Gospel Reflection Sunday 19th January 2025 | 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time | John 2:1-11 If Agatha Christie were to write a novel based on this week’s Gospel, she might well call it, “the strange affair of the wedding at Cana.” Why? Because whenever we see a reading from John’s Gospel, we should immediately presume...

 Gospel Reflection Sunday 12th January 2025 / Baptism of the Lord | Luke 3:15-16,21-22 The Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the River Jordan can be found in all four Gospels. In Mark and Matthew we get the full and detailed account of the heavens opening and the dove descending on Jesus and the...

 Gospel Reflection Sunday 5th January 2025 / Epiphany of the Lord | Luke 2:41-52 As a child I associated the Feast of the Epiphany with the end of Christmas holidays and the reopening of school. The coming of the “wise men from the East” was, in my mind, always accompanied by the priest at Sunday Mass...

 Gospel Reflection Sunday 29th December 2024, Feast of the Holy Family | Luke 2:41-52 Family is a many layered and complex social institution. Whether we call a family functional or dysfunctional it lives and survives with its joys, sorrows, tensions, fears, conflicts and secrets. Most families come with at least one ‘black sheep’ who tests the...

 Gospel Reflection Sunday 15th December 2024, Third Sunday of Advent |Luke 3:10-18 It is a sign of the greatness of John the Baptist that the Church dedicates two Sundays of Advent to him. I always think it is a pity that we know so little about him. He is suddenly there baptising in the Jordan;...

 Gospel Reflection Sunday 1st December 2024, First Sunday of Advent |Luke 21:25-28,34-36 Imagine, if you can, waking up some morning to find that during the night all the countries in the world – the ones we most dislike – had come together and in a lightning strike had conquered, not just our own country but...

 Gospel Reflection Sunday 21st November 2024, Feast of Christ the King | John 18:33-37 Seeing Jesus as King of the Universe is always, for me a difficult concept to get my head around. This is mainly due to my experience of what Kings, Queens, Princes, Dukes, etc. look like in our world. This is not a...

 Gospel Reflection Sunday 17th November 2024, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time | Mark 12:38-44 (Longer) 12:41-44 (Shorter) All of us, I’m sure have seen people standing at street corners with placards proclaiming that ‘the end is nigh’ or the world will end on such and such a date. We rightly dismiss this as rubbish and yet...

 Gospel Reflection Sunday 10th November 2024, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time | Mark 12:38-44 (Longer) 12:41-44 (Shorter) Most of us, as we grow up, tend to develop particular dislikes for certain behaviours or ways of action that we see in others. We sometimes call them “hobbyhorses” and they can be cause for gentle teasing among friends:...

 Gospel Reflection Sunday 30th October 2024, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Mark 10:46-52 There is a simplicity in this week’s Gospel that I find refreshing. Jesus seems to cut-out everything that was happening around him – the noise of the crowd following him, his own concerns, his fears that even his own apostles don’t...