4th Sunday of the Year. B.

When I was on holiday in Spain last week, all I did was eat, sleep and read. As far as the first two are concerned, there isn’t really much to report, but, as the week passed, I began to see a connection between what I was reading and this week’s Gospel. As always, the books I had taken with me were about Spain, its politics and its history. The more I learn about them, the more interesting they become, and yet, interesting and fascinating as they are, they never fail to stir in me, too, feelings of deep sadness, a sadness which is all about the role of the Church in Spain’s long and often tortured history.

The two books I read this time dealt with the years between 1833 and the present day, a period during which, right up to the death of General Franco in 1975 and the beginning of democracy, the Church in Spain was consistently and firmly on the side of the rich upper classes and landed gentry against the poor. As a result, especially during the years of the Franco dictatorship, it enjoyed great privileges, exercised considerable power and influence over people’s lives and, until the final years of the Franco regime, resisted every kind of modernisation which might have improved the lives of people who were often literally starving. And yet, like the scribes in today’s Gospel, who also exercised great influence over people’s lives in their time, the Church spoke with no authority whatsoever as far as large sections of the population were concerned. On the contrary, there grew up a huge underground resentment of what the Church stood for which, from time to time, broke out into anti-clerical violence. There was one occasion in 1931, known as the tragic week, when, especially in Barcelona, there was a frenzy of church-burning and killing of priests and nuns. There are stories from that time of people digging up the bodies of nuns and dancing with them in the street, scenes which were repeated again all over Spain in 1936 in the early months of the Civil War. And even today, although incidents like this are a thing of the past, many people in what was once thought of as Catholic Spain are fighting to have their names removed from baptismal registers, so deep is the resentment still felt in many quarters about everything the Church has stood for over the years. Like the religious leaders in Jesus day, it had great power and influence over people’s lives, but the end result is that, for millions, it has long ago ceased to speak with any authority. So what has all this been about, and what was it about Jesus that made such a deep impression on the people of his day, giving his words authority and credibility which the religious leaders of the day did not have? And what are the implications of this for us now?

Well, the first thing to say about Jesus is that his authority was not based on anything to do with status or position in society. He had none. Jesus was a man with no links to the establishment of his day, no influence in high places, and so the authority the people recognized in him was something different from what they were used to having imposed on them from above. And especially for those of you who are doing the Church History Course, it’s worth remembering how much damage has been done to the Church over the centuries when it has lost sight of the kind of authority Jesus exercised and has copied instead the ways of the world. As a result it has got caught up over and over again in the scandals, corruption and abuses which always accompany power politics and which have robbed the Church of genuine authority in the lives of millions down through the ages, a problem which is far from resolved even now.

But it would be a serious mistake if the role of the Church throughout history were the main focus of our reflection today. Because, in the end, the Gospels are about us and not about other people. Several words come to mind when we try to describe the kind of authority exercised by Jesus; words like real, genuine or authentic. But, at the heart of it, lies one thing above all others: Jesus practised what he preached. There was no gap between his words and his actions. He didn’t do one thing and say another. What he taught came from deep inside himself. He believed it and he lived it, and, as a result, what he said made a deep impression on the people. St Mark tells us that they were astonished and started asking each other what it all meant. And in this we have the great challenge facing all followers of Jesus in today’s world.

The simple truth is that the Church of the 21st century does not speak with this kind of authority. And so millions do not listen to us, accusing us instead of hypocrisy, even going so far as to blame Churches and religion for all the trouble in the world. And while this is going a bit far, there’s a certain amount of truth in it. And so what we need today is what the people needed in the first reading from Deuteronomy; that God raise up in the world a prophet like himself to whom people would listen; except that he has already done that. Because, as a baptized people, we are called to be that prophet. It is our task, our vocation, our privilege and our responsibility to make the teaching of Jesus a reality in today’s world; to speak, not so much through words as through actions, with the kind of authority people saw in Jesus himself.

The Gospel tells us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless and so on. So it is our job to do it, not just talk about it. Jesus tells us not to judge others but to take the plank out of our own eye first. So we are called to do it, not just talk about it. He tells us that if we only love those who love us we are no better than the pagans. And so we are called to reach out beyond the people we know and, beginning in the parish and reaching out to the world, create something new which will be for others a sign of the kingdom in which all barriers between people will be broken down and we shall see every person as God see them.

Its a huge responsibility and I leave you with a simple but important question. Had you known at the time what baptism involved, would you still have gone ahead with it?


We begin our prayer today by holding up before God the Church making its slow and sometimes painful way through history. We ask God to give it at this time the grace it needs to let go of the trappings of power which have caused so much trouble down through the ages and embrace, instead, the spirit of humility, service and self- emptying we see in Jesus, so that it can, once again, speak with the authority that comes from truth and integrity....................Lord hear us

One of the great signs of what has gone wrong in the Church over the centuries is the division between Christians which, in the case of the Reformation, goes back five hundred years and in the case of the split between East and West, a thousand years. And so, as a new millennium begins, we pray that, in the not too distant future, the world will see a healing of these two historic rifts and that the followers of Jesus around the world will be once again united......................Lord hear us

In the Gospel this week, we find in the synagogue at Capernaum a man possessed by an unclean spirit, reminding us that unclean spirits are often to be found in churches and other places of worship. Their name is legion: power, pride, vanity, hypocrisy, self-seeking, shallowness and many others. Often they use holy, religious language and are not averse to quoting the Scriptures when it suits them. And so we pray for the grace we need to spot them wherever they are lurking here.........................Lord hear us

In recent years, we have seen many countries throughout the world begin the difficult and dangerous journey from dictatorship to democracy. But, sadly, many of our fellow human beings still live under oppressive and violent regimes. This is made worse when, for political reasons, dictators are kept in power by governments from the developed world who should and do know better. And so we pray again that a new century will see greater freedom for people everywhere.....................Lord hear us

Over the next two weekends, the children preparing for Confirmation and First Communion will be introduced to us so that we can publicly recognize and acknowledge the responsibility we have as a parish to be the kind of community where their young faith can be nourished and grow to maturity. And so we pray that we will not fail them and that there will be no need to tie millstones round our necks and throw us into the depths of the sea.....................Lord hear us

As people throughout Scotland celebrate Catholic Education Week, we pray for all who work in our local schools. But the primary responsibility for the education of children in faith lies with their parents, supported by the parish. Where there are Catholic Schools, they have a part to play. But where there are none, the responsibility of parents and parish remains. And so we pray for the wisdom to understand this and the courage to take it on board............... Lord hear us

2nd Sunday of the Year B

Last week, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we reflected on how the same Spirit who moved in Jesus two thousand years ago in the River Jordan has always moved, and continues to move, in us. We saw how the Spirit calls us, through every stage of our lives, to a relationship of intimacy with the Father who speaks over each one of us the words he spoke that day over Jesus; ‘You are my son/daughter, the beloved, by favour rests on you’ And now, this week, with the well known story of the call of Samuel, one of the first bible stories many of us would have heard as children, the liturgy is inviting us, I think, to reflect on one particular aspect of how we hear the call of God in our lives. So let’s have a closer look at the story.

And as I approach it, I am influenced by a man whose name, for reasons that will be clear to some of you, I never forget. He is currently an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Aberdeen University called David Hay, whose relevance to today’s homily is that, despite being a zoologist by training, he has done tremendous work over the years on the subject of religious experience. The connection with zoology is that, for Professor Hay, spiritual or religious awareness is biologically natural to the human species and has been selected – in the Darwinian sense - because, in the process of evolution, it has survival value, an idea which I find very attractive in that it provides some kind of confirmation the natural sciences of the theological idea that, from the very beginning, we are called to experience God and share his life. It would also explain why, according to Hay’s research, a huge majority of people, even today, report having had spiritual and religious experiences even when they do not, at a conscious or intellectual level, believe in God. But what interests us most this morning in relation to the Samuel story is the work Hay has done with children where he concludes that we have their most powerful religious or spiritual experiences when we are young, either in childhood or during our teenage years. And if this is true – and it certainly fits in with my own experience, given that my own single most powerful experience of God happened when I was eleven – then the implications for us all in today’s world are far reaching.

