Abbot's Homilies

27th Sunday of the Year—Cycle C—2016 FIRST READING            Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4 How long, O LORD?  I cry for help but you do not listen!  I cry out to you, “Violence!”  but you do not intervene.  Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? ...

26th Sunday of the Year—Cycle C—2016 FIRST READING            Amos 6:1a, 4-7 Thus says the Lord the God of hosts:  Woe to the complacent in Zion!  Lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches, they eat lambs taken from the flock, and calves from...

25th Sunday of the Year—Cycle C—2016 FIRST READING            Amos 8:4-7 Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land!  “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may...

24th Sunday of Ordinary Time–Cycle C–2016 FIRST READING            Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once to your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved.  They have soon turned aside...

23rd Sunday of the Year, Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING            Wisdom 9:13-18b Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends?  For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans.  For the corruptible body burdens the...

22nd Sunday of the Year, Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING            Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.  Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. ...

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time-Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING            Isaiah 66:18-21 Thus says the LORD:  I know their works and their thoughts, and I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory.  I will set a sign among them; from them I...

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time-Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING            Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 In those days, the princes said to the king:  “Jeremiah ought to be put to death; he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking...

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time-Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING            Wisdom 18:6-9 The night of the Passover was known beforehand to our fathers, that, with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith, they might have courage.  Your people awaited the...

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time-Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING            Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23 Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities!  All things are vanity!  Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not...

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time-Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING        Genesis 18:20-32 In those days, the LORD said: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to...

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time-Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING        Genesis 18:1-10a The LORD appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre, as he sat in the entrance of his tent, while the day was growing hot.  Looking up, Abraham saw three men standing nearby.  When he...

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time—Cycle C—2016 FIRST READING        Deuteronomy 30:10-14 Moses said to the people:  “If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you...

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time-Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING        Isaiah 66:10-14c Thus says the LORD:  Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her; exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her!  Oh, that you may suck fully of the...

13th Sunday of the Year–Cycle C–2016 FIRST READING            1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21 The Lord said to Elijah:  “You shall anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah, as prophet to succeed you.”  Elijah set out and came upon Elisha, son of...

12th Sunday of the Year, Cycle C—2016 FIRST READING            Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1 Thus says the Lord:  I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and petition; and they shall look on him whom they have pierced,...

11th Sunday of the Year, Cycle C–2016 FIRST READING            2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13 Nathan said to David:  “Thus says the Lord God of Israel:  ‘I anointed you king of Israel.  I rescued you from the hand of Saul.  I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s...

10th Sunday of the Year, Cycle C–2016 FIRST READING              1 Kings 17:17-24 Elijah went to Zarephath of Sidon to the house of a widow.  The son of the mistress of the house fell sick, and his sickness grew more severe until he stopped breathing.  So she...

Corpus Christi-Cycle C-2016 FIRST READING        Genesis 14:18-20 In those days, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and being a priest of God Most High, he blessed Abram with these words:  “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, the creator of...

Trinity Sunday—Cycle C—2016 FIRST READING            Proverbs 8:22-31 Thus says the wisdom of God:  “The LORD possessed me, the beginning of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago; from of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth....