Celebrating at Home: A Family Formed By Forgiveness23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time | Mt 18: 15-20Chapter 18 of St Matthew’s Gospel is often referred to as the Sermon on the Church. It contains the teaching of Jesus about the life of the Christian community.Today’s reading details a procedure for dealing with differences and disputes. It follows the Parable of the Lost Sheep which is concerned with seeking out and bringing back the one who gets lost.In the same way, resolving disputes is not about being right and puni ...Continue Reading

September  –  Septiembre  –  Settembre 2026ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL | ITALIANODownload English: ocarm.org/en/prayer/lectiodivina Descargar Español: ocarm.org/es/prayer/lectiodivina Scarica Italiano: ocarm.org/it/prayer/lectiodivina ENGLISHLECTIO DIVINA - September 2026[*]Lectio Divina - September 2026 [Pdf][*]Lectio Divina - September 2026 [ePub][*]Lectio Divina - September 2026 [Mobi] If you wish to receive updates on current news from the Carmelite Order, su ...Continue Reading

 Celebrating at Home: Finding True Life22th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Mt 16: 21-27The Communications Office is closed during the month of August. So we are providing a short reflection on the Gospel each week. Have a blessed week!What a contrast there is between last Sunday’s Gospel—when Peter was proclaimed the “rock” upon which the Church would be built—and this Sunday, when Jesus rebukes him for being a different kind of rock, a “stumbling block”!When Jesus begins to speak of his suffering, death, and resurrecti ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: Who Do You Say I Am?20th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Mt 16: 13-20The Communications Office is closed during the month of August. So we are providing a short reflection on the Gospel each week. Have a blessed week!At this point in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Jesus and his chosen disciples have been living and traveling together for a long time. Now he invites them to reflect on their identity; even his question contains an explicit clue: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”The disciples answer him w ...Continue Reading

 Celebrating at Home: A Kingdom for All20th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Mt 15: 21-28The Communications Office is closed during the month of August. So we are providing a short reflection on the Gospel each week. Have a blessed week!Today’s Gospel recounts a turning point in Jesus’ ministry. He sees himself as “the one sent”—not only to the lost sheep of Israel. That is, to those who were judged as sinners because they did not keep the Law of Moses and, were not considered to be within God’s care and concern by the r ...Continue Reading

 Celebrating at Home: Live the Kingdom19th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Mt 14: 22-33The Communications Office is closed during the month of August. So we are providing a short reflection on the Gospel each week. Have a blessed week!Trust is an essential element in the formation of faith. This section of the Gospel of Saint Matthew deals with the Kingdom of God, which is manifested in the Church when human needs are met in accordance with God’s way of life.Jesus is forming the disciples’ faith and helping them understa ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: The Kingdom of God in Everyday Life18th Sunday in Ordinary TimeThis week’s Gospel is the beginning of a new section of St Matthew’s Gospel which talks about the Kingdom of God on earth and the Church as a visible sign of the Kingdom.The Kingdom is found where human beings are. It is deeply enfolded and immersed in the world of human experience: hunger, fear, disease, the sound of sheer silence, celebration, joy, hope, forgiveness, mercy, justice, in hearing and keeping the word of God. The kingdom i ...Continue Reading

August  –  Agosto  –  Agosto 2026ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL | ITALIANODownload English: ocarm.org/en/prayer/lectiodivina Descargar Español: ocarm.org/es/prayer/lectiodivina Scarica Italiano: ocarm.org/it/prayer/lectiodivina ENGLISHLECTIO DIVINA - Agosto 2026[*]Lectio Divina August, 2026 [Pdf][*]Lectio Divina August, 2026 [ePub][*]Lectio Divina August, 2026 [Mobi] If you wish to receive updates on current news from the Carmelite Order, subscribe to CITOC News at ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: Close Encounters with the Kingdom of God17th Sunday in Ordinary TimeIn the Gospel, Jesus compares the Kingdom to treasure hidden in a field, to a merchant on the lookout for fine pearls and to a fisherman’s dragnet which brings in a very mixed catch. The point of the parables is the behavior of the people in them.In the first two parables the joy and delight of those who find (experience) the Kingdom is obvious. It is so strong that nothing is spared in order to posses the Kingdom. The pur ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: The Patient Gardener16th Sunday in Ordinary TimeThe section of St Matthew’s Gospel from which we are now reading concerns the Kingdom of God. Jesus uses this expression frequently in his teaching. The Kingdom is not heaven, it is the life and heart of God. We live in the Kingdom when we live according to the mind and heart of God. The Kingdom, or reign of God, breaks into human reality when human beings live, breathe and act out of the life of God; when the heart of God becomes ours; when we al ...Continue Reading