Today’s readings at Mass explore a forgiving and loving God, full of mercy, who longs for the lost to return. Here’s today’s reflection from the daily Mass.

BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings for Saturday of the Second Week of Lent can be found here

It’s impossible to escape commercials, particularly if we use the internet. All the time our data is being collected and used so that paying companies can reach their target audience.

So searching for a new phone or a new car on one page will later conveniently deliver an advert on our our social media timeline for the very thing we’ve shown an interest in.

In the gospel reading today, the religious leaders are disgruntled that Jesus is attracting the wrong kind of audience, that he is spending time and eating with them. What kind of rabbi is he, to allow himself to be tarnished by such people or to given them the time of day? The parable that Jesus then tells, displays a God who is loving and longing for his lost son to return, despite the mistakes he has made. He rejoices when a sinner returns, when the lost is found.

There is a story told of an old man who was praying by the River Ganges when he saw a scorpion struggling for its life, caught in the branches stretched over the water. As the old man reached out to save the scorpion, he was constantly stung. “You stupid old man,” shouted a passer by. “Don’t you know that the scorpion will kill you if you carry on trying to help it?” The old man replied, “Just because it is the nature of the scorpion to sting, why should I give up my nature to save?”

In the first reading, Micah cries out in praise of God, “Who is a God like you,” he says, “pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression?”

Mass today is at S Mary’s Church at 11.30am

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“The Kingdom of God will be given to a people producing its fruits,” said Jesus in today’s gospel reading. Here’s today’s reflection from the daily Mass.

BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings for Friday of the Second Week of Lent can be found here

There are many famous speeches from history. Churchill’s “We will fight them on the beaches.” JFK’s  “Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you,” are just two.

Among the most famous is Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream,” speech delivered on the March to Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963 becoming one of the most famous moments in the civil rights movement. Five years later he was shot dead on the balcony of his hotel a day after he delivered “I’ve been the mountaintop,” address.

In Genesis, the brothers of Joseph concoct a quick plan to kill him. As they see him approaching, “They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.” They are filled with jealousy, insecure of his position in the family, and how much his father loves him and so they turn to murder.  Similarly, the story told by Jesus tells another garish incident, when the son of the vineyard’s owner is killed by the tenants, pointing to his own future suffering and death.

We can dare to dream of a future which isn’t ‘pie in the sky’ or simple wishful thinking, but a reality based on the Kingdom of God. We can all too easily give up hope and give into those who have a very different vision of the world. Those whose dreams are based on selfish desires rather than the designs of God. Those who hold onto weapons of war and aggression or who take delight in disrupting what is good and honest. Those who are armed with derision and ridicule, undermining and taunting what is really possible if only we put our minds and hearts into it. It is not the easy path, but it is the the most fruitful and productive. Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God will be given to a people producing its fruits.”  The fulfilment of God’s Kingdom has already begun, and it takes root in the fruits we produce, in the dreams we have. 

Mass today is at S Saviour’s Church at 10am.

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“We can imagine the world that Jesus proclaims, which is the possibility of life with God for ever which begins with how we treat our fellow human beings here on earth.” Here’s today’s reflection from the daily Mass.

BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings Thursday of the Second Week of Lent can be found here

“Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us only sky.” So go the opening words of John’s Lennon’s song,

Imagine,’ which asks its listeners to imagine a world of many possibilities, including one without religion—just a world of people with no hunger, no need, no countries, no borders, a world living as one, but also a world without God.

In the gospel reading, Jesus turns his imagination to a world where there is a Heaven and a Hell. He tells a story. One person finds himself in the underworld, in Hades, a place of death and separation from God.  The other, Lazarus, is at Abraham’s side, in a place we might call Heaven. The person in Hades wants to give a warning to his five brothers on earth so they don’t make the same mistake he did—living in selfish, self-indulgent luxury at the expense of the poor. But Abraham says they’ve already had their warning: through Moses and the prophets. If they don’t listen to them, then what more do they want? They’re not likely to believe even if someone rises from the dead.

We can imagine all kinds of possibilities. For us, as Christians, the possibility of life with God for ever has been made real through the death and resurrection of Christ. We can live in the world and behave as if there are no repercussions to our actions. Or we can turn to our fellow human being and treat them with compassion, kindness, and love. Like John Lennon, we can imagine a world without borders and boundaries. But, unlike John Lennon’s song, we can imagine the world that Jesus proclaims, which is the possibility of life with God for ever which begins with how we treat our fellow human beings here on earth.

Mass today is at S Dyfrig and S Samson Church at 10am.

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Working together, we can achieve far more and help to create a peaceful and just world. Here’s today’s reflection from the daily Mass.

BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent can be found here

“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu,” is a well-known phrase used in all kinds of settings—from the business world to community work, and has certainly been adopted by Citizens UK, a community organising alliance active in our own communities.

In the prophecy of Isaiah, God identifies the shortcomings of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and offers them a new way forward. “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” But, more than simply denouncing their sinful ways and throwing down a set of rules to live by, he invites them into a situation which is even more dynamic, relational and engaging. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.” He is willing to sit alongside them and work things out together.

In the gospel reading, Jesus establishes a level playing field. He refuses to be impressed by the outward show and hypocrisy of the Pharisees of the time, who use their power and position to burden others. Greatness is not achieved by clinging to power and keeping others in their place and away from the table, but by humbling ourselves and serving one another. Everyone should have a place at the table. It is that space of open dialogue, respect and care, as listen to one another and work things out together. On our own, we can do little. But together, we can build friendships and dispel fear. Jesus shows us how to do it, right here at the Eucharist, where all have a place at the table.

Mass today is at S Mary’s Church at 630pm, followed by our Lent Course at 7pm

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“Often, we carry with us so many unnecessary things, not just material items, but distracting thoughts and desires, and all manner of things which obscure our vision of Christ.” As we give thanks for St David, here’s today’s reflection from the daily Mass.

BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings for St David, Bishop and Patron of Wales here

You may have seen one of several TV programmes which help people deal with compulsive hoarding. Many of the homes are jam packed with all kinds of items to the extent that it is difficult even to move around.

Programmes such as as BBC’s Britain’s Biggest Hoarders or Channel 4’s Hoarders SOS, or the American series simply called Hoarders, call on a variety of experts to help people deal with their clutter. There was even one  incident during the American TV programme when, among the debris of someone’s house, a dead body was discovered, the daughter of the hoarder, and which became the subject of a very different programme CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Perhaps, at times, some of us would define ourselves as hoarders even if not of the compulsive and extreme kind. We may hold onto things that have sentimental value or simply because we can’t decide what to throw away and what to keep. In his letter to the Philippians, St Paul’s declares that he regards everything in his life as so much rubbish compared to that of knowing Christ Jesus the Lord. He has lost so much, but for him those things were rubbish anyway. In losing them, they have made his life lighter to be able to race and strain on to the finishing line, and the prize of the call of Christ.

As we celebrate the life, witness and heritage of St David, we give thanks for a follower of Jesus who, like St Paul, gave up everything for Christ. He lived a simple life, stripped of unnecessary things in order to serve the Lord and share the good news of his Kingdom. Often, we carry with us so many unnecessary things, not just material items, but distracting thoughts and desires, and all manner of things which obscure our vision of Christ.  May the example of St David inspire us and the whole country of which he is patron. That we may perceive what is really important, and cling only to that which saves.

Mass today is at S Dyfrig and S Samson Church at 630pm

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If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our DAY BY DAY pages.