4th Sunday of Easter 21 April 2024 Safety The recent events in Sydney (stabbing attacks on shoppers, and on Orthodox bishop) remind us of our mortality and vulnerability. We are not totally safe anywhere. We knew that anyway but these things remind us, and that is good insofar as we then look for ways of making ourselves ‘safer’. We call Jesus Christ the Saviour, the one who makes us safe. We can uncover different types of safety and how He can work that for us. There is physical safety. We have probably all had many close shaves with death or injury. Some of these we would be aware of, others ..read more

3rd Sunday of Easter (B) 14 April 2024 Price of Salvation We say in every Mass, Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world. In times before Christ there were many religions in the world, and they usually involved some kind of offering sacrifice to whatever gods they believed in. This was usually animal sacrifice, sometimes even human! When God became Man, He abolished all previous sacrifices and made Himself the one necessary and sufficient sacrifice for sin. The idea of a sacrifice is that the people who have offended their god want somehow to atone for that sacrifice. They do this by g ..read more

 2nd Sunday of Easter 7 April 2024 Forgiving love Whose sins you retain they are retained (Jn 20,22-23). Just about any sin can be absolved, provided there is a sufficient degree of contrition on the part of the penitent. For His part, God wants to forgive sins, far more than to have to punish the sins. He would much rather the wicked man repent than die (Ez 33,11). God loves us, we know. Forgiveness is love taken to its furthest reaches. There is giving and there is for-giving, an extra layer of giving. Jesus taught that when we have a feast we should invite people who will not return th ..read more

Easter Sunday 31 March 2024 Rising with Him  Everyone loves a story where the underdog somehow turns the tables on the evil oppressor and a new order of things is established. The story of Jesus Christ is perhaps the inspiration of all such stories, as with Jesus it looked about as unlikely as it could that He would recover from His passion and death. His enemies crucified Him, made sure He was dead, put Him in a tomb, rolled a stone across the front; and then put guards on the tomb! Yet He was walking about shortly after; and gathering his disciples, and generally emerging as the winner ..read more

 5th Sunday of Lent 17 March 2024 Transformation  T here will be no need for brother no need to say to brother… (first reading)   Jesus comes to save us, which is always our greatest need.   His saving is not just some technical matter, like having a debt removed.   Deep within them I will plant my law (Jer 31,31-34) 1st reading, We are being changed by God. All that is negative can be made positive. Malice to goodness, vice to virtue etc A person may be mostly rotten now, but through mercy and grace become good, not only looking good through external actions, but actu ..read more

4th Sunday of Lent 10 March 2024 Turning the tide For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3,16). Words from today’s Gospel. We are approaching Easter, when each year we are reminded of the fickleness of human nature as when the crowd turned against Jesus (not to mention Judas’ treachery or that of the Pharisees).  How did we get it so wrong? Sometimes footballers miss a goal from very close range, and we wonder how they can do it. Well, humanity has been missing shots for goal for tho ..read more

  3rd Sunday of Lent 3 March  2024 Commandments Nothing is too much trouble for one we love. A desire to please is paramount. We would do anything for some figure we admire or venerate such as Mother Teresa, or many others. We should see God in that light, but it does not always happen. Think of obedience to God as ‘nothing is too much trouble’, and we will see things more clearly. Some will take a defiant attitude as questioning what right God has to intervene? He made the whole universe and keeps it in being. They say we should be able to run the world ourselves without divine inte ..read more

2nd  Sunday of Lent 25 February 2024 The Transfiguration The Transfiguration was meant to strengthen the apostles for the sufferings they would endure on Good Friday. If they could recall the glory of Christ, which they had seen for themselves, they would not have panicked on seeing the Crucifixion. That was the logical reasoning. The apostles, however, did not remain constant under pressure, though they did become strong enough at Pentecost a few weeks later. With the same idea the Transfiguration is offered to us and the whole Church. We do not always react by the laws of logic. We beli ..read more

 1st Sunday of Lent 18 Feb 2024 Temptations Lent is a time of waging war on Sin. Jesus was tempted by the devil to settle for a lesser goal, to be distracted from higher and better things. This is how the devil tempts us, to take lesser gods and expend all our desires on them. It helps if we have a clear concept of life’s having a start and a finish. We say life is short but then live like it goes forever, ignoring what happens after death. Many have a vague idea about life after death, but do not see the urgency of getting this life into order. They become absorbed in this life, but do n ..read more

6th Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 11 February 2024 Inclusion It is not a nice thing to be excluded from communities where we would like to be included; to be victims of prejudice or bullying. Somehow, just not one of the gang. Jesus can heal that sense of exclusion as well as He can heal our physical complaints. The ‘leper’ is restored to his community. Physical healing symbolises the spiritual healing which restores our relationship with God. Sin moves us away from God, and sometimes a long way. Repentance will bring us back. God does not want anyone to be excluded; He came to save sinners (1 Tim ..read more