Podcasts by UCA News Podcast
Listen to interviews, commentaries, news summaries and analysis on social, political and religious developments that relate or are of interest to the Church in Asia. Enrich yourself with Sunday homilies and daily Gospel reflections. To donate go to www.ucanews.com/donate
Further podcasts by Binu Alex, UCA News
Podcast on the topic Kommentare
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 5 June, 2020 from 2022-03-07T14:39:44.954763
In the Gospel today Paul is writing to his friend and disciple and object of affection Timothy encouraging him to be patient and to encourage the communities that he is evangelizing to be patien...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 2 June, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.272249
Today’s Gospel is a very good example of a pathway to pray. We have to think and pray about what is the appropriate and life-giving way to respond to anyone that we encounter.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 3 June, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.269915
There is a contrast in the tone of the two readings today. One from Paul to Timothy is a disciple and follower and the other Jesus again engaging with adversaries who are too smart by heart and th...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 4 June, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.267012
Today's message from Saint Paul in his letter to Timothy is to encourage people to persevere in their engagement with God. This thought might not appear to be the case since God is still at work. M...
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Observations - Is America ceasing to be a city set on a hill? from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.262739
The city on a hill cannot be hidden. Will America prove John Winthrop's vision wrong? The original idea of America and its present state stand completely opposing each other. Thousands are on the s...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 5 June, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.259689
In the Gospel today Paul is writing to his friend and disciple and object of affection Timothy encouraging him to be patient and to encourage the communities that he is evangelizing to be patient a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 6 June, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.246365
It is only from God that we find the light and life and joy and hope that make us able to bear the burdens of disappointments, failures and rejoice in them because they are the building blocks.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, June 5, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.244893
In this week’s news summary, China backed city administration banned a memorial program for the first time in 30 years, saying the gathering could spread coronavirus. Church in India is asking cla...
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Homilies: Trinity Sunday - June 7, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.242769
Christians called to show God's love to the world should show a love that is so full as to overflow us, bringing unity to a world of many persons.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 7 June, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.239811
Trinity Sunday is one of three that occur in a roll. Last week it was Pentecost, this week is Trinity and next week we celebrate the body and blood of Christ. If ever you wanted to find the needed ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 8 June, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.199522
Beatitudes in Mark's gospel today is the most succinct forceful and comprehensive statement of just what Jesus message is.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 9 June, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.198400
In the first reading today, we hear a beautiful story about a simple engagement with God's providence story about someone on a journey. In the Gospel reading the two images of faith as they have th...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 10 June, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.197457
The older we get the more we realize that we are a work in progress. We pass milestones in our lives we achieve and even fail at things and we move on or we get bogged down. Today's reading looks a...
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Observations - Christianity at the forefront of seeking justice from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.160941
Christians should be at the forefront of opposition to anything that makes superficial differences of appearance, language, nationality, religion, gender identity, age, physical or mental condition...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 3, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.157564
Once again China continued to dominate politics and social discussions across Asia this week, particularly with the passage of its draconian security law aimed at checking the pro-democracy movemen...
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Homilies: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 5, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.153184
The world around me may be in turmoil, but I will be in peace and calm, not because I am apart from the world, but because I am sharing God's deep love for that world.
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Homilies: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Aug 2, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.086761
What would happen if we were to take seriously God's willingness to do the impossible through disciples? Am I willing to take the risk today to find out?
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Homilies with Fr. William Grimm - Tuesday 4 August, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.085899
The Gospel, the Good News, is about God’s immeasurable love, not about divine vindictiveness. That love can forgive the worst of all sins, the murder of God: “Father, forgive them.”
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UCA News Weekly Summary, August 7, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.085035
The 75th anniversary of the first atomic bombing was remembered by the world this week amid spiraling Covid-19 cases in most Asian countries. Authoritarian political moves and people’s struggles fo...
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Homilies: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Aug 9, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.084134
The Lord is willing to support us in doing the impossible. What we need is enough faith to enable us to step out of the security of the boat we call everyday "sensible" life.
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Q&A - The UCA News Interviews - Shahid Rehmat, YDF, Pakistan from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.062155
With 132 million people aged between 15-33, Pakistan is the fifth largest young country in the world. The Muslim-majority nation also has the second-largest youth population in South Asia after Ind...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, September 4, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.061217
Developments across Asia in the past week were shocking for groups fighting for religious freedom and democracy. Authoritarian governments continued their arm-twisting tactics to remain in power as...
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Homilies: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Sep 6, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.060086
The Lord's command to confront sin in ourselves and others is never easy to fulfill. It is even harder, perhaps, to be the object of that confrontation, whether as individuals or as societies. So, ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, October 2, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.052323
The news of the Vatican's proposal to renew its controversial deal with China filled the Catholic media in the past week. As the Vatican attempted to normalize the Church's life in communist China,...
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Homilies: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Oct 4, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.051394
There is one other thing we must do. We must hear and heed the messengers God sends to us workers in the vineyard. For we, too, need to be converted throughout our lives.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, October 9, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:15.050173
China continues to attract headlines in Catholic media as church leaders debate the Vatican’s plans to renew its pact with the communist country this month. The past week also saw Pope Francis sign...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, November 6, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.985981
Catholics across the world observed two major feasts this week —All Saints Day and the All Souls Day. The feasts that remember the dead were also occasions to discuss forced disappearances, a dread...
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Homilies: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Nov 8, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.985097
Signs of God’s kingdom are all around us. If we remember that, we will see them and thus build up our supply of oil so that at any time, in any way that God comes to us, we will be ready.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, December 4, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.974348
Catholics in Asia have experienced celebrations, commemorations and abuses this week, while church leaders made pledges to protect the rights of vulnerable groups including farmers, women and child...
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Homilies: Second Sunday of Advent December 6, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.971636
In Advent we make a bit more effort to welcome the Lord into our lives and into our hearts, so that we can indeed know him as Son of God, as Good News.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 9 Dec, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.970360
Remarkable, but actually also quite mysterious feature of our engagement with God through scripture is that almost on a random basis wherever we are and however we are we can flip the scripture ope...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 10 Dec, 2020 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.967819
We've been going through a very strange time throughout the world watching the Americans argue with each other about who won the presidential election in November. Now I think when it comes to the ...
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Observations: This Christmas either about God with us or nothing from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.966634
This year, Christmas is either about God with us or it is nothing. If Covid Christmas teaches us that, next year we may resume the trappings of the season, but with a new unclouded knowledge of wha...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 2 Jan, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.876614
Much of our prayer and much of our Christian journey is spent in anticipation and also in the hope for the fulfillment of the promises Godhas made to us. Christmas time is one where we can relish t...
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Homilies: Epiphany January 3, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.875677
We are called to be Stars of Bethlehem, leading men and women to Christ. The chief vocation of the Church is to proclaim the Good News to all nations. How do I share in that great vocation?
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 3 Jan, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.874603
The Epiphany which we celebrate today is the Feast that points to the universal significance of all that God has done focus inJesus’ birth, death and resurrection.It is the “showing forth”of Jesus ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 4 Jan, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.873746
In the time after Epiphany, we are in a strange time the New Testament: Yes, so kething decisive for Israel has happened (the fulfillment of God’s promises to His people) but the impact and reach o...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 5 Jan, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.872898
The feeding of the 5000 people is a remarkable account of the continuing creativity of the Providence of God which, especially after the Feast of the Epiphany underlines how universal the reach of ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 6 Jan, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.871963
The story about Jesus walking on the turbulent waters as he comes to the rescue of his disciples is one of the best known and most comforting stories in the Gospels because it shows how intimate ou...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 7 Jan, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.870749
Our journey in life and in faith is a journey discovering our identity as followers of Jesus loved by the Father. In that we are following the example of Jesus who did exactly the same thing.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 8 Jan, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.869782
Healing - of ourselves or our share in healing others - is a mysterious that asks of us to engage with people including those who have betrayed and hurt us and whom we have betrayed and hurt. Engag...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 9 Jan, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.868650
Today’s gospel is the clearest statement we could hope to find in the Gospels about what our vocation as Christians is - to point Jesus as God’s last word, to point to Jesus as the fullness of God’...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, January 8, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.867753
The world has ushered in the new year 2021, but the threat of Covid-19 looms large as billions desperately seek vaccines. Asian nations have experienced more violations of democratic and civil righ...
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Homilies: First Sunday of the Year January 10, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.866557
God has said to each of us at our baptism, "You are my beloved child. On you my favor rests." What am I going to do about it?
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 10 Jan, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.865624
The Baptism of the Lord celebrates the beginning of Jesus’ explicit commitment to a path of finding God among us so that we might follow him who is true God and truly a human being. This is a feast...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 2 Feb, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.799430
Today is the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord when the Gift of Jesus is gratefully received from God and acknowledged by Jesus’ parents. It is a rich feast in which the cycle of gift and grat...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 3 Feb, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.798176
In the journey faith, the one absolutely certain feature we should be ready for in abundance is paradox - what we don’t expect or predict occurs and what we want to unfold doesn’t happen as we expe...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 4 Feb, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.797281
This is one of the most graphic and powerful portrayals in the New Testament of just how God works and how and why Jesus is good news for us. Jesus comes into the heart of our lives and our world i...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 5 Feb, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.796240
Today’s gospel takes us to the heart of how we become entrapped by our own self-interest and how that entrapment suffocates us morally and spiritually. It also takes us to where we can be set free ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 6 Feb, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.794973
One of the constant features of Mark’s Gospel is how superficial the crowds are and how superficial even Jesus’ followers are. They are just interested in the dazzle of cures and ways they can adva...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, February 5, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.793964
The military coup in Myanmar shocked the world and made headlines in Asian and global media this week. Other Asian nations have reported persecution of religious minorities and ongoing threats from...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 7 Feb, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.792952
We can hear a lot today about the need for “work/life balance”, and we should. We can get so distracted from what is deepest, truest and most nourishing in our lives by all the other claims on us o...
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Homilies: Fourth Sunday of the Year February 7, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.786354
Like Jesus, we must be ready and willing to leave our prayer for those who seek us out. Like Peter's mother-in-law, our encounter with God must get us back to normal stuff.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 8 Feb, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.781436
Today’s gospel presents us with a central challenge to us in our faith journey: are we ready to wait to discover what God is inviting us to be and become. It may or may not (and usually does not) h...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 9 Feb, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.780582
We humans are an odd species. We develop practices and habits for good reasons. We follow them so much we can’t imagine ourselves not following them. Then circumstances change and the relevance and...
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Observations: Reemerging antisemitism — What will the church do about it? from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.779703
As Christians we were hurt by the vehemence of their reaction to the mention of Christianity, even if that mention was a tasteless or even stupid one. But as a Christian, we also knew that the hat...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 10 Feb, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.778517
Today’s gospel asks a question we should out to ourselves every day and several times through every day: who and what is in control how we behave and treat and interact with others Orm respond to o...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 2 Mar, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.747030
Today’s Gospel is a characteristic invitation of Jesus to change our ways and embrace the grace of conversion that God wants us to have. Bu how do we do it? One thing is to have the still times wit...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 3 Mar, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.694918
This set of instructions for the disciples and their families comes late I Matthews Gospel and it’s a puzzle why, after all their time with Jesus, they still don’t get what he’s really saying and a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 4 Mar, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.693940
Our living and our loving have consequences and that conviction is given graphic importance in Luke’s Gospel where the Evangelist’s capacity to provide rich narratives show how real the outcomes of...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 5 Mar, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.692949
God only writes straight with crooked lines. No gesture, action or intervention of God is ever simple and straightforward. God is the one who appreciates and works by paradox. If we want to live th...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 6 Mar, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.691842
One of the most arresting answers to the question “Who are you?” that I have ever heard was then response to this question given by Pope Francis just after he was elected Pope and was interviewed. ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, March 5, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.690420
This week, people across the globe witnessed the horrors of a deadly crackdown on anti-coup protesters in military-ruled Myanmar. Asian nations have experienced the curtailing of civil liberties am...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 7 Mar, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.685073
Being God’s presence in the world is then invitation God makes to us all at our baptism. Today as we move closer towards the celebration of the life giving death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter...
