Dear Friends: Who has not experienced grief and sorrow, the anguish of loneliness, the pain of separation from loved ones, the loss of someone dear to us, the worry and anxiety of those closest to our hearts, the concern about the future? Jesus experienced deep grief and sorrow at the…

Dear Friends, God’s ways of seeing are not our ways, we hear in today’s First Reading. Jesus illustrates this in the Gospel – as the blind man comes to see and the Pharisees are made blind. The blind man stands for all humanity. “Born totally in sin” he is made a…

Dear Friends The story of the Samaritan woman is rich in symbolism and contains spiritual lessons for us.  She is the most unlikely person to have such an encounter with Jesus. There were so many barriers that separated her from Jesus. He was a Jew and she a Samaritan—two communities…

Dear Friends The word transfiguration means a change in form or appearance. Biologists call it metamorphosis (derived from the Greek word metamorphoomai used in Matthew’s gospel), to describe the change that occurs when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. As children we might have curiously watched the process of the caterpillar…

Dear Friends The Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis tells an arresting story in his book “Report from Greco”. Visiting a saintly and ascetic monk on a remote island the author asked: “Do you still wrestle with the devil, Fr Makarios?” “Not any longer, my child, I have grown old and the…

Dear Friends This Sunday’s Gospel takes us to the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Like Moses in this week’s First Reading, Jesus climbed a mountain to deliver the Word of God’s covenant to His people (Ex 24:12–18). This covenant Word requires a great deal from us. Far more…

Dear Friends “One Day At A Time.” – Several years ago a country gospel singer named Christy Lane scored an international hit with a record titled “One Day At A Time.” “One day at a time–this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is…

Dear Friends: When Abraham Lincoln was aspiring to be the President of the United States of America he had an arch-enemy called Stanton, who never lost a chance to attack Lincoln. Yet when Lincoln won the election, he surprised his friends, by giving Stanton a post in his cabinet. He…

Dear Friends: Jesus tells us in the Gospel this week that he has come not to abolish but to “fulfill” the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. His Gospel reveals the deeper meaning and purpose of the Ten Commandments and the moral Law of the Old Testament….

Dear Friends: Both salt and light are necessities of life, they are vitally important for humanity. Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world”. What was Jesus saying when he used these two images? He was telling his disciples…