Thoughts and Reflections

Isaiah 55:10-11/ Ps 65(64)/ Romans 8:18-23/ Matthew 13:1-23 Consider two people attending the same Mass on a Sunday. They hear the same readings, music, and homily. When they leave church something different has happened inside each of them. One of them is already thinking about lunch, what to do that afternoon, the emails piling up at work. By the time they reach home there is no memory of a single word of the Gospel yet alone the homily. The other person heard one line that

Zechariah 9:9-10/ Ps 145(144)/ Romans 8:9, 11-13/ Matthew 11:25-30 Think back to Palm Sunday and the image of Jesus entering Jerusalem. He did not enter the city with a flourish of kingship and splendour. He rode on a borrowed donkey. The crowds greeted their Messiah, ready to crown a great leader, only to see him approaching on a donkey, his feet almost dragging on the ground. This is what the prophet Zechariah foretold, a king, a triumphant saviour, who would come not with

Acts 12:1-11/ Ps 34(33)/2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18/ Matthew 16:13-19 Consider a parish council meeting where two members just cannot see eye to eye. One is practical, plain-spoken and has been around the parish for many years, knows everyone, but is not one for theology. The other is a sharp, university-educated newcomer who can quote scripture and church documents chapter and verse. They clash, disagree, sometimes openly, in front of everyone. You might expect one of them to sto

Jeremiah 20:10-13/ Ps 69(68)/ Romans 5:12-15/ Matthew 10:26-33 We are here today, I would suggest, because our faith means something to us. It is important that we follow Jesus and the guidance he gave us. This can come at a cost sometimes. We might want to be somewhere else, doing something different. We can find ourselves in awkward situations because of what we believe and how we know we should live. We might be out with friends, on a break at work, when the talk turns to

Exodus 19:2-6a/ Ps 100(99)/ Romans 5:6-11/ Matthew 9:36-10:8 In the 1850s, in the slums of London, there was a young man who could not help feeling compassion for the poor that he saw all around him, the people rejected by society, outcasts because of the way they lived. He felt compelled to do something to help, not waiting for them to come to church but going out to find them. Together with his wife Catherine, William Booth started what we know today as The Salvation Army.