Feeding the Soul: “Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever” (Jn 6:58)
Walking down the high streets of our cities today, you wonder, how our contemporary culture is so much obsessed with the human body. Even those traditional commercial establishments that catered to our basic needs for food, clothing and medicine have taken different forms. Grocery shops are giving way to restaurants, tailors are being replaced by designer clothes, and medical stores are adding on beauty products. What amazes me is the bourgeoning industry of body care and cosmetics. From the toes of our feet to the hair of the head, we spend so much of our resources to care for our bodies. The care of skin, hair and nails is no more just a luxury for the rich. Spas and Jacuzzi are becoming […]
Year B
Year B Sunday Sermons
Sermon for 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B Homily
“He… began to send them out” (Mk 6:7)
It was Pope Paul VI who began to speak about new approaches in evangelization, in his post-synodal exhortation: Evangelization in the Modern World (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975). This was to be an adequate “response to the new challenges that the contemporary world creates for the mission of the Church.” Pope John Paul II began to explicitly use the term, “New Evangelization” and to advocate it very energetically in his writings, speeches and pilgrimages. Following his footsteps, Pope Benedict, and now Pope Francis continue to do the same.
What is happening all over the world, I think, as a response to this call of the Popes, is a new impetus in evangelization that is […]
Pentecost – Feast of the Holy Spirit
Pentecost: The Feast of the Holy Spirit
The reflection below consists of some straight-forward points. For some of my other sermons for this feast and on the Holy Spirit, click on the links below:
Feast of Pentecost as a celebration of unity in diversity
The Holy Spirit as the God of Surprises
A Reflection on the Holy Spirit within the Trinity
A personal experience of the Trinity
Who is the Holy Spirit?
Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Trinity who mediates the experience of God in Jesus. Since the enactment of the paschal mystery in the passion, death and resurrection of the Jesus, the Holy Spirit is actively present when a believer has an experience of the Risen Lord. Often this experience may be in the context of the community.
This is what we […]
Sermon for the Feast of All Saints
The Saints Inspire, and we can Imitate them
All Saints Day (Nov 1, 2015)
Why Saints? Because they inspire us
In 2009, when the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux were being taken around the UK, the euphoria of the people who went to pay homage took the sceptics by surprise. In the secular Britain, an estimated 290,000 people paid their respects to St Thérèse, in 20 churches. However, I must say, I heard the most cynical remarks about the relics only from my fellow priests. In any case, one of those nights I was called to help out with confessions at the Westminster Cathedral. As I sat at St George’s chapel, hearing the sincere confessions of some pilgrims, I watched the others file by the relics. But what touched me most was the crowds of people who sat at various positions in […]
Sermon for 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B Homily – I wonder
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
Who do you say I am?
Jerome W. Berryman is known for his “Godly Play” method of reflecting on a gospel story. One of the techniques used in Godly Play is the use of “wondering questions”. I would like to use the method of wondering questions to reflect/pray with the gospel text of today.
For a full sermon on this passage (Mk 8:27-35): CLICK HERE
For a sermon on the Matthean version of the story: CLICK HERE
I wonder if Jesus’ question: “Who do people say I am” is part of a search for his own identity?
I wonder why people would relate Jesus to John the Baptist and Elijah?
I wonder if Jesus’ question: “who do you say I am” is addressed to me?
I wonder what would be […]