Today’s morning Mass marks the beginning of the parish’s 40 Hour Devotion – and as such today’s readings are taken from the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
There are lots of odd names that appear in the Old Testament. One of them is Melchizedek, king of Salem. The name literally translates as “king of righteousness.” Melchizedek appears pretty much out of nowhere in the storyline of Abraham. Melchizedek hands Abraham the gifts of bread and wine and Abraham gives Melchizedek 1/10th of everything he has. These are very covenantal actions. Continue reading
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This Easter Vigil, the “homily” is presented in a different way. We chose to have an introduction before each Old Testament Reading that began to thematically weave together the homily message and then conclude during the homily proper. The picture above is our church during the procession of light. A reminder of the richness of the Vigil liturgy. 
I wonder how often we pay attention to the first reading. It is from the Old Testament, often filled with names that are hard to pronounce at best and impossible to remember – especially when it comes as a collection of names that are a chain of ancestors. One of the gospels for Christmas Eve (Mt 1:1-17) has a list of 42 generations, all of whose names are ancestors of Jesus. Could you name some of them other than King David and Mary’s husband Joseph? Jesus’ genealogy starts with Abraham – who appears in our first reading – and continues with Isaac, his son Jacob , and whose son Judah… ok, we know those names. And the genealogy then ventures into, what I suspect is largely unknown territory. We come across Hezron, Amminadab – and one of my personal favorites – Zerubbabel. 
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