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Today in our reading we hear the prayer of Esther, who in a seemingly hopeless situation turns to God in earnest prayer and prevails against all odds. We are reminded of the importance of persistent prayer, especially when things seem impossible to resolve on our own. God is there for us.

When the Ninevites believed the preaching of Jonah, they all repented in sackcloth and ashes—even the animals! We are all bound up in sin together, so while we begin with ridding ourselves of our own sinful behaviors, we do not end there. We have to deal with all the sins of society against one another and against the environment.

Fr. Charlie Bouchard, OP breaks open the readings for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time with its warnings against hypocrisy. While this is always difficult, we can help by working on shortening the gap between who we are and who we want to be.

Readings: Sirach 27:4–7; 1 Corinthians 15:54–58; Luke 6:39–45

In today's Gospel, Jesus has an argument with the scribes and Pharisees over Jewish purity laws. As Christians, we need to know when to let holy things be holy and when to go out into the world not letting purity laws hold us back from doing the work of God.

In today's first reading, we hear the beginning of the story of God creating the heavens and the earth, of which we were put in charge. Every time we see a beautiful sunset or sunrise, we are reminded of our call to participate in God's ongoing work of creation.

Fr. Charlie Bouchard, OP breaks open the readings for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, where Jesus turns water into wine. This sign speaks of Jesus' divine authority, but it also speaks of how God wants everyone to have enough. Jesus was dealing with a real scarcity, but many people manufacture artificial scarcities to gain a financial, political, or spiritual advantage over others. These scarcities need to be eliminated.

Readings: Isaiah 62:1–5; 1 Corinthians 12:4–11; John 2:1–11

As we return to Ordinary Time, we hear the call of Peter and Andrew, ordinary people who did the extraordinary thing of dropping everything to follow Jesus. Will we even hear when God calls us?

Fr. Charlie Bouchard, OP opens up the readings for us for the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete ("Rejoice") Sunday. In the readings we are challenged to see the coming of our saviour and rejoice in that knowledge, and to ask "what must I do to help bring this great thing about?"

Readings: Zephaniah 3:14–18a; Philippians 4:4–7; Luke 3:10–18

Jesus tells us that wisdom is vindicated by its works. We need to judge what is true not by what sounds good, but what this teaching or this person accomplishes for us and for others.

On this Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we celebrate the fact that God now dwells within each one of us. This givest the dignity of every human life, ourselves and others, and we are called to respect that dignity with our actions.

Today we hear of the woman who gave two small coins for poor, which was everything she had. Jesus noticed her generosity and pointed it out to others. Perhaps he was even moved to be more generous himself. So let us together do all we can, encouraging one another to be more generous.

Today we celebrate the oldest church in Christianity, the Basilica of St. John Lateran. But our readings remind us that however important buildings are, when Jesus walked the earth he was God's temple. Now it is we, the baptised, who are God's true temples, called to be living stones, active in the world.