Fr Paul Gooley reads today’s Gospel from Matthew (9: 14-15) in which John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus, ‘Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’. Fr Paul says the Gospel reading seems at first sight a puzzling choice for the start of Lent, for it [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads today’s Gospel from Luke (9: 22-25) in which Jesus says to his disciples, ‘What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose their very self?’ Fr Paul says these first four days of Lent, before the First Sunday of Lent, set the tone in [...]
As Lent begins, Fr Paul Gooley reads today’s Gospel from Matthew (6: 1-6, 16-18) in which Jesus says to the disciples ‘be careful not to parade your good deeds before men… your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you’. Fr Paul says this Gospel reading from Matthew is one [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads today’s Gospel from Mark (8: 14-21) in which Jesus warns the disciples saying ‘Keep your eyes open! Be on your guard for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod’. Fr Paul says the failure of the disciples to understand Jesus is one of the features of Mark’s [...]
Fr Paul Gooley says the 6th week of Ordinary Time is only short because Lent begins this week with Ash Wednesday on 14 February. Fr Paul reads today’s Gospel from Mark (8: 11-13) in which the Pharisees question and test Jesus, asking him for a sign from heaven. Fr Paul says this little [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads today’s Gospel from Mark (8: 1-10) in which Jesus feeds four thousand people with seven loaves of bread. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about St Scholastica whose memorial we celebrate today. Fr Paul says Scholastica was born in Nursia in about the year 480. She was the twin [...]
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 today’s Gospel from Mark (7: 24-30) in which a gentile woman born in Syrian Phoenica seeks out Jesus to beg him to cure her daughter. Fr Paul says this Gospel begins an important section of Mark’s Gospel. He is writing for a largely gentile audience, which is why he [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads today’s Gospel from 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 from inside a person that make them unclean’. Fr Paul says today’s Gospel follows on from yesterday dealing with the issue of [...]
Fr Paul Gooley reads today’s Gospel from Mark (7:1-13) in which the Pharisees question Jesus about how his disciples follow Jewish tradition and law. Afterwards, he shares a little about St Paul Miki and his companions, whose memorial we celebrate today. Fr Paul notes Paul Miki was born in Japan between 1564 and [...]