Word in the Hand

Gospel John 6:1-15  Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee – or of Tiberias – and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.   Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’ He only said this to test Philip; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting rea...

Sunday Gospel Mark 6:30-34  The apostles rejoined Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. Then he said to them, ‘You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while’; for there were so many coming and going that the apostles had no time even to eat. So they went off in a boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. But people saw them going, and many could guess where; and from every town they all hurried to the place on foot and reached it before them. So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions sea rched for.  Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.” ―Maya Angelou  There is something in the Catholic psyche that has a need to be busy. Particularly English Catholics...

The calling of Mary Magdalen ‘Mary’ I know that sound A stranger’s name Do you not see? Goodness gone Devoured Nameless ‘Go now’ Speaking – not to me. Eyes flash Claws bury into flesh Adamant A surge of rage And then, Gone. ‘Will you come?’ Foolish question. The light is not for me Dark space Unknowing, unknown A leper’s curse upon it I know my place. ‘I have called you’ A silhouette stands Against my soul’s daybreak Shadows scoured by sunlight ‘Did you not hear me, Mary? I have called you by your name You are mine.’ The 'Why' of Mary Magdalen She awoke from a curse of sleep; uncertain that she was truly awake or  dreaming of a 'might have been' the demons had denied her. Keeping her eyes closed she waited for the shudder of reality and the shrill laughter that meant she was still forsaken. The world remained but still she did not open her eyes - she had become used to the dark - casting her...

First reading Amos 7:12-15  Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, said to Amos, ‘Go away, seer;’ get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’ ‘I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets,’ Amos replied to Amaziah ‘I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock, and the Lord who said, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” ― John Muir I don't often reflect on the Old Testament part of the Sunday readings but I have a soft spot for Amos ever since I first noticed this reading and spent the rest of the Mass imagining him as a shepherd in a Tolkien-esque landscape where trees were like Ents and needed to be shepherded to stop them going over cliffs and getting lost in the wastela...

Sunday Gospel Mark 6:7-13  Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added, ‘Do not take a spare tunic.’ And he said to them, ‘If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.’ So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them. “What happens when people open their hearts?"... "They get better.” ―  Haruki Murakami, To begin with the Twelve; this is one of the pieces of scripture that suggests that there are those that are especially chosen to carry out the work of Jesus. That the...

First reading of today's Mass Hosea 2:16;17-18,21,22 It is the Lord who speaks: I am going to lure her and lead her out into the wilderness and speak to her heart. I am going to give her back her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a gateway of hope. There she will respond to me as she did when she was young, as she did when she came out of the land of Egypt. When that day comes – it is the Lord who speaks – she will call me, ‘My husband’, no longer will she call me, ‘My Baal.’ I will betroth you to myself for ever, betroth you with integrity and justice, with tenderness and love; I will betroth you to myself with faithfulness, and you will come to know the Lord. The imperative of the Mission in Mark's Gospel has been having it's effect on me.  When we first began studying Mark in our scripture group we chose some words to fit -  hard work, mission, sacrifice, movement, vision; words that demanded a lot from ...

Sunday Gospel Mark 6:1-6 Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. 'when your heart gets broken you begin to see the cracks in everything. Tragedy may want to harden us but the mission is to never let it' This Sunday we are hosting the Annual Shrewsbury Diocese A...

Gospel John 20 Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him: ‘You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’   It is difficult to know what to say about this Gospel that hasn't been said before. Thomas the Doubter is given to us as a person who questions- the 'everyman' who, after ...