Lent

Palm Sunday / Passion Sunday, Year A Commemoration of the Lord’s EntranceYear A ‡ Matthew 21:1-11Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. At the Mass First Reading ‡ Isaiah 50:4-7 I did not cover my face against insult and I know I will not be ashamed. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 21:8-9.17-20.23-24 My…

Lent 5. Year A Lazarus – El’Azar (God is my help) we are told that Jesus loves Lazarus, along with his two sisters, Miryam + Marta. Yet, when he hears that Lazarus is sick, he delays. How odd! What is going on? Have you felt like God is delaying in answer to your prayers? WTF?…

Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year A First Reading ‡ 1 Samuel 16:1,6-7,10-13 In the presence of the Lord God, they anointed David king of Israel. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 22(23) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want. Second Reading ‡ Ephesians 5:8-14 Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you….

First Reading ‡ Exodus 17:3-7Give us water to drink. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 94:1-2,6-9If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Second Reading ‡ Romans 5:1-2,5-8The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us. Gospel [longer form] ‡ John 4:5-42The water that I shall…

To have a sense of where you’re going is something that is so crucial. We all now take it for granted with our phones offering us GPS and our cars giving us guidance and direction along the way. But it’s still within our living memory of what it was like to try and find your…

Lent Sunday 1, Year A Remember the last big meal. How did you feel after? Food coma. Not clear thinking. Sleepy. Suggestible. Jesus goes into the wilderness. 40 days and nights. He fasts, so he’s not in a food coma. Open to God. 40 – highly symbolic. Israel in the wilderness 3 testings – very…

Commemoration of the Lord’s EntranceYear C ‡ Luke 19:28-40 – Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. First Reading ‡ Isaiah 50:4-7I did not cover my face against insult and I know I will not be ashamed. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 21:8-9.17-20.23-24My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Second Reading…

Play MP3Watch videoSunday 5 in Lent, Year C.First Reading ‡ Isaiah 43:16-21 I am doing a new thing and I will give drink to my people.Responsorial ‡ Psalm 125 The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.Second Reading ‡ Philippians 3:8-14 Because of Christ I look upon everything else as useless in…

Sunday 4, Year C, Season of Lent (Laetare Sunday)First Reading ‡ Joshua 5:9-12The people of God went to the promised land and there kept the passover.Responsorial ‡ Psalm 33:2-7Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.Second Reading ‡ 2 Corinthians 5:17-21God reconciled us to himself through Christ.Gospel ‡ Luke 15:1-3.11-32Your brother here was dead and…

Third Sunday in Lent, C. First Reading ‡ Exodus 3:1-8.13-15 This is what you must say to the children of Israel: I Am has sent me to youResponsorial ‡ Psalm 102:1-4.6-8.11 The Lord is kind and merciful.Second Reading ‡ 1 Corinthians 10:1-6.10-12 All this that happened to the people of Moses in the desert was written for our…

Second Sunday in Lent, Year C. First Reading ‡ Genesis 15:5-12.17-18 God made a covenant with Abraham, his faithful servant. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 26:1.7-9.13-14 The Lord is my light and my salvation. Second Reading ‡ Philippians 3:17-4:1 Christ will transfigure these bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body. Gospel ‡ Luke 9:28-36 As…

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…

There is a stark transition between the celebration and welcome as we join the pilgrim crowd who join and acclaim Jesus the Messiah in procession into the city of Jerusalem. Suddenly after our palms are blessed and the entry is proclaimed, there is a jolt and a movement in the liturgy into the suffering servant…

Some Greeks asking to see Jesus made all the difference! That outsiders and foreigners were now asking to meet with Jesus is the final sign that Jesus was looking for. Now the hour has come. When Mary asked Jesus to solve the problem of the wedding without wine at Cana, Jesus told her that his…

In our English Bibles we follow the order of the old Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Divided into 4 sections – Pentateuch, History, Wisdom and Prophets. But the Hebrew Bible itself places the various books of the Biblical library together in a different way, using just 3 main sections: Torah, Nevi’ im and Ketuvim…

When you were a kid, who had a swear jar? Maybe I was not the only one to have my mouth washed out with soap and water – in Kindy! I guess it worked – at least I never had to go through all of that again. No, I can’t remember what I allegedly said….

Last week we found ourselves journeying with Jesus into the wilderness to be tested. We know that so often our lives have so many distractions that it is difficult to hear the voice of the Father claiming us as his own precious children. Abraham is invited today to once again leave and go – to…

Every year at the beginning of Lent, we are invited to journey with Jesus into the wilderness. The Gospel we have just read is sometimes called the temptation in the wilderness or the desert. This is an appropriate name for the similar story that is told within the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. But here…

Wow. That was pretty intense. To read about all of that violence and hatred and to think that all of this happened to Jesus – of all people. Even people that really don’t know much about Jesus know that he was a great guy. He was innocent, and did all he could to love and…

Today we arrive at the centre and many would say the climax of the Book of Lamentations (Eka) – and the intensity of the grief and lamenting increases. A new character takes the stage with a new, more complex, and more interwoven story to tell. The voices of the Narrator and Daughter Zion vanish, to…

On this Laetare Sunday with its wonderful readings that focus our attention upon the rich, saving love of God, it is tempting to dwell with them for some time. But we will continue to reflect on this long-neglected book of Scripture, the book of Lamentations, which in Hebrew is called “Eka” – the Book of…

We live in a world that loves being distracted. We so often suffer or grieve without knowing how to do it appropriately. When you attend a funeral in a western country, everything is very controlled and proper. Sometimes people will begin to sob with little control – but that is the exception. In other cultures,…

The bible is sometimes called the greatest love story ever told. But the word love is not used in the story of creation, or the flood, or any other story until this story today – often regarded as one of the finest examples of a short story in all or Western literature. In 19 short…

We begin this new season of Lent by journeying with Jesus into the wilderness of temptation. The gospel today begins with Jesus being driven immediately into the wilderness of Israel – perhaps into the Judean desert, or into the southern desert of the Negev. Immediately refers to happening straight after the baptism of Jesus. It…

This week we were confronted by those horrifying images that came out of Syria of the chemical weapon attack on innocent civilians. This rightly appalled us and provoked a response. Yet, these horrors at one level are nothing new. We see this across human history, and especially in this part of the world. This basic…

The early Christian message is not well summarised by saying that Jesus died so that we can go to heaven. That way of looking at the gospel and mission both shrinks and distorts what the Bible actually teaches. It ignores Jesus’s claim to be launching God’s kingdom “on earth as in heaven” and to be…

When Jesus knew that it was his time to go up to Jerusalem to face the passion and death – why did he choose the festival of Passover? Surely if his actions were going to bring about the ultimate covering over of sins, he would choose the great festival of expiation – the Day of…

Paul is often accused of being dry and clinical in his writing – but sometimes he can open us to the most beautiful and stunning statements about the love and mercy of our God. The second reading today – from Romans 5 – provides us with such a statement. He tells us: But this is…

When Jesus told the disciples that he was going to suffer and die, or as he does in today’s Gospel, tell them not to speak of the transfiguration vision until after he had been raised from the dead – what was the story that they had in their heads when they would later tell the…

As we enter into this new season of Lent, the Church offers us very evocative readings to guide our journey. But it seems that there is an even more fundamental truth that lies at the heart of the Christian faith – which is the question of “Why did Jesus die on the cross?” Although the…