Today’s Readings – Friday of Week 1 of Advent - First Reading

Commentary on Isaiah 29:17-24

Today’s Mass is about seeing. The First Reading gives promise of a future full of hope. The prophet presents God’s plan of redemption in terms of happenings that could hardly be hoped for in normal circumstances, such as the cedars of Lebanon becoming a source of fruit and the fruitful field becoming a forest.

But more striking still is that the deaf will be able to hear, and the blind will be able to emerge from their world of darkness and see. The meek, that is those who are without power or influence, will find fresh joy in the Lord, while the neediest will rejoice in their God.

On the other hand, the tyrant, the scoffer and the doer of evil will come to a sad end. Those especially mentioned are those who corrupt the administration of justice. … Continue

Yesterday’s Readings – Saints Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell and Companions, Priests SJ

Sts Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell and Companions, Priests, SJ (Memorial)

Today’s feast commemorates 10 saints and 18 blesseds, all Jesuits of England or Wales, who were martyred on their native soil between 1573 and 1679, a time of fierce persecution of the Catholic Church. Two of … Continue