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Homilies: Third Sunday of Lent (B) March 7, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.684052
Mid-way to our celebration of the Cross and Easter, we reflect on how we are like the animals, tables and vendors in the temple, interfering with others' finding the Lord. As individuals and as a c...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 8 Mar, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.682159
One of the constant challenges we face in our journey of faith is accepting that we don’t have all the answers to our problems and that the way God works something we have to patiently ask God for ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 9 Mar, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.680304
Today’s Gospel reading at Mass is so central to what Lent is for and actually what the whole dynamic of Christianity is in outlives- forgiveness which begins with God’s forgiving us and then throug...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 10 Mar, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.678855
Jesus is clearly not an “either/or” person. He’s not saying he wants people to get on board with his message and discard anything and everything from Israel’s past that contributes to the coming of...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 2 Apr, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.592252
Good Friday is a special gift to us. This is the day when we can move more intimately into God’s presence and find in our own experience just what relief god gives us when our resources are spent a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 3 Apr, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.591309
The first Mass to celebrate the Easter Rising is on the evening of Easter Saturday and recalls the details of those who’re the first witnesses of the Resurrection - the women in Jesus’ following - ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 4 Apr, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.590124
Easter Sunday is the pivot of our Christian lives. In it, we celebrate the transformation any reckless and destructive elements in our past lives, the blessedness in which we live now and the basis...
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Homilies: Easter Sunday April 4, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.589210
On Easter we celebrate on behalf of all the world God's love that embraces all the world. We celebrate for that boy, for all the dead and for ourselves, the living who are promised a share in the l...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 5 Apr, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.588295
Something as completely unexpected and indeed unimaginable as the resurrection of Jesus provoked the predictable ways to defuse the story. There were those of course who had everything to lose if w...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 6 Apr, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.587365
Today’s gospel story is so representative of just how we all respond to the presence of Jesus in our lives. Mary Magdalene is more preoccupied by her own loss and sense of disappointment and so com...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 7 Apr, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.585998
This account in Luke’s Gospel of the disciples’ meeting with Jesus on the road to Emmaus is iconic for believers because it captures some of the key features of our engagement with Jesus - Jesus in...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 8 Apr, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.584917
Luke is wonderful in the way in which he graphically illustrates the story he is telling. That is especially so in the way he illustrates that most mysterious phase and stage of Jesus’ life - the e...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 9 Apr, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.583826
The post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus are many and varied and they can’t be tied down to any simple formula that is endlessly repeated in its context and details. No. Jesus appears in these st...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 10 Apr, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.582399
We can really confuse ourselves if we think doubt is the enemy of faith. It’s not as is shown throughout the New Testament. Doubt can lead us deeper into faith. The enemy of faith is certainty and ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, April 9, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.577240
Catholics in Asia joined Christians around the world to celebrate Holy Week and Easter Sunday. The joyful celebration, however, was observed amid the shadows of the Covid-19 pandemic, extremist thr...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 2 May, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.537325
John’s Gospel is the most consistent and persistent record of just how intimate our engagement in faith with god really is. Our faith is entirely about nourishing that relationship with God so our ...
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Homilies: Fifth Sunday of Easter (B) May 2, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.536404
In the Acts of the Apostles, Saul shows what love calls for. He continues to proclaim the fact that he has met the Lord though no one trusts him and some even want to kill him. That is the basic vo...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 3 May, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.535267
Once again, the evangelist in the Fourth Gospel is spelling out how essential it is for us believers to recognize the intimacy of our relationship with the God who sustains and empowers us, and to ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 4 May, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.502486
Peace and the experience of it is the most reliable indicator of God’s presence in our lives and of God’s blessing of the way we have chosen. Peace in our souls is the confirmation of God’s presenc...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 5 May, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.390881
The evangelist in the Fourth Gospel continues with the agricultural metaphor to explain how we grow in our relationship with God ands in any aspect of our relationship with God, deepening the relat...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 6 May, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.389933
Today’s gospel does two essential things: it specifies what our aim and purpose as disciples of Jesus is (to remain in and be animated by God’s love); to share the joy God gifts us with so that our...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 7 May, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.388768
Today’s text from the Fourth Gospel is one of the simplest and tightest summaries of just what the Evangelist wants us to understand to be Jesus’ message to us as his followers: love one another as...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 8 May, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.386034
Today’s Gospel repeats the Golden Rule of Christianity - love one another. Of course the truly remarkable thing is that Jesus did and does love us, even those among us who care littler nothing for ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, May 7, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.385169
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic worsening in India this week, Catholics expressed joy after the Vatican cleared the way for an 18th century martyr to be declared a saint. Religious minorities includi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 9 May, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.384311
Today’s reading match and balance each other in very complementary ways. But the point at which they cohere is in the way they all point to God being the one who initiates the life of the Spirit in...
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Homilies: Sixth Sunday of Easter (B) May 9, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.383419
Today's continuation of our Easter celebration is a joyous proclamation of the great love God shows in calling us to be united with Christ. It is a day to look at our faults and failings and put th...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 10 May, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.382325
Faith has consequences for the way we live and how people react to and treat us. And many of the consequences are not appealing or attractive. But the Evangelist in John’s Gospel wants us to be und...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 2 Jun, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.351041
Jesus has enemies and they try to distract people following and listening to him with small quibbles that are too smart by half These pedantic distractions miss the central point Jesus is making - ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 3 Jun, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.349818
When we see and hear how simple God’s invitation and challenge is, we can wonder why we have distracted ourselves as we have with so much additional commentary and so many directives that take us a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 4 Jun, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.345249
Today’s Gospel is another chapter in asserting and explaining the heritage of Jesus and just what his gift to us as our savior means - Son of God yes. But also descendant of David as predicted. Tha...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 5 Jun, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.344314
Today’s gos[el story is nothing if not paradoxical because it proposes that those with nothing but still generously offer their “nothing” to God and for the well being of others armor admirable and...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, June 4, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.342783
The killing of a former priest has sparked an outcry over the culture of extrajudicial executions in the Philippines. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to cast a long shadow over Asian nations while ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 6 Jun, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.341683
Today we repeat in the Gospel of Mark what we call the “Institution Narrative”, when Jesus institutes what we call the Eucharist. In memory of him, we bless the bread and the cup to recall the life...
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Homilies: Body and Blood of Christ (B) Jun 6, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.340619
On this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we once again say "Amen" to being Christ for the world, confident that his real presence with us will help us act as we truly are, his ongoing real pr...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 7 Jun, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.339472
The Gospel reading today - the Beatitudes - is the most emblematic statement of just what Jesus’ message is and where God is to be found - on the margins, in a paradoxical presence where we would l...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 8 Jun, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.338186
Today’s Gospel has two purposes: to recall the events of the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist and secondly to recall for us just what the meaning of the last Supper is - the essenti...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 9 Jun, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.337076
Jesus comes to fulfill the promises God made to the People of God, not to wipe out all that pointed to this fulfillment. To appreciate what his message of reception really means to us requires that...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 10 Jun, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.336093
We could be mistaken and think Jesus is setting up a competitive process to get his followers to compete with their Jewish brothers and sisters to fulfill the Law and become “better” believers by a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 2 Jul, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.248029
Jesus calls us all in the real world we inhabit everyday. Sometimes that world naturally opens us to God and sometimes it obstinately blocks God out. Whatever that world does to our engagement with...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 3 Jul, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.246810
The doubts that Thomas has about Jesus risen are representative of our human misgivings and to be expected of us all - anyone in the first century of the Christian Era or in the first century of t...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 2, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.245893
India’s Eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Church is in hot water again over a controversial land deal. In other parts of Asia, there are stories of people craving rights and freedom along with messages of ...
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Homilies: Fourteenth Sunday of the Year (B) Jul 4, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.245002
God does not force us to accept love. In today's Gospel, we hear that Jesus could not perform miracles because people would not believe in him. They were not willing to accept the love God offered ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 4 Jul, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.244100
Jesus learns something we all know: people don’t like change especially the sort pf change that invites them to reconsider some of their basic presuppositions about life and others but most especia...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 5 Jul, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.242820
All sorts things can stand between us and hearing and receiving God’s invitation to faith. Often enough it’s the sheer noise in our lives that blocks us from hearing the call of Jesus. In this Gosp...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 6 Jul, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.241887
The Gospel in today’s Mass says specifically just what a change the Good News provides as the way to find and serve God: It is not the predictable, “worthy” and obviously blessed to whom Jesus goes...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 7 Jul, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.240964
In today’s Gospel, we re witnesses to privileged moment in the mission of Jesus. He has just just completed the section in Matthew’s gospel devoted to the core elements of his message and he specif...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 8 Jul, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.239739
Today’s Gospel contains the simplest description of just hat the mission and message of Jesus’ followers is - the heal people and foster life; to bring peace and to depend on the care and providenc...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 9 Jul, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.236812
While God’s Providential care of us as we do God’s work is assured, that assurance does mean it will be easy or that we are assured of success in what we undertake What we can be assured is that no...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 10 Jul, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.235889
Finding the God whom we can worship all our lives and the real person of Jesus whose following becomes the centerpiece of our lives are matters of the utmost importance and actually of the utmost s...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 9, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.234552
The tragic death of elderly Indian Jesuit activist Father Stan Swamy has triggered an outpouring of grief and criticism from across India and the globe. In other parts of Asia, Covid-19 and oppress...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 2 Aug, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.156376
Today’s Gospel is a decisive turning point in the fortunes of Jesus because the fate of John the Baptist - his execution by Herod’s agents - is a pointer for Jesus to just what lay ahead for Jesus ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 3 Aug, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.155489
Today we have a powerful sequence of stories about the healing that Jesus’ presence brings. This powerful effect is completely free of any effort on the part of the apostles, and in some instances ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 4 Aug, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.154346
Things never happen as and when we want them to happen and today’s story in the Gospel is one underlining the force and significance of perseverance in our requests for Jesus’ intervention. It jolt...
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Observations: Parish Attendance - Obligation or opportunity? from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.152806
In preparation for the reopening of churches, bishops have an opportunity to raise the quality of liturgical service. Workshops for clergy on preaching and liturgy can be done remotely while waitin...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 5 Aug, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.151704
Today’s Gospel is really what someone would call the clearest and simplest mission statement Jesus could articulate - that he is from God, has a mission from God, this will entail renunciation and ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 6 Aug, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.150565
The Transfiguration which we celebrate today is the feast that keeps our eyes and attention focused on what God’s grace can do even as we are smothered in circumstances and impacts that seem destru...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 7 Aug, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.149653
This Gospel scene is a decisive statement of just what Jesus' miraculous work is really about: faith - inviting it and nourishing it. It’s not about signs and wonders with Jesus provoking people to...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, August 6, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.148717
Asian nations have reported repression against minorities including Christians as strong calls are made for an end to injustice, corruption and human trafficking. These stories and more in this wee...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 8 Aug, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.147825
In our journey in faith, we are invited to journey every day deeper into the life of God in our midst. God wants us to share the life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit every day in a deeper and deeper...
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Homilies: Nineteenth Sunday of the Year (B) Aug 8, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.146576
The Eucharist we share is food like that the angel gave Elijah. It is food that enables us to persevere in our long journey to God. It is the strength of God.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 9 Aug, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.145682
Today’s Gospel is a further gloomy prediction: that the one whom the apostles are following is to comet a painful end when he is given into the hands of ruthless people. Haunted by the looming Cros...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 10 Aug, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.144751
This extract from the Gospel of John comes after the declaration of John’s message through the SIGNS Jesus uses to express what he wants to say and before he goes into the long Last Supper discours...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 2 Sept, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.048564
Today’s Gospel is as powerful a story as we find in the New Testament about God’s determination to see his will done and to the limits ways in which we can block or impede God accomplishing the ver...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 3 Sept, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.047037
In today’s Gospel story, Jesus faces the recurrent question of what is needed to bring lasting change - How deep and complete does the change need to go? To the roots? Case by case and a bit here a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 4 Sept, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.045969
Common sense and recognizing the priority attending to actual needs rather than simply standing on his dignity to see that the rules are kept is a hallmark of the way Jesus operates. Throughout the...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, September 3, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.044941
The prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award has honored the role of individuals in transforming lives and societies across Asia. In other parts of Asia, calls continue for an end to oppression, injustice...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 5 Sept, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.043929
The story in today’s Gospel recounts the reversals which have come one man’s way. Jesus enters that life to reverse the fortunes of the man afflicted with the reversals and lead him to a fuller, ri...
