Daily Archives: February 24, 2025

This Kind

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The opening of the gospel reading is not a direct quote from Scripture, but as often happens for liturgical readings, the opening verse is modified to give context and continuity with the Gospel text itself. In Scripture the context is that Jesus and three disciples (Peter, James, and John) are descending from the mountain top and the event known as the Transfiguration of the Lord. The quote from Mark 9:14 is “When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.” It loses the location and leaves “they” undefined. For the gospel proclaimed they borrow from previous verses in Mark 9 to provide us with: “As Jesus came down from the mountain with Peter, James, John and approached the other disciples they saw a large crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.” (Liturgical reading)  

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Notes for Sunday’s Gospel

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This coming Sunday is the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time in lectionary cycle C. An astute observer will notice that in Ordinary Time, depending on the year, we “skip” several Sunday liturgies between the portions of Ordinary Time that come before and after the Lent/Triduum/Easter cycle. The skips are not consistent from year to year. For example, in Ordinary Time of 2022, we omitted 4 Sundays (9th through 12th). In 2023, we omitted only 3 Sundays (8th through 10th). Why the variation you might ask?

While Christmas Day is affixed to December 25, the date of Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25, as it is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Therefore, Ash Wednesday, which precedes Easter Sunday by 46 days, can fall anywhere between the 4th and 10th Weeks of Ordinary Time. In 2025 Easter falls a little later and so this is one of those years when we celebrate the 8th Sunday. 

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