Tag Archive for ‘women’
On the Role of Priests and the Witness of Women
From his Chrism Mass Homily the role of priests A good priest can be recognized by the way his people are anointed. This is a clear test. When our people are anointed with the oil of gladness, it is obvious: for example, when they leave Mass looking as if they have heard good news. Our […]
April Saints
Saint Mary of Egypt (c344-c421) Mary’s claim to fame was her early life. At the age of twelve, she left her home and came to Alexandria, where for upwards of seventeen years she led a life of public prostitution. She joined a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, not for pious reasons but to carry on her shameless […]
Do you feel as I do? – the “Me Society”
I wonder how many of you feel as I do these days – a stranger in our own society, an alien in my own land? We grew up in a society which was generally governed by Christian values. We were a united community, concerned for each other. Self-sacrifice was upheld as a virtue. Human life […]
Monday 1 April
Act 2:14,22-33, Ps 16, Matt 28:8-15 Courage and confusion The elders spread confusion and doubt, yet the women had seen Jesus and were certain that he had risen. When they told the disciples, imagine how they greeted the news. Did they drag their feet to Galilee? Yet Jesus greeted them there and gave them certainty. […]
Friday 21 December
St Peter Canisius, Priest & Doctor Song of Songs 2:8-14, or Zephaniah 3:14-18, Ps 33, Luke 1:39-45 The delight of two women As soon as she heard the news about her cousin Elizabeth being pregnant, Mary lost no time in travelling about 130 kilometres to visit her. The haste, the joy and the rugged journey […]
Saturday 15 December
Sir 48 1-4. 9-11, Ps 80, Matthew 17:9a.10-13 Loyalty Both Elijah and John the Baptist feature in today’s readings. Both had trouble with powerful women. Elijah won a spiritual battle with the prophets of the pagan god Baal. Jezebel, the wife of the King Ahaz threatened to kill Elijah, who quickly scampered off. (1Kings 19). […]
Friday 2 November
COMMEMORATION OF THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED Isaiah 25:6-9, Ps. 26:1-4, 7-9,13-14 Mark 15:33-39, 16:1-6 From darkness to light It is consoling to read that Jesus struggled with death –“My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” Consoling, because we know he can identify with the struggle we have with our own mortality and with the […]
October
The recent Olympics showed that some of Mary’s women disciples can run like the wind. The 5000m Gold medallist Meseret Defar of Ethiopia carried with her in the final a cloth icon of the Madonna, and after the finish waved it during a tearful prayer of thanksgiving. Her Ethiopian teammate was favoured to win, but […]
Obedience, Easter, Jesus and women
On the Radicalism of Obedience Pope Benedict concluded, “we must also pay attention to the content of Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. Jesus says: “Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want”. The natural will of the man Jesus recoils […]
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