And the first things to notice about the young Samuel is that, when he first hears the call, he has no idea that it is God who is calling him. And so just think of it: thousands, millions of children and young people out there who are experiencing the call of God in themselves but have no idea of what is happening to them. They may not look very religious or very spiritual to us from the outside, but the Spirit of God is moving deep within every single one of them, calling them to himself. And so what they need is what Samuel needed, someone who understands what is going on and is able to help them. Except that when Samuel turned to the adult world in the person of Eli, there was none of the help and encouragement he needed. The Book of Samuel has Eli say; ‘I did not call, go back and lie down’ but what he is really saying is, ‘Away back to your bed, son, and gie me peace.’ But after this has happened twice, the passage then says something very important. It tells us that Samuel had, as yet, no knowledge of the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.And so, despite the adult world’s failure to understand what is going on for Samuel, God does not give up and calls a third time. And if you are a parent who, like so many today, worry about your children’ lack of faith or unwillingness to come to Church, be encouraged by this. They may seem to have no knowledge of the Lord or the word of Lord may not seem to have been revealed to them as yet, but God is at work in their lives and he will not give up on them.

This, however, does not remove the responsibility we, as adults, have towards the children and young people in our midst. Even although it took him a while, Eli eventually was able to point Samuel in the right direction, and that is our responsibility too. People in the Church often complain that something needs to be done about young people, but I, personally, have never really subscribed to this view. For me, both the problem and the solution lie in the adult world. If David Hay is right and our children and young people are having the most powerful spiritual and religious experiences they will ever have in their lives, even if they don’t recognize them as such, then it is our task to do for them what Eli did, albeit at the third attempt, which was to recognize what was happening and help interpret and make sense of the experience. And to be able to do that we ourselves must be men and women of mature faith, able to reflect on and make sense of our own experiences of God. Only if we ourselves have learned that God is to be found, not first and foremost in churches or in religion, but in everything that happens, will we be able to understand and interpret the presence or movement of God in our young people’s boredom at Mass, disillusionment with religion, anxiety about the environment or heavily disguised hunger for meaning in a shallow, empty culture which they have not invented but were born into. And only when, through prayer and reflection in our own lives, are we able to do this, will we have the wisdom and confidence we need to do what John did for the two disciples in the gospel today and Andrew did for his brother Peter, which was to point them towards Jesus whom they themselves had come to know as the Messiah.

And it all begins with simple things: with the way we conduct ourselves here at Mass; with the way we welcome even small children in our midst; with simple prayers at home; with our willingness to enjoy God in creation and speak to our children about him without fear or embarrassment. The world is full of little Samuels. There are lots of them here with us today. The reading ended by telling us that he grew up and the Lord was with him and let no word of his fall to the ground. Let’s pray that God will do the same in our own time.

BIDDING PRAYERS

We begin our prayer by asking God to pour into our parish the gift of hope, so that we can face both the present and the future with trust and confidence in his presence among us. We pray, in particular, that we will always be open to the children and young people who come to us, free from all condemnation and judgement, always willing to understand, as best we can, the world they live in and committed to being a place where their faith can deepen and grow...................Lord hear us

The world young people inhabit today is very different from the one many of us grew up in and it can often seem a strange, foreign, place to us. And yet it is the only place our young people have ever known and so it is the place where they will meet God. God is present in every situation. He is never absent from any place where his children are to be found. And so we pray for the wisdom we need to see what God is doing in the world today so that we can help others do the same...............Lord hear us

Although God is present in every situation and is at work deep within our world, this does not mean that everything that happens around us is of God. Just as in the past, there are many forces at work in the world today which are deeply harmful to all whose lives they touch. Amidst the great generosity and concern for others which we find in many young people today, there is also a deep-rooted spirit of self-indulgence. And so we ask God to protect our children from its influence....................Lord hear us

Young people today are searching for the thing people always search for: happiness. Many, however, are searching in the wrong place. And yet, in a world with a thousand versions of the truth where all kinds of people peddle their own brand of happiness on television or on the internet, it is easy to wander down wrong paths. True happiness, however, lies in hearing and responding to God’s unique call to each one of us and we pray that young people today will hear that call.........Lord hear us

Samuel, the first reading told us, had as yet no knowledge of the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him, words which could be applied to children in every age. And so we pray for all whose vocation it is to teach the young about God. We pray first and foremost for parents, the primary educators of children in faith. And we pray, too, for those who teach in our schools, especially St Andrew’s Primary School and St Joseph’s Academy........Lord hear us

The dark side of our modern youth culture is the despair felt by some youngsters in today’s society. They see no future for themselves and so see no point in engaging with society or with the education system it offers. Many seek refuge in drugs and from there are led into crime. More and more turn to self-harm as a way of coping with their feelings and increasing number see suicide as the only way out of the despair they feel. And so we ask God to be with them in their need......Lord hear us

The Baptism of Jesus

Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man: words which those of us who went to Benediction every week grew up with, and which sum up everything we have been celebrating over Christmas. They express a truth utterly fundamental to the Christian faith, and one which, as we know, people have always struggled with. And the reason is simple. Contained in this phrase of only nine words are two truths which, although in reality only one truth, seem to contradict each other. If Jesus is true God than how can he be true man too? And if he is true man, then how can he also be true God? All through history people have swung back and forward between these two positions never quite managing to hold the delicate balance in the middle. And even when we do manage to hold the two ends of the equation together, another question arises. If Jesus is true God and true man, at what point in his life did he realise that he was God, a question I offer as the starting point of today’s reflection.

