“The lamp of faith requires being continuously nourished by the heart-to-heart encounter with Jesus in prayer and in listening to his Word,” said Pope Francis.

Once again for this Sunday’s Eucharist we have very rich readings. In the gospel (Mt 14:22-33), Jesus leaves his disciples after the feeding of the multitudes and goes off to pray. The disciples, meanwhile, get in the boat and head for the opposite shore, without Jesus. Very quickly a storm erupts with strong winds. Jesus later starts out towards them walking on the water and they become fearful before this sight. Seeing their fear, Jesus says: ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.’

In our retreat with Fr. Michael Dodds, OP, our second conference was on ‘the hiddenness of God’.  This hiddenness of God, the God who is unknowable leads, Fr. Michael said, to some people denying the very existence of God.  What I was struck by in this conference was the connection Fr. Michael made between the hiddenness and unknowable dimension of God to ‘faith’.

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 23 Faults Which Deserve Excommunication
Mass: Ep 5:21-33 or Ep 5:2a, 25-32; Resp Ps 128; Lk 13:18-21


What is the Kingdom of God like?
What follows is the Proclamation from today's Evening Prayer:

Faith seems to be as small and insigni

The gospel reading of this Sunday from the gospel of Mark (10:46-52) is the story of the encounter between Bartimaeus and Jesus: it is an encounter of faith.  Let’s look at the elements of this utterly simple and amazing encounter.  Bartimaeus is along the roadside begging.  On hearing that Jesus was passing by “he began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.’”  What happens next?  The people tell him to keep silent and even ‘rebuke