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Homilies: Twenty-Third Sunday of the Year (B) Sept 5, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.042413
The way to make God's love present in this creation is to groan with Christ. Anyone who has tried to share God's love with the world comes to know that.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 6 Sept, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.041153
It’s hard to exaggerate how mind numbingly self-destructive we humans can be. So it’s comforting to know that Jesus saw just how self-defeating we can be and offers a way that can see such futility...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 7 Sept, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.040242
Something that has people glued to Jesus is his capacity to heal them of the possession by evil spirits who torment and destroy them. One of the things he empowers his followers to do is share that...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 8 Sept, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.038976
The justly very famous Lutheran theologian Karl Barth made a very helpful distinction that applies to today’s feast of Mary’s nativity: there is a profound difference between the miracle happening ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 9 Sept, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.037640
Today is the feast of St. Peter Claver to whom I have a special devotion. He spent his life serving African slaves in a city to the north of Latin America. They were left out and neglected to a poi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 10 Sept, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:14.036722
One of the most arresting effects of finding fault with other people’s views or behavior is that we become completely blinded to our own shortcomings and limitations while we focus on where others ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 2 Oct, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.956158
Angels in Jewish and then consequently Christian though and piety have a simple force and purpose: they are the carriers of God’s presence who come into our experience to prompt our openness to God...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, October 1, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.954863
Extremism remains a threat to minorities in Asian nations as vulnerable communities reel from natural and man-made calamities. These stories and more in this week’s podcast.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 3 Oct, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.953490
There are two hard stories in today’s Gospel - first that God asks us some things will never b able to realize left entirely our own resources; and that we need to recover the innocence and trust o...
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Homilies: Twenty-seventh Sunday of the Year (B) Oct. 3, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.950793
Jesus defended two groups in his society that had no defense. He forbade discarding wives or denying children their right to a place among his followers. There is no toleration in the Reign of God ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 4 Oct, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.949774
St Francis of Assisi is the preeminent reminder of just how inexhaustible God’s love is, how far and wide it reaches and how challenging it is to live as a disciple of Jesus. We can only do it with...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 5 Oct, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.948579
Martha’s objection to the apparent laziness or at least irresponsibility of her sister in paying attention to serving their guests and asking Jesus to correct her behavior produces from Jesus one o...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 6 Oct, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.947254
Jesus is many things to us including a patient teacher and in today’s Gospel he isa patient teacher of prayer. Today’s version of the Our Father begins with the words that remind us of our original...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 7 Oct, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.945986
Our relationship with God is not simply a matter of our rejoicing in God’s largesse. Yes, our faith is based on God’s abundant generosity. But as in any real relationships with God: it is not matte...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 8 Oct, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.944749
Today’s Gospel goes to the heart of the perennial question posed to us believers: how can we be confident that God is at work in whatever is moving us? There is really only way to answer that: are ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 9 Oct, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.943783
Responding to flattery of both him and his mother, Jesus cuts straight to the bone and emphasizes what is essential to faith: not blood relations but the spiritual bonding that comes with being ch...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, October 8, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.942515
People in Asian nations strive for freedom, rights and justice as politics, violence and the pandemic cast long shadows on their lives. These stories and more in this week’s podcast.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 10 Oct, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.941559
Sometimes people take an attitude to faith that vindicates Karl Marx’ judgment of religious faith - that it is the opiate of the people. Not so Jesus for whom faith is always presenting us a challe...
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Homilies: Twenty-eight Sunday of the Year (B) Oct. 10, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.940612
Jesus is challenging us to live in the real world, to give up all that might allow us to avoid the truth that there is no easy way to share in everlasting life. And everlasting life is what we all ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 2 Nov, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.862331
Remembering our dead - what we do today, on All Souls Day - is a deeply mysterious event. It’s mysterious not simply because it is a direct engagement with something that all of us face and will fa...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 3 Nov, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.861254
Luke’s gospel is very strong and consistent in emphasizing that faith begins with God’s invitation. But then the evangelist is very insistent that the invitation requires our response if anything i...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 4 Nov, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.859886
Jesus finds immense depth in a moment of deep bigotry and prejudice among those seeking to find fault with him and he puts it to good use in taking his message even deeper into the lives of the peo...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 5 Nov, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.858382
Jesus commends the pragmatism of the cunning servant and suggests that his followers should be just as pragmatic when it comes to their own dealings and negotiations with God so that they aren’t tr...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, November 5, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.852358
The meeting of Narendra Modi and Pope Francis as well as the Indian PM’s invitation to visit his country made global headlines. Religious leaders have appealed for peace and unity amid repression a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 7 Nov, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.850869
This is one of the most profound and moving stories from Jesus about just what generosity really means - surrendering all we have to live on and trusting that God will supply whatever it is we need...
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Homilies: Thirty-second Sunday of the Year (B) Nov. 7, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.849791
Sunday Gospel Reflection by Father Bill Grimm
The woman knew better. She knew that what she had was nothing compared to what God offers. God offers me eternity. Can I, in gratitude, find ways t...
Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 8 Nov, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.848820
At this stage in Luke’s Gospel, we are being introduced to a series of stories teaching us simple wisdom about how we grow in the love of and avoid the ways we can take people own the wrong path in...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 9 Nov, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.847871
Today’s Gospel is not as simple as it might appear to be. It can’t just about having trading and worship compete because offering the animals is considered an appropriate sacrifice and can’t be dis...
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Observations: If it happens on your watch from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.846566
Poland’s bishops were recently in Rome for their ad limina visit that bishops make every five years. While there they complained about the rigor with which the Vatican now deals with bishops who ha...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 10 Nov, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.845581
Once again, faith is what triggers Jesus miraculous action and the mighty deed of cleansing is there to show something more of just who Jesus is and what his message is. But this cleansing has some...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 2 Dec, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.776725
One of the main things that discourages people from exploring the message of Jesus and becoming Christians is the life that Christians live that is so obviously at odds with message and example of ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 3 Dec, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.775765
St. Francis Xavier whose feast we celebrate today is a saint of wide significance for the Church across the world but especially for those of us in Asia and Australia. In Australia, he is a nationa...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 4 Dec, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.774625
Healing is the characteristic action of Jesus’ ministry. People in Jesus’ time saw illness and disease as an effect of sin and so the banishment of sickness and the healing of disease is part of th...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, December 3, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.773388
Compensation bought some consolation for two sexually abused altar boys in Indonesia this week as Christians and other groups ramped up their battle against injustice and discrimination. These and ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 5 Dec, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.772495
Today’s Gospel announces the mission and message of John the Baptist who comes in anticipation of Jesus to open the way for his mission and message. The evangelist seeks to be precise and exact abo...
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Homilies: Second Sunday of Advent (C) Dec. 5, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.771565
Sunday Gospel Reflection by Father Bill Grimm
Advent is the season in which the Church recommits itself to living a great adventure. We are a band of companions walking through a world of marve...
Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 6 Dec, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.770421
The crowds are staggered and amazed that Jesus can heal as he does, perform the miracles that he does, achieve the mighty outcomes that he does. But Jesus wants the crows to appreciate he has more ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 7 Dec, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.769504
Today’s Gospel is the most emphatic statement by Jesus about how determined he is to seek out and save whatever might be lost among us. He just won’t, perhaps even can’t give up on us. The implicat...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 9 Dec, 2021 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.768577
This Gospel today contains more material to again show the focus of one of the early contests in the first Christian communities: how did Jesus fit into the unfolding history of Christianity and wh...
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Observations: A year’s worth of Advent from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.767536
The Church year begins and ends with disaster stories. They are a style of biblical literature called apocalypse that has now become a genre of popular entertainment. We are fascinated by apocalypt...
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Homilies: Epiphany (C) Jan. 2, 2022 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.746584
If we want to see God, we need not spend years doing spiritual calisthenics or wait until we die. God has come among us as one of us. If you wish to see God, look at Jesus, the manifestation of God...
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Observations: Post-Christmas homework from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.745648
The Catholic Church is preparing for a new kind of synod involving all of us. Its roots lie in an ecumenical council 60 years ago, Vatican 2. Looking back to that event can give us the foundation w...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, January 7, 2022 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.744720
Shock and anger abound over India’s pro-Hindu government targeting of humanitarian groups like Missionaries of Charity. In other Asian nations, people grapple with injustices, oppression and the pa...
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Homilies: Baptism of the Lord (C) Jan. 9, 2022 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.743735
The difference between us Christians and the rest of the world is the knowledge that there is an answer for our anticipating hearts, and the answer is the Son of God present among us.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, February 4, 2022 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.695505
As Catholics in Pakistan welcomed “Servant of God” status for a man who died a hero, the murders of clergy in Vietnam and Pakistan shocked minority Christians. These stories and more in this week’s...
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Homilies: Fifth Sunday of the Year (C) Feb. 6, 2022 from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.694129
The world is starving to hear of God's love, to see God's love. The world is swimming around in confusion, waiting to be brought into God's net. That is what counts.
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Observations: “Words without thoughts” from 2022-02-22T09:22:13.692081
After every new exposé of abuse in the Catholic Church, bishops, superiors and other managers end any statements with a pro-forma claim that their priority is the protection of vulnerable people. B...
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Homilies: Seventh Sunday of the Year (C) Feb. 20, 2022 from 2022-02-19T08:30
It is not totally impossible to do love toward an enemy. One just has to do for others what one does for oneself. That still is not easy. But, knowing we can do it for our worst enemy is an encoura...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, February 18, 2022 from 2022-02-18T10:30
A year after the military coup, Myanmar continues to burn as new evidence emerges of the junta’s horrific atrocities. Efforts for justice and peace are being made against a tide of oppression and a...
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Homilies: Sixth Sunday of the Year (C) Feb. 13, 2022 from 2022-02-12T08:30
The Gospel presents us with a decision and a consequence. We must decide who Jesus is, and upon what authority he says some very strange things.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, February 11, 2022 from 2022-02-11T10:30
Vatican scoffed media speculations that it pulled out representatives in Taiwan and Hong Kong for potential diplomatic ties with China. These and much more in this week’s podcast.
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Homilies: Fourth Sunday of the Year (C) Jan. 30, 2022 from 2022-01-29T08:30
Either there is something wrong with Jesus, or there is something wrong with our expectations. We either have to abandon him as a savior or accept him on his own terms. There seems to be no other p...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, January 28, 2022 from 2022-01-28T10:30
Myanmar is facing a humanitarian crisis as it prepares to mark the first anniversary of the military coup that ousted a civilian government. Meanwhile, rights abuses and radicalism threaten peace a...
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Homilies: Third Sunday of the Year (C) Jan. 23, 2022 from 2022-01-22T08:30
The Word of God is, or should be, a reminder of God's presence among us. That is the reason we treat a Bible or Lectionary with special respect.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, January 21, 2022 from 2022-01-21T10:30
Election fever is heating up in Timor-Leste as a former Catholic priest stands for president. Justice and human rights remain major concerns for Christians and other vulnerable groups in Asia. Thes...
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Observations: Dust off your Bible from 2022-01-20T10:30
Catholics, including those whose vocation is to proclaim the Word of God, have become strangers to the Word, and by doing so have put the mission and the very existence of the Church in jeopardy. T...
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Homilies: Second Sunday of the Year (C) Jan. 16, 2022 from 2022-01-15T08:30
Jesus the Lamb presents us with the wine of peace because he overcomes the sin of the world in his death and resurrection.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, January 14, 2022 from 2022-01-14T10:30
Catholics in Asian nations offer hope and support to communities in distress amid conflict, oppression and the pandemic. These and much more in this week’s news summary.
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Homilies: Mary, Mother of God Jan. 1, 2022 from 2021-12-31T08:30
Each of us is presented with the same vocation as Mary. God says to you and to me, "Make my Son present in the world. Forgive sins. Bring healing. Live with faith that my love is stronger than your...
