The Jesuit Institute (20)

Tonight, we gather on this sacred night to celebrate the eve of our Savior’s birth and to mark the opening of the 2025 Jubilee. This is no ordinary night—it is a night that bridges heaven and earth, light and darkness, promise and fulfillment. We stand at the threshold …

Tonight, we gather in joyful anticipation, standing on the threshold of a profound mystery that brings beings from heaven and earth to rejoice—from angels to shepherds, from kings to lowly animals. This is the night when the eternal promise of salvation takes flesh, the …

Today I want to talk about the readings but I also want to say a few words about the past week in South Africa and how the readings have resonated with my experience of them. Today’s readings talk about three things. We hear talk of prophesy in the first reading, a righteous …

Dear Friends,

This is the day that the LORD has made;

Rejoice and be glad. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Happy Easter everyone.

We have been celebrating Lent since the 26th of February, and this has been a Lent like no other we have known. We have had to sacrifice so much: our …

Before Jesus Ascends, he needs to explain to the apostles that they will not be left alone. That he will send his spirit to be with them.

In the first reading we see Philip fulfilling a prophecy of Jesus that the Good News would be preached in Samaria. Samaria was home to …

Today’s first reading contains a word that has taken on new dimensions and has been felt more often in these days than in the past. “Terror is on every side!” We currently are continuing to face the terror of a pandemic. And that’s been enough to make us all anxious and …

Today we are asked to contemplate authority and to pray for those in authority. Authority is legitimate power, and in our readings today we see how certain individuals are legitimized, and what power is given to them by the ultimate authority, the one whom Peter calls the …

All our readings are taken from near the end of their books, and so are summaries in a way of their main and most important messages. This is not surprising as we come to the end of the Church’s Liturgical Year next week. I want to briefly examine each of the readings and …

Today’s readings are about restoration and healing, and today, I hope, you have had some time to be restored and to at least begin to recognize areas where you might need God’s healing. After journeying with Moses up the mountain and seeing the burning bush and entering into …

On Wednesday this week we all gathered to receive ashes and were told to ‘repent and believe in the Gospel’ or to ‘remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return’. Repent, Believe, Remember. These are good things to do during Lent as we prepare ourselves to celebrate …

Our readings this Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, speak of coming home. St Paul in our second reading speaks of Jesus appealing to us to be reconciled with God. The Jews, after their wanderings in the desert after leaving Egypt and being sustained through the manna from …

Our readings today are bound together with two overarching questions. The first question we might reflect on is who do we listen to? The second is do we know what time it is?

What has appeared repeatedly in our Easter readings is the story of the Church’s universal mission. …

Last week we celebrated the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. A feast that reminded us that “Within God there is distinction but no difference. And that within God there is love without distance or diminishment.” [because, as Fr Terence Klein recently noted in his …

Ecclesiastes is a book in the Bible that forms part of the wisdom tradition and is named after the assembly, the church ecclesia, to whom the preacher Qoheleth is speaking. A previous wisdom book, the Book of Proverbs, made an argument that hard work and careful planning …

Our readings today address a disappointed people but they offer a universal hope of salvation – not a guarantee, but a promise that all are welcome.

We know that 200 years after the text of Isaiah was written, there was great disappointment among the Jews after their exile, …

In our readings today we are once again reminded of the humility we need in our relationship with God, and with creation, and with each other. This humility – we can recall – was a key feature of last week’s readings where we realized how humility was a truthful attitude and …

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 …

Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the day that around the world marks the beginning of Lent, the start of our long journey towards the resurrection at Easter. The prophet Joel says today, “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. …

Today we remember All the Saints. This feast started out as the Feast for All Martyrs and was celebrated on 13 May in Rome. The Eastern Church adopted this as early as the year 359. It was so popular at the time it was celebrated during the Roman harvest so that enough food …

Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the day that around the world marks the beginning of Lent. Although Lent is often thought of as a time for repentance and penance – and it is certainly that – it is also a happy time because it is the way we prepare as Christians …