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Home / Homily Resources - Page 107
  • Liturgy | Sunday Homily Resources

    May 23 2021 Pentecost Sunday


    When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

    Read More May 23 2021 Pentecost SundayContinue

  • May 22 2021 Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter


    “Go to this people and say, You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn–and I would heal them.” Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”

    Read More May 22 2021 Saturday of the Seventh Week of EasterContinue

  • May 21 2021 Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter


    When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

    Read More May 21 2021 Friday of the Seventh Week of EasterContinue

  • May 20 2021 Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter


    “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

    Read More May 20 2021 Thursday of the Seventh Week of EasterContinue

  • May 19 2021 Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter


    They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

    Read More May 19 2021 Wednesday of the Seventh Week of EasterContinue

  • May 18 2021 Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter


    And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

    Read More May 18 2021 Tuesday of the Seventh Week of EasterContinue

  • May 17 2021 Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter


    I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!

    Read More May 17 2021 Monday of the Seventh Week of EasterContinue

  • Liturgy | Presider's Page

    Presider’s Page for 16 May (Ascension Day)

    The Ascension of the Lord is celebrated today, ‘World Communications Day’. As he left his disciples, Jesus sent them out to spread the Good News. This is our task too. We ask for the grace we need.

    Read More Presider’s Page for 16 May (Ascension Day)Continue

  • Liturgy | Sunday Homily Resources

    May 16 2021 The Ascension of the Lord – World Communications Day


    So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.

    Read More May 16 2021 The Ascension of the Lord – World Communications DayContinue

  • May 15 2021 Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter


    “I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.”

    Read More May 15 2021 Saturday of the Sixth Week of EasterContinue

  • May 14 2021 Friday (Sixth Week of Easter) Feast: St Matthias, Apostle


    “You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

    Read More May 14 2021 Friday (Sixth Week of Easter) Feast: St Matthias, ApostleContinue

  • May 13 2021 Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter


    Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’? Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.”

    Read More May 13 2021 Thursday of the Sixth Week of EasterContinue

  • May 12 2021 Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter


    When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

    Read More May 12 2021 Wednesday of the Sixth Week of EasterContinue

  • May 11 2021 Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter


    Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment

    Read More May 11 2021 Tuesday of the Sixth Week of EasterContinue

  • May 10 2021 Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter


    “I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.

    Read More May 10 2021 Monday of the Sixth Week of EasterContinue

  • Liturgy | Presider's Page

    Presider’s Page for 9 May (Sixth Sunday of Easter)

    We gather in the love of God, redeemed in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are people with a mission, challenged to grow in love each day. We ask God for divine help with this mission, today and during the coming week.

    Read More Presider’s Page for 9 May (Sixth Sunday of Easter)Continue

  • Liturgy | Sunday Homily Resources

    May 9 2021 Sixth Sunday of Easter


    You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.

    Read More May 9 2021 Sixth Sunday of EasterContinue

  • May 8 2021 Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter


    “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”

    Read More May 8 2021 Saturday of the Fifth Week of EasterContinue

  • May 7 2021 Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter


    You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

    Read More May 7 2021 Friday of the Fifth Week of EasterContinue

  • May 6 2021 Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter


    Jesus said to them: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”

    Read More May 6 2021 Thursday of the Fifth Week of EasterContinue

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  • 19 comments

    Seán Ó Conaill: Violence in the Bible: A Motivational Pattern?

    April 6 2026
    MJT
    Mesmerising though this exploration of the theory of atonement has been, historically interesting and theologically of satisfying complexity as conducted here chiefly by Sean and Joe, as an unlearned outsider I wonder if there is not an undue emphasis in the discussion, on the separateness of the Persons in The Holy Trinity, and a corresponding lack of focus on what has been taught of the unity of the Three Persons in the One God indissoluble. The Trinity as an idea is, of course, baffling to our intelligence, immensely challenging, as it presents a blinding paradox of a three - in - one being that would defeat the best of physicists to explain. But in an attempt to identify the internal dynamics in the One God, is our understanding of the separateness of the Persons to be allowed to outweigh our understanding of their unity? Since learning must fail (has failed) to provide a formula to explain it, the dynamics of that which can't even be described as a relationship (as that word necessarily implies, again, separateness) since the Three are One, the very idea is impossible. As putative cause of a serious strand of human wickedness, underpinning, allegedly, violence in our nature and history, surely that's going too far. Human wickedness thrived before Anselm and a lot of it nowadays takes place without any reference to him at all.
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  • 19 comments

    Seán Ó Conaill: Violence in the Bible: A Motivational Pattern?