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Homilies: Holy Family (C) Dec. 26, 2021 from 2021-12-25T08:30
As the boy Jesus "increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor, " so, too, the Church grows in wisdom, years and favor.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, December 24, 2021 from 2021-12-24T10:30
Christmas spirit is slowly gripping Catholics in Asia despite challenges including natural calamities, the coronavirus and oppressive regimes. The New Year looms with new hope against adversities. ...
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Homilies: Christmas Day Dec. 25, 2021 from 2021-12-24T08:30
Today we remember and celebrate the fact that we can know God's glory and power not as some sort of information, but as a person. So, on Christmas Day we move from the story to the program, from wh...
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Observations: Every day is Covid Christmas from 2021-12-20T09:24:22
Last year, we had a Covid Christmas. We thought, or at least hoped, it would be the only one. But now we face our second. In a real sense, every Christmas, every year, every day is a Covid day, wit...
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Homilies: Fourth Sunday of Advent (C) Dec. 19, 2021 from 2021-12-18T08:30
Christmas is, of course, much more than a child's feast. But, it is, indeed, a time for us to reflect upon children and the gifts we give them, the legacy we leave them.
UCA News Weekly Summary, December 17, 2021 from 2021-12-17T10:30
Catholic-run institutes bear the brunt amid an anti-Christian purge in India. In other Asian nations, people grapple with the impacts of natural and manmade calamities. These and more....
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Homilies: Third Sunday of Advent (C) Dec. 12, 2021 from 2021-12-11T08:30
What we really want has already been given us. We do not have to wait until Christmas Day to receive it. We do not have to wait until we start following all the good advice we have received.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 12 Dec, 2021 from 2021-12-11T06:00
In the early Church, there was quite a contest between the followers of John the Baptist and the followers of Jesus about who was preeminent. But the evangelists used that contest to underline the ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, December 10, 2021 from 2021-12-10T10:30
Politically troubled and divided Hong Kong has welcomed a new Catholic bishop who promises healing and bridge building. In other parts of Asia, people cling to hope for freedom, justice and unity i...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 11 Dec, 2021 from 2021-12-10T06:00
Jesus birth is attended by various pointers to its significance and meaning for redemption and God’s fidelity to his plan to redeem the human race. One of those concerns Elijah and misrule in point...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 9 May, 2020 from 2021-12-05T07:56:23.392721
One of the great challenges to believing in God and believing in Jesus is that we need to have two sets of eyes – is the world we know through smelling and tasting, and touching is the world of pra...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, May 8, 2020 from 2021-12-05T07:56:23.391858
As Covid-19 continues its ravaging journey, Asian governments this week reinforced measures against the pandemic, drawing some criticism and some applause. Curfews and lockdowns continue amid gover...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 10 May, 2020 from 2021-12-05T07:56:23.390647
In the first Reading today we see seven deacons take up some of the works the Apostles were doing. This can be compared with the problem confronted by the Church today. Just like the Apostles, the ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 8 May, 2020 from 2021-12-04T06:46:24.874253
Today's Gospel reading is taken from one of the most familiar passages in John's Gospel which is used in all sorts of circumstances particularly in funerals where it reassures people about the way ...
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Homilies: Fifth Sunday of Easter - May 10, 2020 from 2021-12-04T06:46:24.873391
Jesus tells us today that the place where we live with God is not only this world we live in now. He has prepared another place for us, one with "many dwelling places," enough dwelling places for e...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 01 Dec, 2021 from 2021-11-30T06:00
This is a parable of Providential abundance - of God providing for his people in their acute and extreme need. We are in Advent and preparing to welcome the abundance of Jesus at Christmas - the fu...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 4 May, 2020 from 2021-11-29T22:49:10.260264
Shepherds today are modern. Roam around in bikes while dogs keep the sheep disciplined. But the sort of shepherd Jesus is profiling in today’s John gospel is one that is on a much smaller scale an...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 5 May, 2020 from 2021-11-29T22:49:10.259385
The reading of the Acts the Apostle that we have this time of the year is watching the way in which the Church evolves. In a haphazard and a bland way in response to the reaction that the early pre...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 6 May, 2020 from 2021-11-29T22:49:10.258268
It is very rare that we have both the first reading, generally from the new testament, and the Gospel reading having themes that echo each other. Today it does. In the first reading in the second ...
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Q&A - UCA News Interviews - Filipinos Onboard Ships from 2021-11-29T22:49:10.257241
More than ten million Filipinos live and work overseas. They work in the world's high-paying cities, particularly in the Persian Gulf, Hong Kong, Canada, and Europe. The Covid-19 pandemic has made ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 7 May, 2020 from 2021-11-29T22:49:10.256381
Today let’s look at the reading from the Acts of the Apostles rather than the Gospel. What’s important about the Acts of the Apostles today is that it records something that really need to be appr...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 30 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-29T06:00
This invitation to the two sets of brothers comes very early in Matthew’s Gospel and even before he starts to preach his message. And the four Apostles in these stories have a basic role in groundi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 29 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-28T05:50
This Gospel today recounts the evangelist’s way of accommodating in Matthew’s Gospel the reach of Jesus’ message: completely beyond the boundaries of Israel but still taking up its foundation in th...
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UCA News Summary for First Week of May 2020 from 2021-11-27T14:04:06.628995
The fast-decreasing space for religious freedom in Asia marked most stories this week, a fact highlighted by the annual report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Fo...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 3 May, 2020 from 2021-11-27T14:04:06.628039
In the Gospel today, Jesus shows us how we can come to peace, union, creativity and forgiveness if we allow God to have the initiative and to take us along. We think we can tell God what His busine...
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Homilies: First Sunday of Advent (C) Nov. 28, 2021 from 2021-11-27T08:30
Can I believe that when troubles come the Lord comes as well? How can I deepen my faith in that coming? The Lord's answer is "Pray constantly."
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 28 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-27T06:00
Happy New Year. Well this is the Church’s New Year’ Day when all begins again as we enter Advent and build up to Christmas. But we haven’t left the Apocalyptic readings behindhand we open the with ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, November 26, 2021 from 2021-11-26T10:30
Catholics in strife-torn Myanmar continue to be targeted by the military junta. In other Asian nations, Catholics and others leap to support communities in distress and join forces to battle for ri...
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Observations by UCANews - 1 May, 2020 from 2021-11-23T14:48:59.251370
Today is May day. Most people think this is a Marxist invention. On the contrary it is an American origin. It is a day to remember huge price paid in the past to get rudimentary level of justice in...
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Homilies: Fourth Sunday of Easter - May 3, 2020 from 2021-11-23T14:48:59.250220
Often we sheep are to blame for being led astray by bad shepherds. The sheep of whom Jesus speaks in the Gospel can tell the difference between their own good shepherd and a bad one. We are not alw...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 02 May, 2020 from 2021-11-23T14:48:59.249382
In today's Gospel Jesus is saying if people want to come to God, then come through Him. The story, the message and experience Jesus goes through.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 24 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-23T06:00
If ever we needed reminders about what real sacrifices our service of Jesus requires we are reminded of them by today’s gospel but also by today’s feast of Vietnamese martyrs. The following of Jesu...
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Observations: Honest evangelization needs honest journalism from 2021-11-22T07:30
The number of people outside and even inside the Catholic Church who trust the institution is shrinking. When the Church’s management engages in coverups, avoids admitting to bad news, and attacks ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 23 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-22T06:00
It is difficult to exaggerate the significance of the destruction of the Temple for Jewish identity. The Temple is the point of intersection between God and God’s People Israel to destroy the Templ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 22 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-21T06:00
Today’s feast is an instructive moment for the way the Church celebrates features of Church life. It is the feast of Saint Cecilia and there is no reliable evidence that she ever existed. But she i...
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Homilies: Thirty-Fourth Sunday of the Year, Christ the King (B) Nov. 21, 2021 from 2021-11-20T08:30
When we say Christ is King, we say we belong to him and to no others. We cannot, then, be used or abused, since that is an attack upon his subjects and his sovereignty.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 21 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-20T06:00
We have reached the moment we’ve been waiting for in all the Gospels - Jesus is before Pilate and is being asked to answer Pilate’s questions about who he is. The most important thing about the que...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, November 19, 2021 from 2021-11-19T10:30
Timor-Leste paid tribute to independence heroes on the 30th anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre. In other parts of Asia, there were stories of triumphs and struggles against oppression and injus...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 20 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-18T19:20
We know in our own lives that trying to be too smart can lead to our demise and it does for the scribes in today’s Gospel. But what is most important then is that this incident becomes an opportuni...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 19 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-18T06:00
Luke the evangelists uses the event of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD - decades after his crucifixion - to put into Jesus’ mouth what he would have thought about ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 18 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-17T06:00
The Gospel is written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans and uses the event to put into Jesus’ mouth what he would have thought about it. And what is he making of it? That th...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 17 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-16T06:00
The context in which Jesus tells this story 9is while Jesus is on his journey to Jerusalem. That means Jesus is on a journey of faith and this story informs what that journey requires and expects. ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 16 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-15T06:00
There is a lot of action and movement in this story and it’s all for our instruction - Jesus is on a journey to Jerusalem; each of the people that the Lord in this story entrusts with wealth is on ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 15 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-14T06:00
People can be very discouraging in our lives. They can focus, and lead us to focus on all that is against our accomplishing what is desirable for our growth, happiness and better contribution to ot...
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Homilies: Thirty-third Sunday of the Year (B) Nov. 14, 2021 from 2021-11-13T08:30
Sunday Gospel Reflection by Father Bill Grimm
The Good News is not that God will make everything work out as we wish but that he is with us in a special way when it seems our world is ending.
Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 14 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-13T06:00
More extreme apocalyptic language in today’s Gospel and all is calculated to make us alert to the dramatic acts of God that seek our urgent reaction in response to the call of the Gospel. We are ap...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, November 12, 2021 from 2021-11-12T10:30
The Indian Church will see its first lay Catholic martyr become a saint next May. In other parts of Asia, Christians have joined other groups in calling for justice and an end to oppression. These ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 13 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-12T06:00
Today’s Gospel takes inside Jesus and what he must have felt every day when his followers should such complete ignorance of who he was and what his message meant. He felt isolated and disappointed-...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 12 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-11T06:00
At the end of the year, as we head towards Advent and prepare for the beginning of the Church’s year in Advent, the gospel readings become more and more mysterious. But a focus on what God might be...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 11 Nov, 2021 from 2021-11-10T06:00
Our human reconstruction of the Kingdom of God is s distraction from what it really is. It isn’t in time and space. it doesn’t refer to a locality. It won’t be observable like an invasion and polit...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 1 Nov, 2021 from 2021-10-31T06:00
The Feast of all Saints today is both a solemn celebration of the destiny of us all and the actual condition of so many simply not recognized in the formal lists of those welcomed by God into everl...
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Homilies: Thirty-first Sunday of the Year (B) Oct. 31, 2021 from 2021-10-30T14:30
Being a Christian is not about behaving toward others in a certain way. It is about having a special kind of relationship with God. All else follows from that.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 31 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-30T06:00
Here Jesus summarizes in simple and direct terms what is at the heart of his message - God is above all and for all and self-sacrificing love is our way of responding to God’s love for us.
UCA News Weekly Summary, October 29, 2021 from 2021-10-29T10:30
The battle between the underground and state-sanctioned churches continues in China after a bishop was detained for the sixth time. These stories and more are in this week’s podcast.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 30 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-29T06:00
We could read this Gospel as an encouragement to adopt an attitude of “enlightened self-interest” when it comes to management of our engagements with others. That is a kind way to interpret it. But...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 29 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-28T06:00
Today’s Gospel has two important messages: first of all, being bound and inhibited by the Law is a disservice to faith and love but, secondly, that is especially because Jesus as the Son of God, is...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 28 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-27T06:00
Today is the Feast of two Apostles - Simon and Jude. So today’s Gospel is one account of the call and commissioning of the Apostles who are given their rolling the early Christian community as the ...
