Sunday Homilies

There is something deeply human about the Elijah we meet in the first reading today. Only a short time earlier he had stood on Mount Carmel before King Ahab, the people of Israel, and the prophets of Baal. It had been one of the great dramatic moments of the Old Testament. Elijah had challenged the […]

‘I want everyone to go to heaven’ This year, we celebrate an extraordinary year of St Francis of Assisi, commemorating the 800th anniversary of his death. Two significant legends come to us from his life, which we could use today as a structure for meditation around the readings for this Sunday. The first is perhaps

Imagine yourself to be the farmer in today’s Gospel. You rise early. A bag of seed hangs over your shoulder. With each step you reach into the bag and scatter another handful across the field. Every handful is an act of hope. No one sows seed expecting failure. We sow because we believe there will

The Seeds of St Benedict, sown in St Philip – and us You can picture the scene of inevitable destruction: widespread political unrest, violence on people, honoured and ancient institutions; there is an invasion also of ideas contrary to Christ and the truth; inevitably, high taxes and low social satisfaction. This is the fifth century.

Today’s first reading evokes Holy Week and specifically Palm Sunday, containing the prophecy applied to Our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem by the Gospel authors: “Rejoice … daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king comes to you … triumphant and victorious … humble and riding on a donkey.” This striking image of a Messiah king contrasts with

The readings today ask us a simple question: who has room in our lives? Who shapes your decisions? Who receives your attention and your energy? Who or what has the ability to change the way you live? Let us begin with the first reading from the Book of Kings. We a very simple story which

How different is your life from what you imagined it would be when you finished school? Is this the city in which you expected to live? Did you know your spouse at the time? Did you imagine the career you would follow, the responsibilities you would carry, or the challenges you would face? Perhaps you

The Easter season finished a few weeks ago, but the feasts of the Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi (last Sunday) mean that only this Sunday do we return to the green vestments of what the Church describes as “Ordinary Time”. In the older Catholic calendar (used also partly among Anglicans and Lutherans) the Sundays of

How do we come to know God? Not merely know things about Him, but truly know Him. Moses knew that God was powerful. He had seen the plagues in Egypt and the waters of the Red Sea part before him. Moses knew that God was faithful. He had watched the Lord lead His people out

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Today the Church celebrates Pentecost, the great feast of the Holy Spirit, the day on which the risen Christ fulfilled his promise and poured out the Spirit upon Peter and the other the apostles. [Today] We heard in the Acts of the Apostles [Sunday Masses] that the disciples were