Season of Growth

Tom Wright, the former Anglican bishop of Durham in England notes, that when Jesus preached, people tried to stone him or throw him off 400m high cliffs. When Tom preaches, the church ladies might offer to make him cups of tea! I join Tom in wondering what I’m doing wrong. when no one even offers…

Sunday of the Word of GodThird Sunday in the Year, C. First Reading ‡ Nehemiah 8:2-6.8-10 – They read from the book of Law and they understood what was read. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 18:8-10.15 – Your words, Lord, are spirit and life. Second Reading ‡ 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 – Together you are Christ’s body; but each…

Have you ever experienced a treasure hunt? The kind where you have to go hunting for clues – and when you have found the first clue you can then hopefully solve it so that you can continue to find the second one and on and on. It seems that the author of John’s gospel would…

Baptism of Jesus We transition today with a feast that both closes the Season of Christmas, and launches us into the new season of the yearIn the Baptism, all of the Gospel accounts agree that this was the moment when the adult Jesus begins his public ministry.Jesus spent the first 90% of his life growing…

Advent 3, Year C Zephaniah 3:14-18.Philippians 4:4-7Luke 3:10-18Play MP3 Generated Transcript (9.30am Mass)Generated Transcript00:00:00If we read the first reading today without any kind of sense or understanding of the history or the background, we might think that the Prophet Zephaniah is just this naturally happy, bubbly kind of a person.00:00:16I mean, someone who is able…

Advent 3, Year C Zephaniah 3:14-18.Philippians 4:4-7Luke 3:10-18Play MP3Watch video Key points: Take time to imagine God delighting in you, rejoicing over you! He renews you in his love. It is wonderful to be in a good mood – to be happy, cheerful, joyful. We don’t live in a joy fest – the world is…

As we move through the season of Advent, there can be so many themes and ideas thrown in our direction, it can be difficult to keep up.There is the movement through the four Sundays, which is fairly consistent across the three-year-cycle of readings: Sunday 1 focusses on the ‘end times’; Sunday 2 and 3 on…

The Gospel today has always tended to set a note of fear within me. It seems like God is waiting to spring out and catch me in a trap. The way that I have heard this has often instilled a very unhealthy spiritual sense. As I prayed with the readings the notes played within the…

The Feast of “Christ the King” is relatively new in Catholic terms, being established by Pope Pius XI only in 1925. That it was during the political battle for the sovereignty of the Papal States and the fight against modernism colours the nature of the celebration. Originally celebrated on the last Sunday in October (still…

Sunday 33, Year B.Daniel 12:1-3; Mark 13:24-32Play MP3Watch video Our final reading from the Gospel of Mark for the year (next week – John 18).Mark 13 is challenging. Filled with references from the Hebrew Bible. If you don’t get those, you will be confused and probably get the meaning wrong. In our culture ‘apocalyptic’ means…

1 Kings 17:10-16 The widow made a little scone from her flour meal and brought it to Elijah.Mark 12:38-44 This poor widow has put more in than all who contributed.Play MP3Watch video Generated Transcript So we are in November and this is the 32nd Sunday in the year, so we’re definitely getting towards the pointy end of…

When you are caught in an emergency situation and you have to evacuate your house – what would you grab in the 60 seconds that you have available to you? Would it be a photo album, a piece of jewellery, device or memento? Sometimes it is good to be forced to boil things down to…

We have emerged from extraordinary period. After the relative freedom which we enjoyed for about a year after our first lock-down, to be plunged back into a serious lockdown crisis was jarring. Our period of isolation from the worst effects of Covid-19 also came to an end, with the disease not only affecting people in…

Once again we meet foolish disciples who screw up the simple and easy job of being faithful disciples. What unfolds is even more terrible when you read the section of Mark’s gospel that comes immediately before the section we read this Sunday (Mark 10:35-45).  32 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem. Jesus was…

The man in today’s gospel is eager – he runs to Jesus full of desire – yet also caught up in self-centredness. He wants ‘eternal life’ — that is a life that knows no bounds, a life that is not limited by space and time, but that keeps on filling his heart from the fount…

Divorce is one of the sad realities of our world. There are very few families that have not been touched by the heartache of separation and divorce. I suspect that my immediate family where my parents and my four siblings are all in multi-decade first marriages makes us rather unusual. The reality is that making…

