The Liturgical Year

Fr Coleridge's writing, ordered around the liturgical year and the traditional Roman lectionary.

As partners with The WM Review, who are Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases through our Amazon links. Check out how are we have got with Fr Coleridge’s The Life of our Life series.

Fr Coleridge's writing, ordered around the liturgical year and the traditional Roman lectionary.

Father Coleridge was responsible for 26 volumes on the life of Christ and related matters, and much of our work at The Father Coleridge Reader is based on making this work more widely known.

At the moment, our main way of progressing through his work is basing ourselves on the liturgical year. Each week, we provide Coleridge’s text dealing with the episode from the Sunday’s Gospel, according to the traditional Roman lectionary.

Here’s what we’ve republished so far.

Advent

Image: Fr Lawrence Lew OP.

First Sunday of Advent

1. Doomsday—Faith and Our Lord's promises to Catholics

2. Doomsday—Christ tells us to hope for it

3. Doomsday—Pretending it won't happen

4. Doomsday—Does Christ know the day?

5. Doomsday—'Watch, and be ready for your Lord to come'

Seasonal

• Why Isaias prophesied that 'a Virgin shall be with Child'

• Christ Unborn—THE pro-life devotion

• Christ Unborn—48 Meditations on Our Lord in the Womb

• Our Lady's womb: Sanctuary of divine expectation and compassion

• Nine months of grace: the Sacred Heart's preparation complete

Immaculate Conception

• The Immaculate Conception and Our Lady's vocation

Second Sunday of Advent

1. The Baptist's Final Witness—Why he sent his disciples

2. 'Art thou he that art to come?' The Baptist's Final Witness

3. St John the Baptist did NOT doubt—Christ's words prove it

4. The Baptist: the greatest prophet, but less than the least in the Kingdom?

5. Was St John the Baptist really the Prophet Elias/Elijah?

Third Sunday of Advent

• The Sanhedrin's inquiry into St John the Baptist

Fourth Sunday of Advent

1. St John the Baptist's preparation in the desert

2. Did St John the Baptist succeed in preparing for Christ's advent?

Christmastide

Seasonal

• When did our Lady become the Mother of Sorrows?

Christmas

1. Our Lady and St Stephen, the first martyr

2. Why Christ was circumcised—and who performed the rite

3. Why Christ was given the Holy Name 'Jesus'

Epiphany

Wiki Commons, Public Domain.

Epiphany

1. 'King, and God, and Sacrifice': How Epiphany reveals Christ’s mission

2. How did the Magi spent their time at Bethlehem?

Epiphany Octave

• Why was Christ baptised by St John the Baptist?

Time after Epiphany

Holy Family/First Sunday after Epiphany

1. Why did Jesus live in obedience to Our Lady and St Joseph?

2. How could Christ 'increase in wisdom and grace'?

Second Sunday after Epiphany

1. Why did Christ turn water into wine at the wedding of Cana?

2. Wedding at Cana: Who was the bridegroom?

Seasonal

• How was St Paul's conversion unique?

• What did St Paul do straight after his conversion?

Third Sunday after Epiphany

1. What did 'The Chosen' get right with 'Gaius' the Centurion?

2. Why did the Centurion say not to come 'under his roof'?

3. Was the Roman Centurion a warning for 'Abraham's children'?

4. How did the Centurion’s words come to be said at every Mass?

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

• Storm on the Lake—Why does Christ chastise his fearful apostles?

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

1. Devil's Seed—Heretics and the parable of the cockle and wheat

2. Why does God tolerate evil and heresy?

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

1. The Church and the parable of the mustard seed

2. The Church and the parable of the leaven

3. Parables, Exodus and Chastisement

Seasonal: The Purification

1. How does Candlemas point to the Passover and to the Cross?

2. Why was Jesus so joyful at the Presentation in the Temple?

Septuagesima

Image: Wiki Commons, Andrey Mironov, CC 4.0.

