Ordinary Time Before Easter (37)

In this morning’s readings we meet a moment many of us recognise. You do something that loosens another person’s chains, something that gives back dignity or hope, and instead of thanks you meet suspicion. Motives are questioned. Labels are fixed. That is where today’s …

Jesus begins his public ministry at a dangerous moment. John has been arrested. A voice has been silenced. The preacher who spoke truth in the wilderness has been removed, and everyone knows what that means. When truth-tellers are taken away, fear spreads quickly. Others …

Yesterday the Scriptures showed us David hiding in the darkness of a cave, holding Saul’s life in his hands. He could have struck him down. He could have ended the long chase and settled everything with one clean blow. Instead, David stepped back. He spared Saul. He chose …

Some of the most important moments in life are quiet ones. No audience. No applause. Just a choice made in the dark. Those moments shape who we are becoming.

David is in such a moment today. He is hiding in a cave, tired and hunted. Saul, the king who has been trying to kill …

They came out singing and dancing, filling the streets with colour and relief. It was the sound a people make when fear has loosened its grip. Saul returned with David, and the women sang what poetry always sings. Saul has killed his thousands, David his ten thousands. …

At the end of most days, our hands tell the truth about us. They show where we have spent our time and what we have chosen to do. They have worked and waited, helped and held back, reached out or stayed closed. Sometimes they are ready for good. Sometimes they are tired. …

Dear brothers and sisters,
Samuel is grieving, and God names it plainly. “How long will you mourn Saul?”, Not because grief is wrong, but because it can quietly fix our eyes on what is finished. Samuel’s sorrow has become a way of standing still. God sends him …

Think of a wedding you have actually attended. Not the photographs, but the moment itself. People are talking, distracted, checking watches. Then the groom appears. No announcement is needed. Conversations fade. Faces turn. Something important has arrived. No one wonders …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
today we are being asked to notice the Lamb who walks quietly among us, and to decide whether we will pay attention and follow.

There is a sound many of us know well, especially outside the cities. It is the small bell tied around the …

God meets us where we are and asks us to follow him in the middle of ordinary life.

Dear sisters, the readings today remind us of something simple and important. God does not wait for the right mood, the right time, or the right circumstances. He comes to people while they …

Sisters and dear friends, this morning the Word of God gives us one clear lesson: when we reach for control, God reaches for the heart.

Our first reading from the First Book of Samuel opens with a tired prophet and an anxious people. The elders of Israel come to Samuel with …

Dear sisters in Christ, we have all known dry moments. Today’s readings use the image of the desert as the place where false hopes fall away and true mercy is revealed.

Our first reading from the first book of Samuel takes us to a battlefield thick with fear. Israel has …

Dear sisters in Christ, today’s readings invite us to look more closely at how God enters ordinary life, heals what is deepest in us, and then sends us out to serve.

In the first reading from the First Book of Samuel we meet a young boy who hears his name called in the …

God works quietly, but when he acts, lives are changed.

Dear sisters in Christ, good morning. Today’s readings remind us of something very simple. God listens when people pray from the heart. God lifts those who feel low. And God speaks a word that sets people free.

Our …

Today the Word of God shows us how God begins his work quietly, in the middle of ordinary days. As the Church enters Ordinary Time, between Christmas and Lent, we learn how to live when nothing special seems to be happening, yet God is close.

Dear sisters in Christ, …

The words we speak, the judgments we make, the way we see the world—these are not accidents of speech or perception, but the fruit of our hearts. And so, we must ask ourselves: what do they reveal? For words are not mere sounds that vanish in the wind; they are echoes of the …

There are moments in life when the Gospel does not merely challenge us; it confronts us. Today is one of those moments. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” These words are not a suggestion, not a …

The words of the prophet Jeremiah cut through the noise of our world like a clarion call: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” And yet, blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in …

Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today, on this 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we stand before Scripture that is anything but ordinary. The Word of God does not meander through the mundane; it seizes us, confronts us, and calls us forth to something …

