Reflections for Christmas

The Nativity of the Lord

December 25, 2023

We’ve spent four weeks anticipating this day, maybe a little longer if you are younger, or less if you’ve been busy at work or otherwise. Maybe you’ve got the sleigh before the reindeer, so to speak, by putting up all the celebratory symbols in advance of the actual event, but I’m sure you’ve held off […]

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The Epiphany of the Lord

January 8, 2023

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that people who live in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate Christmas in the middle of summer. For me Christmas is so deeply linked with snow, fires, darkness outside, that I just find it impossible to get my head around Christmas with hot sunny days, and a barbecue on the

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The Baptism of the Lord

January 9, 2022

Today is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This Feast lies at the transition from our Christmas season, focused on the Nativity, to the rest of our Liturgical year, based around the adult life of Jesus. The baptism of Jesus obviously links to the grown man – it occurs as Jesus is about

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The Epiphany of the Lord

January 2, 2022

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. Which is a little confusing since you might remember there are supposed to be twelve days of Christmas, the last being the Epiphany on January 6. But in some parts of the world, including the US, the feast gets moved to the nearest Sunday. Since many people

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The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

December 24, 2021

Christmas has arrived, our celebration of the Nativity of the Lord. But this Christmas is disrupted, by illness, by fear, by divisions between people which seem irreconcilable. And yet this is the season of “peace and goodwill to all”. Really? Maybe we ourselves are fortunate to be able to celebrate with family and friends, but

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The Baptism of the Lord

January 10, 2021

Today, with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the final feast of the Christmas season, we transition from our celebration of Christmas and our focus on the childhood of Jesus to his adult life. Appropriately our gospel reading is from the start of Mark’s Gospel. Mark doesn’t include anything before this time –

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The Epiphany of the Lord

January 3, 2021

For Isaiah Jerusalem was the center of the world, God’s world. That was where the camels would bring the gift-bearers with their gold and frankincense. Matthew uses the same image to place the infant Jesus at the center of God’s world. It’s no longer a place that matters, it is a person. The Feast of

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