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Interview: Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu on the role of Media from 2021-10-27T02:33:43.243269
UCANews Special Projects Editor, Binu Alex in conversation with Reverend Valson Thampu, the 12th principal of Saint Stephens College Delhi from 2007 to 2016. He reflects on the role of Media at the...
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Homilies: Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020 from 2021-10-27T02:33:43.241968
Perhaps some of the people who demanded Jesus’ death at the end of the week had begun the week singing hosannas. Who knows how or why they changed? What would I have done?
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UCA News Summary of the Week March 30 to April 3 from 2021-10-27T02:33:43.240924
Most of the headlines this week were dominated by the COVID19 pandemic. From the outburst of Cardinal Charles Maung Bo to the mass exodus of migrant workers in India. From starving elephants in Th...
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Homilies: Holy Thursday for April 8, 2020 from 2021-10-27T02:33:43.239939
Our sharing Eucharist is a service -- a service to the world. We can wash its feet, and we can bring it with us as we share union with Christ. It's all one and the same.
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Homilies: Good Friday for April 10, 2020 from 2021-10-27T02:33:43.238706
Good Friday is also a day of commitment to be a sign of God's love. God felt it worthwhile for Jesus to die in order that I might know love. My life is worth giving in the day-to-day as well as, if...
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Observations: Speaking as a member of the Globule Family ... from 2021-10-26T10:30
We are seeing more and more each day the impact of human-caused damage to the environment. We need a familial sense of our connection with the rest of creation. It may be too late to head off even ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 27 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-26T06:00
Not surprisingly, there are some followers of Jesus who want to know whether all their efforts and sacrifice will yield them any benefit with their standing in God’s eyes. What does Jesus do when a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 26 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-25T06:00
Once again, Luke the Evangelist comes to the fore as vivid story teller, providing pictures and images so that weight grasp something more of the deep mystery of the Kingdom and God’s transforming ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 25 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-24T06:00
What today’s Gospel underlines is God will not be imprisoned by human laws, conventions or constraints. God and God’s spirit at work in us “can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Hypocr...
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Homilies: Thirtieth Sunday of the Year (B) Oct. 24, 2021 from 2021-10-23T08:30
The Gospels do not hesitate to put us followers of Jesus in a bad light. We, represented by the disciples, can be so dense that we miss something that evil demons know and that even a blind man can...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 24 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-23T06:00
This healing story is a classical one - it is healing by Jesus in response to the faith Bartimaeus has in Jesus. It is classic not only in the sense it fits everything the healing miracles display ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, October 22, 2021 from 2021-10-22T10:30
Religious minorities face hard times amid rising intolerance and anti-minority sentiment in Asian nations. These and more in this week's weekly summary.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 23 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-22T06:00
Perseverance and commitment are what is needed inner faith journey as well as as God’s grace. Today’s Gospel shows that in our lives, Jesus is asking us not simply to seek and search but also to ne...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 22 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-21T06:00
All too often in life and no less in our relationship with God we think it’s all and only God’s work to bring the change we seek or the remedy we long for. This Gospel underlines that it is in our ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 21 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-20T06:00
Conflict and division, however unpleasant and undesired by us they may be are nevertheless an unavoidable part of life and sometimes those are closest to can become those with whom we have the deep...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 20 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-19T06:00
Faith is a matter of an invitation we receive from God and then the response we make to that invitation. God doesn’t do everything for us because, to be effective, we have to be ready and full in o...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 19 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-18T06:00
The mission of the Church is to point to the coming and the presence of the Lord. And sometimes the is a costly vocation as it was for the first Jesuit missionaries in North America who paid with ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 18 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-17T06:00
Luke is the best writer in the New Testament at narrative description and story telling. His stories are rich in detail, color and context, making his point clearly and openly. Today’s text is no d...
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Homilies: Twenty-ninth Sunday of the Year (B) Oct. 17, 2021 from 2021-10-16T08:30
Sometimes, being a Christian means going against doing what comes naturally. The whole world does what comes naturally, and that is why it needs salvation.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 17 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-16T06:00
Despite being with Jesus for as long as they have been with him, his followers really get very little of what his message and meaning is. Lest we think ourselves to be a cut above these simple rust...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, October 15, 2021 from 2021-10-15T10:30
A brave Filipino journalist has won the Nobel Peace Prize in a world of shrinking press freedom. Asian nations are confronting natural disasters, oppressive regimes and extremist forces. These an...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 16 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-15T06:00
We continue today the “hard sayings" of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. Luke is the master of narrative and tells some of the richest stories in the New Testament. He makes Jesus message vivid, rich, deep ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 15 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-14T06:00
St Teresa Avila is a most remarkable woman. She is a Doctor of the Church, a mystic, a Church reformer in a time of great disturbance and turmoil in the Church and one who today points us towards w...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 14 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-13T06:00
This section of Luke’s Gospel is brutal and extreme in the way it paints Jesus’ grim attitude to his contemporaries and the choices they make about following or abandoning him. What he is saying is...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 13 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-12T06:00
Jesus is plainly very angry with the religious hypocrites of his times. He sees what counter-signs they re to the very with they think they are promoting and protecting. But what actually can he do...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 12 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-11T06:00
Again, Jesus testifies to the fact that he just doesn’t fit into the narrowband controlling categories prescribed for him by the religious authorities of his time. Jesus is remarkable because besid...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 11 Oct, 2021 from 2021-10-10T06:00
Today’s Gospel proclaims just what faith in Jesus is about - not marvel at the signs and wonders he works but trust in the steadfast love he has for us and which can save us. This is about our rela...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 1 Oct, 2021 from 2021-09-30T06:00
Although today is the Feast of St. Therese, the Little Flower, there is nothing flowery about the Gospel we have for this feast day. At this stage of Luke’s account of Jesus journey to Jerusalem, L...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 30 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-29T06:00
Today is the Feast of St. Jerome to whom we are indebted for several foundational elements in our faith - collecting together what became the the Canon of the New Testament and secondly for transla...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 29 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-28T06:00
Nathaniel is declared by Jesus to be “an Israelite incapable of deceit” or one in whom there is no double dealing. Nathaniel is straightforward, reliable and honest. Nathaniel is astonished at Jesu...
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Observations: World Mission Month? World Mission Church! from 2021-09-27T11:16:07
October is World Mission Month, but mission is not just something to think about for a few days out of the year or one among many activities of the Church that other people and groups also do. Miss...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 28 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-27T06:00
Today’s Gospel is a further instance showing how far Jesus’ disciples have to go to understand who he is and what his message is. They are trapped tribalism. But as today’s Gospel demonstrates, so ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 27 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-26T06:00
What an appropriate Gospel reading for today’s Feast of St. Vincent de Paul. This French priest became a model of sacramental ministry but also someone to urge and encourage service of the poor as ...
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Homilies: Twenty-sixth Sunday of the Year (B) Sept 26, 2021 from 2021-09-25T08:30
We companions of Jesus have an essential vocation. All men and women are called to live in the dignity of children of God.
Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 26 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-25T06:00
How do we manage people who’re like us and doing things we are familiar with but don’t subject themselves to the same institutional constraints we do? We can see them in all sorts of negative ways ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, September 24, 2021 from 2021-09-24T10:30
Christians face violence as Myanmar continues to burn under military rule. Rights abuses haunt vulnerable and minority groups as well as dissenters. These stories and more in this week’s podcast.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 25 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-24T06:00
Today’s Gospel is the text focused on Jesus’ identity and what that means for what is to become of him, his mission and to his followers. Jesus faces the full prospect of failure and defeat and war...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 24 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-23T06:00
Today’s Gospel text goes to the heart of just what Jesus is afraid of seeing develop among his disciples: marveling at signs and wonders and through paying attention only to them, missing the cente...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 23 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-22T06:00
In today’s gospel episode, Herod shows all the insecurity someone in power can display when one more apparently threatening event occurs and the insecure person seeks to eradicate the threat. The i...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 22 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-21T06:00
Today’s Gospel makes it very clear how Jesus expects his followers live and act while on their missions for him - with full dependence on God’s mercy and provident generosity. Placing their trust i...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 21 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-20T06:00
Suitably enough, we have the Gospel text telling of the calling of St. Matthew to be read and heard on this, his Feast day and this particular text sums up one of the most important things Jesus te...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 20 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-19T06:00
Today is the Feast of the Korean martyrs who are the seed bed of one of the most lively churches anywhere in the world. Martyrdom is the abandonment of any control or direction of lives into the ha...
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Homilies: Twenty-fifth Sunday of the Year (B) Sept 19, 2021 from 2021-09-18T08:30
We can all understand the argument the disciples had. We spend much of our lives seeking status, protecting our status, or mourning the loss of status.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 19 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-18T06:00
Clearly, this parable comes from the period of Church life after the death and resurrection of Jesus and reflects the way the early Christians are coming terms with the reality that lots of people ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, September 17, 2021 from 2021-09-17T10:30
Religious and ethnic minorities continue to face discrimination and abuses across Asia, even as Catholics in Pakistan and Vietnam sought divine intercession from Mother Mary to overcome the Covid-1...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 18 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-17T06:00
The most important thing about today’s Gospel is not that here Jesus describes four types of disciples and we can portray ourselves according to one of the characterizations Jesus offers us. The mo...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 17 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-16T06:00
Today is also the Feast of St. Robert Bellarmino, Doctor of the Church
Today’s Gospel gives us a look at how Jesus and his community of disciples were sustained and provided for - who among the...
Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 16 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-15T06:00
Some people can use their faith to structure the way they categorize other people, control their own behavior, use the characteristics of faith to make them feel secure in their superiority. Faith ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 15 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-14T06:00
Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The Cross is exalted so everyone can see it so that they not only behold the means of our redemption but so that we are drawn to it and taken...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 14 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-13T06:00
Today is the Feast of St. John Chrysostom, an early Doctor of the Church. He stands as an example of what we need more of today - leaders who can stand between contesting parties and bring them tog...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 13 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-12T06:00
Authentic humility is a great gift because it allows us to appreciate and appropriately value the gifts we have been given and on which our lives depend. The Centurion in today’s gospel is, of cour...
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Homilies: Twenty-fourth Sunday of the Year (B) Sept 12, 2021 from 2021-09-11T08:30
Christ's call for us to take up the cross is an invitation to learn that though suffering is always with us and may make us think God is far from us, it is actually a share in the life of God who a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 12 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-11T06:00
Today’s Gospel text in many ways briefly summarizes the message of Jesus - that it is only by throwing in our lot with Jesus and letting go of the pursuit of our own self interest that we can give ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, September 10, 2021 from 2021-09-10T10:30
Minorities and vulnerable communities are facing threats and rights abuses from repressive regimes and extremist forces, while economic hardships from Covid-19 are increasing the woes of millions. ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 11 Sept, 2021 from 2021-09-10T06:00
With the practical and indeed rustic common sense so characteristic of Jesus in his story telling, where he tells stories in simple terms that the people of his time and all times will grasp the me...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 1 Sept, 2021 from 2021-08-31T06:00
Today, we see a focus on two of the key features of Luke’s Gospel - Jesus contest with dark spirits that bring confusion, division and death with his Spirit, which brings joy, peace life and love. ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 31 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-30T06:00
Today’s Gospel is taken from early in Luke’s account. The Synoptic Gospels all share presentation and portrayal of Jesus as then leading God’s fight against the spirits of death and darkness and of...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 30 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-29T06:00
Here at this stage in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus receives the clearest outline of his prophetic mission, as Luke recalls what that mission is as described as being by the Prophet Isaiah. Then Jesus goes ...
