Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B, 28th April, 2024

‘I am the vine, you are the branches.’

We are deeply rooted in the love of Christ. The risen Christ is the source of all that we need to grow ever closer to God.

In the First Reading, we hear how shortly after his conversion, St Paul was initially treated with fear and disdain by those he had been persecuting. Paul’s zeal for the Lord was grounded in a very personal encounter with Christ. Knowing that he was loved completely despite all that he had done before, gave him the encouragement to spread the Good News.

As a faithful worshipping Jew, Paul would have been familiar with praying today’s Psalm, an encouraging song of praise. It foretells how generations yet to come will be filled with the love of the Lord.

In the Second Reading, the writer counsels that even if we feel we have failed or fallen short in our response to God’s love for us, his love is so immense and all-forgiving that we need not be afraid. Knowing this, we can be free to live out the great commandment to love one another. 

The beautiful image of a vine carefully tended by the Father is used by Jesus to describe his and our relationship to God (Gospel). We are all sustained in an intimate co-existence with the Holy Trinity. Jesus invites us to remain close to him. Without him, our life is nothing, with him, we discover our true identity and purpose

This week, let us try to consciously be aware that we are branches of one vine, rooted in God’s love. Although we may have our differences and shortcomings, we are forever loved completely by a God of compassion, love and forgiveness. Let us pray that like St Paul, we will have the grace to live out this amazing Good News.

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Easter Sunday 2024

Christ, our hope, is risen! Alleluia!

St Beuno’s Outreach in the Diocese of Wrexham, UK, wishes you a joyous and blessed Easter.

Image: John Stuart © stushieart.com

Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday), Year B, 7th April 2024

‘My Lord and my God!’

On this Second Sunday of Easter, the readings invite us to believe and trust God’s mercy. According to the ways of the world, mercy does not really make sense, but this is the very faith Paul speaks of as that which ‘conquers the world’: forgiveness begets forgiveness, mercy begets mercy, love begets love (Second Reading).  Our need for, and joy in, such graces is echoed in the Psalm, where we can join with the psalmist in saying: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever!’ 

 The Acts of the Apostles (First Reading) shows that the mercy of the risen Lord continues to be poured out through the ministry of his apostles, while in the Gospel we see Jesus himself being the model for mercy for his fearful and doubtful friends. 

The US journalist Cathleen Falsani wrote: ‘justice is getting what you deserve; mercy is not getting what you deserve; grace is getting what you don’t deserve.’  This coming week, let’s pray that, though completely underserving of such a gift of grace, God’s divine mercy will have its effect in us, freeing and opening us to love ever more deeply. 

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Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B, 10th March 2024

We are created in Christ Jesus to live the good life

This fourth Sunday of Lent is traditionally known as ‘Laetare (Rejoice!) Sunday’, and our readings today suggest many reasons for rejoicing.

The First Reading from Chronicles describes the destruction of Jerusalem and the days of exile. But God, working through the Persian king, Cyrus, not only brings the Jewish people home to where they belong but also helps them rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. 

St Paul (Second Reading) writes that God, whose nature is Universal Love, brought us back to life in and with Christ Jesus through the gift of his infinite grace. Our good works and our lives lived in all their fullness are a grateful and authentic response to all we have been given by God.

The Gospel tells us that the resurrection of Christ Jesus, who was ‘lifted up and exalted’ on the cross, brings salvation to all who believe in him and in his teachings. Christ’s Passion, for all its injustice and brutality, is a glorious revelation of God’s love for all of humankind, and the source of our healing. Jesus calls us to live by his truth and light, where we can dwell in the flow of God’s energy and love.

The Psalm of lament recalls the bitter days of exile in Babylon. For us today, ‘Babylon’ can stand as a symbol for all that threatens the fullness of human living. Hatred, selfishness, greed, and pride can all take us away from wholeness of life and into exile.

This week, we pray for the personal faith and humility to be open to God’s infinite grace and light. We pray, too, that all of humanity might be open and receptive to God’s life-giving energy.

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Third Sunday in Lent, Year B, 3rd March 2024

Christ, the power and the wisdom of God

As we enter this third week of Lent, our readings remind us of God’s love for us, soon to be witnessed in the suffering and death of Christ Jesus.

In the First Reading, God speaks to the people of Israel after their release from slavery in Egypt. The Ten Commandments show his people how to freely live in service of the One who has liberated them.

The Psalm speaks of the gifts the law of God brings in terms of wisdom, truth and life.

St Paul reflects on the way in which those who are called to follow Jesus see the crucified Christ. For those early Christians, and ourselves, this is not a sign of God’s foolishness or weakness, but a demonstration to the world of God’s power and wisdom. (Second Reading)

In this week’s Gospel, we see Jesus sweep away the buyers and sellers from the Temple, which should be revered as the house of God. We are reminded that it is through Christ’s suffering and death that salvation will come, and the power and wisdom of God will be revealed.

This week, perhaps we can pray for all those areas of the world where places of holiness and sanctuary are debased and de-valued.  We pray too, for all people who are prevented from worshipping openly, and from practising their faith in freedom.

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Second Sunday of Lent, Year B, 25th February 2024

‘This is my Son, the Beloved.’

Trust in the Lord is the theme that links all this week’s readings. As we continue our Lenten journey, we are reminded of the extent of the Lord’s love and generosity – if we but listen to his voice and place our trust in him.

