Today’s Readings – Friday of Week 13 of Ordinary Time - First Reading

Commentary on Genesis 23:1-4,19; 24:1-8,62-67

We come to the end of the story of Abraham. The reading consists of selected paragraphs from chapters 23 and 24. As the reading opens we learn that Abraham’s wife Sarah has died at Hebron, a place also known as Kiriath-arba (Hebron). She was 127 years old. Abraham is plunged into mourning with grief for his wife and the mother of his only son.

Leaving her bedside he went to the “Hittites” ("sons of Heth” in other translations), the pre-Israelite and non-Semitic inhabitants of Palestine. As he was an outsider and a settler in the land of Canaan, he asked for a burial plot where his wife could be laid. He still “lived in tents” (see Heb 11:9), the most temporary of dwellings, but he looked forward to the … Continue

Yesterday’s Readings – Saint Thomas, Apostle

Thomas is listed in the Synoptic Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles as one of the Twelve Apostles. His name in Aramaic, Te’oma, means ‘twin’, as does Didymus in Greek. What we know of Thomas comes mostly from the New Testament, although there are many other legends about him. He … Continue