Reflections for Advent

Today we hear another of those wonderful prophesies of Isaiah (Is 11:1-10). His vision of a world free of any kind of violence and division holds out hope to a people overwhelmed by conflict and danger. Paul notes: Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of […]

They shall beat their swords into plowsharesand their spears into pruning hooks;one nation shall not raise the sword against another,nor shall they train for war again. Is 2:4 What was Isaiah thinking? This makes no sense – he knew perfectly well that that didn’t describe the world he experienced in Judah at that time. It

Today we hear a story of two women (Lk 1:39-45). Two pregnant women supporting each other, as women have done since the beginning of human time, and doubtless will for all time to come.  We hear something of their intimacy. One very young and probably still trying to understand what has just happened to her.

Two weeks to Christmas! I remember that as a child it was about this time that Christmas started to seem close, the excitement grew, the wondering what presents were coming. We get some of the same sense of excitement, of expectation, in the people in Luke’s account of John the Baptist (Lk 3:10-18). Even the

One of the longest lasting achievements of the Romans was their road system. Many major highways in Europe still follow the routes of Roman roads. Their engineering skills were not matched until the Eighteenth Century and we still don’t fully understand how they built some of their tunnels given the limited surveying techniques they had.

Reading today’s Gospel we could be forgiven for thinking we had dozed off, woken up, and it’s still the last Sunday of the year, the Feast of Christ the King, when we have a focus on the end of time and the final return of Jesus. Today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke (Lk 21:25-28,

In the final week of our Advent, so close to Christmas, we hear how Mary said yes to God’s plan. We also hear how King David muses about how he has a plan for God… “Since I’ve been so successful, maybe I should build a house for you.” To which God replies “You build a

“Rejoice always!” “Rejoice always” says Paul. Not just on Sundays, or weddings, or when we feel things are going well. Paul has a tendency to say what he means. “Rejoice always” is not “Rejoice when you feel up for it”. Isaiah rejoices because “the Lord God will make justice and praise spring up before all

“Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry mountain and hill made low …” Isaiah’s words as set to music by George Frederic Handel in his masterpiece The Messiah. For many of us these words are as closely linked to Christmas as fir trees and reindeer. But I’m afraid, just as there is no mention of

St Paul tells us to wait, St Mark tells us to watch. But for what exactly? Even Isaiah gets it wrong: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you, while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for, such as they had not heard of from