2/26/06 -- EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME B Lectionary #83

Context from http://www.npm.org/Planning/yearb/index.html

This year, this Sunday is the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent. As we sing farewell to “Alleluia” (and to the Gloria ), we send our catechumens to the cathedral for the rite of election. One of the images for Lent is the desert, the place where God became espoused to Israel . Images of the meaning of marriage today can guide our sending of the catechumens and our own entry into Lent: Easter is the wedding garment in which the church is clothed as the bride of Christ.

Hosea 2:16b, 17b, 21-22. The prophet evokes memory of the desert wandering, when the people came to know God and to join a covenant (like a marriage covenant) at Mount Sinai . Through the prophet, God calls on the people to remember that time and that close union, promising to renew it in a covenant that will never be broken.

Psalm of the Day: Ps (102) 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13

2 Corinthians 3:1b-6. The Gospel lives in the human heart.

Mark 2:18-22. One popular view of the coming reign of God was to picture it as a great wedding feast celebrating the undying covenant between God and Israel . By calling himself the "bridegroom," Jesus evokes that image. Additional images suggest that a whole new world is dawning in his presence: It will require new garments, not simply patches on old garments, and new wineskins for the new wine that God is preparing.

Prelude 1: Agnus Dei
Prelude 2: God of Wonders

Opening: Come Christians, Join to Sing [CC-361]
Ps: Ps 103: The Lord is kind and merciful (see sheet)
Offertory I have loved you [CC-399]
Com 1: Draw Me Close To You (see sheet)
Com 2: Table of Plenty [cc-475]
Closing Sing of the Lord's Goodness [ CC-357]