All Saints and All Souls
Honouring all Saints. Throughout the year the Church honours those Saints whose names and stories we know. Almost every day of our year is dedicated to God’s holy Saints. At the start of November the Church celebrates the Feast of All Saint as a way of honouring those whose names we do not know. We take the time to remember that there are many Saints in Heaven whose stories we do not know, whose lives were perhaps very simple and private, but who nevertheless achieved the
God believes in us
When we come to Mass, the liturgy tries to dispose us to speak humbly to God. To prepare ourselves to celebrate these sacred mysteries we are made to come face to face with our shortcomings. Like the tax collector who, even as he strayed from the accepted standards of Jewish piety was haunted by his conscience and wanted to repent, we are saying to God, “be merciful to me, a sinner.” We would like to be better but there seems to be a law of gravity that keeps pulling us down.
God is good!
Today’s culture is all about success. We measure all that we do in terms of success: our career, our relationships, our investments, etc. And yet this notion of success has no place in our relationship with God. In the parable for this Sunday, Jesus shows us how an unjust judge is able to grant a wish of a widow because of her persistence. The parable is full of bad examples. First, the judge is unjust. Second, he grants the wish of a widow for the wrong reasons, so tha
Remember to show your gratitude
A country boy was told by his teacher that he needed glasses; he was not able to see the blackboard and was getting behind in his classes. His father scoffed at the idea- only sissies wore glasses. He saved his money until he was able to buy a pair in Woolworths. They were not prescription glasses, but they made a vast improvement. He hid them until late one night he sneaked out of the house and looked at the beautiful starlit sky. For the first time in his life he saw the Bi