Today’s Readings – Wednesday of Week 5 of Ordinary Time - First Reading

Commentary on Genesis 2:4-9,15-17

We have a very different creation story today. This section is chiefly concerned with the creation of Man, the human person. It is much older than the narrative from which we read yesterday (Gen 1:1—2:4) and comes from the ’Yahwistic Source’ rather than the ’Priestly Source’. It is not, as is sometimes said, a second creation narrative. Rather it focuses on the creation of Man as distinct from the creation of the world, and is only complete with the separate creation of Woman and the appearance of the first human couple.

Here God is depicted as creating Man before the rest of his creatures, which are made for Man’s sake. It is not realistic, but this is not history and it is certainly not science. The meaning is to sho … Continue

Yesterday’s Readings – Our Lady of Lourdes

Today we celebrate a series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the south-west of France. The apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes began on 11 February, 1858, when Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year old peasant girl from the nearby town of Lourdes, … Continue