Sunday March 31st 2013 – Easter Sunday
Why is the death and resurrection of Jesus so essential to our faith? Psychologists have long said that the two great fears we carry are a fear of death and a…
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about not emailing Fr Pat while he’s away, and writing to him at his US address instead
Please note that Fr Pat is currently away, and will not see any email sent to him between now and September 2013. During his absence, please do not send him email, though we now have an address for Father Pat and he would be happy to receive letters: Fr Pat Day St Luke Institute 8901 New ...
Sunday March 24th 2013 – Palm Sunday
First Reading Isaiah 50: 4-7 This passage is the third of Isaiah’s servant songs. It has a darker, yet more confident, tone than the others. Although the song gives a first-person description of how the Servant was beaten and abused, here the Servant is described both as teacher and learner, who follows the path on which God places him without pulling back. His vindication is left in God’s hands.
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Sunday March 17th 2013 – Fifth Sunday of Lent
From the outside looking in, people’s lives can often appear less complicated than our own. As individuals and families come under continual financial strain, it can often cause us to…
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Sunday March 10th 2013 – Fourth Sunday of Lent – Laetare Sunday
The fourth Sunday of Lent is also known as ‘Laetare’ Sunday: a time to rejoice. Why, in the middle of all the prayers, fasting and almsgiving that we associate with Lent, would we be asked to rejoice and give thanks?
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Sunday March 3rd 2013 – Third Sunday of Lent
The people in the Gospel today are wondering if the Galileans who were killed by Pilate had died because they deserved to. We can empathise with them as we know too well of accidents and tragedies of all kinds where we might ask the same question. Jesus insists that they have not done anything wrong. Their sudden death challenges those still alive to live to the full and to bear much fruit because life can end suddenly. Life is fragile. No one is indestructible…
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Sunday February 24th 2013 – Second Sunday of Lent
First Reading: The focus in this reading is on God’s covenant with Abram, one of the precursors to the covenant at Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. This covenant is likened to the suzerain treaties of the ancient world – between unequal parties. It is God who makes two promises to Abram: the gift of land for him and his descendents and also the promise that the childless couple will have their own offspring.
Second Reading: This letter, which Paul wrote from prison, is one of the finest letters of thanksgiving in scripture. In this passage Paul calls on…
Sunday February 17th 2013 - First Sunday of Lent
St Augustine describes his endless search for God and his eventual realisation that he was looking in all the wrong places. He says to God “You were within and I was without. I rushed heedlessly among the things of beauty you had made. You were with me but I was not with you.” He knew only too well the power of diversion and its ultimate futility when it becomes your all. St Augustine learned the hard way, what Blaise Paschal understood when he said…
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Sunday February 10th 2013 – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Our gathering this and every weekend is our moment of encounter with the teaching Christ, who speaks to us now in Word and Sacrament, in the assembly and in the spirit that unites us. The Son of the Father is present in our midst: “And when, as once for the disciples, so now for us, he opens the Scriptures and breaks the bread.” This assembly is our place of call and response, of hearing and telling the story of discipleship with and for each other. Certainly each one listens as an…
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Sunday February 3rd 2013 – Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
The prophets of the Old Testament often needed a pep talk before they set about their mission. Jeremiah’s first reaction when God called him to be a prophet was “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” Prophesy was not an easy path; there would be challenges and persecution, people would refuse to listen to him, his own friends would turn against him and there would even be plots against his life.
In the First Reading, God offers Jeremiah some words of reassurance: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you…
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