P ♰ C
Connecting Catholics in parishes across Vancouver Island
Category: blog post
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by Jean Allen I have never experienced this in any parish where I have attended the Passion Sunday liturgy but I discovered it is not an uncommon practice during the long Gospel reading, where, instead of the readers, the congregation are the ones who cry, “Let him be crucified!” and “His blood be upon us…
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By Jean Allen “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” When we are sad and grieving, Jesus is not distant from our pain. In fact, he is deeply moved by our sorrows – all our sorrows. In this Gospel,…
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by Jean Allen How often, either privately or publicly, do we set preconditions we have to fulfill in order for Jesus to intervene in our lives? Do we think we have to be morally upright, a devout believer and have all the right words and prayers in order that Jesus will touch us, physically, mentally,…
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by Jean Allen Something stood out to me in re-reading the very familiar story of the Samaritan woman at well. “Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.” It’s a sentence that has never stood out to me before but I think it may be an essential crux point. In…
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by Jean Allen How would you feel if you had been present at the transfiguration and then, on the way down the mountain, Jesus ordered you to tell no one about the vision until he had been raised from the dead? Besides wondering what the heck he meant by ‘raised from the dead’, would you…
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by Jean Allen Lent is traditionally a time to deny ourselves and curb our desires by giving up something pleasurable. However, Jesus’s temptations in the desert direct us to problem areas that are far more subtle than chocolate or coffee or dessert. Jesus refuses the temptation to turn stones into bread but he does not…
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by Jean Allen As I said last week in the reflection on the Beatitudes, we have difficulty incorporating them into our lives in a way that will make the world sit up and take notice. As Jesus indicates this week, when you inhabit the kingdom of Me, you are like salt that has lost its…
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by Jean Allen Ah…the impossible Beatitudes. They are so counter-culture in every age that, historically and up to this day, Christians have had a very difficult time incorporating them into their faith lives in a way that makes the rest of the world sit up and take notice. Yet, they are absolutely crucial to growth…
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by Jean Allen “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The Greek word, which was later translated by St. Jerome (342-420 AD) as ‘repent’, is metanoeite (meta-new-it) from which the word ‘metanoia’ comes. St Jerome translated it as paenetentia or repent but metanoeite means ‘a primal change of mind, worldview or way of…
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~ Jean Allen Just like us, Mary and Joseph had their life plans. And, just like what often happens to us, their plans were disturbingly upended and they were thrown into a set of confusing circumstances that called for stark faith that God was in control. Sure, it’s great to have a name for the…
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