August 2014 Pastoral focus Veronica Lawson RSM Matthew 14:13-21 Rising fuel and food prices affect us all. Not everyone, however, considers the effect that lifestyle choices and agricultural practices in the developed world might have on the rest of the world’s population. In 2003, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation instigated a series of […]
May 2014 Reflection Veronica Lawson RSM Luke 24:13-35 Extraordinary things can happen if we open ourselves to the presence of a stranger or ‘foreigner’ on the road of life. That seems to be a key element in today’s gospel passage from the well-known and well-loved Emmaus story. Imagine two dejected disciples (Cleopas and possibly his […]
Reflection April 2014 Veronica Lawson RSM John 11:1-45 Today’s readings touch into the most profound of human mysteries, the mysteries of life and death. To hold a new born child or to see a sick person restored to health is to experience the wonder of life. On the other hand, the unexpected death of a […]
Reflection March 2014 Veronica Lawson RSM Matthew 6:24-34 This Sunday’s gospel ends, ‘Today’s trouble is enough for today!’. We are ‘not to be anxious’. Rather, we are invited to be single-minded in our commitment. The challenge of this gospel is to live in the present, in right relationship and connection with the whole Earth community […]
Reflection February 2014 Veronica Lawson RSM Luke 2:22-40 The start of today’s gospel reading has often been misconstrued as the ‘purification’ of Mary. Luke implies that Mary and Joseph come to the temple to be purified, although purification after childbirth applied only to women (Leviticus 12). Vestiges of the Jewish purification ritual survived until recently […]
Reflection 1 December 2013 Veronica Lawson RSM Matthew 24:37-44 ‘Where is the Life we have lost in living?’ asks the Chorus in T S Eliot’s The Rock. The Jesus of Matthew’s gospel is implicitly asking much the same question as Eliot’s Chorus. He is making much the same observation as Henry David Thoreau: ‘Most [people] […]
Reflection November 2013 Veronica Lawson RSM Luke 19:1-10 Zaccheus is the focus of this week’s gospel. He is not afraid to show his faith publicly A chief tax collector, Zaccheus is possibly responsible for overseeing the activities of other tax collectors. He is a wealthy man. Zaccheus is short of stature, but enterprising in facing […]
Reflection Veronica Lawson RSM Luke 17:5-10 Faith is somehow connected with doing what we ought to do without looking for accolades. At least that’s what today’s gospel seems to be telling us. The apostles demonstrate their faith in Jesus when they ask him to increase their faith. As usual he responds obliquely rather than directly […]
Reflection Veronica Lawson RSM September 2013 Luke 15:1-32 All three parables in today’s gospel invite us into the experience of loss: loss of a valued creature; loss of the means of survival; loss of an adult child’s respect and presence. All three parables likewise invite us into an encounter with a God who seeks and […]
Reflection Veronica Lawson RSM Luke 13:22-30 We all know people or groups who seem to have an ingrained sense of entitlement or privilege, people who put themselves first without regard for the feelings or rights of others. Whether their behaviour derives from childhood experiences of over-indulgence or from some other source, it can be quite […]