Now I don’t know what your experience was in Kilmarnock, but for the person who taught me in my early years at school in Muirkirk, the answer to this question was never in doubt. For her, Jesus always knew he was God. Even as a new born baby, she told us, he knew everything there is to know and so it never crossed my mind to even question it in those days. I do now, however, and, nearly sixty years later, do not believe for one minute what I was taught then. And the reason is simple. If it’s true, then Jesus is not true man. This was the first of all the earky heresies. Those who taught it were called Docetists and what they said was that, while Jesus was true God, he only pretended to be human, something which would certainly be the case if, as an infant, he had known that the square on the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle was equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. And while this is a slightly flippant example, at the heart of this question lies something of absolutely fundamental importance to us as human beings.

And what we have to hold on to here is that it’s of the very essence of what it is to be human to grow in knowledge and understanding. We learn to walk and to talk along with a thousand other things which enable us to live our lives and grow to maturity. The inability to do these things as infants is not a fault or a flaw in our make-up. It’s what it means to be human. And so Jesus, being ‘true man’ had to learn all these things, just like any other human being. But at a much deeper level, we also have to learn through experience who we are in ourselves as individuals, a process which begins early but is most obvious around the age of two. We also have to learn about God and who we are in relation to God, and, as ‘true man’ Jesus had to learn these things too. And so, like us, he grew into an understanding of who he was. In other words, he did not always know he was God but grew to know this through the course of his life, the question being when did the full realisation of it dawn on him. I’ll give you my own answer to this later, but one of the things everyone would agree on is that , for Jesus, his baptism by John that day in the Jordan, was a crucial moment in this story. At which point I am going to make the first of two infallible statements I will make today.

And the first is that the same God who moved in Jesus as he came up from the water has moved in every single person here. This is not up for discussion. It’s a fact. And so I invite you to remember those times. And, if you have forgotten them – which is perfectly possible – to ask God to stir your memory this morning. Caste your mind back over the years and recognize how you have been led, step by step, through all that has happened in your life, towards a deeper understanding of who God is and who you are in relation to him. Most of the time this will have happened without you really noticing, except on reflection. On a few occasions, it will have been dramatic and powerful as in the Gospel story. But hear, deep within yourself today, the words Jesus heard in the Jordan, spoken now, not about him, but about you. ‘This is my Son/Daughter, the beloved, my favour rests on you.’ And believe them.

And my second infallible statement of the day is that that same God is still at work in you and, even now as we speak, is struggling to reveal himself to you. This, too, is a fact beyond dispute, although only you and you alone can know what it is God is actually doing . But I can offer, not for the first time, one simple clue. Look for the point of resistance. Look for the area in your life where fear is preventing you doing what, deep within yourself, you know is right. I have no idea what that means for you as an individual, but, deep inside yourself, you do, even if you spend a lot of time and energy avoiding it. And the reason this is such a good place to look for signs of what God is doing in you is this. Because it’s not what you necessarily want, there is less likeliehood that you are confusing God’s will with your own. God can and does speak through our own enthusiasms and our own desires – very much so – but they do need careful checking out to make sure that we are not deluding ourselves and simply projecting our own thoughts onto God, a very common mistake in today’s world. And for Jesus, this testing happened in the wilderness, straight after his baptism.

So when did he come to the full realisation that he was God? Well, for me, this truth dawned on him in all its fullness, only at the resurrection. And that, I believe, is when the full truth of who we are will dawn on us too. Having spent our whole lives growing in knowledge, the full truth will be revealed to us at the moment of death. Then we will we know all we need to know and it will be the most wonderful surprise, even if, at this point, we can’t quite bring ourselves to look forward to it.

