Fr Paul Gooley reads today’s Gospel from Mark (7: 31-37) in which Jesus touches the ears and tongue of the man who was deaf and mute and cures him, saying ‘Ephphatha!’ which means ‘be opened!’. Fr Paul says the roundabout route taken by Jesus from Sidon to the Lake via the Decapolis region [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Mark (7: 24-30) in which a woman, who was born in Syrian Phoenicia, begs Jesus to heal her daughter who was possessed by a demon. Fr Paul says now begins an important section of Mark’s Gospel. He is writing for a largely gentile audience, which [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Mark (7: 14-23) in which Jesus says, “Nothing that goes into a person from outside can make them unclean. It is the things that come out of a person that make them unclean.” Fr Paul says in this passage (which follows on from yesterday), Jesus [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (10: 38-42) in which Jesus says to Martha, ‘You worry and fret about so many things and, yet few are needed, indeed only one’. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about St Scholastica whose memorial we celebrate today. Fr Paul says Scholastica was born [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Mark (6: 30-34) in which Jesus encourages his disciples to take time in rest, saying, ‘You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while’. Fr Paul says at both beginning and end of this section of the Gospel [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Matthew (28: 16-20) in which Jesus commissions his disciples to go out to all the world and says, ‘I am with you always, yes, till the end of time’. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about St Paul Miki and Companions whose memorial we celebrated [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (9: 23-26) in which Jesus says, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine let them renounce themselves and take up their cross every day and follow me’. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about St Agatha whose memorial we celebrated today. Fr [...]
Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Mark (6: 1-6) in which Jesus, accompanied by his disciples, visits his hometown where he is amazed at the people’s lack of faith. Fr Paul says the very last sentence of today’s Gospel reading speaks of the people’s lack of faith. What is this lack of [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Mark (5: 21-43) in which Jesus heals the woman who touches his cloak and raises a young girl to life. Fr Paul says as we have seen, the author of the Gospel of Mark likes to combine experiences to show how significant they are. Often, like [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (2: 22-40) in which Joseph and Mary took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the lord. Fr Paul says the story of the Presentation of the child Jesus in the Temple is dominated by Simeon’s welcome, ‘a light to enlighten the gentiles [...]