The Sermon on the Mountain was introduced in last Sunday’s Gospel reading by a kind of preamble enumerating the beatitudes attributed to Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. Luke also enumerates beatitudes attributed to Jesus, but only four.

This Sunday’s Gospel reading begins a series of five Sundays of selections from Matthew’s composition called the Sermon on the Mountain. The Sermon on the Mountain is the first of five major sermons the author of Matthew’s Gospel constructs from current traditions about Jesus in the mid-eighties of the first century. Why five?

The Most Rev. Edward K. Braxton, Bishop of Belleville will give a major address at John Carroll University on the Catholic Church and the Black Lives Matter Movement on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. The bishop’s address will examine key elements contributing to the racial divide in the United States and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter Movement from the perspective of the Catholic Church.