Readings: Acts 2:14,36-41; Psalm 22(23); 1 Peter 2:20-25; John 10:1-10 “I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” These most consoling words of Jesus are mirrored in today’s Psalm, “in the Lord’s own house shall I dwell for ever and ever.” In this...
Readings: Acts 2:14,22-33; Psalm 15(16):1-2,5,7-11; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35 No matter how many funerals I conduct, the grief of each and every family is unique and raw. It’s unique because we are all unique. It’s raw because the pain of separation which death causes can’t be glossed over. Think...
Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 117(118):2-4,13-15,22-24; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31 Jesus gives the Apostles the two-fold power to forgive sins and the power to retain them. His hope, and indeed the reason for which he poured out blood and water from his side on the Cross, is that the power to retain...
Romans, 6:3-11; Matthew 28:1-10 No-one witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. But, then again, no-one witnessed the creation of the world. And the resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the new creation, the new world. In Mel Gibson’s, “The Passion of the Christ”, it is moving to see Mary...
The Coronavirus has put us all in crisis, and not just in terms of our health-care infrastructure or our employment situation or how our government is administered or our lifestyles. It has certainly put all these in crisis. But it has brought into focus, into the open, something much...
Readings: Exodus 12:1-8,11-14; Psalm 115(116):12-13,15-18; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15 I’ve only ever seen on television a celebration of the Passover in a Jewish family. It commemorates the original Passover of some 3,300 years ago, yet even today the way it is celebrated still has a strong sense...
Palm Sunday Benediction, 05.04.20: On Devotion to Our Lady Devotion to Our Lady in the Roman Catholic tradition has always been very powerful, very present. It has gone through periods where there have been abuses, where Our Lady has been treated as if equal to Christ himself or even...
From the beginning of the First Reading, right through the Second Reading and the whole of the Passion according to St. Matthew, Jesus seems totally defenceless, vulnerable, helpless: “I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard.” When Peter takes...
Well, today, my message to all of you who are watching is very simple: be confident, have hope, trust in the power of God and in the power of Jesus Christ! Yes, we are going through a very trying and difficult time, for many a tragic time: the loss of...
The Sunday Bread, 22nd March 2020: Laetare Sunday Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1,6-7,10-13; Psalm 22(23); Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1,6-9,13-17,34-38 “If I should walk in the valley of darkness, no evil would I fear.” Why? For “you are there with your crook and your staff; with these...
