Celebrating at Home: A Work in Progress *32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time* In this episode from Luke’s Gospel, it is the Sadducees, rather than the Pharisees, who confront Jesus. Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees were a Jewish sect. They rejected much of what the Pharisees believed in, including the possibility of life after death. The rather ridiculous scenario they put to Jesus in today’s Gospel was meant to show how ridiculous belief in resurrection was. Read more ... [*]Celebrating At Home - 32nd Sunday in Ord ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home:  Making Assumptions *31st Sunday of Ordinary Time* It is all too easy to make assumptions about other people which turn out not to be accurate. In the Gospel today, the crowd assumes that Zacchaeus is wicked and sinful, a traitor to his people because he is a tax collector. It might be helpful to note here that in Zacchaeus’ speech about intending to give half of his property to the poor and so on, the verbs are usually translated into future tense, as in the version which appears here. ...Continue Reading

November – Noviembre – Novembre  2022 ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL | ITALIANO Download English: ocarm.org/en/prayer/lectiodivina Descargar Español: ocarm.org/es/prayer/lectiodivina Scarica Italiano: ocarm.org/it/prayer/lectiodivina ENGLISH LECTIO DIVINA - November 2022 Lectio Divina November 2022 [PDF] Download  here Lectio Divina November 2022 [ePub] Download  here Lectio Divina November 2022 [Mobi] Download  here If you wish to receive updates on curren ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: We've All Met Them! *30th Sunday of Ordinary Time* We’ve all met them: people who only seem to be able to bolster their self-image by putting everyone else down. We meet such a character in the Pharisee in the Gospel for this Sunday.  Like the Pharisee in this week’s Gospel, we can sometimes see religion as a set of personal rituals, actions and prayers that cause us to think we have been faithful to God’s calling because we have done this or that. Spirituality, however, is about practising ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: Don't Give Up! *29th Sunday of Ordinary Time* Jesus tells this story of a persistent widow who wins the day against an unjust judge. St Luke says that the story is “about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.” God is not like the unjust judge, who delays in answering and finally gives in only when threatened. God will hear and answer the persistent cry of his people.  We, too, can be tempted to lose heart as we live in the midst of the evils of our own day. When will there be j ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: An Invitation for All *28th Sunday of Ordinary Time* A major theme in St Luke’s Gospel is that the message of Jesus is for all: men and women, rich and poor, old and young, healthy and sick, gentile and Jew. No one is excluded. It is no accident that the one grateful leper in this week’s Gospel is not a Jew but a Samaritan – an outsider, excluded by race, religion and his illness. He joins the others in asking a Jewish Rabbi for mercy. Read more .... [*]Celebrating At Home - 28th Sund ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: Does God Listen? *27th Sunday of Ordinary Time* “Are you listening, God?” That’s the cry of the prophet Habakkuk in the first reading for this Sunday. Everyone can resonate with the Habakkuk’s feelings of frustration and anger at the appalling injustice he witnesses. ‘Why is God so slow to act?’, he complains. Read more .... [*]Celebrating At Home - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF] [*]Celebrating At Home - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time [ePub]   .   ...Continue Reading

October – Octubre – Ottobre  2022 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 - October 2022[*]Lectio Divina October 2022 [PDF] Download here[*]Lectio Divina October 2022 [ePub] Download here[*]Lectio Divina October 2022 [Mobi] Download here If you wish to receive updates on current news from the Carm ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: Fortunes Reversed *26th Sunday of Ordinary Time* The story Jesus tells in the Gospel is about a rich man, his five brothers and a poor man, and how their fortunes get reversed. The story is told against the background belief that riches were a sign of God’s blessing. By the time of Jesus, the teaching of the prophets that blessing brings responsibility seems to have been forgotten. So the story asks the hearers: will they follow the example of the rich man or heed Jesus’ teaching (and that of the ...Continue Reading

Celebrating at Home: Investing in the Future *25th Sunday of Ordinary Time* When bad things happen to us we are apt to spend a great deal of time being angry at what has taken place – especially if we feel that what has happened is unjust, unfair or unreasonable. Today’s Gospel episode is often called the ‘Parable of the Unjust Steward’. But perhaps he is the one who is being treated unjustly. After all, the Master hears a rumour that the steward has been ‘wasteful with his property’. Without conducting an investigat ...Continue Reading