The Baptism of Jesus
Sr Helen shares a reflection for the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 12 January 2025. Your Baptism, My Baptism – what does it mean? We go in spirit to the peaceful and loving home of Nazareth. We somehow know that Joseph would have died, and Mary and Jesus are living their ordinary lives […]
Feast of the Visitation
In recent years on the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I would send my sister a message saying, “Happy Feast Day!” We call it “our feast day” as our names are Mary and Elizabeth. The feast of the Visitation celebrated on 31 May annually, commemorates the moment when Mary visits her […]
Jesus and John the Baptist: Companions
In recent weeks across the globe, the world has been lamenting tragedies described in media reports as ‘living hell’. This includes the land where both Jesus and John the Baptist were born, grew into manhood, ministered amongst their people, and died for how they taught and lived in right relationship with God and with other […]
Birth of John the Baptist
We commemorate the Birth of John the Baptist on 24 June. Only Luke tells about John the Baptist’s birth. In the other Gospels, Matthew, Mark and John, John the Baptist is already an adult when he comes into the story. He appears as a man of God, a prophet trusted by the people to whom […]
The Baptism of Jesus, A Story of Two Cousins
The baptism of Jesus, celebrated on 9 January, reminds us of two cousins; Jesus and John the Baptist and their mission, their relationship, their lives and their God consciousness revealed in their ministries. The relationship touchingly begins with the meeting of their pregnant mothers, Mary and Elizabeth, who were delightfully surprised by their unborn babies, […]
The Birth of St John, the Honey-Eater
My ageing parents helped raise two grandsons for a while. Whenever the boys were away, the signals for their return were the tyres of the car bringing them home rattling the cattle-grid outside our home, and my mother saying with a smile, “Here come the honey-eaters!” Ahead of the Church’s feast day commemorating the birth […]