During the current liturgical year, which began with the First Sunday of Advent in 2024, 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.

Below are the reflections for August: the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-second Sundays in Ordinary Time.  We also have several options for the Feast of the Transfiguration and the Solemnity of the Assumption.   At the end of the list is also a reflection guide for the Feast of the Transfiguration, taken from New Ways Ministry’s Journeys: A Scripture Reflection Series for LGBTQ+ Catholics and Allies. 

When the current liturgical year began, 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). Because Bondings 2.0 only began posting Sunday reflections as a regular weekly feature in 2020, not all years are represented.

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.

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 August Sundays and Feasts 2025

CYCLE C

2022

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: A Solid Wooden Bowl, Beautifully Carved

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: “Gird Your Loins” in an Age of Polarization

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Are We Kindling a Fire or Burning a Bridge?

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time: To Whom Is Jesus Really Saying “Depart from Me”?

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Reconciling the Church’s “Colonizing Mentality” Towards LGBTQ+ People

Transfiguration: None

Assumption: None

CYCLE A

2023

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: None

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Sweat the Small Stuff

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: A House of Prayer for ALL Peoples

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time: A “Key to the Kingdom” for Queer Liberation

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Suffering for the Truth, Flourishing in the Truth

Transfiguration: A Bright Cloud: A Transfiguration Story from India

Assumption: None

2020

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Come to the Water, Receive Without Cost, Break Bread

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Learning to Walk on Water

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: None

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time: When Darkness Engulfs and Suffocates the Light of Life

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Two Sides of Being Prophetic

Transfiguration: None

Assumption: It’s 2020, and We Need the Assumption More Than Ever

CYCLE B

2024

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Manna from Heaven: The Spiritual Upside to Complaining

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Manna in the Ruins

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Living Into the Mystery of the Eucharist 

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time:  Turning to Yes

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Can I Hope for Any Heaven?

Transfiguration: None

Assumption: None

2021  

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Seeking Not Only Bread, But Roses for LGBTQ Catholics

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Fed for the Journey 

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: None

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time: Who Is the God I Believe In?

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Embracing Abrahamic Faith

Transfiguration: None

Assumption: Navigating Ambivalence About Mary’s Assumption

JOURNEYS REFLECTION GUIDE

Transfiguration

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, July 21, 2025