Fifth Week of Lent – Passiontide “See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can you not see it?  Yes, I am making a road in the wilderness, paths in the wilds.” Isaiah 43:19 We are now in the final two weeks of Lent.  This is also known within the Church as ‘Passiontide’. Throughout our Lenten journey we have been slowly transformed and remade in our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit in us, as He has been making new things spring up and come into being.  This has been through our prayer, fasting and giving.  During Lent we allow God to do something new in us. The word ‘Passion’ in this case refers not to intense feelings or emotions but has its roots in the Latin word ‘passio’ meaning ‘to suffer’. Our attention is particularly drawn to Jesus as He turns His Face towards Jerusalem where His public ministry and earthly mission will culminate in His suffering, Death and Resurrection. The church interior takes on a very sombre mood.  The purple colour of Lent now steps up a gear as the statues are veiled in purple, which reminds us that our sins separate us from God. Our loving Father does not abandon us though, for His love encourages us to approach Him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation where we confess our sins with the help of the Holy Spirit and receive His Mercy and loving Forgiveness which Jesus brings to us. The usual statues and other items of piety and prayer are covered, leaving only the emblems and symbols of the Passion of Jesus – the main Crucifix near to the altar, the images of the Stations of the Cross, and of the Tabernacle -Jesus’ Living, Real, Eucharistic Presence which reminds us…

Fourth Sunday and Fourth Week of Lent: (The younger son said) ”Father, I have sinned against heaven and against You.  I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. The father said (to the elder son) – your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.” The Gospel of St Luke Chapter 15  The story of the Lost Son or the Prodigal Son from St Luke’s Gospel, beautifully illustrates our Heavenly Father’s Love and Mercy towards us.  Jesus, through His Life, but particularly through His Death and Resurrection, makes the Father’s Mercy fully available to us.  This coming Sunday will be Laetare Sunday and Mothering Sunday and it is also known as Refreshment Sunday too.  ‘Laetare’ is a Latin word which means ‘rejoice!’ Our thoughts this week are bitter-sweet. We are encouraged to rejoice, to be happy for our salvation is near but soon the readings will point us to the reality of this salvation which will come via Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross. During this time of Lenten observance with our Prayer, Fasting and Giving, we are encouraged to return again to God our Father who is Himself Mercy.  Jesus is the Face of the Father’s Mercy and Jesus does what He sees His Father doing.  Jesus acts in total accord with the Will of the Father and He shows Him to be merciful and full of pity and tenderness. Through Jesus’ Life and actions, the way He heals and forgives sins, this is what the Father Himself wishes to do for us through and in the person of His Beloved Son. As we continue on our journey through Lent, it can seem like a hard slog with many obstacles still to…

The Transfiguration of Jesus 2nd Sunday in Lent “Jesus took with Him Peter and John and James and went up the mountain to pray. As He prayed, the aspect of His Face was changed and his clothing became as brilliant as lightning.” Luke 9:28 Our prayer this week reflects the Gospel reading we heard at Mass on Sunday.  Before the horror of Golgotha Jesus chooses His three closest disciples; Peter James and John and takes them up Mount Tabor to witness His true nature and reveal His glory. These are the same three disciples who will be with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane when He undergoes His agony of prayer and sweat of blood before His sorrowful Passion and Death. We see a snapshot of the glory of the Risen Jesus after His cruel Death and burial when He rises in triumph on the third day. All too often it can seem like we are walking our own ‘way of the cross’ which leads to Golgotha.  The good news of Jesus Christ – the Gospel as proclaimed and lived out day by day in and through the Church tells a different story.  Because Jesus is alive for ever and is the Victorious One, we can have hope that we too, after passing through our own death, will be raised to life with Him and share in His glory. Knowing that Jesus has conquered everything and has experienced everything that we too experience (yet without sin) we have hope that we too will be changed into His likeness and reflect His glory.  This can happen in our lives now before we die as the Holy Spirit changes, moulds and fills us with His divine life to help us live our lives in the way that the Father wants and which…

