6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Sermon – Year B homily


6th Sunday in Ordinary time – Year B
“Of course I want to! Be cured” (Mk 1:40-45):
Effect of Encounter with Jesus – holistic wellbeing
 
Here is a one-line summary of my reflection: The result of an authentic encounter with Jesus is a holistic wellbeing!
For my PhD work, I sampled some 25 young people in Nairobi, taught them an ancient method of prayer: the Jesus Prayer. They practiced it individually and in groups for 10 weeks.  At the end of that period, I interviewed ten of the participants and collected the journal-entries of ten others, while all participants took a battery of psychological tests.  One of the findings that emerged from the interviews and journal entries is that the practice of the Jesus Prayer is associated with transformation at three levels: at the level of the individual self in terms of greater self-awareness […]

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4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Sermon – Year B homily

8ee3991bcbb5d3b03d41f65708c4b269He taught them with authority (Mk 1:21-28)
4th Sunday in Ordinary time – Year B
  For another sermon, please CLICK HERE
Varieties of Authority
I don’t know if you have watched those old black-and-white fast moving films from the time of the Second World War.  Often they show Adolf Hitler addressing large crowds of people.  Hitler always spoke with much authority.  This has been caricatured by Charlie Chaplin in his The Great Dictator of 1940.  Recently, I came upon the acceptance speech of Mother Teresa when she was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1979.  She too speaks with much authority.  But she begins her speech with the prayer for peace attributed to St Francis of Assisi: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace!”
So, it seems that there are different types of authority. There […]

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3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Sermon – Year B Homily: Repent and Believe!

3rd Sunday in Ordinary time – Year B
Repent and Believe in the Good News
 CLICK HERE for a reflection based on the Second Reading of Today.
Little Johnny was basically a good boy.  But he had this problem with his temper.  He had his bouts of anger that surprised everyone.  His mother used to tell him, “Johnny, you are making it difficult for people to love you.”
So, on the New Year day, he made a resolution: “I am not going to get angry anymore.”  He went to the back garden, piled together a heap of earth, put a cross over the heap, and wrote on the cross, RIP.  His mother and sister were wondering what Johnny was trying to do.  Johnny solemnly declared, “This is the grave of the old Johnny. Mum, today I […]

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2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Sermon – Year B Homily – Come and you will See

ComeAndSee-Graphic.001   2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
They went… and stay with him (Jn 1:35-42)
 CLICK HERE FOR ANOTHER SERMON FOR THIS SUNDAY
What is the core of Christianity?  I asked myself this question after being a Christian for almost forty years.  Better late than never!
Is the core of Christianity, being good?  My mother always told me to be good.  “If you behave well, God will love you!” She said.  This was a way my mother convinced me – I convinced myself – to follow Christian morality. Is Christian morality, enshrined in the Ten Commandments, the core of Christianity?   At a particular stage in life I realized that Christianity is not merely a moral system.  Morality is only one aspect of it.  And, Christian morality is not based on just obeying rules, but […]

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Sermon for Epiphany

Epiphany: God is made visible!
(Mt 2:1-12)
Watch a Video Reflection by Selvam on the Journey of the Magi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2hI1Maf8-M
In most cultures, one of the games that children play is “hide and seek”, with many variants – tag, sardines, or hidey (in Scotland). There is a lot of fun in finding hidden objects and people! God seems to play ‘hide and seek’ with human beings.
Isaiah cries out, “Oh God of Israel, you are a God who lies hidden” (Is 45:15).  And the Psalmist prays, “It is your face Oh Lord that I seek, hide not your face from me” (Ps 27:8b,9). This was the situation of the old dispensation.  But suddenly there is a surprise in the history of salvation.  God is made visible in the form of a little babe.
Today’s feast, my dear […]

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