Here in modern Western society, it can be difficult for us to imagine how women in the Middle East in first century Palestine could never do anything alone. They either had to always be in a group of women and children, or under the watchful eye of their father, brother, husband or some other responsible…
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‘Everything is Gift’
Shelagh Fogarty in THE TABLET, 9 December 2021 The words I said to myself like a steadying mantra as I left my mother’s house two hours after she had died. I wouldn’t see her again but she is forever with me because she is, was and will always be the very definition of gift I…
Homily, Third Sunday of Advent (C) 2021
As the feast of Christ’s birth draws closer, this third Sunday of Advent is traditionally known as Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday. And the encouragement to rejoice or be happy for what Jesus has achieved for us opens the Second Reading from St Paul and underlines this message. Nevertheless, and for the second Sunday running, it…
Homily, Second Sunday of Advent (C) 2021
One of the two most common prayers we have in the Church to Mary, Our Lady, the Mother of Jesus, is known as the ‘Salve Regina’ in Latin or ‘Hail, Holy Queen’ in English. In the prayer we call ourselves the ‘poor banished children of Eve’ and ask her: ‘Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine…
Homily, First Sunday of Advent (C) 2021
In first-century Palestine, it is estimated that up to 95 per cent of the people living there were peasants. Their quality of life would have been very poor. Their biggest worry would be where the next meal was coming from and whether there was enough to feed their families. Creature comforts would have been few…
Homily, Christ the King (B) 2021
After the First World War and in the face of the emerging totalitarian regimes of Soviet Communism and Josef Stalin; the Nationalist Social Movement in Germany with Adolf Hitler; and Fascism in Italy with Benito Mussolini, the Church introduced today’s feast of Christ the King. It then challenged – and still does – Church members…
Homily 32nd Sunday (B) 2021
Once again we have just heard of Jesus insulting at a group of fellow Jews known as the ‘scribes’. They were experts in the Law of Moses, the religious, moral and social code by which Jesus and fellow Jews lived. People, most of them illiterate, looked to the scribes for interpretations and applications of the…
Homily All Saints 2021
One of the many buildings worth visiting in Rome, apart from the Vatican, is the Pantheon. It was first built during the reign of the Emperor Augustus who lived up to the time Jesus was 14 years old. After the building was burned down, it was rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian (of Roman Wall fame…
Homily, 30th Sunday (B) 2021
In our Gospel for Mass today we have Jesus leaving Jericho on the final leg of his journey to Jerusalem. Jericho is about a three hours’ walk from Jerusalem, up and through a great rocky canyon. It’s the last village Jesus passes through on his way to Jerusalem. He meets a beggar, Bartimaeus, who is…
Homily, 29th Sunday (B) 2021
Our Gospel today features two brothers, James and John, and their misplaced ambition to gain positions of honour in our Lord’s community or ‘kingdom’. They expected Jesus to bring about a new political kingdom in Palestine that would free Jewish people from Roman rule. To the anger and resentment of their fellow disciples, they wanted…
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