Homilies in 2016 (13)
Let me say again Merry Christmas, and I hope everyone had a good night, and that Santa’s new built-in sleigh-GPS is working and that he managed to find all of your chimneys!
I would like to say a few words today about our readings – and how they convey the Good News of Jesus …
9 min (1,653 words)
Read more...It is not often that we have such a coherent set of readings. The first reading comes at the end of Chapter 1 of the first book of Samuel. If one were to read the rest of the first chapter, one would learn that Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, was made fun of by Elkanah’s second …
2 min (550 words)
Read more...Today I want to say something about dreams, and reflect on two people mentioned in today’s readings: Ahaz and Joseph.
Behind the innocent sounding text of our first reading is a saga that sounds like it is out of the popular TV show, Game of Thrones – by which I mean there …
8 min (1,558 words)
Read more...We might be forgiven this evening for being a little confused about today’s Gospel. It begins with John trying to ascertain what type of messiah Jesus was. Last week’s Gospel happened just before John baptized Jesus. So you would have thought that since he was present at the …
6 min (1,149 words)
Read more...“…The voice of one crying in the wilderness”
In today’s readings we hear from three voices who bring messages of hope to us this Advent.
The first voice is from the prophet Isaiah, who lived in a time when Israel had some underwhelming and despicable kings. Isaiah is a …
5 min (1,057 words)
Read more...Today is the First Sunday of Advent. It is the first day of the Church’s year and during this time the Church, in her liturgy, offers us images about the coming of the Lord. In the first part of Advent, the images are mostly about the second and glorious coming of the Lord …
7 min (1,372 words)
Read more...Some people believe the Feast of Christ the King is a feast dating back from the Middle Ages, when Monarchy was more common. It was in fact instituted in the last century and represents the concerns of our recent history. In 1925 Pope Pius XI understood that the old royal …
4 min (792 words)
Read more...Technically we call today the “Commemoration of all the faithful departed” but it is popularly known as ‘All Souls’ as a play on words of yesterday’s ‘All Saints’. In yesterday’s feast of All Saints, the Church around the world honored the Church in Heaven (though in South …
5 min (904 words)
Read more...At the heart of today’s readings is, I think, the distinction between a gift and a reward. God is always gifting us, blessing us, and bestowing grace upon us. It is not something we can ever earn or take for granted, rather we can only say how unworthy we are of it and thank …
9 min (1,731 words)
Read more...Today’s readings present us with three rich images about perseverance in prayer and strength of faith. They show us three things, firstly, that we need help to pray, secondly, that we should not give up, and thirdly that God will answer our prayers if we have faith.
Last …
12 min (2,252 words)
Read more...Good morning everyone. We see from the First Reading, that when we pray or talk to God, we can be honest with him. In fact it is best that we are. In today’s first reading we read from the Prophet Habakkuk “how long shall I cry for help” – a more honest remark we might not …
7 min (1,527 words)
Read more...Good morning everyone. There are three things I want to propose that we reflect on today after hearing these three readings. They are firstly, what are we to do with luxuries? Secondly, how can I be sensitive? And thirdly, the difficult business of respecting the whole …
7 min (1,241 words)
Read more...Today’s rich readings all play on the themes of blindness and sight, darkness and light, fear and hope. In the first reading we see: how Samuel is initially blind to the choice of the Lord, preferring Eliab; and then we see how Jesse was blind to the possibility of his …
15 min (2,916 words)
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