In the First Reading we see the depth of Abraham’s trust in God as he is asked to sacrifice his beloved son. Abraham’s faithfulness is rewarded with more blessings than he could ever have imagined.

The Psalmist gives thanks and praise to the Lord who has freed him, reminding us that he trusted God even when sorely afflicted. Like him, we can rejoice as we walk in the presence of the Lord.

In the Second Reading, echoing the story of Abraham and Isaac, St Paul challenges us to recall the immensity of God’s love for the world in giving up his Son. With Jesus standing at the right hand of God pleading for us, we can have confidence in placing all our trust in him.

In the Gospel, Jesus asks Peter, James and John to trust him and not speak of the wonder of what they have witnessed on the mountain top.

This week we pray for the grace to trust and to listen ever more closely to the voice of the Lord, so that we too might walk in his presence.

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First Sunday of Lent, Year B, 18th February 2024

The Good News of the Covenant

We began our Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday. This first Sunday of Lent now leads us immediately into Jesus’s own journey into the desert in prayer, fasting, and to face temptation.

The First Reading reminds us of the journey of God’s chosen people. Here God establishes his Covenant with Noah and all his descendants, and with the whole of creation. Never again will God destroy the earth with a flood. He leaves a bow in the sky to confirm this.

St Peter (Second Reading) links the few people Noah saved ‘by water’ to ourselves. We are saved through the baptism that Christ won for us by his death and resurrection.

The Gospel gives a short account of Jesus being tempted in the desert. He emerges ready to proclaim his message: ‘The kingdom of God is close at hand’.

The Psalm reflects the message of hope that is contained in all the readings. The Lord’s ways are faithfulness and love.

May we take heart from the scriptures as we begin our Lenten journey, ready to follow the Lord’s ways, and eager to learn his paths.

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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, 11th February 2024

‘Whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God’

The theme of today’s readings is God’s loving compassion and healing. We, too, are called to be loving, as well as pure and holy.

Two of the readings speak of leprosy: a disease that can now be cured, but at the time was seen as a punishment for sin. The belief was that either the leper or one of their family had offended God in some way. The First Reading reveals the requirements imposed on lepers. They were to make themselves physically unattractive, so that people would know they were unclean, and to live apart, outside the city walls. They were thus sentenced to indefinite exile from their community and excluded from worship.

The leper we meet in the Gospel breaks the law because of his faith. He approaches Jesus, pleading to be made clean. We see Jesus’s compassion, mercy, and healing power in curing him. The leper can be readmitted to his community once he has seen the priest, though conversely, Jesus now becomes the outcast.

In the Psalm we hear the joy of the psalmist who, in acknowledging and repenting of his sins, is confident of the Lord’s forgiveness.

The Second Reading calls us to be witnesses to Christ’s teaching in everything we do, whilst always being sensitive to others.

This week, I may like to pray for the courage, humility and faith of the leper in the Gospel, as I bring my own desires and needs to Jesus. I ask for the Spirit’s guidance to be loving and helpful to others at all times.

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Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, 4th February 2024

‘He heals the broken hearted, he binds up all their wounds.’

This Sunday, the readings invite us to look more deeply into the experience of human suffering. It is only through Christ that our pain and despair can and will be transformed. Just like the suffering people in today’s Gospel, we all long for Christ. It is through prayer that our yearning will be fulfilled.

Job (First Reading) expresses total despair at the great losses that he has experienced; he seems overwhelmed by the frailty of life. The suffering in our world today perhaps makes it easy to relate to his sentiments.

The Psalm, however, is like an antidote to the howls of loss that Job exclaims. It speaks of healing for broken hearts and minds; of wounds being bound and tended by our loving God, whose wisdom extends across a universe that he knows and loves intimately.

In the Second Reading, Paul writes of how his own experience of Christ and the Gospel impels him to share the Good News with others. He feels that he is like a slave to the Gospel, and is happy to accept this role.

Today’s Gospel portrays the early days of Jesus’s healing ministry in Galilee. After praying with the community in the synagogue, Jesus responds with compassion to all the sick and suffering people who are brought to him. He begins his days in prayerful solitude and is drawn by a desire to bring his Good News to as many people as possible.

Let us pray for the grace to respond with wisdom and compassion to the suffering and needs of our time. May we centre our lives in prayer and by the grace of God be determined like St Paul to bring the Good News to our broken and hurting world.

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Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (The Sunday of the Word of God), Year B, 21st January 2024

‘Lord, teach me your paths’

Today, as the Roman Catholic Church celebrates this ‘Sunday of the Word of God’, Pope Francis reminds us: Christ Jesus is knocking at our door in the words of sacred scripture. If we hear his voice and open the doors of our mind and hearts, then he will enter our lives and remain ever with us.

In the First Reading, Jonah takes the word of God to the people in Nineveh. They hear it, are inspired to change their evil ways, and God shows them his mercy.

God’s love and forgiveness are at the heart of the Psalm, as we pray for better understanding of the ways in which the Lord invites us to live our lives.

St Paul issues a challenge to the Christian community in Corinth in this week’s Second Reading.  At the centre of this, though, is an encouragement to us to free our minds and hearts from reliance on the things of this world, and to place our hope in the reign of God.

The Gospel speaks of the opening of the hearts and minds of the first apostles as they leave behind everything they know in order to follow Jesus.

This week, perhaps I can give myself the gift of a little extra time with scripture. I pray that the Lord will open my mind and heart, so I can see more clearly where my path with him lies.

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