The Transfiguration of the Lord                 Every year on the second Sunday of Lent, we are offered the subject of Jesus’ transfiguration. The scene is set in a secluded place, on a high mountain where Jesus led three of his disciples. The transfiguration was an extraordinary spiritual experience in which Jesus tried to convince  that…

Our Lenten Journey  Our gospel this Sunday sees Jesus being led into the desert. The gospel puts it rather more seriously than Jesus being led into the desert! It opens with the words; The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness (desert) and remained with him for forty days. Why was Jesus led or driven in to the desert? It…

Jesus Became the Humble Servant                 In today’s readings from Leviticus and the gospel of Mark, we see stories of lepers. The Leviticus passage refers to lepers as “unclean” and the Mark passage talks about Jesus healing a leper. The passage shows that Jesus is compassionate: as people cry out to Jesus, he shows mercy,…

Jesus’ compassion                 Today’s Gospel completes a picture of Jesus’ ministry: preaching, curing the sick, driving out demons, and then moving on to continue this work in another place. Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus did this throughout Galilee. Jesus’ compassion and healing of the sick is a sign of the Kingdom of God. The…

Authority Figures Who do you consider authoritative? Pope Francis and other church leaders are probably on your list. When Jesus came “teaching with authority,” people wondered if they should add him to their list of authoritative figures. Four Galilean fishermen had already put Jesus right at the top, but other people, including those who also…

January 21, 2024 Jesus Calls the Fishermen to be His Disciples                 Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus called his first disciples and the immediacy with which these men dropped everything to follow him. We can only begin to imagine what Jesus’ presence must have been like to invoke such a response in these first disciples.…

January 14, 2024 Images of God                 What is your image of God? Jesus, the gentle shepherd? God in those first days of creation? Maybe at different times you pray to different images of God. There are days I sense the Spirit’s presence like the embrace of a lifelong friend and other times I tremble…

The Manifestation of Jesus ChristHaving celebrated the glory of God that appeared at the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at Christmas, we celebrate today, on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, the manifestation of God’s salvation in Christ for all peoples. The Church gathers in prayer before the God who,…