The flickering flames of candlelight illuminate the temple, shadows dancing across the ancient stones, as Simeon takes the child into his arms. His eyes, aged by waiting, now glisten with the light of fulfillment. “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, for my …

…Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

The Word of God is not merely ink on a page, nor an echo from a distant past. It is living, active, and dynamic—able to pierce the heart, to stir the soul, to shape the world. And today, in this sacred place, …

This morning we celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, a profound moment of grace that transformed a zealous persecutor of Christians into one of the greatest apostles of Christ. This story, recounted in Acts 9:1–22, is not only about Paul’s conversion but also …

There is something undeniably beautiful about the moment when a wedding feast reaches its crescendo—the music swells, laughter fills the air, and the ordinary gives way to something almost transcendent. It is in just such a moment that Jesus performs his first sign, …

Today’s Gospel reveals the heart of Jesus’ mission: sitting at table with tax collectors and sinners, he demonstrates the boundless mercy of God. This scene invites deep reflection on how we live our own mission of reconciliation and hope, especially in this Jubilee of Hope …

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. The words of Isaiah ring out across the centuries like a clarion call, cutting through the noise of history with a singular purpose: to remind us that we are not abandoned, that the God who spoke light into being and summoned the …

Just before today’s first reading, at the start of this 18th chapter, we’re told that:

When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. (1 Sam 18:1)

Unlike Saul who herded donkeys and …

We gather today to celebrate the baptism of Ella Riley Cumings. As Christians, we belong to the Mystical Church of the Body of Christ, and as the first of the Sacraments of initiation, we are all gathered here to welcome young Ella into a relationship with Jesus Christ. In …

Our readings this morning all talk about an encounter with God that carried with it an invitation or a call to spread God’s word, to accept God’s grace, and to do God’s will.

I’m sure we all recognised these calls. They all broadly follow a similar pattern. There is usually …

We gather today to celebrate the baptism of Rebecca Catherine Grace Carswell. As Christians, we belong to the Mystical Church of the Body of Christ, and as the first of the Sacraments of initiation, we are all gathered here to welcome young Rebecca into a relationship with …

We gather today to celebrate the baptism of Michael Wallace van Zyl.

As Christians, we belong to the Mystical Church of the Body of Christ, and as the first of the Sacraments of initiation, we are all gathered here to welcome young Michael into a relationship with Jesus …

Well we’ve almost reached the end of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Today’s installment, following on from the last few weeks – which began with ‘Blessed are the poor in Spirit’ – now talks about how we cannot serve two masters… we cannot serve God and mammon.

Mammon …

In today’s Gospel Jesus uses three images to capture the new justice he is proposing to his followers. It is a creative, healing, and restorative justice that focuses on relationships. The old justice found in the Bible was designed to prevent revenge running away …

You are all welcome to this Church of the Holy Trinity. We are all gathered here in this Church, from I think, places all over the globe, to share in this joyous occasion together and to celebrate the love that Megan and Peter both share for each other.

The …

In today’s first reading, Sirach tells us how we have been given a choice, to keep God’s commandments, if only we will to do so. We are told that we are to choose between fire and water, life and death, good and evil. Our great gift of free will requires the even …

Taken together today’s readings talk to us about three things: true Piety, true Preaching and true Presence.

True piety, the prophet Isaiah declares in today’s First Reading, does not consist in ritual acts of fasting, but in responding to the practical demands of …

In our first reading today the Prophet Zephaniah, writing some 600 years before Christ, writes of the people he calls the anawim, which means a remnant, the leftovers, a tiny band of God’s poor and forgotten. The characteristic feature of these humble and lowly …

We gather today to celebrate the baptism of Olivia Grace Allard. As Christians, we belong to the Mystical Church of the Body of Christ, and as the first of the Sacraments of initiation, we are all gathered here to welcome young Olivia into a relationship with Jesus Christ. …