Gospel

The mountain in Matthew’s Gospel is never incidental. It is the place of revelation (the Sermon on the Mount, 5:1), of temptation (4:8), of transfiguration (17:1), and here, of prayer. The ascent recalls Moses going up Sinai to commune with God (Exodus 24:18), but with a critical difference: Moses ascendedRead More →

Jesus withdrew. To grieve. To be alone. To catch his breath. To pray. To consider what could happen to him. He got no chance to relax. The crowds pursued until they found him. They were probably grieving too, horrified by what had happened to John. Herod’s persistent fear was thatRead More →

If we focus in on the third parable in this set (the one focused on the fishing net), and we specifically look at how Jesus explains it, we see a parable that is shared from God’s perspective not ours. This has the power to completely change how we look at anyRead More →

It can be just as hard for us to hear Jesus’ message today. We have learned how comforting and strengthening our polarisation can be. Corporations have discovered how lucrative algorithms that feed our dualisms and outrage are. To seek common ground is often viewed as betrayal by “our people” andRead More →

Good Ground (by Malcolm Guite) I love your simple story of the sower, With all its close attention to the soil, Its movement from the knowledge to the knower, Its take on the tenacity of toil. I feel the fall of seed a sower scatters, So equally available to all,Read More →

In the first reading for today’s Mass, God reminds us through the words of Moses that “the Lord set his heart on you and chose you.” We matter to God, just because of who we are. He has “set his heart” on me. He has chosen me. This is true.Read More →

Bethsaida (“House of Fisherman” in Aramaic) is one of the most important sites in the New Testament. According to John 1:44, 12:20, Bethsaida was the birthplace of three of Jesus’s apostles (Peter, Andrew, and Philip). Mark describes how Jesus healed a blind man within reach of Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26), andRead More →

The first “don’t fear” addresses the fact that things aren’t always as they appear, but truth will be uncovered or revealed. This is one of Jesus’ most highly attested sayings, appearing in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and twice in non-biblical “The Gospel of Thomas:” “…nothing is hidden that won’t be revealed”Read More →

Just as the apostles were ordinary men hand picked by Jesus whom he gave authority over unclean spirits, we can experience the same presence of our Lord Jesus in our community if we open ourselves through service to others. May the Holy Spirit move each one of us to goRead More →

This extract comes from one of the best-known chapters of St John’s Gospel, which begins with his account of the “Miracle of the Loaves and Fish”. After the crowd had been fed Jesus had sent them, and his disciples, on their way while he retreated into the hills for aRead More →