Lent (14)
2024 (1)
On Wednesday, we heard from Brendan about how we should focus on our reconciliation with God, or rather, God’s reconciliation with us – and Brendan was right to remind us, as St Paul did, that “God has reconciled the human world to himself in Christ – fundamentally and …
4 min (937 words)
Read more...2023 (1)
Today’s readings talk about three things. We hear talk of prophesy in the first reading, a righteous spirit in the second reading, and death and resurrection in the Gospel, or in Lazarus’ case, resuscitation, from the dead. In a nutshell, we are witnesses to the promise of …
6 min (1,015 words)
Read more...2020 (3)
Today our readings are short, and they are basically inviting us to listen to God, and to notice that God has not abandoned us, but is always with us. We are simply called to respond to God’s presence and call in our lives.
I’m not sure if you remember the Gospel from last …
8 min (1,431 words)
Read more...We’ve been making this journey during Lent where we’ve been asked to travel with Jesus into parched deserts and climb-up and down mountain-tops – and today our first reading is again in a desert where the Israelites, having escaped slavery in Egypt, are grumbling, so Moses …
12 min (2,437 words)
Read more...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 …
7 min (1,517 words)
Read more...2019 (3)
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 …
7 min (1,315 words)
Read more...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 …
8 min (1,545 words)
Read more...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 …
11 min (2,151 words)
Read more...2018 (1)
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. …
3 min (519 words)
Read more...2017 (4)
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 for Easter, …
4 min (644 words)
Read more...I think today in the readings we are being asked not to forget. This past Wednesday we all came together to receive ashes and mark the beginning of Lent. The Church offered two statements as the ashes were imposed. The first was ‘Repent, and believe in the Gospel’, which I …
7 min (1,399 words)
Read more...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 me experiencing this. Today’s readings talk about three things. We hear talk of prophesy in the first reading, a righteous …
8 min (1,564 words)
Read more...In Matthew’s Gospel which we have just heard and which really needs no explanation, the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus is a world-ending event. We are told of the violent shaking of the earth that was expected to announce the arrival of the end time. The whole …
4 min (623 words)
Read more...2016 (1)
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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