BIDDING PRAYERS

In the second reading today, Peter speaks of how he has come to realise that anybody of any nationality is acceptable to God. But Peter had not always realised this. He had, in fact, as we read in Acts, resisted it with all his might, even when God had made it as plain as the nose on Peter’s face. And so we pray for the courage and willingness to go where God leads us, especially when it involves letting go of our own ideas and ways of thinking...................Lord hear us

When we were baptized, something happened to us which, at the time, we were incapable of understanding. We were baptized into Christ and called to be his disciples, making him present in the world by the witness our lives. And so we pray that, as the years pass, what was implicit and hidden from us on the day of our baptism will become explicit now and that we will become the people we were called to be all those years ago............Lord hear us

Throughout those years, God has been at work deep within us. In everything that has happened he has been there, calling us to himself and longing to reveal to us the full truth of who we are in his eyes. But for years we resist this movement, afraid to let God near, doubting his very existence and failing to take on board the sheer depth of his love for us; that each of us is his beloved son or daughter in whom he is well pleased. And so we ask for the grace to believe this..................Lord hear us

And we pray for the grace to listen to what God is doing in us now. We are not yet the people he dreams of us being. There is so much more that he longs to show us and share with us; so much more that, with our help and cooperation, he longs to do in the world. To be human is to grow in knowledge, but it is also to recognize the limitations of our knowledge and how much there still is to learn. And so we pray for a profound openness to new forms of truth..............Lord hear us

The first reading spoke of one who will bring true justice; who will open the eyes of the blind, free captives from prison and those in darkness from the dungeon. And so we pray that, through the Gospel of Jesus, men and women throughout the world today will see the great injustices of our time for what they are and be freed from the darkness of ignorance, hatred and prejudice which bedevil humanity. And as we do this, we think in a particular way of the people of Gaza...............Lord hear us

Fundamental to our faith in the modern world is our deep conviction that God is at work and reveals himself in the events of history. And so, as the second part of our Church History Course approaches – it takes place next weekend – we pray that whatever we learn over the coming months will help us understand better everything that has gone before us in the Church so that we are in a better position to discern the movement of God in our own time............Lord hear us

The Epiphany 2009

There was a bidding prayer at Midnight Mass which I know made an impression on some of you. I know, because you told me so yourselves. It spoke of the magic of the Christmas story and its power to speak, not so much to our intellect, but to our imagination, and, through our imagination, to touch us in ways mere ideas never could. And then, two days later, on radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’, I heard a lovely example of this. The presenter was Fr Jerome Murphy O’Connor, an Irish Dominican priest and cousin of Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, who, for the last forty years, has worked at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. He is a world renowned Scripture scholar who knows the New Testament inside out and knows perfectly well, therefore, that not everything about the Christmas story is history in the sense that we would use the word. But in his thought that morning he said nothing about this. Instead, he took the story of the flight into Egypt just as it is in Matthew’s Gospel and, using it imaginatively, invited his listeners to enter into the experience of Jesus the refugee and from there into the experience of refugees everywhere. And we can do the same with every aspect of the story.The Gospels, like all great literature, have the power to open up levels of insight and understanding far beyond the immediate meaning of the words on the page and it is in that sense that I invite you to join me today in an imaginative journey with the Magi.

And as I begin to imagine this story unfolding, the first thing which always strikes me is to wonder how many other people had the same initial urge to follow the star Westwards in search of the infant King of the Jews and what happened to them. We know from sometimes painful personal experience that not every thought or inclination leads to action. Many good ideas come to nothing and, in my imagination, this must have happened to many in the place the Magi came from. Like the seed that fell among thorns, they would have been so caught up in the cares of life that what began as a good idea remained no more than that and came to nothing; an invitation to reflect on how often this has happened in our own lives.

But for those who did begin the great journey in search of Jesus, many problems lay ahead. The journey to Bethlehem was a long one and would take them through many different lands. In my imagination many of those who set off would never have been abroad before and so, just a few days into the journey, would have taken cold feet and returned home. Unable to cope with new, unfamiliar experiences, they scurried back to where they were comfortable, seeking refuge in what they had always known and reminding us of the times when we have started journeys or projects only to give up on them when the going got a little bit tough.

