Sunday Reflections
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
24 September 2023
Jesus told many parables to describe his heavenly Father. It is all too easy to attribute human qualities to God like those of a stern judge, a tyrannical king or a teacher assigning grades. Much…
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
17 September 2023
Peter probably thought he was being very generous in suggesting to Jesus that he might forgive his brother seven times. Rabbinical teaching had required only three times. Forgiveness, however, was…
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
10 September 2023
Ezekiel was one of the major prophets. He lived in the sixth century BC and was a priest who was attached to the temple staff in Jerusalem. He was taken into captivity by the Babylonians when…
Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
3 September 2023
Jesus is beginning to prepare his disciples for his coming death. He must have known that his challenges to the establishment of the day would bring this about. As we see constantly in our present…
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
27 August 2023
The reading from Isaiah refers to Shebna, who was the steward of Hezekiah, King of Judah. This man was described as a “disgrace to his master’s house”: apparently, in an act of self-aggrandisement…
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
13 August 2023
There seems to be a stark contrast between the reading from Kings and Matthew’s gospel. Elijah found God, not in the violence of natural phenomena, but in the gentle breeze. The disciples,…
The Transfiguration of the Lord
6 August 2023
Richard Dawkins, and many atheists like him, demand physical evidence for anything to be accepted as fact. Spiritual experiences however, by their very nature, go beyond the empirical to something…
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
30 July 2023
“The Kingdom of Heaven” is a phrase used only by Matthew; the other evangelists use the expression “Kingdom of Heaven.” It seems to mean the presence or rule of God, and Matthew uses many parables…
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
23 July 2023
Darnel is a noxious weed which closely resembles wheat. Its seeds are poisonous, and eating them can be fatal. The fact that wheat and darnel grow together is symbolic of our own individual make-…
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
16 July 2023
The parable of the sower is timeless in that every generation can understand its imagery. People from the west of Ireland can particularly understand rocky ground! When St Paul preached to the…