Reflections
2026
Ash Wednesday
I doubt many of us are tempted to stand on the street corner tooting a trumpet and calling attention to our piety. So the warnings that Jesus gives in our Gospel reading today, for the beginning of Lent…
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We have a very complicated and possibly confused relationship to the law, or laws in general. Some we regard as essential and believe in strict punishment for lawbreakers. Some, maybe to do with our driving…
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
There have been times in the history of Christianity when faith and holiness have been considered as mainly private or personal affairs. Our relationship with God is something that lives inside us. That’s…
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Usually on a Sunday our first reading (Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13) and the Gospel (Matthew 5:1-12a) have a close link, the second reading follows its own path (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). Today all three readings…
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last week we heard how John positioned the baptism of Jesus in the context of the prophetic role of John the Baptist. And in that account the first disciples of Jesus were previously disciples of John the…
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today we hear a very different account of the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, from John’s gospel (John 1:29-34). John still references Jesus baptism but he structures his account very differently (as is the…
The Baptism of the Lord
Baptisms are all about beginning. In the Catholic tradition baptism became associated with babies - so a beginning of life in many senses. That was not always so. The earliest accounts of church life are…
The Epiphany of the Lord
Today, the Feast of the Epiphany, marks the end of our Christmas season, the end of the beginning, as it were. The key to this ending is the message that the birth of Christ, the decisive entry of God into our…
2025
Feast of the Holy Family
The Feast of the Holy Family usually leads us into the family - into the Holy Family and into our own families. We think about our relationships with those closest to us, with our parents, our siblings, our…
The Nativity of the Lord
Our Christmas story can be approached in so many different ways. There are four different masses given to us on this feast day, each with its own readings. If you were in a monastery you would attend all of…
Fourth Sunday of Advent
The Christmas story is actually two stories woven together. The first is a very familiar human story of the birth of a baby. The circumstances are difficult, the parents aren’t married; they are far from home…
Third Sunday of Advent
Today we hear the audacity of Isaiah’s prophecy at its most outrageous (Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10). He had no reason to hold out those expectations of joy and splendor, of vindication and healing to people uprooted…
Second Sunday of Advent
We listen to Scripture week after week. Why? We know pretty much what it says. What’s the point of going back over and over the same ground? Sometimes the familiarity may be comforting, sometimes it’s…
First Sunday of Advent
As we enter into another church year we are reminded once again that God’s decisive involvement with our world starts with a baby. This may seem a huge leap from last week when we were celebrating how Jesus…
The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
On the last day of our church year we step back and take a look at things from the widest perspective possible: The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. We consider Jesus to be not just a…
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Malachi says “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire” (Malachi 3:19-20a). Right on! We can get…
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
A Feast about a church building, or more specifically the dedication of a church - that’s strange. If it were Saint Peter’s in Rome it might make a bit more sense. At least everyone has heard of that. Just as…
The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
I’ve always liked the way that the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls come as a pair. All Saints seems to speak to the grandeur of church, the great sweep of history including the lives and deaths of so many…
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A parable addressed to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else (Luke 18:9-14). Seems like that could be quite relevant for us. Perhaps one of the few common, shared…
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's readings are not obscure - it's all about persistence. We have to persist in our prayer - we shouldn't get discouraged and think God doesn't care. But neither should we take this as a encouragement to…