Once a year at Passover, Jews visited the Temple and offered a sacrifice to God. At this time of year the number of visitors to Jerusalem swelled and the moneylenders, with their eye to business, took to operating a scam. When visitors came to the Temple they were able to purchase animals or doves to offer as sacrifices. Because the Jews considered Roman coinage bearing
Do you bound out of bed each morning eager to get to work ….. enthusiastic about all the challenges that lie ahead? Well probably not! Life is a series of highs and lows, but we all know that the ‘highs’ are few and far between. For most of us life is a series of chores and we can often feel burdened by drudgery and frustration.
Have you ever had to live up to someone else’s expectations? At first it can feel daunting, but the strange thing about great expectations, is that very often they have the power to transform us. Living up to raised expectations can make us into better people. In today’s gospel, Jesus meets Andrew’s brother Simon. He looks at him and says, “You are Simon son of
What does Jesus’ baptism say to us? Jesus’ thirty years of preparation before his public baptism remind us that it takes time to get ready for God’s mission. How many countless hours did Jesus spend in prayer? What study, what thought, what vision must he have undergone before appearing in front of John asking for baptism? What do we learn from Jesus’ baptism? January is
How prepared are you? Have you ordered all the presents and put up the tree? Preparation is one of the most important parts of Christmas, but Advent was never supposed to be about fixing the fairy lights. Advent is about spiritual preparation. In all the whirlwind preparations for the Christmas celebrations, we need to prepare a way for the Lord, and this preparation begins with
If we are honest none of us relish the idea of judgment or accountability. Perhaps we have this uncomfortable feeling that we are not really doing all we could or all we should. The even more frightening realisation is that if we suspect we are not doing all we could …. we probably aren’t! On the Day of Judgment humankind will be assembled and the