Scripture
Reflections
Each Lent and Advent, CMN offers weekly reflections written by people working to transform the criminal legal system.
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Easter Sunday: Christ is Risen!
March 31, 2024 | Most Rev. Michael Duca | Today’s Readings “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” (John 20:8-9) , I have always been…
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Holy Thursday: Our Unexpected Table Fellowship
March 28, 2024 | Sr. Teresa Maya, CCVI | Today’s Readings “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (John 13:15) We have all been there, those moments when we improvise a meal for unexpected guests or in response to difficult news. The…
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Good Friday: “Stand By Me…”
March 29, 2024 | Fr. Stephen Thorne | Today’s Readings “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.” (John 19:25) , The year was 1961 when Ben E. King first released the song, “Stand By Me.” It is considered a classic and has…
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Palm Sunday: Living our Faith
March 24, 2024 | Carol Zimmermann | Today’s Readings “Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:10) The Biblical account of Palm Sunday, when Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem on a donkey and the crowds go wild, is a pretty dramatic moment. Right then and there in the city streets, it seemed as if it suddenly…
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Solemnity of St. Joseph: A Righteous Man
March 19, 2024 | Sr. Sarah Crotty, CSJ | Today’s Readings “Joseph, since he was a righteous man…” (Mt. 1:19). , The law and righteousness, vengeance and mercy, retribution and restoration: these tensions are often highlighted in our Lenten readings. Today, in our society, we seem to be heavy handed on the side of the…
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Fifth Sunday of Lent: A Willing Place
March 17, 2024 | Brittany Holberg | Today’s Readings The Lenten Reflection for this Sunday was authored by Brittany Holberg, a woman living on Texas’ death row. It is part of a larger collection of her writing. Her story of preparing the ground for a winter garden is well suited for the Gospel reading this week where we…
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Fourth Sunday of Lent: Live as Children of Light
March 10, 2024 | Rev. Jack Sullivan, Jr., D.Min., D.D. | Today’s Readings “But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” (John 3:21) , Several years ago, I attended a potluck dinner at a church on the West Coast. As a guest of…
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Third Sunday of Lent: Jesus the Holy Disrupter
March 3, 2024 | Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy | Today’s Readings “He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables and to those who sold doves he said, “take these out of…
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Second Sunday of Lent: The Mess Down the Mountainside
February 25, 2024 | Rev. Manuel Williams, C.R. | Today’s Readings “After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.” (Matthew 17:1-2) , When Jesus…
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First Sunday of Lent: The Gift of Repentance
February 18, 2024 | Emmjolee Mendoza Waters | Today’s Readings “Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: ‘This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’” (Mark 1:14-15) , My daughter Cina, who is 8, had her first reconciliation a few weeks ago….