In the Gospel today Jesus institutes, the Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession). Jesus appears to His Apostles – after His crucifixion. The Apostles are in a room – the doors and windows are locked – but Jesus appears in the room. Then Jesus breathed on the Apostles. The fact that Jesus ‘breathed’ on the Apostles is very significant. There are only a few times recorded in the Bible, where God breathed (and Jesus, is of course, God). The first time God breathed was when

GOSPEL REFLECTION … When Our Lord died, the disciples of Jesus were devastated and traumatised. They had put all their hopes in Jesus, that He would be the One who would save them from the Romans & restore God’s Kingdom as it was before the Fall. Instead, it appears that evil had won, but nothing could be further from the truth. God is always completely in control! In the early hours of Sunday morning something happened which was greater than any imagination or dream coul

PASSION SUNDAY This week, Holy Week, Our Lord taught us how to live and how to love. There are many lessons we can learn from Our Lord’s Passion and Death. One lesson is forgiveness. We, mankind, are sinners. Our Lord has good reason to punish us, but instead, He punished Himself. By His Passion and Death, Our Lord took our punishment on Himself and removed all punishment from us. Our God and Our Creator, who is innocent, chose to suffer a cruel Passion and Death so t

GOSPEL REFLECTION: Lazarus is risen from the dead. There are two other occasions, in the Bible, when Jesus raises a person from the dead. The daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow of the town of Nain. By raising people from the dead Jesus proves that He is Divine. Finally, Jesus raises Himself from the dead which causes St Thomas to say to Him: “My Lord and My God.” There have been many examples of the dead being raised to life through prayer for example, in the 15th

GOSPEL REFLECTION LAETARE SUNDAY Our Lord heals a blind man by using a paste of clay – ordinary elements from nature. The miracle today is unusual – a paste of clay. In the first reading from the book of Samuel, David is anointed with oil and this oil causes the Spirit of God to work powerfully upon David from that day until his death. Today, God continues to use ordinary elements from nature to give His Life to us - in the Sacraments for example. A Sacrament is when God