Luke 4:21-30 Today’s Gospel begins where last Sunday’s finished. Jesus had returned home to Nazareth and speaking in the synagogue he shared with those present his mission to the poor, the captives, the blind and the downtrodden. It was a message of hope and compassion he was bringing. He was being sent to bring...

  Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21 Today’s Gospel is unusual in that there are two distinct sections to it, leaving out three chapters in between. The first short section is Luke’s introduction to his Gospel and it is more important than we may first think. Luke, like all of the early Christians, was aware that the ‘Good...

John 2:1-11   We are at a huge disadvantage when we read or listen to the Gospels. Firstly, we come to them with over two thousand years of history behind us. No matter what we think of – science, technology, medicine, communications, media, culture, history, cosmology, and on and on… – we do so with...

Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 It is sometimes easier for us to imagine and pray to Jesus as God rather than as man. Jesus as God can be processed by us in some way; ‘he is all powerful, knows what he is doing and how it will end. He is acting out of love for us, leaving...

John 1:1-5, 9-14 My father was an eternal romantic. On December 31st each year he wanted all of us to hold hands, count down the seconds till midnight, sing Auld Lang Syne, toast in the New Year, shout to neighbours over garden walls and telephone family and friends. My mother, on the other hand, was...

Christmas Day 2021 25th December John 1:1-18 “At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son….”  (Hebrews 1:1) This sentence, the start of the 2nd Reading of today’s Mass...

Luke 1:39-45 The stories of the Gospels can become so familiar to us that we sometimes lose the awesome reality of what we read. We say it is “Good News”, we talk of the “Joy of the Gospel” and we know in our heads that it is both of these things, but allowing this joy...

“When Jesus heard about John, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. When the crowds learned this, they followed him on foot from the cities. When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion for them and healed those who were sick.”   Matthew 14:13-14 At this beautiful and poignant...

Luke 3:1-6 This week in the Gospel the fiery, vaguely eccentric figure of John the Baptist makes his first appearance, and he will return next week as well. He is the messenger, the announcer, the one who says, “Open your eyes, look, the one we have waited for is here, among us. Right now, at...

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 I sometimes think back on all the years I have been on this earth, not in a depressed or nostalgic way, but simply wondering what have I learned about life, myself, God during all those years? No matter how many years we have lived on this planet, be it ten or a...