Our Lord fought the three Temptations of Satan in the Desert where each temptation grew in intensity. Yet, unlike Adam and Eve who succumbed at the second thrust of Satan’s artifice, Our Lord did not. Our Lord remained faithful and the Devil departed in frustration but would return later when the hour of darkness had descended. The Angels came to Our Lord Jesus to give him comfort after this demonic sifting when Our Lord was at his physically weakest.

Build, Back, Better presupposes a total and global destruction of the material and spiritual reality of humanity. What better way to do this than to use the philosophy of the machine to overturn the spiritual organism that is Man and Woman and make them not into images of God, but mutated supermachines?

From the prophet Isaiah [8:23-9:3] we have the words of hope, a Messianic hope:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone.

These words touch on what happened to the tribes who lived in the north of Israel, the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali. These were the tribes who were the first to be taken into exile by the Assyrians in the 8th Century BC. At times today, we too feel there is an attempt to drag us all into exile! [Watch video about what is happening in Brazil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtBHamID9-E&ab_channel=Redacted]

If Pope St John Paul II was the Philosopher-Pope who engaged the World and then the Church, then Pope Benedict XVI was the Theologian-Pope who engaged the Church and then the World.

On Friday the Church celebrated the Solemnity of the Epiphany: "The Lord and ruler is coming; kingship is his, and government and power." The Coming of the Magi expresses the deepest desire of the human race as manifested in the fact that there are so many religions, namely, to meet their maker.

Today we are going to show how the Advent or Coming of Christ changes everything even space and time. The Greek word that scripture uses for the coming of the presence of Christ is parousia. Parousia is also the foundation for the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, for the presence of Christ in the Gospel accounts and is the word used when we speak of his 2nd Coming

At the end of the Church’s year we focus on the Feast of Christ the King which is a feast that touches on all aspects of human existence….Pope Pius XI instituted The Feast of Christ the King in 1925 for the universal church in his encyclical Quas Primas. In so doing, like Gandalf, he drove his pontifical staff in to the bridge of power and said to all the secular Balrogs of our modern times, “You shall not pass… for Christ is King, not you!” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwmJ76VjXaE&ab_channel=TheHobbit ]

Given that this is the beginning of the month of November and given these times of austerity and want I suspect there will be fewer fireworks being let off to the chant of ‘Remember, remember, the 5th of November!’ I would want to say in these times ‘Remember, remember the month of November is the month of the poor Holy Souls’ and maybe I would like to say let us not forget the poor in our midst rendered such by the rich and powerful Scrooges of our times!

The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II was traditional in many ways and seems to harken from olden times. As such it seems to fly in the face of all the attempts to modernise Queen and Country over these last 70 years. It is the story of the Lion and the Unicorn, the Monarchy and the Common People...

We have two sides to the loss of the Queen, a Queen who reigned for 70 years. There is the loss of the long reigning monarch, Elizabeth II, and there is the loss of the person who wore this crown, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. There may be extreme reactions to her death be they a crevasse of hyper-sentimentality or a crevasse of hyper-criticism that could smother this great loss for this nation and for the Commonwealth, but as Catholics we must keep our heads.

The Feast of St Bernard on 20th August seems to coincide this year with the 75th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Code. Is there a connection? Is this a coincidence? No, it is something more - it is a God-incidence!

We constantly struggle against chaos, complexity and doubt. Interestingly, the sea is Biblically presented as a symbol of chaos and indeed there is a monster in the deep called the Leviathan. At the same time, Biblically speaking, we have the Logos or the Word that hovers over the deep to bring order out of chaos…. Today, we have the struggle between the Order of Faith and the Chaos of Doubt!

Hospitality is a major theme in our 1st reading and Gospel today. But playing host to God is a real world shaker and it starts with sitting at the feet of Christ which the Psalmist anticipates by being the voice of God: ‘be still and know that I am God.’ Here we find the centre of true life, the eye in the storms of life and the dam of grace that holds back the flood waters of our sins.

Pentecost is either setting the world on fire or putting it to the torch! Pentecost is fundamentally about the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, Our Lady and all the disciples gathered in the upper room (Acts 2) and so the gift of the Holy Spirit brings to birth a new Creation: the Church. The Holy Spirit comes like a roaring wind, a shaking force and tongues of fire and so sets the Apostles on fire.

The mystery of the Ascension touches on how big reality really is and it is therefore of Cosmic significance. One of the myths of our modern times is revealed in the series called ‘Star Trek’ which also considers the issue of what is the final frontier.

Why does the Church call a Council? The Council in Jerusalem had been called to deal with a problem that divided the Church. It was a dispute over whether or not pagans had to become Jews before they could become Christians.

I have always considered that the imagination was the gateway into the countryside of the soul, but one that needed to be baptised, redeemed and sanctified. And if so, it could furnish the grounds for a Christian Imagination on a personal level but also on a communal and cultural level too.

The 4th Sunday of Easter is called Good Shepherd’s Sunday and as such it focuses us on the issue of Vocation. But the Good Shepherd looks after, guides and protects his flock. Protects them from what? From wolves, bears and lions!

The Gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Easter begins with 7 disciples including Peter returning to a place and an activity where they first met Our Lord and heard the Lord’s call, Galilee [John 21:1-19]. It is a very much a moment full of previous moments and it feels like déjà vu!

Today is called Divine Mercy Sunday. On this Sunday we are called by Our Lord to cleave to him as our hope, our rock and our refuge. It is good news for ALL sinners. It points to the grace of mercy that is close at hand, at our fingers and waiting to be given to us, if only we ask.