VOICES During Advent, a lot of voices are mentioned in the Scripture readings and hymns: “Hark! The herald voice is sounding!”; “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘prepare ye the way of the Lord’”; “I will hear what the Lord has to say, a voice that speaks of...
AN ADVENT INVITATION Watch less TV, ipad, iphone, etc.. Use the time to seek silence around and within. Seek the Lord in that silence and you will also find your true self. Work on one sinful or bad habit you have. Consider the damage it does. Ask the Spirit to...
REVEALED “Revealed” is a word you will occasionally see as the headline of a news story. This past Thursday, there was a headline in the “Daily Mail” which read: “Lockdown tiers for England are finally revealed.” Another in “the Guardian” ran: “Revealed: UK supermarket and fast-food chicken linked to deforestation...
THE ROYAL WE The “majestic plural” is used by monarchs (including Popes until recent times). It does not imply that the person using it has haughty ideas about themselves. On the contrary, it signifies identification with the people whose monarch (or Pope) that person is. It doesn’t mean that the...
One talent at the time of Jesus was what a labourer would earn in half a life-time. So, for a master to entrust one, two or five talents to three of his slaves was a huge act of trust in each one of them. He knew their skills differed, so...
FOSTER OR FESTER One angle we might take on today’s Gospel of the parable of the talents is that the spiritual life of the Christian either grows or it stagnates. Either we foster its growth or it will fester. When I speak of the “spiritual life”, I refer more broadly...
The first generation of Christians thought that Jesus would return from heaven during their life-time. They all expected to be alive when he came back. But as time passed, the first of them began to die. So, the rest began to worry: did that mean the dead person would not...
TO PREPARE FOR DEATH IS TO PREPARE FOR LIFE The unavoidable reality of death is one of the great questions which every person must face, sooner or later. Even for those who live in denial, it is the proverbial great elephant in the room. Because everything in us recoils at...
DEVOTION TO THE SAINTS The saints are often an untapped source of love, friendship, help and affection as we make our way through life. The Letter to the Hebrews depicts them as a great cloud of witnesses to Jesus who are all surrounding us and cheering us on, as the...
I DESIRE TO DESIRE TO BE A SAINT Sainthood can seem an unattainable dream when we think of ourselves as candidates. The daily experience of our moral fragility and weakness can appear to put to rest any notion of such an exalted aim. But to accept that is to buy...
