Salt and Light Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Matthew (5: 13-16) in which, Jesus tells his disciples they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Fr Paul says, these sayings about salt and light in the Gospel today appear in a number of places in [...]
Fr Paul says today’s reading is a very famous one from Matthew’s Gospel (5: 1-12) in which Jesus shares ‘The Beatitudes’ with the crowd. This passage is one, and is part of, where the teachings of Jesus are gathered all together. Scholars claim that Matthew had available to him a large collection [...]
As we celebrate the life of St Boniface, Fr Paul reads from Mark’s Gospel (12: 38-44) in which Jesus draws attention to the contribution of the poor widow to the Temple treasury. For the first 40 years of his life, St Boniface was known as ‘Winfrith’. He was born in Devon, educated [...]
Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Mark (12: 35-37) in which, while teaching in the temple, Jesus is asked, ‘Why do the teachers of the Law say that the Christ is the Son of David?’ As Fr Paul mentioned earlier in the week, a variety of controversies are being experienced in [...]
Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Mark (12: 28-34) in which a scribe asks Jesus which is the most important commandment of all. Today as we celebrate the lives of St Charles Lwanga and his Companions, Fr Paul shares a little about them. Charles is Ugandan and, at the time, the [...]
Fr Paul reads from Mark’s Gospel (12: 18-27) in which Jesus is questioned by the Sadducees about the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees were the aristocracy of Jerusalem. These Sadducees are using their question in an attempt to show that the resurrection from the dead cannot make sense, that it is [...]
Fr Paul reads from Mark’s Gospel (12: 13-17) in which Jesus responds to a question asked by the Pharisees saying, “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about St Justin, whose memorial we celebrate today. Justin was born [...]
Fr Paul says, as we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary today, it is the visit of Mary with Elizabeth as recorded in Luke’s Gospel (1: 39-56) we read from today. Mary is visiting her relative Elizabeth and they are both pregnant – Mary with Jesus and [...]
Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Mark (11: 27-33) when Jesus is approached by the Chief Priests, scribes and elders in the Temple and asked by whose authority he acts. In Judaism, possibly by this time, a rabbi was authorised by his teacher by the laying on of hands, which signified [...]
Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Mark (11: 11-26) which recounts some episodes from Jesus’s visit to Jerusalem including the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the Temple. Through this Gospel, Fr Paul says, we are getting closer and closer to the confrontation between Jesus and the Temple [...]