Oh hell!  This passage is the only one where Mark mentions ‘hell’ – 3 times in total.  Luke only mentions it once (Luke 12:5); Matthew 7 times. Never in John’s gospel or the writings of Paul. Once in James 3 and once in 2 Peter 2. Total of 13 mentions – always the word ‘Gehenna’ …

Sunday 25, Year B. Mark 9:30-37 Play MP3Watch video Generated Transcript As I have grown older, my fondness for the gospel of Mark has also grown, and one of the things I really like about this gospel is the humanity of Jesus, but especially the humanity of the disciples. Yeah, they are in so many…

The story so far. Mark begins with a simple introduction: The beginning of the Good News about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. We’re then told a little about John the baptiser, the baptism of Jesus and then the temptation in the wilderness with angels and wild beasts. Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee….

One of the (many) cruel outcomes of Christian history is the unwarranted neglect of the Gospel of Mark. It was not until the sixth century that the first known commentary on the Gospel was written. It seems that the fact that it was the first of the gospels to be written was unknown, and so…

Mark 7:1-23 (Sunday 22, Year B) – full NRSV Gospel, not the strange shorter/edited form as in the lectionary. Play MP3Watch videoRead Gospel (red-letter / colour-coded edition)Read Social Justice Statement 2021-2022 An Englishman, an Irishman and an Australian go into a bar and they notice, sitting over at one of the tables, a pastor, a priest…

Sunday 21B (Joshua 24:1-2,15-18 & John 6:60-69) Joshua today invites the people to renew the covenant. He gathers the people in the very centre of the promised land, at Shechem, and retells the story of salvation so far. He reminds the people of all that God has accomplished within their history. He reminds them of…

Solemnity of Mary of the Cross MacKillop Although Mary of the Cross was canonised in 2010 as the first Australian saint, this is the first year that the feast day has fallen on a Sunday since then. When Mary was declared a saint, her feast day was bumped up in the ecclesiastical and liturgical rankings…

Sunday 18, Year B. First Reading ‡ Exodus 16:2-4.12-15 I will rain bread from heaven upon you.Responsorial ‡ Psalm 77:3-4.23-25.54 The Lord gave them bread from heaven.Second Reading ‡ Ephesians 4:17.20-24 Put on the new person that has been created in God’s image.Gospel ‡ John 6:24-35 Whoever comes to me will never be hungry; whoever believes in me will never thirst.Play MP3Watch video…

Last week, Jesus and his disciples went looking for a lonely place away from the crowds. Mark told us that Jesus was so busy looking after people and caring for their needs through mighty works of healing that neither he nor his disciples had time for rest or even to eat. So they jump in…

NB. The first attempt at livestreaming Mass from St Columbkille’s – had a number of technical problems! We listen to Mark 6 tonight, and join Jesus and the disciples as they hear the terrible news that “King” Herod the Tetrarch has, during a magnificent banquet, executed John the Baptiser. So while Jesus needs to find…

Over the next 7 Sundays our second readings will be taken from one of St Paul’s prison letters – the circular letter to the community in Ephesus (in Asia-Minor, or modern-day west-coast of Turkey). It is a beautiful, rich and deep insight into Paul’s meditation and worship. Our reading today from Ephesians 1:3-14 contains 12 verses,…

Sunday 13, Year BMark 5:21-43Play MP3Watch whole Mass (recorded with 2 participants during greater Sydney June lockdown) Generated Transcript  Last Sunday we heard in the gospel that Jesus has authority over the wind and the waves. This little group of disciples were crossing over the Sea of Galilee in that boat, and the storm grew up…

In the mid 60s of the first century, Rome was the place to be. It was the centre of political, cultural and economic power. Population of around 2 million with a Jewish community of 30-40k. There was a pattern of discord and contention between the Jewish community and the city of Rome. In the year…

Solemnity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Patronal Feast of the Diocese of Wollongong)Readings for 11th Sunday of the Year, B.St Columbkille’s Catholic Church, Corrimal.Ezekiel 17:22-24; Mark 4:26-34Play MP3Watch VideoWatch full Mass here – with special guest Tongan choir leading us in song What can we say the kingdom of God is like? Ezekiel. Year…