Year C

First Sunday in Lent, Year C First Reading ‡ Deuteronomy 26:4-10The confession of faith of the elect.Responsorial ‡ Psalm 90:1-2.10-15Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.Second Reading ‡ Romans 10:8-13The confession of faith of the believers in Christ.Gospel ‡ Luke 4:1-13Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus was led by the Spirit through the…

First Reading ‡ Sirach 27:4-7 Do not praise someone before they have spoken.Responsorial ‡ Psalm 91:2-3.13-16 Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.Second Reading ‡ 1 Corinthians 15:54-58 Victory has been given to us through Jesus Christ.Gospel ‡ Luke 6:39-45 A person speaks from what is in their heart.Play MP3Watch Video This gospel is really hard, I…

Who is the worst person that you know? Who is the person who is causing you the most grief right now? Who is your greatest enemy? Or the person who causes you to lose sleep at night…?It’s probably better to be someone that we know well – a friend, partner, neighbour, colleague. But it could…

Blessing is a very Christian-ese kind of word. We don’t really ever hear the word outside of a Christian- and church-context; but in church, we hear the word frequently. When people sneeze, we might still say to them “God bless you.” (Which actually comes from the middle ages and the horrible experience of the Black…

Sunday 05, Year C. First Reading ‡ Isaiah 6:1-8Responsorial ‡ Psalm 138:1-8 In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.Second Reading ‡ 1 Corinthians 15:1-11Gospel ‡ Luke 5:1-11Play MP3Watch video I’m sure that every single one of us here can identify at least one particular thing in life that we think I’m pretty…

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…

To fully appreciate the story of Zacchaeus you do need to understand how despised he would have been within the society of Jericho – itself already on the outside of acceptable Jewish society, given its reputation as a city of sin and its history of standing opposed to the kingdom of God. There were three…

The parable that lies at the heart of our Gospel this week, from Luke chapter 18, seems at first glance to be describing a religious event. In reality, like the parable that begins chapter 18 which we heard last Sunday – the one about the widow and the corrupt judge – this parable also is…

Although St Paul tells his young disciple Timothy that “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, refuting error, guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be holy” (2 Tim 3:16) it is hard to see how that can be applied to our first reading today, taken from Exodus 17:8-13. Like so…

When was the last time that you were so truly grateful for something that happened in your life that you had to shout out aloud in thanksgiving. I remember as a kid growing up on the farm, we would often help dad when he went to burn off in the steep gullies that were difficult…

Societies have always been constructed around complicated systems of honour and appearance. Some people are part of the ‘in crowd’; others are not. This week I caught up with two families that each have fourteen-year-old daughters who were born only a few days apart – so they have grown up like sisters. Before they go…

In the forty or so parables that Jesus tells in the first three Gospels there are lots of twists and surprises along the way – but perhaps none is quite as perplexing as the one that we find in the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the unjust steward. It is…

When I was in USA a few months ago, I visited the Great Smoky Mountains national park in Eastern Tennessee. It is a beautiful place, and the most visited of the national parks in America, attracting millions of visitors each year. And most of those visitors first go to the main entrance and visitors station…

The gospel that we just heard is one of those that makes you really wonder who Jesus is? What kind of person says something as outrageous as ‘If any man comes to me without hating (miseo) his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does…

The vision that the letter to the Hebrews paints today is certainly expansive. It is an image of the new creation where everyone is welcome and treated as a first-born son and citizen. After attending a forum at the University of Wollongong this week (in 2013) on Refugees, it became even more apparent how far…

When I was a student at Sydney University, there was one question that I was regularly asked – are you saved? Sometimes it was in the form of the “if you died tonight, where would you end up – in heaven or hell?” Perhaps this was because as an Economics student I had more time…

One of the things that never fails to amaze me – and this is a little embarrassing to admit! – is when you have been literally under the weather for a while: the sky is grey and overcast, perhaps it has rained a bit, with fog and mist thrown in and the weather is really…

The opening line of our Gospel today provides an essential description of the Christian message for us – if only we could receive it and live it. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased the Father to give you the Kingdom.” So often we live caught up in a false notion that…

There is a sense of urgency in the Gospel today as Jesus sends out this group of seventy(-two) disciples to prepare the way for him as he continues to make his pilgrimage journey to Jerusalem. He had already sent out the twelve apostles on mission at the beginning of the previous chapter (Luke 9:1); only…

The Gospel of Luke begins and ends in Jerusalem. Until the Gospel today (from Luke 9:51-62) all the action has taken place with Jesus ministering around the area where he grew up – Galilee – in places such as Capernaum, the lake, Nain and Mount Tabor. But there is a decisive shift at the beginning of…

When I read this Gospel, from Luke chapter 7, verses 36-50, of the anointing of Jesus by a sinful woman, two very vivid images come to mind, evoked by two songs. The first is the old song ‘Beautiful to Me’ by Don Francisco, which in his style is a powerful retelling of this story, told…

Jeremiah is one of the most favourite prophets in part because he is so transparent about his call and its consequences. He certainly didn’t go out of his way to be a prophet. You couldn’t really blame him. At the time of his call, during the reign of King Josiah, the southern kingdom of Judah…

The scene that is presented to us today from the book of Nehemiah is much more significant than it perhaps at first appears. The people of Israel have recently returned from the devastating period of exile in Babylon, which began with the complete destruction of the city of Jerusalem and its temple in 586 BCE,…