The Jesuit Institute (38)

WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT YEARS 1 & 2 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

          First Reading       Isaiah 40:25–31
          Response       Psalm 103:1
          Psalm       Psalm 103:1–4, 8, 10
          Gospel Acclamation       Text
          Gospel …

Dear friends in Christ,

A shepherd sees one sheep missing. He leaves the rest and goes to find it. That simple image, which Jesus gives us in today’s Gospel, helps us understand everything else we hear in today’s readings. Advent is not only about waiting. It is about a God …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The story of salvation begins with a woman. And today, we remember that it begins again—with another woman.

In the first reading from Genesis, God calls out to Adam, “Where are you?” Adam and Eve are hiding. They are ashamed. Something in …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we begin with a simple image: a small green shoot growing out of an old tree stump. It looks fragile, yet it refuses to die. That is the heart of Advent. When we see endings, God sees beginnings. When we lose hope, God plants it. …

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we gather with a quiet hope burning within us: that God is nearer than we think—guiding, healing, and sending us to tend a wounded world.

Let one image carry us through today’s Word: a gentle voice guiding a traveller through thick …

Dear friends in Christ, today we are offered a simple truth that carries the weight of heaven: God teaches us to see again. Everything in these Advent readings leads us toward this gentle but urgent promise: our vision restored, our courage renewed, and our hearts awakened …

Dear friends in Christ, today we stand in Advent’s quiet light, listening for the steady voice that teaches us how to build a life that can stand. If there is a single thread running through the Scriptures for this Thursday of the First Week of Advent, Year A, it is this: …

Dear friends in Christ, this homily carries one simple image: God prepares a table on the mountain, and through saints like Francis Xavier he sends us out to bring the world there.

Francis Xavier, one of the first companions of Ignatius, stands as a sign of what grace can do …

Dear friends in Christ, today’s readings invite us to see how God plants new life in places that seem cut down, and how a humble, childlike heart becomes the soil where this new life grows.

Isaiah tells us that a shoot rises from the stump of Jesse. Not the proud heights of …

Dear friends in Christ, today the Church invites us to see that God comes quietly to the humble, comes faithfully to the weary, and comes surprisingly to the outsider; and that Advent is the season in which our eyes learn again how to recognise him.

Our first reading from …

Dear friends in Christ, this Advent season begins with a simple truth: it teaches us to notice the first light of God’s coming and to walk toward it with honest, steady hearts. Everything we hear today points us toward that light.

Our first reading from Isaiah gives us a …

Dear friends in Christ, today we stand at the thin edge of a liturgical year that draws to a close, and the readings invite us to see our own lives as a landscape where God is quietly, steadily, patiently building a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. Everything that follows …

Dear friends in Christ, as we reach the final days of our Church’s year, the Scriptures invite us to see our world with clarity and hope, and to trust that even when history bends and familiar things shift, God’s promise stands firm.

Throughout this week the liturgy has …

Dear friends in Christ, as we come to the last week of the Church’s year, the Word invites us to look up with steady hope, even when life feels uncertain. These final days of the liturgical calendar always turn our eyes toward endings and beginnings, toward the truth that …

Dear friends in Christ, our readings today offer one clear insight: when human strength wavers or pretends to be stronger than it is, God remains steady, and those who trust him can stand steady too. This simple line of truth runs through our readings.

Picture the scene in …

Dear friends in Christ, today we hold a simple truth before us: when everything we trust begins to tremble, God teaches us how to stand, and how to help others stand with us.

Our first reading from the prophet Malachi speaks with the clarity of a bright, hard morning. He …

Dear friends in Christ, today’s readings offer us a gentle but strong truth: prayer is not only about hanging on; it is also about standing up. It is both persistence and insistence, a steady trust in God and a clear claim to the dignity that God has already given us.

