Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here When Life Seems Finished Fifth Sunday of Lent Ez 37:12-14 · Rom 8:8-11 · Jn 11:1-45 Everyone knows what death looks like. A hospital room. A silent phone. A chair that will never be used again. Death ends stories. Or so it seems. But the Bible speaks differently. In Ezekiel God speaks to a nation that feels buried. Their country gone. Their temple destroyed. Their future buried. ...
Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here When Truth Makes Enemies Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent Jer 11:18-20 · Ps 7 · Jn 7:40-53 Most people like honesty. Until honesty touches something uncomfortable. Then the mood changes. Something like this happened to Jeremiah. A Jewish prophet from a small town called Anathoth, not far from Jerusalem. Welcomed at first. Until he was not. One day God showed him something shocking. ...
Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here When Goodness Becomes Dangerous Wis 2:1a, 12-22 · Ps 34 · Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Have you ever noticed something strange? A dishonest person can be comfortable in a group. But one honest person makes everyone nervous. Why? Because goodness exposes things. It asks questions without speaking. It reminds people that another way of living is possible. And that can be uncomfortable. ...
Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here When Life Does Not Go According to Plan 2 Sam 7:7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16 · Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22 · Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a Imagine your life is finally taking shape. You have plans. A job. A home. A future. Maybe even a wedding. Everything seems to be moving in the right direction. And then suddenly — everything collapses. One message. One discovery. One unexpected event. ...
Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here When You Feel Forgotten Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent Is 49:8-15 · Ps 145 · Jn 5:17-30 Have you ever felt forgotten? Not by accident. But really forgotten. Your message stays unread. Your effort unnoticed. Your name missing from the list. Everyone moves on. And you wonder: Did anyone notice I was here? People in the Bible felt that way too. ...
Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here Water That Moves Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent Ez 47:1-9,12 · Ps 46 · Jn 5:1-16 Imagine a city without water. No rivers. No springs. No rain. Nothing grows. Everything dries. Water means life. Every civilization knows this. Where water flows, life appears. Where water stops, desert begins. And so a river appears in the vision of a prophet flowing out from the temple in Jerusalem. ...
Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here A Different World Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent Isaiah 65:17-21; Psalm 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b; John 4:43-54 Imagine you are a writer. Or a singer. Or a game designer. You build a world. You compose the soundtrack. You create the rules. In your world there are: No wars. No corruption. No anxiety at 2 a.m. No pretending. No starting over again and again. ...
Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here I Once Was Blind Fourth Sunday of Lent 1 Sam 16 · Eph 5 · John 9 We love to sing: “Amazing grace… I once was blind, but now I see.” The man who wrote that line — John Newton — once captained slave ships. He transported human beings like cargo. He read Scripture. He prayed. He believed in God. ...
Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here A story about a story teller Saturday of the Third Week of Lent Hos 6:1–6 · Ps 51 · Lk 18:9–14 Imagine you are the one who has been cancelled. You think differently. You said the wrong thing. You belong to the wrong group. Nobody wants to sit with you. Nobody wants to defend you. When you enter a church, conversations slow down. Eyes turn. Whispers follow. ...
Your browser does not support the audio element. Readings Here So Close — Yet Still Outside Friday of the Third Week of Lent Hos 14:2–10 · Ps 81 · Mk 12:28–34 “All you need is love.” You’ve heard that line before. The Beatles sang it. The world sang along. And yet, even they could not hold their unity together. Like the scribe in today’s Gospel, they were “not far from the Kingdom of God.” ...