So often we see suffering on television, in the newspapers, and we say "poor people" - but do we actually feel compassion - suffering with those people? Pope Francis reflected on this question during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta on Tuesday. The Holy Father prayed that God might give us the grace to have compassion for all those who are suffering; to draw near to these people in order to ..
As Christians we must pray for our elected leaders, even if we don’t agree with their politics. That was Pope Francis’ message during Mass in Casa Santa Marta yesterday. In the First Reading from St Paul’s Letter to Timothy, he asks that “supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings” be offered “for kings and for all in authority”. In the day’s Gospel, a Roma...
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
I love this quote from the Lebanese Maronite mystic and poet Kahil Gibran: “An eye for an eye and the whole world would be blind”, for it sums up in one pithy sentence a lot of what we struggle with in Christian life.
On the one hand there is a natural tendency to fight for oneself and those we love, to try and sort out the messes that we a...
Ethnocentrism, Multiculturalism, and the 'Benedict option'
There is a recent renewal of the trend of conservative families - of both Catholic and other Christian denominations - to retreat from the hustle and bustle (and “evil”) of modern city life. This has come to be known as the “Benedict option” - named after the 6th century St Benedict who was famous for the monasti...
It’s easy to be a gentle hypocrite! I ‘m not suggesting that we all are, but when I check my own motives and behaviour, especially in matters concerning my faith practice, I am sometimes stunned at how very blind I can be to my own double standards. Don’t worry, there are no big issues emerging, but it’s the perennial problem of how to deal with conflicts between what the Church says sh...
The roots of our own religious faith are interesting, often it simply depends on family upbringing and education, though a number of us meet faith later on as adults perhaps as a result of an encounter or contact with friends who help influence us.
My own religious life has been an interesting journey, and has many different strands, but as I get older I can see where the strongest influe...
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Sept 3 2017
“ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,* take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.* (Mt 16:24-25)
Somehow those few words of Matthew’s have always been like a mantra that I keep...
It sometimes seems as though there are lots of people in the Christian Church ‘binding and loosing ‘ other people sins for them. By that I mean individuals or groups take aim at those they disagree with and if it seems sufficiently serious, such as a stance on people’s rights, particularly in the moral sphere, they will invoke Scripture, or Canon law or in extreme cases the ‘Judge...
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We often refer to the August break as the ‘silly season’ when news is scarce and odd articles appear to catch the eye but not necessarily stimulate the brain cells, but this year we might rename it as the dangerous season. The light, sun and fun of vacation has become a much darker scene, rumblings of global conflict, the continuing horrors o...
Pope Francis reflected on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary during the Angelus today, the feast of the Assumption. Also known as Ferragosto, today an important religious and civil holiday in Italy, and thousands of faithful were present in St Peter’s Square to celebrate with the Holy Father. In his remarks, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel reading, which relates the me...
In Gaza, the ongoing humanitarian crisis continues to deteriorate drastically. This week, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed their “deep concerns” for the intensifying humanitarian crisis. · Lord, we hold the people of Gaza in our prayers as they try to survive against all odds. It is true by bread alone one does not survive...
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time We live in a noisy age, from early morning to late night noise surrounds us. Many of them are the ordinary bits and pieces of our life, water pouring from tap and shower head, TV and other media sharing with us their particular images and voices, news, music, film, documentary and much loved soap drama! Then there are the background n...
The Transfiguration
‘ Christ is the morning star who when the night of this world is past brings to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens everlasting day’.
These are the words of Saint Bede taken from his commentary on the book of Revelation, in an age when the preaching and teaching of Aidan and Oswald had just taken root in the North of England, Bede saw the yo...
Pope Francis' Prayer Intention for August 2017 is for Artists: That artists of our time, through their ingenuity, may help everyone discoverthe beauty of creation.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19: 1). As creation reveals God’s beauty, so humans, made in God’s image and likeness, create works that give glory to God.
...
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
Google+
Pinterest