Bob's Beanfield

Today, we have not one, but 4 Christmas Mass readings! I will read each of them separately so you can choose which one you plan to attend, and listen to that one, or, feel free to listen to one of the others, or even all of them if you so choose!

This particular reflection is for the Christmas Mass During the Day.

Note that Scripture readings are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition, Copyright Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., used with permission. Commentary copyright Peter Kreeft, published by Word on Fire, used with permission.

Today, we have not one, but 4 Christmas Mass readings! I will read each of them separately so you can choose which one you plan to attend, and listen to that one, or, feel free to listen to one of the others, or even all of them if you so choose!

This particular reflection is for the Christmas Mass at Dawn.

Note that Scripture readings are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition, Copyright Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., used with permission. Commentary copyright Peter Kreeft, published by Word on Fire, used with permission.

Today, we have not one, but 4 Christmas Mass readings! I will read each of them separately so you can choose which one you plan to attend, and listen to that one, or, feel free to listen to one of the others, or even all of them if you so choose

This particular reflection is for the Christmas Mass at Night. In the old days, I think we used to call this one the Midnght Mass.

Note that Scripture readings are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition, Copyright Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., used with permission. Commentary copyright Peter Kreeft, published by Word on Fire, used with permission.

Today, we have not one, but 4 Christmas Mass readings! I will read each of them separately so you can choose which one you plan to attend, and listen to that one, or, feel free to listen to one of the others, or even all of them if you so choose!

This particular reflection is for the Vigil Mass.

Note that Scripture readings are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition, Copyright Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., used with permission. Commentary copyright Peter Kreeft, published by Word on Fire, used with permission.

As we continue to prepare for Christmas during this Advent season, we may want to take a minute to think about, what is it that we are preparing for? The coming of Jesus, of course, and our Salvation. What exactly does that mean? What is it that God is promising to give us? We'll hear about that and more in today's Scripture and Commentary for the 3rd Sunday in Advent.

Scripture readings are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition, Copyright Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., used with permission. Commentary copyright Peter Kreeft, published by Word on Fire, used with permission.

We are now in to the third season of this podcast, and as I have done at the beginning of each other season, today I will be talking about how I came up with the title of Bob's Beanfield. If you've heard it before, you can feel free to skip this episode, but you might just want to listen again. Like so many stories, you may just hear something different this time, something you need to hear at this moment of your life.

When we talk about Advent and Lent, we think of these two liturgical seasons as penitential. That's why we have the priests wearing purple, why our churches are decorated in a more subdued tone. Yet, they are both seasons of waiting and anticipating. We all could use a little more of the childlike anticipation of Christmas that children have. In today's readings, we get a sense of that anticipation from John the Baptist, and we hear about glory. Let's listen to the Scripture and commentary!

Scripture readings are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition, Copyright Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., used with permission. Commentary copyright Peter Kreeft, published by Word on Fire, used with permission.

Today we begin Advent, our celebration of anticipation of the coming of Christ at Christmas. Dr. Kreeft points out to us that there are three times Christ has or will come….the first, 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, the third will be at the end of time, and the second is to us in the here and now. How do we anticipate all three of them? We talked a bit about the end times over the last few weeks of the past liturgical year, and are reminded of them again today. Let's listen carefully with our hearts to see what Scripture tells us about all three of these comings of Christ.

Scripture readings are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition, Copyright Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., used with permission. Commentary copyright Peter Kreeft, published by Word on Fire, used with permission.

Happy New Year!!!

Today, we begin a new Liturgical Year, and with it we begin with a new cycle of readings for Sundays and Holy Days.

To kick off the New Year, we'll listen to the introduction to Dr. Kreeft's book, "Food for the Soul", Reflections on the Mass Readings for Cycle C . If you're a long time listener, you may find that this year's introduction is the same or very similar to last year's so feel free to skip ahead if this is redundant for you. We'll have the Mass readings and commentary for the first Sunday in Advent, which is also today, in a separate episode, and since this is a New Year, we'll also reprise the story about why this is called the Bean Field in a different episode early this Liturgical Year.