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Homilies: Twenty-Second Sunday of the Year (B) Aug 29, 2021 from 2021-08-28T08:30
Do my devotions, practices and thoughts deepen my understanding of real Christianity, or am I in danger of wandering from the truth? Have the customs I learned from my family, from my community and...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 29 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-28T06:00
Jesus makes it very clear that what he calls his disciples to is not a religion of empty formalism but one that lives from and is nourished by a conversion of heart that aims to transform the lives...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, August 27, 2021 from 2021-08-27T10:30
Asia is reeling from the fallout of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the lethal spread of Covid-19 while vulnerable and marginalized communities call for rights and justice. These stories an...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 28 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-27T06:00
To follow up the Gospel story we heard yesterday, this Gospel today directly addresses the matter of our response to Jesus’ generous call to us. God gives all the good gifts we receive not for the ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 27 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-26T06:00
The love of God and the call of Jesus in the Gospel can be talked about in a way that completely ignores that the call of Jesus invites a response. Jesus doesn’t simply present a call that that wor...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 26 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-25T06:00
Once called by Christ and if we have responded openly and generously, it is incumbent on us to remain alert to where God appears in our lives and what he asks of us newly. What God asks us never re...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 25 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-24T06:00
We are in a place in Matthew’s Gospel where the prophetic impulse in the Gospel is strongest. Jesus is declaring “Woe to you…” for being such two timing hypocrites and wants to show his followers h...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 24 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-23T06:00
How do we come to faith? Everyone has their own mysterious biography - the people and events who spark interest and openness to Jesus’ presence and message, the arresting experiences that force us ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 23 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-22T06:00
Jesus wants an alignment between what his followers say and what they do in their following of him. He wants us to be sincere and authentic. Sincerity and authenticity are relatively modern ideas -...
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Homilies: Twenty-first Sunday of the Year (B) Aug 22, 2021 from 2021-08-21T08:30
If Jesus is indeed who he and the Church say he is, then there really is no place else to go. If he is real, then any alternative is unreal. We have no choice. If we accept the truth of Jesus' divi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 22 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-21T06:00
Following Jesus requires making and living from a real choice: can we entrust our lives into God’s hands and leave to God making something of the surrender and sacrifice into God’s hands of all tha...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, August 20, 2021 from 2021-08-20T10:30
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan continues to dominate headlines across Asia and the world. The struggle against rights abuses, corruption and injustice lingers, but there are also glimmers of h...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 21 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-20T06:00
Today’s Gospel is a very brief summary of just what following Jesus entails for us as relive our discipleship of Jesus. Are we ready to delay our own gratification and delay rewarding ourselves for...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 20 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-19T06:00
It can appear very simple: following Jesus is about two central things - loving God and loving our neighbor. And while that’s true, it’s simplistic to say that’s all it is because following those t...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 19 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-18T06:00
Clearly there was puzzlement in the early Christian community over why the Chosen People were not rushing the callow Christ. What are they to make it? The only answer the Gospel gives is that peopl...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 18 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-17T06:00
We have a sequence of Gospels in these days that underline what a paradoxical, surprising and unpredictable message Jesus is proposing. Jesus is not saying that following him will be simple and yie...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 17 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-16T06:00
It is difficult for us humans - apparently so well endowed and swell resourced - to discover and accept that all the gifts and blessings we have can bean impediment for us in our faith journey. The...
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Observations: Parish Attendance - Let’s go forward to the first century from 2021-08-15T11:30
We are caught in a whirlwind of change. New realities call for new responses, but where are hints of how to go about them? Perhaps looking at the past will help us move toward the future. But, when...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 16 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-15T06:00
It is difficult for us to see and name much less surrender what stands between us and God’s deeper embrace of our lives. We are often blind to what blocks our growth as loving people building God’s...
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Homilies: Assumption Aug 15, 2021 from 2021-08-14T08:30
Every feast of the Church, no matter what its name, is ultimately a celebration of what God has done in Jesus Christ. The Assumption is such a feast, an encouraging reminder of what Christ has done...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 15 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-14T06:00
Today’s Gospel cuts straight to the heart of who Mary is for us and why we should be so grateful to her: she embodies discipleship and shows us the way to follow her son, Jesus. The story of the As...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, August 13, 2021 from 2021-08-13T10:30
Religious and ethnic minorities are enduring abuses and discrimination in various Asian nations, while Catholics are on the front line of the battle against the raging Covid-19 pandemic. These stor...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 14 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-13T06:00
Today’s Gospel reading at Masses, curiously enough, about as appropriate as a reading could be for the saint whose feast we celebrate today - St. Maximilian Kolbe. He was executed in a Nazi concent...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 13 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-12T06:00
Jesus’ teaching on marriage seems very harsh and restrictive if it is taken literally. But understood as a teaching as applying to all who might ambition to marrying as God would have us do, this t...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 12 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-11T06:00
The forgiveness we are called on to offer those who have wronged is is a reflection of the forgiveness God has offered us. Forgiveness is the fluid of our faith life - flowing to us, through us and...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 11 Aug, 2021 from 2021-08-10T06:00
Today’s Gospel is a special moment where we can see how the early Christians resolved conflicts and disagreements. The most important thing for us to grasp is that they kept things very personal an...
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Homilies: Eighteenth Sunday of the Year (B) Aug 1, 2021 from 2021-07-31T08:30
The Lord sets a banquet before me, but all too often, I look over, under and around the table for the sort of nourishment I think I need instead of feasting on what I am offered, the only real nour...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 1 Aug, 2021 from 2021-07-31T03:00
We have reached the climax of John Chapter 6 and the climax of John’s teaching on the eucharist - that this is how God nourishes us for the journey of life and faith with the body and blood of Jesu...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 30, 2021 from 2021-07-30T10:30
Catholics in Asia have experienced both joy and grief this week with clergy ordinations in China and Vietnam and the battle against natural disasters, coronavirus and repressive regimes. These stor...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 31 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-30T06:00
On the Feast off St. Ignatius Loyola we would do well to consider his two great contributions to the life of the Church - firstly the way he provides for sand introduction to the mystical life and ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 30 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-29T06:00
Human beings - like all of us - don’t like change and do everything to resist it. This is especially so hen we have grown comfortable with a familiar view of other people or the circumstances we ha...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 29 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-28T06:00
Feast of St Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Today we celebrate the feast day of some friends of Jesus who turn up in the Gospel narratives at various points and are very instructive when they do. Today’s...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 28 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-27T06:00
Again, Jesus uses some very simple but just because they are simple, they remain extremely powerful images and metaphors for the action off God in our world. They suggest just what we need to do in...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 27 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-26T06:00
This text explains the parable of the sower which is a simple story but one which even from New Testament times has been difficult for disciples to appreciate. So, the evangelist goes through the s...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 26 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-25T06:00
The feast of Saints Joachim and Anne has a special place in the calendar of Christian saints even though they are not Christians. It is special because they are Mary’s parents and the grandparents ...
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Homilies: Seventeenth Sunday of the Year (B) Jul 25, 2021 from 2021-07-24T08:30
The Eucharist is the miracle in which Christ takes "the work of human hands" and presents it to the Father as himself. Our own little bit, our own willingness to search out what we can do, becomes ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 25 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-24T06:00
Today’s Gospel story comes from John, chapter 6 which is in John’s narrative another of the signs John offers to demonstrate and explain Jesus' message. But it is also the heart and soul of John’s ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 23, 2021 from 2021-07-23T10:35:36
Covid-19 and conflicts continue to grip Asian nations alongside endeavors for hope, solidarity and justice. These stories and more in this week’s podcast.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 24 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-23T06:00
Yet another use of an agricultural metaphor by Jesus to show the gentle and often mysterious way in which God nurtures the growth of the divine life among us. What it asks of us is patience and tru...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 23 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-22T06:00
It’s a mystery we can behold every day - growth in people, growth in groups and growth in movements that is as certain as it is mysterious and often invisible. How does it happen? Why does it happe...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 22 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-21T06:00
Today is the feast of St. Mary Magdalene and suitably enough the gospel for today’s Mass is the one recording Mary’s most important contribution to our faith and the story of Jesus -her witness to ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 21 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-20T06:00
There is such a familiar accessibility to the stories Jesus tells and today’s Gospel is a classic instance of this - the way grain grows as metaphor for how the Word of God takes root and grows amo...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 20 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-19T06:00
One of the recurrent themes in Matthew’s Gospel is how the message of Jesus, originally meant for the people of Israel, is actually a universal message meant for all humanity. The same happens with...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 19 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-18T06:00
Today’s Gospel puts the challenge of faith in Jesus very starkly: our faith is in the crucified and risen one and there will be no signs and wonders drawing us to faith beyond what we discover in t...
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Homilies: Sixteenth Sunday of the Year (B) Jul 18, 2021 from 2021-07-17T08:30
The Lord tells the apostles and us to pack up the picnic basket, get in the boat and get away from it all. Our bodies, minds and souls all need an occasional break. Sometimes, to find prayer and Go...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 18 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-17T06:00
The demands made of Jesus in his ministry - people relentlessly chasing him and drawing on him, in a way that exhausts him and his apostles - says something firm and direct about following Jesus an...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 16, 2021 from 2021-07-16T10:30
Christians across Asia face a rising tide of intolerance and violence. Calls for justice are intensifying against abuses and persecution under oppressive regimes. These stories and more in this wee...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 17 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-16T06:00
In this Gospel text, we hear not only the declaration of what Jesus is doing and wants to do but also of how he is doing it and foreshadows his mode of operating hen he gets to Jerusalem. Jesus rev...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 16 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-15T06:00
Today’s Gospel reading has one of the most significant pointers to how we are to serve God, follow Jesus and live at the prompting of the Spirit: The Law is made not for our slash obedience because...
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Observations: Fed up, but still Catholic from 2021-07-14T08:05:05
One of the fastest-growing religious affiliations, or more accurately, disaffiliations is the large number of people who declare themselves to be former Catholics. Departures from the Church are e...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 15 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-14T06:00
What an important Gospel to hear on the Feast of a Doctor of the Church for the Franciscan St. Bonaventure. Come to me all youth labour is a familiar message in Franciscan circles where the love an...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 14 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-13T06:00
This gospel text is completely misunderstood if it is taken to recommend an infantile attitude as the only one for us to adopt if we are to draw close to God. Jesus recommends and invites nothing o...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 13 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-12T06:00
Two quite violent readings today - one from the Gospel and one from the Old Testament. Both show the dire consequences for people seeking to slide out of responsibility for what they do before and ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 12 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-11T06:00
We have reached a decisive point in Jesus teaching in Matthew’s Gospel - we are at the end of his instruction of his disciples and Jesus is moving back to preaching and teaching all those drawn to ...
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Homilies: Fifteenth Sunday of the Year (B) Jul 11, 2021 from 2021-07-10T08:30
It is hard to believe that God is relying upon me, when I thought I was supposed to rely upon God. But, that's the case. God needs me, needs us, to bring the Good News to a world waiting unawares f...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 11 Jul, 2021 from 2021-07-10T06:00
This text from Matthews Gospel puts the choice before us as disciples very plainly: are we ready to allow the God of healing renew, love and reconciliation to be the dominant force in our lives? If...
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Observations: The US Conference of Crocodilian Bishops from 2021-06-30T04:55:35
The American bishops have failed to influence their society on the matter of abortion, they want to override the democratic system and replace it with themselves as a Catholic version of the ayatol...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 1 Jul, 2021 from 2021-06-29T18:30
This story draws on what was a common perception in the time of Jesus - that physical affliction was part of punishment for sin. Jesus doesn’t believe that for one moment but people around him do. ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 30 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-29T06:00
This is one of the most vivid stories in the New Testament about how Jesus has an impact in driving the demented and destructive spirits out of people. The demoniacs are possessed by evil spirits i...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 29 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-28T06:00
Today’s feast of Saints Peter and Paul highlights the two essential features of the Church: the rock of faith in Jesus on which the Church is built and the One we find through the sacraments and th...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 28 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-27T06:00
There are always reasons and occasions to do other things than respond to the invitations God offers us. But when the invitation comes, it is our turn to respond to God’s call and strangely our rel...