Septuagesima Sunday

1. Is it unfair that 'the first will be last' in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard?

2. Does your rank in the Church determine holiness and reward?

3. Why are good works worthless without charity?

4. Acting like this is why Catholics fall away

Seasonal: The state of the world before Christ

1. Absolute degradation—the state of the world before Christ

2. Three elements of false religions: apparent 'good,' human bad, satanic ugly

3. God used Greece, Rome and Israel to prepare for Christ's advent

Sexagesima Sunday

1. How does the Parable of the Sower unlock all Christ's other parables?

2. How do the birds reveal a brutal war for the soul in the Parable of the Sower?

3. What if your faith is shallow, and you won’t know until it’s too late?

4. What makes for good soil in Christ’s Parable of the Sower?

Quinquagesima Sunday

1. What does Blind Bartimæus show us about calling upon Christ with faith?

2. Do the Gospels contradict each other about Blind Bartimæus?

3. Why did Christ invite Himself to the house of the hated Zacchæus?

Lent

Image: Fr Lawrence Lew OP.

Ash Wednesday

1. Why do we have to fast?

2. How can fasting help the soul—and the modern world?

First Sunday of Lent

1. What does Christ’s victory in the desert mean for us?

2. The most overlooked part of Christ's forty days in the desert

Second Sunday of Lent

1. Why did Christ reveal his transfigured glory before the Passion?

2. Why were Moses and Elias at the Transfiguration?

3. Why is the Transfiguration placed at the turning point of Christ’s public life?

4. What’s the link between the Transfiguration and the Baptism of the Lord?

5. Why did Christ command secrecy about the Transfiguration until after Easter?

Third Sunday of Lent

1. How did Christ turn back the charge of casting out devils by Beelzebub?

2. The moment Christ announces his invasion of Satan’s kingdom

3. Did Christ rebuke the woman who praised his Mother?

4. Why does Christ refuse to prove himself on demand?

5. Why does rejecting the truth lead to deeper darkness?

Fourth Sunday of Lent

1. Why did Christ and his Apostles withdraw before feeding the five thousand?

2. Why did Christ wait until evening to feed the multitude?

3. What does the multiplication of loaves teach about the Church and the Apostles?

4. Was Christ thinking of the Holy Eucharist when he multiplied the loaves?

Seasonal: The Annunciation

1. Were St Joseph and Our Lady married before the Annunciation?

2. What do we really know about the Angel Gabriel?

3. How did Jesus respond when he first beheld his humanity in Our Lady's womb?

Passiontide and Holy Week

Image by James Tissot (εditor’s own photo, public domain).

Passion Sunday

1. How did the Sanhedrin know Christ would affirm his divinity under oath?

2. Why did Christ call himself 'The Light of the World'?

3. What prevented the Jews from hearing Christ’s words properly?

4. Why did Christ say ‘The truth will set you free’?

5. Why does Christ say ‘You are of your father the devil’?

6. How is Satan ‘a murderer’ and ‘the father of lies’?

7. What did Christ mean by, ‘Before Abraham was made, I AM’?

Palm Sunday

1. Our Lord casts reserve aside and enters Jerusalem as Christ the King

2. How the raising of Lazarus ignited Palm Sunday

3. What was it about Palm Sunday that most surprised the Pharisees?

4. Why did Christ say the stones would cry out?

5. Why Christ wept over Jerusalem in Holy Week

6. How mere children shamed the Chief Priests in Holy Week

---

[Work in progress]

---

Time after Pentecost

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

• 'How camest thou in hither?' The Wedding of the King’s Son

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

• 'Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe' – Healing the Nobleman's Son

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

• 'The Measure of Forgiveness'—Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

• Should we pay taxes?

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

• Jairus’ Daughter and the Bleeding Woman

Seasonal: Autumn (Christ the King, All Saints, All Souls, and the Apocalypse)

• 'Art thou a king, then?' Pilate & Christ the King

• The Sermon on the Mount—the New Law at the New Sinai

• The Beatitudes—why Christ says the persecuted and poor are 'blessed'

• The price of delay in relieving the souls in Purgatory

• Our Lady, the Rosary and the Holy Souls – the breviary of the laity

• What are the warnings that the final storm approaches?

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

1. Jerusalem's Doom—Christ's prophecy of chastisement

2. Jerusalem's Doom—Signs of its approach

3. Jerusalem's Doom—Persecution of Christians

4. Jerusalem's Doom—Prophecy of chastisement fulfilled

Subscribe TODAY to help us continue making Father Coleridge’s amazing work available: