The season of revelations

We are in the season of revelations and by loving one another we can reveal God to others. Our reflection from the daily Mass.

BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings for 8 January here (Universalis Website)

Tabloid newspapers love an ‘Exclusive.’ That celebrity interview, an inside story, something that no other newspaper has. After all, they may be in the business of reporting news, but they’re also in the business of making money. In a world where social media often gets there first, there is an even greater challenge for the mainstream media.

As the church, we are in the season of revelations. The feast of the Epiphany confirms that whilst the mystery of Jesus is revealed to the Magi, it is not an exclusive revelation. Jesus is revealed to the whole world. Yesterday’s gospel showed how Jesus drew people from all across the region and beyond from different countries and cultures.  In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is revealed as a prophet to the thousands in that desolate place as he feeds the crowds with food in abundance. On Sunday, we will celebrate the Baptism of the Lord when Jesus is revealed as the Beloved Son of the Father.

Jesus continues to be present in the world today. In the letter of St John, we read. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”  With changed lives, and loving one another, we are called to manifest Christ, to reveal him to others. May we receive a renewed revelation of the Lord, have our faith strengthened, and our lives revived for God is love—and “whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” Let us not keep that knowledge to ourselves.

  

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

DAY BY DAY

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The mystery unfolded

“They have left their treasures behind and return richer.  Unlike the usual secrecy that surrounded their lives, they are ready to reveal what has been revealed to them”. Our reflection from the daily Mass.

BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings the Epiphany here Universalis Website)

We know that members of the Magic Circle are sworn to secrecy. The Magicians oath says, “I promise never to reveal the secret of any illusion unto the laity, unless one swears to maintain the Magician’s Oath in turn. I promise never to execute any illusion for any layperson without practicing the effect before I could do it well enough to maintain the illusion of magic.”

There is a wide variety of suggestions about the Magi. Whilst they are often interpreted as being kings, this doesn’t come from the account in Luke but from the prophecy of Isaiah. Some scholars suppose them to be members of the Zoroastrian religion or some other mystical system of belief. Others that they come from different countries of the East, that they were philosophers or astrologers or someone for whom astrology was important to help them understand the world. Another interpretation is that they were magicians or sorcerers. In the Acts of the Apostles, we meet a man called Simon Magus or Simon the Magician, a sorcerer who used illusion and slight of hand to bewitch people and hold power over them. No doubt, he never gave the secret of his tricks away.

Whatever we think of the Magi, something significant is happening in the events of today’s celebration. If the Magi are used to using slight of hand to deceive people or reading the stars to interpret the world, their encounter with Jesus has now given them a new way of seeing the world, which they take with them on their journey home. The gifts they leave behind illustrate they have understood the significance of this child. They have left their treasures behind and return richer.  Unlike the usual secrecy that surrounded their lives, they are ready to reveal what has been revealed to them. The secret is out there. The mystery is unfolded. There is no illusion to maintain. God speaks clearly in Christ.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”

Mass today is at St Mary’s Church at 7pm

DAY BY DAY

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Come and see

“Come and See” is the simple and beautiful. invitation given to Nathanael in today’s reflection from Mass.

BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings for a January 5 here (Universalis Website)

The food we like, the football team we support, the sports we follow, the politics we embrace, the values we hold onto, are often influenced by others as we grow up—by our parents and family—and we may never waver from those influences, so embedded are they. Our life is formed by those around us.

So, too, with our faith. Cradle Christians are nurtured within the life of the church, brought up with the Christian faith embedded in our lives, a natural part of who we are. But even when we are older, we continue to be influenced by others. Our own lives are to be beacons of Christ in the world.

In the gospel reading, the good news of Jesus is passed on from one person to another. But there is more. Alongside the message, is an invitation. “Come and See.” Although Nathaniel is unconvinced that anything good can come from Nazareth, he accepts Philip’s invitation and has a living encounter with Jesus that will change his life for ever.

In the first letter of John, we read “Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.” We may feel obliged to try to win theological arguments, to try to convince people of what we believe is true or not, but there is no more an effective way of evangelism than to say to someone, “Come and See for yourself.”

Mass today is at St Dyfrig’s and Samson at 630pm

DAY BY DAY

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The journey of faith

In today’s reflection on the daily mass readings, Fr Richard considers how our life of faith is like a journey of discovery – and there are many things which we do not yet know.

Readings for 3 January: 1 John 2.29-3.6; Psalm 98.1, 3-4, 5-6; John 1.29-34. Text of readings can be found here.

Donald Rumsfeld, the former US Defence Secretary, was widely mocked for this statement he made in 2002: “There are known knowns – things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we don’t know we don’t know”. While this may sound like gobbledygook, if you stop to analyse the words it actually makes sense. Put simply, he was saying that there’s a mixture of certainty and uncertainty in the world.

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist is prepared to admit his previous lack of knowledge about Jesus, saying twice “I myself did not know him”. We might find this surprising, since John and Jesus were related. John, however, is not speaking from a familial point of view, but from a perspective of faith. Later in the passage, John speaks of how the insight into who Jesus really is was revealed to him. He saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove upon Jesus, and at the same time God revealed to John that this was the sign of Jesus being anointed as God’s Son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The humility of John that we saw in yesterday’s Gospel continues. He is clear that the insight of faith comes not from himself but from God. In this way he makes sure that the focus is not on him but on Jesus. For all of us faith is a journey of discovery, no matter how long we have been a Christian. It is a mixture of Rumsfeld’s “known knowns” and “known unknowns”. Let us share John’s humility and open ourselves to God, that he may continue to reveal to us the mysteries of the kingdom.

Mass today is at 11.30am in St Mary’s.

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

Make space for Jesus

In today’s reflection on the daily mass readings, Fr Richard considers John the Baptist as an example of one who steps back to let Jesus enter in.

Readings for 2 January: 1 John 2:22-28; Psalm 98:1-4; John 1:19-28. Text of readings can be found here.

We human beings tend to define or describe ourselves by the things we do, or even the place we’re from. “I’m a doctor”; “I’m a teacher”; “I’m a mother” (or grandmother!); “I’m Welsh” are all things we might say about ourselves. We might even say “I’m a Christian”. Against this backdrop it’s interesting that John the Baptist in today’s Gospel defines himself by what he is not. To those sent from Jerusalem to find out about him, John says “I am not the Christ”; when asked if he is Elijah, John replies “I am not”, and to the question “Are you the prophet”, he replies “no”. 

Instead, John defines himself not so much by what he is – his status – but by what he does, and in relation to Jesus. He tells the Levites that he is “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness” from Isaiah, to get people ready for the coming of the Messiah. John also acknowledges his own relative lack of importance compared to Jesus: “the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie”. John’s humility is striking: his role is not to be at the centre, but to make space for another.

This time of the year is often one for resolutions, ambitions and plans for the year ahead. If we are not careful, these things can place the focus solely on ourselves. John reminds us that the Christian life is not about self-assertion but about attentiveness: recognising who we are, and who we are not, and allowing God to work through us. May we be people this year who point beyond ourselves to the one who is greater than we are, and in so doing prepare the way for the Lord to work in our lives and the lives of those around us.

Mass is in St Saviour’s today at 10am

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

The sacred human body

In today’s reflection on the daily mass readings, Fr Richard considers how Jesus becoming human – the incarnation – means that every human body is sacred and special.

Readings for 7th day within the octave of Christmas (31 December): 1 John 2:18-21; Psalm 96: 1-2, 11-13; John 1:1-18. Text of readings can be found here.

What do you think of your body? Do you like it, or find it embarrassing? Are you happy with the way it looks, or do you wish it was a different size or shape? Does it give you aches and pains more than you would wish? Are there bits that don’t work quite as well as they should? It’s a weird thing, the human body. It can be the object of desire, or self-loathing. We are presented with idealised images of the human body by the media, and people spend hours in the gym trying to obtain the perfect body. It’s precious, it’s fragile, it’s fallible and frustrating, but it’s the only one we’ve got, and it’s the means by which we live our life in this world.

The idea of a human body is at the heart of our Gospel reading today from John 1, which is the Christmas Gospel. John refers to the Word, existing from the beginning of time with God, and taking part in creation. This Word we have come to think of as the Son of God. The reading culminates with the claim that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. In other words, God’s Son inhabited a body just like ours, a thing of great wonder and beauty, but also prone to illness and disease, aches and pains. And a body, of course, that was cruelly mistreated, beaten and scarred, and finally broken on the Cross.

The fact that Jesus took on a human body like ours shows that God considered it a fitting dwelling place for God’s self on earth. This means that every single human body, no matter its size or shape, or what injuries or ailments it may have, is special and sacred. This is a challenge to our world, where so often human bodies are regarded as dispensable. But it also serves as a message of hope for each of us. Despite the lumps and bumps and the aches and pains, we all carry the imprint of the divine. Let us remember that when we are deciding how to treat a fellow child of God, but also when we look in the mirror.

Mass today is in St Paul’s at 10am and St Mary’s at 11am.

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

Waiting

In today’s reflection on the daily mass readings, Fr Richard considers the importance of waiting in an increasingly busy and impatient world.

Readings for sixth day in the octave of Christmas (30 December): 1 John 2:12-17; Ps 96:7-10; Luke 2:36-40. Text of readings can be found here.

Someone once worked out that the average person spends one to two weeks every year just waiting. Waiting in traffic. Waiting in queues. Waiting on hold. Waiting for the kettle to boil, the screen to load, the meeting to start. We don’t notice it because it comes in tiny fragments — thirty seconds here, five minutes there — but by the end of the year it adds up to days of our lives spent doing… nothing much at all.

And yet the gospel today introduces us to Anna, a woman who has spent years waiting — not in frustration, but in faith. Day after day in the Temple, praying, fasting, watching. When the child Jesus is brought in, she recognises him immediately. Her waiting has tuned her vision. While others see just another baby, Anna sees the longed-for Messiah.

In this in-between time, after the mad rush of Christmas and just before the turning of a new year, Anna gently challenges us. What if our waiting is not wasted time? What if those moments — in queues, delays, quiet spaces — are invitations to notice God already present? Christmas reminds us that God comes not in the rush, but in the waiting — and blessed are those who learn, like Anna, to wait well.

Mass today is in St Mary’s at 6:30pm

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

A calling from birth

In today’s reflection on the daily mass readings, Fr Richard considers how each of us has a calling from God which was fixed at birth; it is up to us to discover what that is.

Readings for 29 December, fifth day in the octave of Christmas: 1 John 2.3-11; Psalm 95.1-3, 5-6; Luke 2.22-35. Text of readings can be found here.

One of the curious Christmas traditions in the UK is the sight of crowds of well-wishers gathering to watch the Royal Family walk to church at Sandringham on Christmas Day. The assembled masses offer gifts and flowers, and nowadays try to grab a selfie. This year the focus was very much on the three children of the Prince and Princess of Wales: George, Charlotte and Louis. Whatever your views of the monarchy, it is remarkable to think that these youngsters have had their destiny mapped out from the moment of their birth. Even if the monarchy does not survive into their adulthood, their celebrity status will be assured.

In today’s Gospel, the account of Jesus being presented in the Temple at 40 days old, his destiny is confirmed by the old man Simeon. Simeon’s prophecy contains information about Jesus’ future which is both positive and joyful, but also carries a darker tone. This child, he says, will be a light both for the pagans and Israel, but will be rejected such that a sword will pierce Mary’s soul. Simeon’s speech about Jesus’ calling comes on the back of what the angel said to Mary about her child at the Annunciation, and what the angel said to the shepherds at his birth.

Each of us has a destiny, a calling which has been fixed from our birth. As with Jesus, it may be a joyful calling, a challenging one, or a mixture. St John Henry Newman put it like this: “God has created me to do some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission”. As we approach the start of a new year, let us pray earnestly for insight into our own special calling from God, and the grace to fulfil it.

Mass today (Monday 29 December) is in St Dyfrig & St Samson at 6.30pm.

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

Making haste

“Both at the crib and at the empty tomb we discover the new life which Christ brings.” Today’s reflection from Mass.

BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings for St John the Evangelist on December 27 here (Universalis Website)

Just as Mary made haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and the shepherds made haste to see the good news of which the angels sang, there is the same sense of urgency at the end of Jesus earthly life.

He has a hurried burial and likewise on the third day, Peter and John race to the empty tomb. John is the fastest. Maybe it’s because he’s the youngest and still has the fitness of youth, whilst Peter’s age is beginning to take its toll. Who knows?

But there in that place of death, they find only signs of life. As Jesus was wrapped in swaddling bands as a baby so the cloths which wrapped him in death are left behind. He has no need of them. Death has been swallowed up in life.

These days of Christmas are perhaps less rushed and not so busy as the days which led up to it. But there still remains a sense of urgency as we attend to Christ. The world continues to spin, and life goes on. Wars and injustice continue, and there is still much to do but it begins with attentiveness to Jesus. A life of prayer and sacrament.

Both at the crib and at the empty tomb we discover the new life which Christ brings. The Word of God becoming flesh, active in his world, alive and bringing us peace. May his Word dwell in our hearts and lives.

 

DAY BY DAY

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The Lingering Presence

As some box away Christmas for another year, our celebrations continue. The martyrdom of Stephen reminds us of the demands of discipleship and the lingering presence of God in our lives, who never goes away. Here’s today’s reflection from the daily Mass

Already fed up of Christmas, some people will spend Boxing Day taking down their Christmas decorations.  For them, Christmas is over. For us, it’s just beginning.

And so the lights and tree and carols remain. They will outlast what’s left of the vegetables. They will be here long after the last Turkey curry has been eaten. We stubbornly cling to Christmas—each day of the Christmas Octave extending Christmas Day into one long day.

The unfolding of God’s revelation continues until the magi arrive from their long journey and glimpse the glory of God and Jesus is revealed to the nations. The revelations is symbolic of course, and continues throughout Jesus’ life, as people grapple with the mystery of who he is.

In the good news of Jesus revealed in the four gospel writers, only two have any  account of Jesus’ nativity. Mark plunges straight into the Baptist’s call, as does John who then gives us a poetic prologue, philosophical and literary, of the mystery of the Word made flesh.

We cannot box the Incarnation away for another year. The hope for a baby and child is that they will grow up healthy and well, reach adulthood, follow dreams, make a difference in the world, and live a long life.

We cannot box the Incarnation away for another year.

It’s on the cross, that Jesus says his work is accomplished. If we had stopped believing in Jesus when we left the crib, then what good would that have done?

On the back of Christmas Day, we have the drama of Stephen’s martyrdom, the first person killed because of their faith in Christ, a faith he won’t let go. Stephen is stubborn. He holds onto what he knows will save.

After a visit to the crib, it’s a quick and harsh reminder of the realities of living and the demands of discipleship. But even here, in this brutal scene as people pick up stones in anger, there are glimpses of light and glory. Stephen is given a vision of heaven opened up, and Jesus at God’s right hand.

Christmas is stubborn. It never goes away. Because God continues to be present in the world today, in our lives and the life of the church. We are his body, his presence in the world. His presence lingers. God is stubborn but not forceful. After all, in the Incarnation, he is at first a needy baby, small and fragile, in need of care and attention.

Christmas is stubborn. It never goes away. Because God continues to be present in the world today, in our lives and the life of the church.

For us, the baby bit is easy.  We can even reduce it to cuteness if we’re not careful. Stephen’s situation is by no means cute. And yet, he remains faithful, stubborn, refusing to box his faith away, not even for a moment.

So, let’s stick with Christmas for a little while longer. After the busyness of the pre-Christmas rush, these days are a gift to quietly contemplate the mystery of the Word made flesh, and how God lingers patiently in our lives.

Today’s Mass

Mass today is at 12 noon at St Mary’s Church, followed by drinks and nibbles

You can check out the readings for the Mass today here (Universalis Website)