But for those who resisted the temptation to turn back, the frontier of a very difficult land to pass through soon loomed ahead, the land of confusion and uncertainty. To leave one place and go to another where Jesus is involves more than an outward physical journey. Even more difficult than that journey, the journey from one place to another, was the inner journey each person had to make, the journey from one way of thinking to another which inevitably involves a period in the middle when nothing seems certain and everything seems in doubt. And at the centre of this land lies a great crossroads which no one passing through it can avoid. To the left, the signpost tells the traveller, lies certainty, something very attractive to the confused traveller, but in reality this is no certainty at all. It is only apparent certainty in the form of simple answers to complex questions and the name of the town which lies along this road is religious fundamentalism. And many today seek refuge in it. But Jesus is not to be found there. And to the right lies another town which offers some respite to the weary traveller. Its a kind of biblical Benidorm offering all kinds of attractions to distract the traveller and take his mind off the challenges of the journey. And so many who wanted to meet Jesus but didn’t want it enough settle down there and go no further. But for those who are brave enough and committed enough, the road ahead point towards Bethlehem and along this road go the Magi.

But before they reach the place where the child lay, the biggest challenge of all still lies ahead. In search of the infant King of the Jews, they, naturally, expect to find him in a palace. And so they visit Herod. But the one they have come so far to see is not there. They have been seeking him without ever realising who it is they seek. Unknown to them, the child they are looking for is infinitely more than they could ever have imagined. He is God made man and living among us. He is Son of God and son of Mary. He is something totally new in history with the result that all the expectations and all the pre-conceived ideas the Magi have brought with them from the East – up to now the place where people have gone in search of wisdom -have to be left outside at the entrance to the stable. What lies inside this stable is not power but powerlessness; not riches but poverty: not human wisdom but divine foolishness. The Magi brought their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh expecting to offer them to the new infant King, only to discover that, far from being the bearers of gifts, they are, in fact, the receivers of the greatest gift history has ever seen: God’s gift of himself. And so, as Matthew tells us, they went home by a different route, their whole lives transformed by the experience of meeting Jesus.

At this point, of course, you might imagine that they would take home with them the story of what had happened to them and who it was the star had led them to. But in my version of the story this is not what happened. There are some things which cannot be shared. We have to discover them and experience them for ourselves. And so when the Magi arrived home, no one even noticed them. By then the memory of the great journey so many had begun had faded. Life had moved on and, just like today, very few people would have known what they had missed out on. .... So, would you have?

BIDDING PRAYERS

On this Day of Prayer for Peace we begin by holding up before God the whole of humanity, torn apart, as it still is, by conflict and division. The journey through history in search of the peace we long for is slow and painful. Bogged down in ancient prejudices and century-old disputes, the world repeats over and over again the mistakes of history and so remains trapped in its past. And so we ask God today to lead us out of this trap into a new way of relating to each other.................Lord hear us

The peace we speak of is a peace the world cannot give. It is a peace only God can give. It is not the result of diplomacy and can never come about through warfare, no matter how many times we delude ourselves into thinking it can. It’s only possible when, through grace, the hearts of men and women throughout the world are changed and we begin to think as God thinks and love as God loves. And so we ask God to bring about this transformation through his Spirit at work in history.........Lord hear us

The Church, like the Magi, is itself involved in a great journey, this time through history. Many times over the centuries, however, it has wandered from the path and become bogged down in one mess after another of its own making. The great sign of this in today’s world is the tragic state of division which exists between the followers of Jesus, and, on this day of Prayer for Peace, we ask God to heal these divisions as a sign to humanity of an even deeper healing among nations........................Lord hear us

Our own parish, too, is on a journey. Rooted in the teaching of Jesus and in the tradition of the Catholic Church – especially the documents of the Second Vatican Council – we are moving slowly but surely from religion to faith, from being a people who have heard of God to a people who know God intimately. And so we thank God for the progress we have already made on this great journey and ask him for the courage and faith we need to persevere in it to the end...................Lord hear us

But in the end, it is each one of us who is on this journey. Each one of us is called, like the Magi, to follow the star wherever it takes us. But no two people follow exactly the same path. We journey within the context of the Christian community to which we belong, but, since God has a unique dream for each one of us, we must have the courage to discern our own individual vocation and follow it. And so we pray for the courage and maturity we need to do this.....................Lord hear us

When our own patron Matthew wrote the story of the Magi – and it is unique to his Gospel – he saw them as a sign, right at the beginning of Jesus’ life, of his mission to all nations. In Jesus there are no longer any divisions between one nation and another. In him all men and women are equal and every person on the face of the earth is our brother or sister. And so, as a parish bearing Matthew’s name, we pray that we will have an especially deep sense of this great truth...................Lord hear us