Behold I stand at the door and knock...
Episodes
The miraculous feeding of the huge crowd provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon the effects of receiving Holy Communion since this miracle by Christ prefigures (points towards) the Eucharist.
The pearl of great price; the treasure hidden in a field; the dragnet that captures all type of fish: these are the image of this Sunday's gospel reading.
The task for us is to examine our lives against the mirror of these parables so that we may follow Christ our Lord more faithfully and more fervently.
Laudetur Jesus Christus!
The parables of Our Lord continue this Sunday with the parable of the wheat mixed with the darnel, and what that means for the farmer and the harvest. This parable gives us an opportunity to be reminded about what the Church teaches us about the presence of evil in the world and in our own actions.
The Parable of the Sower and the Seed takes a prominent place in Holy Scripture at this Sunday's Holy Mass. While a well known parable, it always has much to say to us, particularly as Our Lord's words invite us to examine how we are responding to Him, who is the Word that has issued forth from the Father's heart.
"Take my yoke and learn from me for I am meek and humble in heart," says Our Lord in today's Gospel reading. He certainly is meek and humble, perfectly so, because He is God. But He is not a wimpy push-over either. His heart, His Sacred Heart, is fiery with love, a love so bright and terrible that it will do anything, even die, for the salvation of the world. That's not the heart of a coward but the heart of a hero,...
The Lord continues to make demands of us if we are to be His disciples. Being a Catholic, being a Christian is not easy and not for the faint-hearted! The example of St Gianna Molla can inspire us and her intercession from Heaven can help us in living as disciples of Christ in this world and to be loyal and obedient to Him.
Today we return to Sundays of Ordinary Time.
Our Catholic faith is a great treasure but it is not a museum piece. It is meant to be alive and lived as well as to be shared with others. This is for their good as well as for our own salvation.
What a wonderful solemnity!
Today we honour and worship Our Lord, Jesus Christ, whose abiding presence for His Church is the Most Blessed Sacrament. This is the greatest treasure we have and it is the gift of our Saviour to us. How much we should be grateful! How much we should show this most wonderful Sacrament all the reverence and honour that we can. We must never tire of doing this.
I wish you a happy and blessed Feast Day.
One of the key Christian dogmas, that sets us apart from Judaism and Islam, and of course, from another other supernatural, spiritual or natural belief system. That God has one nature and three Divine Persons is a mystery but not a contradiction. Our own human capacity to know and reason, as well as our human experience, helps us to penetrate the mystery but not to understand it fully. We believe because God Himself has revealed Hi...
Pentecost Sunday - what a wonderful Solemnity and feast day, which concludes the Easter Season!
This podcast is a little longer than usual. I suppose I got carried away, but there is so much to say about the Holy Spirit. Of course, I haven't said it all, but I hope you find what I have said both uplifting and interesting. And, may it deepen your appreciation of and love for the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for listening and this marks ...
This Sunday in some parts of the Catholic world, we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
It's part of the untidiness of the Church's calendar that in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass as well as in some regions, the Ascension is still celebrated on the Thursday, ten days before Pentecost; as it has been for centuries. But where I am it is moved to Sunday. So, there we are.
Wherever you are listening...
The Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost draw closer as we come towards the end of the Easter Season. We begin to hear this Sunday Our Lord speak to the Apostles of the new and revolutionary coming of the Holy Spirit into the world. As we listen to the Scripture readings this Sunday, we can be moved by the enormity and wonder of our Christian vocation.
The hymn for today is the same as last Sunday: Thine Be the Glory, Risen conquerin...
The priesthood of Christ is the theme of this Sunday's podcast. I explore the common priesthood of all the baptised and the ordained ministry of the New Testament priesthood. I hope you find it beneficial.
The hymn comes from the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge, under the direction of Sir Stephen Cleobury. They sing the marvellous "Thine Be The Glory", the music of which was written by George Friederic Handel. It is av...
Good Shepherd Sunday & World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Today has a triple focus: the 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood and Consecrated Life.
That's quite a lot! I hope I help you today to bring those three foci into some focus; excuse the pun!
For many the image of Christ as the Good Shepherd is an enduringly appealing image. More so I suppose, because Jes...
The Road to Emmaus is one of the best-known appearances of the Risen Lord. It has relevance at all times to our lives but, in this time of pandemic, I suggest that it has a more defined and refined application to our situation.
Christus vincit. Christus regnat. Christus imperat.
Today's podcast begins with a moving and beautiful Catholic hymn, which I remember fondly from my childhood: "Jesus in Your Heart We Find". It is the human heart of Jesus, in which is human love and divine love, that is the fullest expression of Divine Mercy. The hymn is sung superbly by Prima Luce from their album "A Collection of Catholic Hymns and Chants." Please support them and tell others about them.
primal...
A bonus podcast!
I was not intending to post another podcast until next Sunday (Divine Mercy Sunday) but I offer you this reflection upon Holy Baptism drawing upon a single sentence in one of the Epistle readings from the Mass of Easter Day.
Baptism is crucial to us because this is the way that we belong to Christ so I thought that during the Octave of Easter, which is like Easter Day every day, it might be helpful to spend a few mi...
After the solemn liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil in the Holy Night, I offer my homily and reflections for Easter Day; particularly in the circumstances that surround us this Easter, with all the restrictions and impositions that curtail our movement and our lives because of the pandemic.
The wonderful Easter antiphon Christus Vincit is sung by a Spanish choir, Cantos y Coros. Their album contains hymns particu...
This Sunday we begin Holy Week.
It is a very different experience this year with the Coronavirus restrictions. Most of you will not participate in the commemoration of the Lord's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, except maybe via a livestream Mass. If you do participate in Mass, by some means, you will hear the proclamation of the Lord's Passion and Death from the Gospel according to St Matthew.
I offer my reflections in thi...
Where has the COVID19 or Wuhan virus come from? Can we say that it is a chastisement from God for idolatry and sin? These and other questions I explore in the first episode of my podcast.
Chat About Behold I stand at the door and knock...