For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord, my God.
That was the response we repeated in between the verses of today’s Psalm, following today’s first reading. Psalm 62 (63 in Hebrew numbering) is surely one of the most loved and lovely of all the Psalms.
Homily of the Feast of All Saints: Sunday 1 November 2026
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A: 18 October 2026 Isaiah 45:1.4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21
Fr. Prior Simon
Today we get a very entertaining passage from Matthew's Gospel, short but full of tension and drama, sarcasm and wit. It all happens after Our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the cleansing of the Temple. Riding on the wave of popular support, as it were, Jesus has swept right into what was the very centre of political power and religious devotion for the Jewish people.
Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, 4 October 2026, Sunday 27A: Phil 4:6-9
Today’s second reading gives us just 4 verses from Philippians. The passage is very familiar: a wonderful one to take very slowly, reading it word by word as a prayerful lectio divina. Chewing over these words, we can draw life-giving nourishment from them, and inspiration, and encouragement, and consolation, and affirmation.
Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, Sunday 26A, 27 September 2026: Phil 2:1-11
In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we see him at his happiest. The Christians in Philippi had none of the severe problems that beset other Churches, for example in Galatia or at Corinth. Here was Paul in his prison cell, chained either to a wall or to a soldier, and whenever he thought of the Philippians, he was cheered and consoled.
Homily for Sunday 25A, 20 September 2026
Isaiah 55:6-9; Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a; Matthew 20:1-6
What is the Kingdom of heaven like? What is God’s way of salvation like? What is the Christian life like?
Once upon a time, a householder set out to hire labourers for his vineyard. Our Lord tells us this story, which may perhaps strike us as somewhat bizarre, then he leaves us without any sort of explanation. So that gives us rather a lot of freedom to interpret or apply it as we can.
Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, 23 August 2026, Sunday 21A: Matthew 16:13-20
Who do you say that I am?
Really none of the disciples at Caesarea Philippi needed advanced qualifications in rocket science to answer this question. For them, and for readers of St. Matthew’s Gospel, the answer must be stark staring obvious. That is, unless you believe with the Pharisees that Jesus is a blaspheming imposter, or else possibly a raving madman: in either case he would have to be acting with the power of all the demons of hell.