Today’s Readings – Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels

There are few explicit references to angels in the earlier books of the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament). The word ‘angel’ comes from the Greek angelos and simply means a ‘messenger’.

They begin to appear in the later books, for instance, in the Book of Daniel and seem to date from after the Babylonian exile. However, in chapters 18 and 19 of the Book of Genesis, there are the three men who visit Abraham, who gives them hospitality. One of them seems to be Yahweh and the other two angels. While Yahweh stays with Abraham, the other two go on to Sodom. There they are received by Lot and while in his house, the people of Sodom come and demand to have intimacies with his visitors. The next day, the visitors urge Lot to leave Sodom with his wife and two daughters. The city, along wit … Continue

Yesterday’s Readings – Thursday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time - First Reading

Commentary on Haggai 1:1-8

For these two days we take our readings from Haggai, one of the lesser known of the so-called Minor Prophets. The whole book consists of only two chapters and both our readings will be taken from the first chapter.

The Jerusalem Bible notes … Continue