On these Sundays outside the great seasons of the Church's liturgical year, the liturgy nourishes our life of faith in ever new ways, as we continue our pilgrimage towards the final Kingdom.

In the early centuries, the Church Fathers saw every Sunday as another Easter Day. Pope John Paul II took up this theme in his encyclical on the Lord's Day, Dies Domini: every Sunday, he said, should be a celebration of the Paschal Mystery, Christ's victory over all evil, and the initiation – for our sake – of God's final achievement in creation, in the Saviour's risen life.

The readings for this year – Year B of the three year cycle – present the Gospel of Mark, with its challenge to come to a personal knowledge of Jesus the Christ. The First Readings – usually from the Old Testament – are chosen to help bring a deeper understanding of the theme of the Gospel. The Second Readings are a progressive presentation of the apostolic letters of the New Testament. Although they are not chosen to match the gospel theme, they will often resonate with this main theme, as they give expression to the overall gospel message of the Scriptures.