We can take joy from this basic fact: Jesus counts us as his own brothers and sisters. His life’s work was to gather us together as God’s family, and his intention is clear, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.”
Lifegiving meeting :: Any encounter between two or more people has potential to be a lifegiving moment. The meeting that Peter, Andrew, James and John had with Jesus ..
Today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord: it’s the last day of the Christmas season.
The baptism of Jesus marked the end of his quiet years in Nazereth and the start of his public ministry.
The baptism of Jesus is a moment of special grace. Not only did he join us in our sinful state, but the Father and the Spirit are seen and heard to be there with him. The gospel uses the simple phrase, “the heavens were opened”..
What Jesus wanted :: Nowhere else–except in his conversation during the Last Supper–does Jesus express his purpose in life so clearly as in his Scripture-based talk to his fellow villagers in the Nazareth synagogue.
From Prayer to Calm :: The gospels often portray Jesus at prayer… But even though Jesus went off alone, his prayer did not remove him from people..
Doing what we can :: Jesus struggles to get his disciples to become giving people. They asked him to send the crowd away because there was not enough food and the people were hungry.
Bringer of Light:: There was something so attractive about Jesus and his message that, according to Matthew, people gathered to him from. . .
On this feast of the Epiphany we celebrate the revelation of who Christ is. The visit of the three wise men reminds us that Jesus came as the Saviour of all nations, including ours. We worship God who wants all people to be saved.
Follow your guiding star :: Western tradition has chosen three as the number of the Wise Men and even found exotic names for them, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. We may imagine that they travelled with enquiring minds and adventuresome spirit …
Two banquets
This gospel scene is one that has inspired artists and playwrights throughout the centuries. The sumptuous banquet in Herod’s palace for his birthday turns out to be a banquet of death. Mark follows this scene with the feeding by Jesus of the multitude in the wilderness. It is as if the evangelist wants to set Herod banquet of death over against Jesus’ banquet of life…
A man in whom there is no deceit :: It’s hard not to like the person of Nathanael as portrayed by the evangelist in today’s gospel. He clearly wasn’t the kind of man who got carried away by…
We gather to celebrate the first Sunday of 2015, with thankfulness for the year just gone. We ask God for continuing care and protection as face this New Year, not knowing what it will bring.
Making him known :: The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and made the Father known to us. The last line of our Gospel today says, No one has ever seen God, it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
Generous and charismatic :: What is striking about the portrait of John the Baptist is his generosity of spirit. This was a very charismatic person who drew people to himself. As a result, he had his own disciples. Yet, in today’s gospel we find John directing two of his disciples away from himself and towards…
The question put to John the Baptist, “Who are you?” is one of the great questions of life. Going below our job description (what we do) to who we are in inmost our core is much more difficult. ..
Marvelling and Treasuring: Today we see Mary marvelling at what has happened, treasuring the events of Christmas in her memory, and pondering them..
