Who can be part of Jesus’ family? Today’s Gospel (Matthew 12: 46-50) may seem quite strange as we see the two distinct groups – Jesus’s immediate blood family with his mother, standing outside anxious to have a word with him, and the second group Jesus has around him, the disciples and the [...]
The Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign In our Gospel (Matthew 12: 38-42) today we hear the scribes and the Pharisees asking Jesus for a sign. He refuses to give them one and makes reference to Jonah. Fr Paul says we, again, see again Matthew as the Gospel writer referring to the [...]
Jesus is the servant of the Lord Fr Paul says today’s Gospel from Matthew (12: 14-21) explains to us how Jesus is the servant of the Lord. We hear at the very beginning about the Pharisees plotting against Jesus and how he withdraws from the district, followed by large crowds. In yesterday’s [...]
Come to me and I will give you rest Fr Paul reads the Gospel from Matthew (11: 28-30) in which Jesus invites us to rest in him. Fr Paul says there are a couple of ways this piece of scripture has been interpreted. For Judaism, the law was all-important and yet it [...]
Feast St Bonaventure Fr Paul reads the Gospel from Matthew (11: 25-27) and shares a little about the life of St Bonaventure, whose feast we celebrate today. St Bonaventure was born around 1218, became a Franciscan in 1243 and studied theology and philosophy at the University of Paris. He became a famous [...]
Jesus laments for the unrepentant towns In today’s Gospel from Matthew (11: 20-24) we hear Jesus lamenting over towns such as Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. He laments because he has worked many miracles in these towns, which the people have witnessed and yet still they fail to heed the message to repent; they [...]
The Gospel today comes from Matthew (10: 34 -11:1) and, like Saturday, our reading is at the end of the second set of Jesus’ sayings. On Saturday the theme was divine protection; today Jesus is challenging his disciples and us, as the readers of the Gospel, to give serious thought to what [...]
Feast of St Benedict Today we celebrate the memorial of St Benedict, who was born in 480 in Nursia in Italy and died in 547. After our Gospel from Matthew (10:24-33) we will learn a little bit more about St Benedict and his life. In his life Benedict studied in Rome and [...]
Jesus sends the twelve as sheep among the wolves In today’s Gospel (Matthew 10: 16-23), like the last couple of days, Jesus is instructing the disciples for their missionary work. Fr Paul says when we hear these instructions we need to be aware of 3 levels: The first level is that Jesus [...]
Jesus instructs his disciples Yesterday we began the mission discourse of Jesus with the naming of the twelve. Today in Matthew’s Gospel (10: 7-15) we are hearing of Jesus’ instructions to them as the commissioning of the twelve continues. Fr Paul says yesterday they were named and today they get their job [...]