Reflections & Homilies

Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time The parable of the talents, which is our Sunday Gospel, needs some very definite explanation, because its real message is nothing to do with our personal gifts and skills, but everything to do with our actions and task in being a good steward for the Lord. The problem is of course that word 'talent' which in the English language is a metaphor and is used, eithe... Read More

After his arrival Montevideo and the official welcomes yesterday, Pope Leo led Vespers in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of Saints Philip and James, with Bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and seminarians. "Faithfulness to our vocation calls us to return again and again to Jesus Christ; to let Him be our treasure, the one whom we wish to resemble, " he told them. Po... Read More

Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Remembrance Sunday in the UK) In one sense the parable of the ten virgins is easy to understand, if we remind ourselves that the status of the attendants is not the subject matter of the story, rather it is what they do or do not do that concerns us. They are part of the ceremonial activity that surrounded the third distinct part of the cultural setting of a ... Read More

Engaging in economic and political life in accordance with Christian faith and the Social Doctrine of the Church can be a way to build peace, Pope Leo XIV said during the General Audience in St Peter's Square today, 4 November 2026. "Politics that tends to the wounds of peoples and of those who suffer injustice offers grounds for hope for the future of humanity," the Pope highlighted. "As Pope Fra... Read More

Everything we possess-goods, talents, time, opportunities-is a gift we have received. However, we often let the desire to accumulate harden our hearts, trap us in selfishness, and distance us from the most vulnerable. True wealth is not measured by what we keep, but by what we are able to share with love and justice. Pope Leo, in his prayer intention for this month, invites us to pray for the good... Read More

Homily given by Bishop Stephen Wang for his Mass of Thanksgiving at Westminster Cathedral on 30 October 2026. St Paul is almost overwhelmed with gratitude as he writes to the Christian community in Philippi. Listen to how emphatic he is, and how every word seems to be touched with emotion. He says, "I thank God, every time I remember you; always, in every prayer of mine, for each one of you. I pra... Read More

In his Angelus message on the Solemnity of All Saints, Pope Leo recalled the countless saints who have dedicated their life to Christ and emphasized how we are all called to be holy and make choices of love that transcend evil. Holiness means, with God's grace, bringing forth "actions and choices of love that transcend the calculations of greed and the arrogance of evil, which at times seems to pr... Read More

All Saints - 'The power of gentleness and the gentleness of power' NT Wright We deserve to treat our spiritual lives better, we deserve to discover the gentleness and humility of Jesus by learning again and again to really listen to his presence in the 'Word', primarily in the Scriptures. I write this with a sense of almost desperation at the noise and almost truths spouted at us by Christians ... Read More

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, delivered this homily today for the Solemnity of Our Lady Queen of Palestine 2026 at Deir Rafat. Acts 1:12-14; Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10a; Luke 1:41-50 Dear Excellencies, Dear Brothers and Sisters, May the Lord give you peace! As we do every year, we gather here, at the feet of the Virgin Mary, to entrust to her our Church a... Read More

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 148 There are moments in our faith life, or as others might put it, stops on our faith journey, when we are faced with an emptiness in prayer, or perhaps what we regard as a silence from God, which sometimes can come in the form of disillusionment with what we have found as comfort and consolation from our faith. These moments or times are not to be un... Read More

Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A What do you think Paul means when he writes to the Thessalonians this comment about the preaching and teaching of the Gospel? 'For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction'. (I Thessalonians 1:5b) Personally I would not go too far down any route of imputing the gift of power and th... Read More

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time On first hearing or reading through it the gospel this Sunday is simply quite awful. It's a dreadful tale of forced hospitality, murder and naked brutality. We can pick up the dreadful sequence of the tale, firstly those invited to the wedding feast of the King's Son are summoned, and not untypically for a down trodden people resist this summons : 'He ( the Ki... Read More

Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time and Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi and 800th Anniversary of his death I write this in gentle recuperation in my family village in France. Surrounding me are the forests and lakes of the first plateau of the Alps in the Jura Department of the Bourgogne-Franche Comte Region, but particularly in this locale of the great vine growing region of what is called th... Read More

There are wounds that often remain invisible and are lived in the deepest solitude. Those experiencing a mental illness usually face, in addition to their own suffering, the weight of stigma and the indifference of those who look the other way. Faced with this reality, the Church is called to be an open home, a community that listens without judging and that accompanies. Pope Leo, in his prayer in... Read More