Micah 7:14-15, 18-20Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 My son, you are with me always, and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found. These are some of my favourite verses from the Parable of …
Author Archives: Turvey Nuns
Friday in the Second Week of Lent
Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28aMatthew 21:33-43, 45-46 In just one verse the writers of Genesis paint for us a scene that so easily strikes a chord. We can imagine the first time Joseph appears in his special coat. We can imagine the looks and the mutterings. We just know things aren’t going to turn out too …
Thursday in the Second Week of Lent
Jeremiah 17:5-10Luke 16:19-31 Today’s Gospel of the Rich Man and Lazarus is part of a sequence of Luke’s exposition of Kingdom values. We meet the familiar theme of a reversal of the world’s ways. Grace and favour come to those whom the world forgets. The Rich Man is desperate for his own suffering to be …
St Joseph
2 Sam 7:4-5, 12-14,16Matthew 1:16, 18-21,24 We step off the Lenten path to celebrate the Feast of St Joseph. Unlike other saints in our calendar, we have no dates of his birth or death, whether from history or folklore. But what we do have is his silent belief in God’s promise. The first reading from …
Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent
Isaiah 1:10. 16-20Matthew 23:1-12 Wash, make yourselves clean.Take your wrong-doing out of my sight.Cease to do evil.Learn to do good,search for justice,help the oppressed,be just to the orphan,plead for the widow. This is one of my favourite pieces of Hebrew poetry. It has a rhythm which makes it easy to memorise. It’s an uncompromising message …
Monday in the Second Week of Lent
Daniel 9:4-10Luke 6:36-38 Today in the first reading from Daniel the prophet looks back over Israel’s covenant relationship. He fully acknowledges that Israel has strayed far from God and to them ‘the look of shame belongs.’ Israel is now completely dependent on God’s mercy. In the Gospel today Jesus invites his disciples to ‘be compassionate …
Second Sunday in Lent (C)
Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. Much of the spiritual life involves the following of a fairly ordinary path of joys and challenges, moments of insight and times …
Saturday in the First Week of Lent
Deuteronomy 26:16-19Matthew 5:43-48 ‘The Lord your God commands you today to observe these laws and customs; you must keep them with all your heart and all your soul.‘ The Book of Deuteronomy is a favourite of mine. Commentators have drawn my attention to the number of times the ‘heart’ is mentioned. What Deuteronomy offers is …
Friday in the First Week of Lent
Ezekiel 18:21-28Matthew 5:20-26 The picture that I have used today is of our chapel at Turvey. The place in front of the altar is of huge monastic significance. It is there that you stand as a postulant and ask to begin your monastic journey and then some months later you will stand there as you …
Thursday in the First Week of Lent
Esther 4:1-7Matt 7:7-12 ASKSEARCHKNOCK These are all aspects of our life of prayer. Asking God for our own needs and the needs of others is something we learn from an early age. It is, of course, not without its problems. We don’t always get what we ask for. Later in life we learn that our …