01/02/2026

The fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Every time I miss making a response to the Mass Readings, I come to realise why it is necessary for me to try to discipline myself in this way.

St  Benedict and St Basil both knew from their own experience that devoting one's life to Our Father means that our human consciousness which can very easily be distracted even from/by  our very best intentions requires a "rule" which  can be upheld and supported within  a community of brothers or sisters.

St Paul is writing to the  "humble and lowly people", one of the first communities of believers, "who seek refuge in the name of the Lord", They are still "in the world" and they were  not wise according to worldly standards. Neither were they powerful or of noble birth.

God chose what is weak and despised in this world to deter the "Great and the Good" from being overcome by pride in their own beings.

Our Saviour, the Creator of all that we are aware  chose to be born in an animal shelter and allowed himself to be tortured and displayed naked as he "bled out" in public view. He really did "practise what he preached".

In this morning's Gospel Jesus teaches us all that we need to hold in our minds as we live out lives governed by Holy discipline. There is nothing about my world in 2026 that can/should  distract me from the  response that each human being has to make to the WORD .

                    "Listen People of God, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased"