Celebrating at Home: Blessings & Woes6th Sunday of Ordinary TimeOver the next three Sundays we will listen to almost the whole of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain.Luke has used Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount but changed and shortened it significantly. It is important to realise that both Sermons are more than only the Beatitudes which begin them.In Luke, Jesus’ words are addressed to the disciples, not to the gathered crowd, so we might think of the sermon as a teaching about discipleship. The whole of the Sermon is q ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: Here I Am, Send Me5th Sunday of Ordinary TimeAs if to balance the rejection Jesus experienced in last week’s Gospel, this week’s episode tells two stories of people who welcome his message.Firstly, an enthusiastic crowd has gathered on the shore of the lake, eagerly pressing forward to hear Jesus’ teaching. Jesus seems to be in danger of being crushed or at least being pushed into the sea! He takes the unusual step of teaching from Simon’s boat.Secondly, Luke tells us that Simon and his companions a ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: Here I Am, Send Me5th Sunday of Ordinary TimeAs if to balance the rejection Jesus experienced in last week’s Gospel, this week’s episode tells two stories of people who welcome his message.Firstly, an enthusiastic crowd has gathered on the shore of the lake, eagerly pressing forward to hear Jesus’ teaching. Jesus seems to be in danger of being crushed or at least being pushed into the sea! He takes the unusual step of teaching from Simon’s boat.Secondly, Luke tells us that Simon and his companions a ...Continue Reading

February – Febrero – Febbraio  2025 ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL | ITALIANODownload English: ocarm.org/en/prayer/lectiodivina Descargar Español: ocarm.org/es/prayer/lectiodivina Scarica Italiano: ocarm.org/it/prayer/lectiodivina ENGLISHLECTIO DIVINA - February 2025[*]Lectio Divina February, 2025 [Pdf] (1.39 MB)[*]Lectio Divina February, 2025 [ePub] (209 KB)[*]Lectio Divina February, 2025 [Mobi] (1.09 MB)  If you wish to receive updates on current news from the Carmelite Order, subsc ...Continue Reading

  Celebrating at Home: If Christ is the Light, Who Are We? The Presentation of the LordToday’s Gospel tells us the story of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. During the presentation, two holy people, Simeon and Anna, witness to Jesus as the “light of the nations”. So, it is the Church’s custom to celebrate this feast with the blessing and lighting of candles - a reference to the Christmas theme of light.The candles can serve as a reminder that Christ, our Light, is always present with us.Read more& ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: Homecoming3rd Sunday of Ordinary TimeHomecomings can turn out to be very mixed events. Initial warmth and welcome can turn, surprisingly quickly, to doubt, antagonism and rejection.In the Gospels for this Sunday and next, Luke tells the story of Jesus’ visit to his hometown of Nazareth.After this introduction the first part of the story of Jesus’ homecoming follows. We will hear the second part in next week’s Gospel.Read more ...[*]Celebrating At Home - 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF]&nb ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: The True Bridegroom2nd Sunday of Ordinary TimeWeddings are usually wonderful occasions. Family and friends come together to witness to and celebrate a couples’ love and commitment. The ritual is crowned with singing, dancing, eating and drinking. It has been so for centuries. In Jewish tradition a wedding could last for days, not hours.It’s interesting that, in John’s Gospel, Jesus begins his ministry in the warm and homely setting of a village wedding in the same region in which Jesus had grown up. ...Continue Reading

January – Enero – Gennaio  2025 ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL | ITALIANODownload English: ocarm.org/en/prayer/lectiodivina Descargar Español: ocarm.org/es/prayer/lectiodivina Scarica Italiano: ocarm.org/it/prayer/lectiodivina ENGLISHLECTIO DIVINA - January 2025[*]Lectio Divina January, 2025 [Pdf] (997 KB)[*]Lectio Divina January, 2025 [ePub] (234 KB)[*]Lectio Divina January, 2025 [Mobi] (1019 KB)  If you wish to receive updates on current news from the Carmelite Order, subscribe to C ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: The Promise Fulfilled4th Sunday of AdventAs always in Advent, what is promised in the first reading is brought to fulfilment in the Gospel reading. We began Advent with the cry, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’. We will end it with the joyful shout, ‘God is with us!’ Beautiful words from the Prophet Micah form the first reading today which looks forward to the birth of a leader for Israel who, as a shepherd king gathers the people and feeds them with the power of the Lord and the majesty of God.Read more&nbs ...Continue Reading

 Celebrating at Home: What Must We Do?3rd Sunday of AdventWe continue to focus on John the Baptist in the Gospel today. The Gospel opens with the people, the tax collectors and some soldiers, having heard the call to change their lives, all asking John, ‘What must we do?” These three groups would normally be very suspicious of each other.Yet somehow John’s preaching has brought them all together in a community of sorts. Notice how practical John’s advice is. And, at the same time, it is a call to live by ...Continue Reading