Today’s Readings – Saturday of Week 5 of Lent - First Reading

Commentary on Ezekiel 37:21-28

About today’s First Reading, the St Joseph Weekday Missal says:

"The union of all tribes is a frequent element in messianic prophecy. God is to unite the nation in a new covenant in which there are five essential elements:
Yahweh, its God;
Israel, his people;
Life, ‘on the land where their fathers lived’;
‘My sanctuary among them’, as a sign of the presence of the Lord and law;
David, as the one shepherd over them."

The prophet foresees a time when the two divided kingdoms of the Jews (Israel/Ephraim and Judah, the Northern and Southern kingdoms) will be united forever into one, and when all those living abroad who belong to Israel will come back. This will be a feature of the Messianic age.

The reading says:
I shall ga … Continue

Yesterday’s Readings – Friday of Week 5 of Lent - First Reading

Commentary on Jeremiah 20:10-13

Jeremiah the prophet, God’s spokesman, is attacked and denounced on all sides by his own people.

"Terror on every side!” is the mocking call of Jeremiah’s critics, satirising his constantly gloomy predictions. “ … Continue