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Homilies: Thirteenth Sunday of the Year (B) Jun 27, 2021 from 2021-06-26T08:30
The world as God wills it and the world as we experience it are both real. To accept only one while ignoring the other is not realistic.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 27 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-26T06:00
Jesus is continuing to do battle with the spirits that bring death an here is an iconic instance of that battle in which Jesus asserts and then delivers on his assertion that he is in command the f...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, June 25, 2021 from 2021-06-25T10:30
Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing administration has put the last nail in the coffin of a free press and democracy by shutting down popular newspaper Apple Daily in a city once known as Asia’s media hub. In ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 26 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-25T06:00
This gospel is especially important because it invites us to embrace the message of Jesus not just in words but in deed - that Jesus is the one with the power of life over death who can create life...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 25 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-24T06:00
Jesus has just finished delivering what is clearly his biggest piece of teaching in Matthew’s Gospel - the Beatitudes - and then the evangelist has him engaged with what is central and extensively ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 24 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-23T06:00
Today is the feast of the birthday of John the Baptist who was never a baptized Christian but all the same is a Christian saint. That’s unusual enough but what is truly extraordinary is the sort of...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 23 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-22T06:00
Jesus and his follower were just as concerned as we and our contemporaries are about authenticity - who can be trusted. Is it just someone saying they are real and reliable or is there a way we can...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 22 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-21T06:00
Following the call of our Lord isn’t for people trying to avoid challenges. Following our Lord is following the call of Jesus on the journey to Jerusalem which also means to crucifixion - his certa...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 21 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-20T06:00
Today is the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. A a boy I went to a school named after this saint and his memory was done no favors by the sentimental historians who told the story of his life. He actu...
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Homilies: Twelfth Sunday of the Year (B) Jun 20, 2021 from 2021-06-19T08:30
The night prayer of the Church recognizes the connection between sleep and death. Our night prayers are meant to be a preparation both for dropping off to sleep and for death, when we will have to ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 20 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-19T06:00
Today’s Gospel is a text to reassure us even in the face of circumstances where we feel completely swamped by challenges and circumstances beyond our control. This text takes us to places in our li...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, June 18, 2021 from 2021-06-18T10:30
This week, strong calls for human rights and justice resonated in Asian nations, while stories of hope and resilience emerged amid calamities and conflicts. These stories and more....
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 19 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-18T06:00
Throughout the Old and New Testament, there is the consistent message that whatever trouble we get into by our own hand or through the ways others treat us, God will be with us and provide for us.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 18 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-17T06:00
It’s an old saying the “we make our own luck” and that is what Jesus seems to be saying today about our engagement with God and our following of Jesus. This Gospel text emphasizes that it is up to ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 17 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-16T06:00
Christian prayer is the active cultivation of the presence of God in which we give thanks for all God does for us, ask for what we need and seek the transformation God’s grace can bring.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 16 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-15T06:00
This section of Matthew’s Gospel is especially concerned about authenticity - saying what you. Mean, doing what you say. The death of any religion, indeed anything proposing reform an ideals in lif...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 15 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-14T06:00
Following the declaration of the Beatitudes, Matthew has Jesus express just what the “higher road" that following Jesus entails. It really means doing what is diametrically opposite to the cultivat...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 14 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-13T06:00
Today’s gospel reading comes from Matthew’s Gospel and follows closely after the Beatitudes. In it Matthew has Jesus spelling out what that the “higher road” that followers of Jesus take when they ...
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Homilies: Eleventh Sunday of the Year (B) Jun 13, 2021 from 2021-06-12T08:30
'Your mustard seed is what the Reign of God is about. Your little faith, your little effort is enough. Give your little bit and stand by amazed as you see what God will do with it. Your mustard see...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 13 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-12T06:00
This early in Jesus’ life the Evangelist wants us to know that Jesus is on a mission from his Father, that his eyes are on that mission, that the journey to Jerusalem that is so much part of Luke’s...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, June 11, 2021 from 2021-06-11T10:30
The uphill battle for survival continues for religious and ethnic minorities in Asian nations, while appeals for freedom and rights persist as the coronavirus pandemic rages in the region. These st...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 12 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-11T06:00
Only recorded in Luke’s Gospel, this account of how Jesus becomes a problem to his parents by going off on his own among Temple authorities has a very specific point to make - about Jesus and for u...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 11 Jun, 2021 from 2021-06-10T06:00
This passage from John’s Gospel is as stark and direct as you can find in John’s Gospel which its readers can complain about for its abreactions. What it is emphasizing is that Jesus really died a ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 1 Jun, 2021 from 2021-05-31T06:00
The reality of what’s going on in this encounter with Jesus is that his audience is trying to trap and mislead Jesus. He will have nothing of it and just sticks to his script. Hey wants people to b...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 31 May, 2021 from 2021-05-30T06:00
The three big feasts we have celebrated in recent weeks are all ways of mapping out what Christian discipleship means and how we can thrive as followers of Jesus. There is no better model pointing ...
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Homilies: Trinity Sunday (B) May 30, 2021 from 2021-05-29T08:30
Trinity Sunday reminds us that God can "get into our pocket" and become knowable and lovable not because of what I do, but because God chooses to be known and loved, chooses to be in my pocket.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 30 May, 2021 from 2021-05-29T06:00
The Feast of the Holy Trinity is the second of three Feasts - Pentecost last week and the Body and blood of Christ next week - that are a brief and compact introduction to three essentials for livi...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, May 28, 2021 from 2021-05-28T10:30
Deadly conflicts and loss of lives continue in military-ruled Myanmar with Christians and churches being targeted in attacks. In other Asian nations, people keep striving for recovery, freedom and ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 29 May, 2021 from 2021-05-28T06:00
Jesus is being cross examined by his enemies not to find out the truth about him but to trip him up and make him unable to act. What is his circuit breaker? He refuses to play their game. The only ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 28 May, 2021 from 2021-05-27T06:00
There is a lot of passion flowing in and around the text in today’s Gospel. But all that action really points in one direction - to the significance of faith and the power of faith to move, change,...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 27 May, 2021 from 2021-05-26T06:00
Many miracles in the Synoptic Gospels involve the restoration of people’s sight because seeing with new eyes is part of what Jesus wants to do for us as believers. Seeing differently and more deepl...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 26 May, 2021 from 2021-05-25T06:00
Mark’s Gospel is wonderful for its clarity and simplicity. It shows Jesus coming straight to the point and shows his apostles to as blunt, self-interested and completely unaware of the way they dig...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 25 May, 2021 from 2021-05-24T06:00
The ebb and flow of good fortune and blessing are constants in all faith journeys and we see that again recorded in today’s Gospel. There is no simple way to account for it, predict its course or a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 24 May, 2021 from 2021-05-23T06:00
Today’s Gospel according to Matthew contains the significant last words of Jesus that have become central to the prayer life of so many over the centuries and also the basis of so many musical comp...
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Homilies: Pentecost (B) May 23, 2021 from 2021-05-22T08:30
The Church exists not to be a club of the saved, but to be the herald of the Gospel. Our first concern must always be with those who are outside, for the men and women who have not yet come to know...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 23 May, 2021 from 2021-05-22T06:00
Pentecost Sunday is the birthday of the Church. It is the day when we celebrate the movement of the Holy Spirit to gather and confirm the impact of God in gathering believers into the community tha...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, May 21, 2021 from 2021-05-21T10:30
Pope Francis has appointed a fellow Jesuit as the new bishop of politically volatile Hong Kong in an attempt to unite the city’s divided Catholic community. In other parts of Asia, people struggle ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 22 May, 2021 from 2021-05-21T06:00
We are coming to end of John’s Gospel and the Evangelist wants to present his credentials as a trustworthy re0porter of the activities and sayings of Jesus. But really the only one who can vindicat...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 21 May, 2021 from 2021-05-20T06:00
Today’s declarations by Peter match the three denials of Jesus after the Last Supper and when Jesus was handed over to Pilate. But the most powerful part of what Jesus has to say to Peter comes wh...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 20 May, 2021 from 2021-05-19T06:00
Today’s text from John’s Gospel is most unusual because it is a reflection on something that must have been a real issue in the early Church - The legacy of Jesus’ work of preaching and building t...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 19 May, 2021 from 2021-05-18T06:00
It is impossible to find our way to God unless we are protected and guided in that journey. That is what today’s Gospel is asking us to do - “consecrate” here means to find protection and guidance.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 18 May, 2021 from 2021-05-17T06:00
“Glory" and “glorification" are recurrent in this part of John’s Gospel. What does it mean? Glorification is how the Fourth Gospel describes how the surrender of self-sacrificing love produces frui...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 17 May, 2021 from 2021-05-16T06:00
We are each pf us a work of God, fashioned and renewed and made fruitful by God’s grace. That is the point of what we celebration the Ascension (Jesus renewed union with the Father) and Pentecost w...
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Homilies: Ascension (B) May 16, 2021 from 2021-05-15T08:30
There are people suffering the effects of illness, poverty and injustice. There are people who are ignorant of God's love for them. Evangelization, the fulfilment of our Christian vocation, means f...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 16 May, 2021 from 2021-05-15T06:00
We are approaching the end of the Easter Season and approaching through the Ascension the central feast of the foundation of the Church - Pentecost. This means we are invited to discover and embrac...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, May 14, 2021 from 2021-05-14T10:30
Communist China’s repressive policies and actions are gradually expanding beyond its borders and mainland China, triggering fear and an exodus of Hong Kong citizens. In other parts of Asia, pro-dem...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 15 May, 2021 from 2021-05-14T06:00
We are coming to the end of the “Apostolic" period in the life of the early Church and Jesus immediate presence to believers and the intimacy of that engagement gives way to a new level and depth o...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 14 May, 2021 from 2021-05-13T06:00
Today’s Gospel presents one of the most enduring statements of how we can be with God - “abiding” with and in God. Remaining in and deepening our engagement with God is the simplest statement of wh...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 13 May, 2021 from 2021-05-12T06:00
On Ascension Thursday, we have arrived - in terms of the timings of Scripture readings in the post-Easter period - at the end of the Apostolic Era. Jesus was present to his Apostles and disciples t...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 12 May, 2021 from 2021-05-11T06:00
In today’s Gospel, the evangelist in the Fourth Gospel actually introduces us to some whose presence and power in the life of believers and the Church only becomes clearer in the Councils of the Ch...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 11 May, 2021 from 2021-05-10T06:00
Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles displayed approach to how faith operates in someone’s life or someone’s coming to faith occurs through a dramatic and extreme experience. Here we have ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, April 30, 2021 from 2021-04-30T10:30
The deadly second wave of Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc in India amid an acute shortage of medical facilities. In other parts of Asia, people carry on their struggles against man-made and natur...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 1 May, 2021 from 2021-04-30T06:00
We know very little or nothing from the New Testament about Joseph, Mary’s spouse and whose feast we celebrate today. What we do know is he is Mary’s constant and faithful companion, a man of faith...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 30 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-29T06:00
Today’s text from John’s Gospel sone of the most powerful texts very often used t funerals. And why is it so powerful? Because it clearly provides and answer to a central question in all our lives:...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 29 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-28T06:00
Today’s gospel text takes us back to the Last Supper and Jesus instructions to his followers and to us his followers two millennia later and the conviction that should guide all Jesus’ followers: t...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 28 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-27T06:00
At this point in John’s Gospel, the evangelists at pains to found his identity in the mission and words given him by his Father. His mission and his works are intimately tied up with what he has be...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 27 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-26T06:00
This gospel has a very distinctive echo in our times. We live in an era of exaggerated emphasis on an externalized identity - as people in society, as citizens in countries, as males and females an...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 26 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-25T06:00
We are taken immediately and quickly from considering Jesus as the bread to nourish us on our journey of faith - closer to us than we are to ourselves - as we have done in Chapter 6of John’s Gospel...
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Homilies: Fourth Sunday of Easter (B) April 25, 2021 from 2021-04-24T08:30
Jesus announces himself not merely as a shepherd, but as the Good Shepherd. He is the one shepherd we can trust because he is the one shepherd who is not a sheep himself.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 25 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-24T06:00
Today’s Gospel from John specifies the pattern of Jesus’ life but also the pattern of the lives who follow him and imitate his pattern of service - giving up our lives that others may know and know...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, April 23, 2021 from 2021-04-23T10:30
This week, Asian nations have experienced violence and repression with calls for justice getting louder. The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to wreak havoc, but there are also inspiring stories of ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 24 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-23T06:00
Here today, at the end of Chapter 6 in John’s Gospel, the central question for us is posed: when all is said and done, what does our engagement with God and the mystery of Jesus amount to? Some of ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 23 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-22T06:00
Intimate union with God through Jesus becomes available to us through the Eucharist. That’s the shock and the simplicity of how much God offers us and makes available to us. It comes to us in with,...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 22 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-21T06:00
The period after Easter Sunday, the so called Eastertide, is the time when we focus on the way in which God wants us to share through Jesus even more intimately in God’s own life through our sharin...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 21 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-20T06:00
God’s gives us life so we can then enjoy God’s love. The two go together. God’s intention is certain and direct. But it is up to us to receive and accept that love into our lives so it can confirm ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 20 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-19T06:00
This chapter in John’s Gospel is our walk into the nourishment that the Eucharist is for our faith journey. It picks up the Providential care God shows us; it emphasis the nourishment God wants to ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 19 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-18T06:00
In this post-Easter time, Jesus and his disciples are depicted as wandering around to a great many places. That forcefully reminds us just how ubiquitous the Risen Lord is. But even more, it sugges...