First week of Lent 2019 We are now well into the season of Lent which will take us up to Holy Week, the final week of Jesus before He goes to the Cross on Good Friday. How’s your Lent going? Perhaps things are going well for you, you are managing to keep to all those promises you made at or after the Ash Wednesday Masses last week.  You are doing well with all your praying, fasting and charitable giving.  Or, if we are totally honest, things are not as easy as we hoped.  We are missing those things we have tried to give up.  Prayer is hard work and we may not feel that we are really doing very much to help those in need. We may have abandoned our resolutions altogether.  Don’t worry and do not lose heart! We are invited to meet with the Lord in the desert place.  Jesus spent 40 days and nights alone in the desert to prepare Him for the three years of ministry which would culminate in His Crucifixion and Resurrection. In the Book of the Prophet Hosea, the Lord says this about His people in latter days; “I am going to lure her (His people, the People of Israel and us, His adopted sons and daughters in Christ) and lead her out into the wilderness and speak to her heart.” Hosea 2:16 Our time spent in keeping a holy Lent should refresh us, strengthen us and keep our relationship with Jesus alive. If we haven’t read our Bible recently, or prayed the Rosary which is the special prayer of Our Lady then, Lent is the time to do so. If we have forgotten to say our morning or evening prayers or just to thank our good God for all He has done…

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time What’s in a word? “A good man/woman draws what is good from the store of goodness in his/her heart; a bad man/woman draws what is bad from the store of badness.  For a person’s words flow out of what fills their heart.” Luke 6:45 We stand on the very edge of the Holy Season of Lent. The Gospel reading this coming weekend, reminds us that speech is a special gift from God and as such we should respect and honour it by what we say and how we speak. Throughout the whole of scripture from the very beginning, there are many times in God’s Word when we are encouraged to use good and wholesome speech and words.  There is also guidance as to what to do when we have sinned and have used unkind and hurtful words as we seek God’s merciful forgiveness. The old adage goes; ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.’  Thing is, in truth that is not correct, for what a person may say to us can remain buried deep inside for many years and resurface often, either causing joy if the words received were good, helpful and kind or pain and sorrow if the words were cruel and harsh. Jesus, in Luke’s Gospel, reminds us that a person’s words flow out of what fills their heart. His lips always spoke kind, gracious words, and He always spoke the truth of the Father’s Heart in the power of the Holy Spirit with much love and compassion.  Even when we sometimes read Jesus’ words and may consider them in our 21st Century mind to be a little harsh, Cf. the conversation with the Syro-Phoenician woman and the exorcism of her daughter (Matthew 15:21-28) or the way…

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time: In the Book of Job, the main character, Job, says “….relentlessly I fret till twilight falls.” He lies on his bed and ponders his life and probably remembers the better days he’d enjoyed.  Job (pronounced Jobe) was a man whose faith in God was tested to the very limit.  He wasn’t always in this situation.  Far from it.  Job was a wealthy man who was happily married, had lots of children, enjoyed the finer things of life and was blessed with good health, livestock, land and property – that is until all of this was systematically taken away from him and he was tested over many years.  He was stripped down to the basics and only his faith in God remained. There are times in our lives when our faith is tested to the very limit because of the many hurtful and destructive things we encounter.  Faith can be an anchor of strength but it can also be lost if painful circumstances overwhelm and crush the vulnerable spirit inside. The good news is that God is close to the broken hearted as we read in Psalm 146.  Faith can be rediscovered again and allowed to grow if the hurt person chooses to seek God with all their heart.  They are never turned away for our loving Lord does not snap us in two if we are a broken reed or snuff us out if our flame is a smouldering ember.   Essentially, at the heart of the gospel message is the person of Jesus.  We strive to follow a person, not a set of rules and our Lord knows how we feel all too well.  During the whole of His life, Jesus suffered much which hurt Him, broke His heart as He endured the difficulties of life and the…