Matthew 22:34-40 ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.’ This week’s Gospel almost comes as a bit of a relief after some very difficult parables and scenes of Jesus being put on the spot. …
Author Archives: Turvey Nuns
Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 22:15-21 Any talk of tax and taxation can very easily set up a polarity. Attitudes differ within our own political parties in the UK and across the world. As I walk into this scene in the Gospels I find myself trying to imagine what it would be like to live under an occupying power. …
Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 25:6-10Matthew 22:1-14 When I sat down to read today’s Gospel I had a few ideas about how I understood the passage and I turned to my usual commentaries. No pennies dropped and I was getting close to giving up and writing something on the First Reading from Isaiah 25 instead. Something made me persevere …
Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 5:1-7Matthew 21:33-43 When we open the Scriptures, we open a world of story, poetry and metaphor. Origen, a Third Century theologian, likens the Bible to a mansion. The various books of the Bible are doors which we need to unlock. Outside each door is a key which will unlock one door. Our task is …
Twenty Six Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 21:28-32 St Benedict expected unhesitating obedience from his monks: ‘The first step of humility is unhesitating obedience, which comes naturally to those who cherish Christ above all.’ (Rule of St Benedict, Ch 5, On Obedience) For St Benedict cherishing Christ is key to everything that happens in the monastery. Reading this challenging line from …
Feast of the Archangels
Daniel 7:9-10,13-14Psalm 137John 1:47-51 When I was in the third form in secondary school, we had an innovative head of year. She was a very zany dresser, combining full length fake mink coats with yellow wellies. Just seeing her outfits always gave me a lift. Her assemblies were memorable too. She used to play music …
Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 20:1-16 The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day, and sent them to his vineyard. Writing in 1954, biblical scholar Joachim Jeremias, calls this text The Parable of the Good Employer. He …
St Matthew
Matthew 9:9-13 The Nuns of Twitter have been sharing their experiences of their vocation journeys. While there are some differences between our experiences, we all share that mixture of courage, trepidation and love that was needed for us each to make that initial contact and then formally ask to enter a congregation or monastery. ‘As …
Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 18:21-35 The figure of the servant who is forced to settle a debt and doesn’t have the means to do so unsettles me from the very beginning of this parable. His earnest pleas are heard and to my relief his huge debt is cancelled. It would be good if the parable stopped there. The …
Exaltation of the Cross
Numbers 21:4-9 John 3:13-17 Today’s first reading from Numbers is the story of the people being bitten by snakes in the wilderness. Moses fashions a bronze serpent, holds it up and whoever looks upon it lives. Whatever we might think of the likelihood of this happening, the point the story is the power of God to …