Christmas (8)

In today’s gospel we are presented with three wise men who sought to discern the happenings of great events in the stars. A common misconception presents the wise men as kings. The probable cause of this confusion comes from Ps 72 that we sung today for our psalm, where we …

Baptism of Our Lord – St. Ignatius 10am – Year C – Lk 3: 15-22 It may surprise you to learn that the early Christian community were very embarrassed by the Baptism of the Lord. This was because it upset the neat categories that they were trying to establish: namely that John …

We as Catholics often get a lot of flak from certain other Christians for according far too much importance and respect to Mary. What they don’t seem to understand is that Mary always points the way to her son, Jesus Christ. Focusing on Mary is a helpful way to gain new …

There is a story told of three farmers sitting around the fire one evening after a hard day’s work. Two of them were having an argument about what was the best way to plant their grain. After realizing that they were getting nowhere in trying to convince the other, they both …

The film, The Dark Knight, released in 2008 as part of the Batman franchise, has striking parallels with the story of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Harvey Dent, the new police commissioner has won over the hearts of the whole of Gotham and become for everyone the model of …

Matthew’s gospel opens with a rather long and tedious genealogy of Jesus and we might wonder why we need to listen to such a boring list on a joyful night like tonight. Genealogies serve a number of purposes in the Scriptures. On the one hand, they serve to establish the …

There can be a certain temptation to idealize the Holy Family and think that as a family they never fought or misunderstood each other or failed to get along because of their own human frailty. To be completely clear, human frailties are not the same as sin. There can be …

A number of years ago, a certain priest had gone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While he was there he bought a beautiful wood carved Nativity set. It was so delicate, he did not want to risk putting it his checked luggage, and so decided to carry it in his hand luggage. …