The St Martin De Porres Catholic Church in Orlando West, Soweto (5)

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 …

My brothers and sisters, tonight we gather to celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and we are asked to remember and recall the great gifts that God has given us. We celebrate tonight together, a Mass that marks the beginning of our Sacred Paschal Triduum – the holiest …

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, …

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 …