thing is a work of fiction.

 These were unfortunate developments in the early because these fictions were in themselves naked political calculations meant to manipulate the burgeoning movement, and because a great deal of theology and doctrine has been hung from these exercises in make believe to the detriment of the people.

 The succeeding Gospels, each in their turn, reached back further in time and did so for the same purposes.

 For instance, the writers of Matthew inserted a confusing genealogy into the record; tracing Jesus’ heritage back to Adam, through David on his father’s side, while at the same time the Church asked its members to believe that Joseph was not his biological father. While the writers of John open their narrative with the beginning of time itself and the creation of the universe.

 It is a sad thing to note that what people opted to believe about these fables ended up being the cause of extreme, bitter, and deadly partisan conflict among Christians...never mind the violence done to the actual teaching of Jesus, which is to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you.

 Therefore I tell you to rejoice in the divine, rejoice that we who are infinitely less than the infinite God have received an eternal blessing insofar as God deigned to create us in the divine image; therefor rejoice in God’s mercy, emulate it without fear. Rejoice and oppose the transmogrification of Mary into the serpent…a beast that would eat its own tail.

First Reading (vigil) – 1 Chronicles 15:3-4,15-16,16:1-2

They Brought in the Ark of God and Put it Inside the Tent that David had Pitched for It

David gathered all Israel together to bring the ark of God up to the place he had prepared for it. David called together the sons of Aaron and the sons of Levi. And the Levites carried the ark of God with the shafts on their shoulders, as Moses had ordered in accordance with the word of the Lord.

  David then told the heads of the Levites to assign duties for their kinsmen as cantors, with their various instruments of music, harps and lyres and cymbals, to play joyful tunes.

  They brought the ark of God in and put it inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and they offered holocausts before God, and communion sacrifices. And when David had finished offering holocausts and communion sacrifices, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord.

 

Responsorial Psalm (vigil) – Psalm 131(132):6-7,9-10,13-14

Go up, Lord, to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your strength.

At Ephrata we heard of the ark;

  we found it in the plains of Yearim.

‘Let us go to the place of his dwelling;

  let us go to kneel at his footstool.’

Go up, Lord, to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your strength.

Your priests shall be clothed with holiness;

  your faithful shall ring out their joy.

For the sake of David your servant

  do not reject your anointed.

Go up, Lord, to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your strength.

For the Lord has chosen Zion;

  he has desired it for his dwelling:

‘This is my resting-place for ever;

  here have I chosen to live.’

Go up, Lord, to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your strength.

 

Second Reading (vigil) – 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

God Gave Us the Victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ

When this perishable nature has put on imperishability, and when this mortal nature has put on immortality, then the words of scripture will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. So let us thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Gospel Acclamation (vigil) – Luke 11:28

Alleluia, alleluia!

Happy are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke (vigil) 11:27-28

'Happy the Womb that Bore You and the Breasts You Sucked!'

As Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, ‘Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!’ But he replied, ‘Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it!’

 

First Reading – Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10

A Great Sign Appeared in Heaven: A Woman Adorned with the Sun

The sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it.

  Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth. Then a second sign appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon which had seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet. Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky and dropped them to the earth, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was having the child, so that he could eat it as soon as it was born from its mother. The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne, while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had made a place of safety ready.

  Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, ‘Victory and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 44(45):10-12,16

The wedding of the King

This is the time of repentance for us to atone for our sins and seek salvation.

Alleluia, alleluia!

My heart cries out on a joyful theme:

  I will tell my poem to the king,

  my tongue like the pen of the swiftest scribe.

You have been given more than human beauty,

  and grace is poured out upon your lips,

  so that God has blessed you for ever.

Strap your sword to your side, mighty one,

  in all your greatness and splendour.

In your splendour go forth, mount your chariot,

  on behalf of truth, kindness and justice.

Let your right hand show your marvels,

  let your arrows be sharp against the hearts of the king’s enemies

 – the peoples will fall before you.

Your throne is firm, O God, from age to age,

  your royal sceptre is a sceptre of justice.

You love uprightness, hate injustice

 – for God, your God has anointed you

  with the oil of gladness, above all your companions.

Myrrh and aloes and cassia anoint your garments.

From ivory palaces the sound of harps delights you.

In your retinue go the daughters of kings.

At your right hand, the queen is adorned with gold of Ophir.

Listen, my daughter, and understand;

  turn your ears to what I have to say.

Forget your people, forget your father’s house,

  and the king will desire you for your beauty.

  He is your lord, so worship him.

The daughters of Tyre will bring you gifts;

  the richest of your subjects will beg you to look on them.

How great is the king’s daughter, within the palace!

  She is clothed in woven gold.

She will be taken to the king in coloured garments,

  her maidens will escort her to your presence.

In gladness and rejoicing they are brought

  and led to the house of the king.

Instead of your fathers you will have sons:

  you will make them rulers over all the world.

I will remember your name

  from generation to generation.

And so your people will do you honour

  for ever and for ever.

Amen.

This is the time of repentance for us to atone for our sins and seek salvation.

Alleluia, alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Christ Will Be Brought to Life as the First-Fruits and Then Those Who Belong to Him

Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet.

 

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Mary has been taken up to heaven; all the choirs of angels are rejoicing.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 1:39-56

The Almighty has Done Great Things for Me

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’

  And Mary said:

‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults in God my saviour; because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.

Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me.

Holy is his name, and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him.

He has shown the power of his arm, he has routed the proud of heart.

He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.

The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.

He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy – according to the promise he made to our ancestors – of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back home.

 

A Homily – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (Year B), A Holy Day of Obligation