A Catholic Monthly Magazine

Tag Archive for ‘faith’

Monday 28 November

Isaiah 4:2-6; Ps 122; Matthew 8:5-11 Faith The centurion’s amazing faith resulted in his servant being cured (Matt 8:13). Being ex-military, I know that commanders have faith that their orders will be carried out because they trust their subordinates to be trained for the task and obedient. Conversely, the subordinates trust the commanders to lead […]

Monday 14 November

Apocalypse 1:1-4, 2:1-5; Ps 1; Luke 18:35-43 What do you want? In the Gospel passage, why does Jesus ask the blind man what he wants? Surely Jesus could see he was blind? The man was desperate, screaming to get the Lord’s attention. Not a mild, gentle request but a full-blown plea. Is the force of […]

Monday 14 November

Apocalypse 1:1-4, 2:1-5; Ps 1; Luke 18:35-43 What do you want? In the Gospel passage, why does Jesus ask the blind man what he wants? Surely Jesus could see he was blind? The man was desperate, screaming to get the Lord’s attention. Not a mild, gentle request but a full-blown plea. Is the force of […]

Saturday 12 November

St Josaphat 3 John 5-8; Ps 112; Luke 18:1-8 Persistence God is not like the unjust judge, who gave the widow what she wanted because he was fed up with her persistence. God will honour our prayers in His own time and in His own way. He has done enough times in the past, and […]

Tuesday 25 October

Ephesians 5:21-33, Ps.128, Luke 13:18-21 Parables of the kingdom Jewish scholars call ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’ enlightenment. By that, I suppose they mean a mature stage of faith when we discover our union with God. In these parables, Jesus talked about the way the kingdom grows from small beginnings: a mustard seed; a handful of […]

Monday 17 October

St Ignatius of Antioch Ephesians 2:1-10, Ps.100, Luke 12:13-21 Where is our wealth? Ignatius of Antioch was an early apostolic father, a bishop who’d been a student of St John. He wrote about the true presence in the Eucharist and is credited with establishing the word Catholic as the name for the church. A martyr, […]

Monday 10 October

Galatians 4:22-24, 26-27, 31 – 5:1, Ps.113, Luke 11:29-32 The Jesus sideshow In today’s gospel we see Jesus’ frustration with a crowd looking for novelty. They wanted entertainment, magician’s tricks, signs that Jesus was a prophet from God. He rebuked them because they were like children demanding toys. I suppose we are sometimes like that. […]

Monday 3 October

Galatians 1:6-12, Ps.111, Luke 10:25-37 Law and living At times, Jesus was questioned by men who wanted to use religious law as a weapon. He never discredited the law, but revealed its true function as guidance. It offered structures that helped those young in faith, and made useful maps for mature journey. Usually, Jesus added […]

Monday 26 September

Job 1:6-12, Ps 17, Luke 9:46-50 Martyrdom Job shows faithfulness in abandonment. Job prefigures the aching call of Christ from the cross: My God, my God why have you abandoned me? (Mt 27:46). This abandonment is the absence of the Father in the midst of healthy and faithful discipleship. Like a thief in the night, […]

Monday 29 August

The Martyrdom of John the Baptist Jeremiah 1:17-19; Ps 71; Mark 6:17-29 Persecuted in the cause of right John the Baptist’s martyrdom can remind us of the eighth beatitude: “Happy are those persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the Kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). John’s death came about because of unbridled exercise of […]