SOCL, Lateran BasilicaC

Sunday November 09, 2025

See

We protect our spaces with velvet ropes and unspoken rules, convinced that order equals reverence. Yet the most violent act of devotion in history was clearing a room—turning tables, scattering coins, naming the corruption that everyone accepted as normal. The marketplace had become temple; the temple had become marketplace. No one questioned it anymore. Commerce wrapped itself in ritual until the two were indistinguishable. We do this too: professionalize our passion, monetize our meaning, trade what matters for what's measurable. We mistake transaction for connection, convenience for care. But real transformation always feels like destruction first. What if the disorder you fear is actually clarity breaking through? What if the structures you're defending have already betrayed their purpose? Sometimes love doesn't preserve—it overturns. Sometimes the way forward requires recognizing what's already been hollowed out, naming it honestly, and building something true from the wreckage.

Listen

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9; 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17; John 2:13-22

Reflect

(John 2: 13-22)

Think about the spaces in your life—your home, workplace, relationships. Where have you allowed something transactional to replace something sacred? What routines or compromises have you accepted because they seemed necessary, even though they've slowly hollowed out what you once valued most deeply?

Jesus didn't politely suggest reform; he disrupted the entire system because it had corrupted what was meant to be life-giving. What would it look like to bring that same fierce clarity to your own life? What compromises might you need to overturn, not with anger, but with love for what could be?

Consider what needs to be rebuilt after the tables are turned. What would it mean to reconstruct your daily patterns around what genuinely matters—connection, integrity, purpose—rather than what's merely efficient or expected? How might this disruption become the beginning of something more authentic?

Pray

God of fierce love and transforming fire: overturn what we've mistaken for reverence but is only routine. Clear the clutter we've called necessary. Restore what we've commercialized, heal what we've commodified, reclaim what we've traded away. Give us courage to dismantle what's hollow, wisdom to rebuild what's true, and vision to create spaces where people encounter life, not transactions.

SOCL, 29C

Sunday October 19, 2025

See

There can be no “part-time” discipleship. Likewise, there can be no parttime prayer. The deep reason behind this is that God loves my whole person and desires all that I am. Constancy in discipleship demands constancy in prayer; and constancy in prayer builds discipleship. In other words, they can be no separation of life and prayer— the goal is the same, the integration of my whole self into the Christian project. However, the relationship is primary. It is not that practical action is more important and prayer helps, but that prayer is more important and how I live is the test of my prayer.

Listen

Exodus 17:8-13; Psalm 121 (120); 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-8

Reflect

(Luke 18:1-8)

The purpose of prayer is not to change God’s mind, but to change ourselves and we can be slow to move. When have you found that persistence in prayer strengthened your faith in the presence of God with you in that struggle?

The context of the story may be a concern about the delay in the final coming of the Lord. Have there been times when your persistence in prayer, or action, was eventually rewarded after a period when you had doubts about the outcome? What were the fruits of your persistent prayer?

Behind the story lies the final question of Jesus: Who does have faith? Who have been models of faith and trust in God for you? How has that trust been shown in their lives? How is it shown in yours?

Pray

Lord, tireless guardian of your people, always ready to hear the cries of your chosen ones, teach us to rely, day and night, on your care. Support our prayer lest we grow weary. Impel us to seek your enduring justice and your ever-present help. Amen.

SOCL, 28C

Sunday October 12, 2025

See

Inclusivity and inclusion are buzz words in our culture. We find the radical openness of Jesus very helpful today, as we try to see the future of the Christian project. St Paul himself has been called the “founder of universalism” (Alain Badiou). Two comments may help us reflect. Firstly, not everyone is guided by this vision—the evidence for “exclusivism” is all around us. Secondly, in the Christian vision, respect for all is grounded not only in creation (“image and likeness of God” but also in salvation (“God wants all people to be saved”). Both dimensions are important for Jesus, for Paul and for us today.

Listen

2 Kings 5:14-17; Psalm 96 (97); 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

Reflect

(Luke 17:11-19)

The cure of the lepers is not just a physical cure, it was also brought the people healed back from exclusion into the community. Perhaps you have experienced the movement from exclusion to inclusion. What was it like for you to be accepted once again when you had been excluded?

Who were the Jesus people for you who brought about this change? For whom have been able to do this, perhaps by healing a rift with a friend, or by listening to the opinion of someone you had dismissed out of hand, or by opening the door in some other way to another?

Some people work hard at breaking down barriers in society, seeking inclusion for those who find themselves labelled as lepers by society or by a section of society. Where have you seen this happening? Who has been doing this kind of work? Where is the good news in such action?

When we do good for another we may not do it for the thanks we hope to get, but it can hurt when no gratitude is shown. How have you experienced the positive effects of thanks given and received?

Pray

O God, our life, our health, our salvation, look with mercy on your people. Stir up in us a saving faith, that believing, we may be healed, and being healed, we may worthily give you thanks. We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Sprit, God for ever and ever. Amen.