    April 6 2026
    Sean O'Conaill
    "... Augustine’s Neoplatonism and ... Anselm’s philosophy of cosmic order. These are both very powerful ways of thinking, but their very power can make them obtuse to the tonality of Scripture." This is most helpful Joe. I can see far more clearly now how the 'evangelical albatross' takes flight - from the misapplication of Anselm's focus on the cosmic divine order to mean that it was this 'divine order' - this towering beautiful schema - that God the Father was chiefly concerned with in asking Jesus to accept the Cross - rather than our own liberation - as individuals as well as collectively - from the power of evil as it confronts us daily. This is where the understanding of the long historical debate over atonement - e.g. between Abelard and Bonaventure's 'takes' and Anselm - becomes critical. Still today the Catechism tends to instil the notion that Catholic theology is one perfectly consistent and logical synthesis - a 'seamless robe' rather than an ongoing discussion 'in faith'. You yourself, Joe, cannot be blamed for that - ready as you are always to engage with anyone who floats an opinion. Thanks and God bless!
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  • 19 comments

    Seán Ó Conaill: Violence in the Bible: A Motivational Pattern?

    April 6 2026
    Joseph O'Leary
    Sean, I would say that Anselm has to be placed within the history of metaphysical theology (which begins with Philo and in the specifically Christian world with Justin Martyr), as a key moment in it (he is called the father of scholasticism), occasionally going too far in a rationalistic direction. My general approach is to "overcome" such metaphysical constructions and to "step back" to the foundational biblical phenomena which the metaphysical approach tend to occlude. But like Heidegger in the realm of philosophy, I think the first step in any such critical retrieval of the past is to understand what the figure studied was attempting to do. Heidegger would say that all the great metaphysicians from Plato and Aristotle to Nietzsche need to be "overcome" but he cautioned against dismissing them. He did not see metaphysics as false, but as creating a blind spot due to its point of departure. Moreover, he found positive material for his step back to a phenomenological thinking of being within the great metaphysical systems. In the case of theology, the first step is to understand what the theologian studied was attempting to do. Karl Barth's book on Anselm names his project as Fides Quaerens Intellectum (https://www.scribd.com/document/789781183/Anselm-Fides-Quaerens-Intellectum-Karl-Barth ). Barth would say that even when he seems to be proving the existence of God by mere reason, Anselm is thinking from faith, and as a saintly monk is thoroughly in line with what the Gospels urge: as you put it, "we are instructed by Jesus himself to ‘come to’ the Father on an intimate, ‘personal’ and friendly level" this applies more to Anselm than to other theologians since the "frame" of his thinking is friendly, contemplative (not merely "intellectual") dialogues, punctuated by bursts of praise for God and concern for the salvation of humankind. The "faith" that is "seeking understanding" is a living faith, not just a set of tenets. The same is true of Augustine, his major predecessor. The search for understanding is a spiritual exercise, and when the theological effort falls short one falls back on faith itself with new appreciation. Having fully appreciated the texture of Augustine's or Anselm's theological thinking, to "overcome" them and "step back" from them means basically to show how their understanding of Scripture was limited by their metaphysical way of thinking, by Augustine's Neoplatonism and by Anselm's philosophy of cosmic order. These are both very powerful ways of thinking, but their very power can make them obtuse to the tonality of Scripture. Yes, measured against the scriptural realities (as apprehended in light of contemporary insight), there is a certain inadequacy and inappropriateness in Augustinian and Anselmian discourse, as you are showing in the case of Anselm. While these saintly teachers lift us up, we may also address a critique to them, in a hermeneutic from faith to faith.
    Go To Comment
  • 19 comments

    Seán Ó Conaill: Violence in the Bible: A Motivational Pattern?

    April 6 2026
    Sean O'Conaill
    Thanks, Joe. I respect your sense of duty to do justice to Anselm, a fellow theologian - but all of it makes of God the Father someone (or something) far more complicated for the ordinary person than the Jesus through whom - surely - we are instructed by Jesus himself to 'come to' the Father on an intimate, 'personal' and friendly level? In future I think that's how I'll 'frame' St Anselm - as an intellectual who saw Jesus as restoring the perfect order of the universe in honour of God - whereas for Jesus himself his concern was always the troubled or 'disordered' person in front of him. As troubled individuals we need to, and should, see the Father as equally concerned for us as persons - in order to make us also loving - because it is through the loving lives of individuals that Creation is indeed restored. Where you always seem to want to see the positives in Christendom, I tend to see a legacy of things missing that were not missing in the early church - especially the 'Christus Victor' emphasis on Jesus as revealing and defeating the demonic aspects of pagan imperialism. 11th century Europe - the Europe of the First Crusade - was surely not the New Creation that Paul envisaged, even if the influence of the church upon the state was then at its zenith? I still find it astonishing, and lamentable, that YouCat gives to young people today no clear intellectual framework for connecting 'sin' and violence, when for e.g. St Augustine that connection was obvious in the sin of pride. Can you understand and explain that obvious lacuna? For me we do not hear often enough that Jesus sets the pride of his enemies in high relief by his humility - and that this was also the Father's intent. Anselm's greater concern for a universal order - and a tendency for churchmen more generally not to want to see the pride of the Christendom ruling classes who patronised them - must surely be part of the answer to YouCat's 'voids'.
    Go To Comment
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