THIS SUNDAY Archives - Full-of-Grace

PENITENTIAL RITE: Two Bags & Laying All Down

FOR THE LEADER: We're doing this practice WITH the community, not TO the community, so let us use "we" language throughout. Let us warm, even playful tone at the beginning. This isn't heavy penance—it's honest inventory. We're creating space for encounter, not inducing guilt. Key principle: We're PARKING things, not discarding them. They'll be there after Mass if people want to pick them back up. This isn't permanent transformation—it's...

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – Resources

The Pharisee isn't a cartoon villain. He's exhausted. He's been showing up faithfully for YEARS while others flake. He fasts twice a week—do YOU? He tithes on everything—do YOU? His resentment is understandable. His comparison is human. But his very goodness has become a prison. His discipline has turned into armour against compassion. QUICK REFERENCE Date: October 26, 2025 Liturgical Season: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Readings:...

Be the Parable – Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – Biblical Background

There's a question haunting this Gospel: What happens Monday morning? The tax collector went home justified. And then what? Did he go back to the booth, back to neglecting widows and orphans, back to the life that required putting his heart to sleep? Because the tax collector knows he's damaging people. Daily. So what will he do this Monday? QUICK REFERENCE Date: October 26, 2025 Liturgical Season: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Readings:...

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – Resources

QUICK REFERENCE Date: October 19, 2025 (Note: Date will vary each year) Liturgical Season: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Readings: Exodus 17:8-13 | Psalm 121 | 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2 | Luke 18:1-8 Theme: Persistent prayer requires exhausting work, community support, and the counterintuitive choice to keep looking up when everything pulls our gaze down. WHERE ARE WE? In Exodus: Israel has just crossed the Red Sea (Exodus 14), received water...

Look Up! – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) – Biblical Background

QUICK REFERENCE Date: October 19, 2025 (Note: Date will vary each year) Liturgical Season: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Readings: Exodus 17:8-13 | Psalm 121 | 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2 | Luke 18:1-8 Theme: Persistent prayer requires exhausting work, community support, and the counterintuitive choice to keep looking up when everything pulls our gaze down. INTRODUCTION TEXT, which you are welcome to read aloud before the Liturgy of the Word, is...

Prayer of the Faithful – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

Celebrant: Brothers and sisters, Moses raised his hands in prayer and his arms grew heavy, yet with the support of Aaron and Hur, Israel prevailed. A widow persisted in her cry for justice and was finally heard. With confidence in the God who neither slumbers nor sleeps, let us lift up our prayers for the Church and for the world. For the Church: That all who shepherd God's people - bishops, priests, deacons, and pastoral leaders - may have...

Holding and Being Held: A Post-Communion Sensory Prayer

Post-Communion Reflection - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) We have just received the Body of Christ. We did nothing to earn this gift - Christ came to us freely. He placed himself in our hands. Let us close our eyes or lower the gaze. Let each of us focus on our hands. Notice where your hands are right now. Resting in your lap? Folded together? Don't change anything yet. Just notice. Feel the weight of your hands. Are they heavy or...

Saved by Collapse: From Rejected to Beloved

Reflection for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C Running in the Dark The city empties under evacuation orders. Every screen flickers blue against abandoned streets while mechanical voices drone their endless loop: "There are no more shuttles out of the impacted zone. Please remain at home and await further instructions." I choose shadows over searchlights, slipping through medieval corners while patrol units circle city hall. My heart...

Into the Mud: About a Prophet, an Ethiopian, a Nuclear Waste Repository and the Permission to Read the Gospel

Reflection for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C What if the most dangerous thing in the world isn't nuclear waste that stays lethal for 100,000 years, but a Gospel that stays troublesome for 2,000 years and counting? Join me as we follow a prophet into the mud, learn warning signs from nuclear scientists, and discover why sometimes the person who saves us is the last one we'd expect. Jesus the Troublemaker As I opened the readings for...

The impossible promise and Insomniac servants – journeying from the crossroads to the Promised Land.

A Reflection for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C There are crossroads in this world that even biblical fathers never dared to leave behind, purposedly settling down between grief and abundance. We also may get stuck halfway to heaven, camping at intersections of performance and grace, oscillating between trying too hard and not trying at all. And yet this Sunday maps out the invisible path from a simple tent to the Promised Land, from a...