Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Luke (1: 39-45) in which Mary visits her pregnant cousin, Elizabeth whose baby leaps in her womb when Mary greets her.Fr Paul says, Mary, in this Gospel, turns her attention to the needs of her elderly relative, Elizabeth, who is also expecting a child. Even though [...]
Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Luke (1: 26-38) in which Mary tells the angel Gabriel, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord let what you have said be done to me’.Fr Paul thinks we need to keep in mind that Mary was a young girl preparing to be married so, no [...]
Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Matthew (1: 18-24) which tells of how Jesus came to be born. Fr Paul says Matthew begins his Gospel with the birth of Jesus, with the Genealogy of Joseph that we heard yesterday. Joseph is hesitant about adopting Jesus. Joseph thinks he is unworthy to acknowledge [...]
Fr Paul says the Church changes the readings as we begin the countdown to Christmas and these readings are used from 17 to 24 December. So, today, he reads from the Gospel of Matthew (1: 1-17) on the Genealogy of Jesus (There are a lot of names in this Gospel that are difficult [...]
Fr Paul reads today from the Gospel of Luke (7: 24-30) in which Jesus speaks to the crowd about John. Fr Paul says Jesus in the Gospel today gives John the Baptist the highest possible praise - John was not just a prophet, but he was, in fact, a messenger of the Lord [...]
Fr Paul reads today from the Gospel of Luke (7: 19-23) in which John the Baptist sends two of his followers to Jesus, to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or must we wait for someone else?’. Fr Paul says John the Baptist is now in prison and he sends [...]
Fr Paul reads today from the Gospel of Matthew (21: 28-32) in which Jesus tells the chief priests and elders of the people a parable about two sons and then says to them ‘John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness, but you did not believe him’. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a [...]
St Lucy As we celebrate the memorial of St Lucy today, Fr Paul reads today from the Gospel of Matthew (21: 23-27) in which the chief priests and the elders question the authority of Jesus. Fr Paul says, unfortunately, we don’t know very much about Lucy at all. She was martyred in Syracuse [...]
Fr Paul reads today from the Gospel of Matthew (17: 10-13), in which Jesus says to his disciples ‘Elijah has come already, and they did not recognize him but treated him as they pleased’. Fr Paul says this Gospel reading is a continuation from the last couple of days when we hear really [...]
Fr Paul reads today from the Gospel of Matthew (11: 16-19), in which Jesus says ‘wisdom is proved right by her actions’. In today’s Gospel, Fr Paul says, we see one of the stark contrasts that Matthew loves to use. Usually that contrast is between good and bad but this time it is [...]