Advent (26)

Today we are challenged: will we only speak faith, or will we actually go and live it.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent is a season of waiting, but it is not a season of delay. It is meant to move us. It asks whether our faith stays on our lips or …

Today’s message is essentially about how God’s authority does not force us but invites us to be led.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent often begins with a question rather than an answer. Who will guide us when the way ahead is uncertain?

Our …

Advent today teaches us how to wait without hardening, by learning to recognise God’s work in real and often modest acts of healing and justice.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Gaudete, rejoice. The Church wears rose today not because the world is suddenly healed, but …

This homily is about a small light that keeps going, even when the night feels long.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent teaches us how to wait without giving up. Each week we light another candle on the Advent wreath. The darkness does not disappear at …

This homily reflects on Advent as a season of learning to listen again, especially when God speaks in ways we did not expect.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent often finds us tired before it finds us ready. We come carrying noise, disappointment, and …

This Advent word reminds us that God comes close to steady us, to lift the lowly, and to ask us whether we will make room for his kingdom in simple, costly ways.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent often begins more quietly than we expect. Not with …

At the heart of today’s Scriptures is a steady promise: God does not tire of us, even when we are worn thin.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, Advent meets us where we actually are, not where we wish we were. It meets us tired, carrying quiet worries, …

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 …

Today, we gather to celebrate a moment of profound joy and grace: the baptism of Luke Cameron Christopher Knezovich. This is a day of immense significance, not only for his parents Simone and Chris, or for Luke’s godparents Richard and Priscalla, or for his extended family, …

You are all welcome to this Church of the Immaculate Conception. We are all gathered here in this Church to share in this joyous occasion together and to celebrate the love that Graham and Janine both share for each other.

The readings we have just heard all speak about the …

I met Christopher and Simone at their Engaged Encounter weekend PC – that’s pre-COVID. And when they asked me to marry them I was deeply touched. But so much seems to have happened since then and yet, by God’s grace, we are all gathered here this afternoon, in this wonderful …

You are all welcome to this Church of the Holy Trinity. We are all gathered here in this Church to share in this joyous occasion together and to celebrate the love that Mphaga and Phindokuhle both share for each other.

Christians have long believed that human persons bear …

It is not often that we have such a coherent set of readings. The first reading comes at the end of Chapter 1 of the first book of Samuel. If one were to read the rest of the first chapter, one would learn that Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, was made fun of by Elkanah’s second …

Today I want to say something about dreams, and reflect on two people mentioned in today’s readings: Ahaz and Joseph.

Behind the innocent sounding text of our first reading is a saga that sounds like it is out of the popular TV show, Game of Thrones – by which I …

We might be forgiven this evening for being a little confused about today’s Gospel. It begins with John trying to ascertain what type of messiah Jesus was. Last week’s Gospel happened just before John baptized Jesus. So you would have thought that since he was …

“…The voice of one crying in the wilderness”

In today’s readings we hear from three voices who bring messages of hope to us this Advent.

The first voice is from the prophet Isaiah, who lived in a time when Israel had some underwhelming and despicable kings. …

Today is the First Sunday of Advent. It is the first day of the Church’s year and during this time the Church, in her liturgy, offers us images about the coming of the Lord. In the first part of Advent, the images are mostly about the second and glorious coming of …