During the current liturgical year, which began with the First Sunday of Advent, Bondings 2.0 began to make available to our readers a monthly archive of all of our Sunday scriptural and personal reflections since the blog’s origin in 2011.

We are doing so because every year we receive requests from pastoral ministers, homilists, spiritual directors, and others for a “sneak peek” at these reflections to help them include an LGBTQ+ dimension to homilies, talks, prayers, and discussions for each Sunday.

At the end of each month, we will post a catalog of past reflections from our archives for the coming month’s Sunday readings.  Because the church is in Cycle C this year, we begin the list with those reflections, followed by Cycles A and B. As we make these posts available on the blog, we will also be archiving them on our website, so that eventually reflections for the Sunday readings of all three liturgical cycles–A, B, C– will be permanently available to pastoral ministers and individual Catholics.

Below are the reflections for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, and Second Sunday in Easter.  Because Bondings 2.0 only began posting Sunday reflections as a regular weekly feature in 2020, not all years are represented.

Some entries are marked in three different ways:

1. Inspirational Passages:  These posts are not full reflections, but a quotation, prayer, scripture passage, or poem that connect to the particular day’s liturgical readings.
2. Journeys Installments: These posts are an installment of our scripture reflection series Journeys, which provids a guided way to reflect individually or communally on the liturgical readings of the day.
3. Short Personal Relfections: These posts contain brief reflections on the liturgical readings of the day, submitted by Bondings 2.0 readers.

When Advent began on December 1, 2024, the church started to hear readings  from the Year C cycle, so these readings are listed first, followed by Year A (which will begin on the First Sunday of Advent 2025) and Year B (beginning on the First Sunday of Advent 2026).

We hope this resource is helpful for pastoral ministers and others who want to understand and/or develop the spiritualities of LGBTQ+ people in their communities.

We welcome your feedback.

Reflections for April Sundays 2025

CYCLE C

2022

Fifth Sunday of Lent: Jesus’ Invitation to Disarm Is a Call for LGBTQ Catholics and Church Leaders, Too

Palm Sunday: Even the Stones Will Cry Out

Easter Sunday: Easter Sunday: Believing and Seeing  (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: Doubt, Faith, Scars, Life  (Journeys Installment) 

 

2019  

Fifth Sunday of Lent: The Oil of Gladness (Journeys Installment)

Palm Sunday: “Surely This One Was Innocent” (Journeys Installment)

Easter Sunday: Revelation to the Lowly  (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter:  None

 

2016

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  Our Eagerness to Be the One to Cast the First Stone

Palm Sunday: Do We Have Blood on Our Hands?

Easter Sunday: Resurrection and God’s Faithfulness (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: None

 

2013

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  None

Palm Sunday: None

Easter Sunday: Jesus Is Risen! Alleluia! (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: None

CYCLE A

2023

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  The Bystanders

Palm Sunday: “The Sorrow in My Heart is Deeper than Ever.”

Easter Sunday:  God’s Glory Is Not Ego, But the Other (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: Real Life, In Person, Up Close, In the Flesh

 

2020

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  Coming Out of the Tomb of Fear, Shame, and Loneliness (Short Personal Reflections)

Palm Sunday: Palm Sunday, Pride Parades, and Pandemics  (Short Personal Reflections)

Easter Sunday: He Is Risen as He Said!  (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter:  Why Some Followers of Jesus Did Not Lockdown After Easter

 

2017

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  We Are Not in the Tomb, But in the Womb

Palm Sunday: In the Garden of Gethsemane, Praying for Identity

Easter Sunday: “Why Look for the Living Among the Dead?” (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: None

 

2014

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  Bringing Life Out of What Seems Lifeless

Palm Sunday:  Are We More Like Judas Than We Care to Admit?

Easter Sunday: Life Beyond Suffering and Wickedness (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: None

CYCLE B

2024

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  You Feel It in Your Bowels

Palm Sunday: Palm Sunday: The Day I Came Out as Queer

Easter Sunday: Easter: Celebrating Visibility for True Identities of Jesus and Trans Folks

Second Sunday of Easter: What If Queer Chosen Families Are Cornerstones for God’s Kin-dom?

 

2021  

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  i-den-ti-ty (Journeys Installment)

Palm Sunday: Palm Sunday of Jesus’ Passion: The Suffering Servant  (Journeys Installment)

Easter Sunday: Easter Sunday: Death Is Not the End (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: Leading the Church Beyond Toleration to the Celebration of LGBTQ Holiness

 

2018

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  Brunch Epiphanies

Palm Sunday: With Palms and Nails

Easter Sunday: Easter Blessings to You!  (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: None

 

2015

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  Following Jesus by Bringing Beauty Into the World

Palm Sunday: When Life’s Journey Is Not What You Expected It to Be

Easter Sunday: Roll Away the Stone! (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: None

 

2012

Fifth Sunday of Lent:  None

Palm Sunday: None

Easter Sunday: Proof of the Resurrection (Inspirational Passage)

Second Sunday of Easter: None

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, March 25, 2025