Our …

The readings today are about learning to notice God in the ordinary moments of life and choosing a way of seeing that keeps the heart open. Dear friends in Christ, we stand with St Joseph Pignatelli, who helped the Society through years of suppression by trusting the quiet …

Tonight, we gather in joyful anticipation, standing on the threshold of a profound mystery that brings beings from heaven and earth to rejoice—from angels to shepherds, from kings to lowly animals. This is the night when the eternal promise of salvation takes flesh, the …

Tonight, we gather on this sacred night to celebrate the eve of our Savior’s birth and to mark the opening of the 2025 Jubilee. This is no ordinary night—it is a night that bridges heaven and earth, light and darkness, promise and fulfillment. We stand at the threshold …

All our readings are taken from near the end of their books, and so are summaries in a way of their main and most important messages. This is not surprising as we come to the end of the Church’s Liturgical Year next week. I want to briefly examine each of the readings and …

Today we are asked to contemplate authority and to pray for those in authority. Authority is legitimate power, and in our readings today we see how certain individuals are legitimized, and what power is given to them by the ultimate authority, the one whom Peter calls the …

Today’s first reading contains a word that has taken on new dimensions and has been felt more often in these days than in the past. “Terror is on every side!” We currently are continuing to face the terror of a pandemic. And that’s been enough to make us all anxious and …

Before Jesus Ascends, he needs to explain to the apostles that they will not be left alone. That he will send his spirit to be with them.

In the first reading we see Philip fulfilling a prophecy of Jesus that the Good News would be preached in Samaria. Samaria was home to …

Dear Friends,

This is the day that the LORD has made;

Rejoice and be glad. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Happy Easter everyone.

We have been celebrating Lent since the 26th of February, and this has been a Lent like no other we have known. We have had to sacrifice so much: our …

Today I want to talk about the readings but I also want to say a few words about the past week in South Africa and how the readings have resonated with my experience of them. Today’s readings talk about three things. We hear talk of prophesy in the first reading, a righteous …

At the heart of today’s readings is, I think, the distinction between a gift and a reward. God is always gifting us, blessing us, and bestowing grace upon us. It is not something we can ever earn or take for granted, rather we can only say how unworthy we are of it and thank …

In our readings today we are once again reminded of the humility we need in our relationship with God, and with creation, and with each other. This humility – we can recall – was a key feature of last week’s readings where we realized how humility was a truthful attitude and …

Our readings today address a disappointed people but they offer a universal hope of salvation – not a guarantee, but a promise that all are welcome.

We know that 200 years after the text of Isaiah was written, there was great disappointment among the Jews after their exile, …

Ecclesiastes is a book in the Bible that forms part of the wisdom tradition and is named after the assembly, the church ecclesia, to whom the preacher Qoheleth is speaking. A previous wisdom book, the Book of Proverbs, made an argument that hard work and careful planning …

Last week we celebrated the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. A feast that reminded us that “Within God there is distinction but no difference. And that within God there is love without distance or diminishment.” [because, as Fr Terence Klein recently noted in his …

Our readings today are bound together with two overarching questions. The first question we might reflect on is who do we listen to? The second is do we know what time it is?

What has appeared repeatedly in our Easter readings is the story of the Church’s universal mission. …

Our readings this Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, speak of coming home. St Paul in our second reading speaks of Jesus appealing to us to be reconciled with God. The Jews, after their wanderings in the desert after leaving Egypt and being sustained through the manna from …

On Wednesday this week we all gathered to receive ashes and were told to ‘repent and believe in the Gospel’ or to ‘remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return’. Repent, Believe, Remember. These are good things to do during Lent as we prepare ourselves to celebrate …

Today’s readings are about restoration and healing, and today, I hope, you have had some time to be restored and to at least begin to recognize areas where you might need God’s healing. After journeying with Moses up the mountain and seeing the burning bush and entering into …

Today we remember All the Saints. This feast started out as the Feast for All Martyrs and was celebrated on 13 May in Rome. The Eastern Church adopted this as early as the year 359. It was so popular at the time it was celebrated during the Roman harvest so that enough food …

Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the day that around the world marks the beginning of Lent, the start of our long journey towards the resurrection at Easter. The prophet Joel says today, “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. …

Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the day that around the world marks the beginning of Lent. Although Lent is often thought of as a time for repentance and penance – and it is certainly that – it is also a happy time because it is the way we prepare as Christians …