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Homilies: Third Sunday of Easter (B) April 18, 2021 from 2021-04-17T08:30
Let's face it — the Resurrection is unbelievable. Even seeing the risen Lord is not going to convince us otherwise. It's easier to believe in ghosts or to doubt one's own sanity.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 18 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-17T06:00
Today in the Gospel for Mass we see Luke putting the pieces of his message about the resurrection of Jesus together and highlighting the key features he wants his community appreciate and accept ab...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, April 16, 2021 from 2021-04-16T12:00
This week, minorities including Christians have struggled for basic freedoms in repressive regimes in Asia as nations continue to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic. These stories and more in this ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 17 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-16T06:00
Today’s Gospel reading is one of the most loved of all readings in the New Testament because it grabs just how many of us meet Jesus - when we are caught in personal turmoil and looking for him to ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 16 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-15T06:00
John’s Gospel has both the story of the institution of the Eucharist but he has a deeper and richer narrative to support it and the first part of the Gospel reading for today’s Mass. But the resona...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 15 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-14T06:00
Our faith life starts and grows in simple ways from an invitation God offers us and to which we respond generously and openly. And that is how it grows too. The reach and demand of the claim and ca...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 14 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-13T06:00
Today’s Gospel text at Mass is the most cryptic and succinct summary of just what God is doing in Jesus and doing for us in Jesus - saving us. But God’s love focus is sodden and complete That despi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 13 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-12T06:00
The Gospel of John has an abundance of graphic images that abundantly declare what the message of Jesus is and how he works in us. Today, John utilizes an image from the Old Testament that has the ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 12 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-11T06:00
Easter time, especially Holy Saturday, is the preferred (of course, not exclusive) date to baptise and welcome new members of the Church. And we see why in today’s Gospel reading. Being “born from...
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Homilies: Second Sunday of Easter(B) April 11, 2021 from 2021-04-10T08:30
Living a Christian life takes courage. However, we need not search for it. We have it. Each Sunday when we join the community of disciples we take the greatest risk, that of meeting the Lord.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 11 Apr, 2021 from 2021-04-10T06:00
What is most moving and compelling about today’s Gospel from John is that it testifies to the pervasive existence of doubt about Jesus’ Resurrection across the community that gathered around John, ...
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Homilies: Good Friday April 2, 2021 from 2021-03-31T20:30
Today is also a day of commitment to be a sign of God's love. God felt it worthwhile for Jesus to die in order that I might know love. My life is worth giving in the day-to-day as well as, if neces...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 1 Apr, 2021 from 2021-03-31T06:00
Today - Holy Thursday - is mostly celebrated for its being the founding moment for our most familiar sacrament- the Eucharist. But what it is just as noteworthy for - and the readings take this top...
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Homilies: Holy Thursday April 1, 2021 from 2021-03-30T20:30
Our sharing Eucharist is a service -- a service to the world. We can wash its feet, and we can bring it with us as we share union with Christ. It's all one and the same.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 31 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-30T06:00
In today’s Gospel we hear the account in John’s Gospel of the nuts and bolts of the bitter betrayal and actual abandonment of Jesus by Judas but also by his apostles. It is no less empty and tragic...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 30 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-29T06:00
We are moving further into the depths of Holy Week and Jesus’ destiny as the savior of the world who gives his life that we all may share more in the life of God. Here we see the culmination of all...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 29 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-28T06:00
We are in Holy Week which is both where we’ve been going all through Lent but also brings us to the sharp end of our time accompanying Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem. It is his impending end tha...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 28 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-27T06:00
Today’s Gospel is, of course, the Passion narrative and it’s too long and much too complex and/or too rich to reduce to something you can make a helpful comment about in the few minutes available i...
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Homilies: Passion or Palm Sunday March 28, 2021 from 2021-03-26T20:30
We mark this Holy Week with solemn joy. Death is real. But this week we know that love is even more real.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, March 26, 2021 from 2021-03-26T11:30
Catholics in many Asian countries have renewed their devotion to Saint Joseph for the Vatican-designated Year of St. Joseph. Human rights violations and abuses against minorities, as well as a resu...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 27 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-26T06:00
How can we escape being two timing frauds in our beliefs? How can we avoid being duplicitous and escapist in our engagement with God? These are the questions that today’s gospel presents us with an...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 26 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-25T06:00
Clearly Jesus has puzzled the crowds. They don’t know what to make of him. That is as it should be because Jesus is facing the people with challenges and the one thing we can be sure about - for ou...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 25 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-24T06:00
Today’s Feast - the Annunciation of the conception of Jesus and all that means for every man woman and child on our planet - almost always falls in Lent. Celebration of a conception, even one so my...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 24 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-23T06:00
Once again and this time very powerfully, Jesus explains in simple terms that to become involved with Jesus takes us to the heart of God. But people either don’t understand that or don’t like it. B...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 23 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-22T06:00
This style of Gospel writing can be very abstract and remote from our experience unless we realize and accept that Jesus is talking here about the mystery of his union with his Father. When we do s...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 22 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-21T06:00
It’s difficult to exaggerate how perfectly balanced this story of Jesus and the adulterous woman really is: a widely recognized man known for her sinfulness; a wildly judgmental crown of morally d...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 21 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-20T06:00
The raising of Lazarus is very important for us to understand in Lent. It points to something central - that Jesus is the massive force for life in the face of death; and that in John’s Gospel, thi...
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Homilies: Fifth Sunday of Lent (B) March 21, 2021 from 2021-03-19T20:30
John "lets the beans out of the bag" by telling us that Jesus is actually talking about the way he will die, lifted up from the earth on a cross. Do I really want to be drawn to him there?
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UCA News Weekly Summary, March 19, 2021 from 2021-03-19T11:30
The Philippines has marked the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Catholicism in the country this week. Religious and ethnic minorities have continued their struggle for survival amid rights viola...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 20 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-19T06:00
Today’s Gospel asks us to get off the merry go round of our lives, to listen to what is really going on in our lives and especially where God might be in the whole swirling experience and what God ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 19 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-18T06:00
Today is the feast of St. Joseph husband of Mary. We know next to nothing about him beyond what a loyal and steadfast person he was and what an extraordinary model of discipleship he offers us - th...
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Observations: That passed, this can too from 2021-03-17T08:41:58
Humankind is resilient. We have survived worse, much worse, than this pandemic. History tells us that we will somehow get through this crisis. We may be changed. We may be scarred. We may have hurt...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 18 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-17T06:00
This a deeply mysterious section of the Fourth Gospel which seeks to explain why we should trust Jesus and how his destiny and fortunes are intimately connected to God and connect us to God. This i...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 17 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-16T06:00
The purpose of our prayer and dedication to discovering and doing the will of God is for us to be united with God in the action and work He is doing in us and through us every day all about us. Tha...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 16 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-15T06:00
It’s truly remarkable that people in Jesus’ time could distract themselves foreseeing and believing just how good and gracious God is in the deeds Jesus does. But they do as today’s narrative from ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 15 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-14T06:00
The first 12 chapters of the Gospel of John are called the Book of Signs. The Signs are the signs of God’s outpouring of generous doses his mercy and gracious love. Today’s Gospel is the second of ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 14 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-13T06:00
There are lots of plays on sight and blindness in today’s Gospel, on how we come to real sight that gives us insight and faith and about how God works in us to bring us to faith and to see our live...
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Homilies: Fourth Sunday of Lent (B) March 14, 2021 from 2021-03-12T20:30
Lent is the season when we prepare to renew our baptismal commitment in solidarity with those being baptized at Easter. It is a time of preparation to re-dedicate ourselves to proclaiming to the wo...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, March 12, 2021 from 2021-03-12T11:30
This week, human rights and abuses of minorities made headlines in various Asian nations. Church groups and rights campaigners have called for upholding human dignity and an end to violence. These ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 13 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-12T06:00
Hypocrisy and self-righteousness are two of the biggest enemies of faith. Why? Mostly because they put an insurmountable obstacle between us and God - ourselves! The constant impediment to our enga...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 12 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-11T06:00
Our faith is both very simple but also very demanding. In a brilliant way, Jesus summarizes our faith - love of god and of our neighbor - but then also indicates the reach of our love of our nei...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 12 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-11T06:00
Our faith is both very simple but also very demanding. In a brilliant way, Jesus summarizes our faith - love of god and of our neighbor - but then also indicates the reach of our love of our neighb...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 11 Mar, 2021 from 2021-03-10T06:00
There are no half measures in the way God deals with us. We mightn’t see it as straightforwardly as we can and should. But that can’t distract us from the lasting truth of God’s uncompromising yes ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 1 Mar, 2021 from 2021-02-28T06:00
Happiness and enjoying all the good things God wants us to enjoy are really in our hands. Sometimes we can read the Gospel, listen to it and think it’s all just too hard and completely beyond us- p...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 28 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-27T06:00
This gospel of the Transfiguration is the one the Church always places for our consideration on the second Sunday of Lent. Why? So that we are comforted at the prospect of what God wants us to enjo...
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Homilies: Second Sunday of Lent (B) February 28, 2021 from 2021-02-26T20:30
Today's Gospel is a Lenten reminder that the gift of being a beloved child of God that I received in Baptism leads to my own transfiguration. I walk the way of the Cross in this world, but it is a ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, February 26, 2021 from 2021-02-26T11:30
This week, Asian nations have experienced a trampling of basic human rights and religious freedom amid an outcry from rights campaigners, civil society and church groups. Much more in the report.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 27 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-26T06:00
Today’s gospel takes us to the heart of the most significant challenge for all Christians - loving our enemies. It’s OK to commend that as a wanted state. It’s quite another to move beyond the brui...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 25 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-24T06:00
Our faith is an open ended matter from God’s point of view. God will keep giving, sustaining, nurturing, forgiving and renewing us all our days. Our challenge is simple: are we ready to do that for...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 24 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-23T06:00
The gospel and the first reading too about that most intimidating of subjects - change. And the readings ask us whether we reread to change and to let God into our lives to have us grow and change?...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 23 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-22T06:00
Praying is something that is very natural and normal once you know the first steps. When you know those first steps and take them, you and I can give ourselves into the hands of the Spirit and God ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 22 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-20T19:00
Today is the Feast of the Chair of Peter and so today’s Gospel is especially important because it specifies just where and how this feast gets its bearings - Peter and his successors as bishops of ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 21 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-20T06:00
The Gospel text for today is apparently simple. But behind it sits the whole course of our journey in faith - close engagement with Jesus, the sharing of our lives with him and his life with us, th...
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Homilies: First Sunday of Lent (B) February 21, 2021 from 2021-02-19T20:30
The Lord calls us to a change of life, a change we exercise in some small way in Lent as a means of recommitting ourselves at Easter to the big reform we accepted in our baptismal commitment.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, February 19, 2021 from 2021-02-19T10:30
This week, Asian Catholics joined the faithful across the globe on Ash Wednesday to mark the Holy Season of Lent ahead of Easter. Asian nations have continued their struggle for democratic and civi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 20 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-19T06:00
It’s difficult to give this Gospel story its full force because here is our Lord, the source and center of all that is good saying that his life is to be discovered among the broken, the fractured ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 19 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-18T06:00
The purpose of Lent is to allow us time and space to discover God in our lives and to through the power of the Spirit to allow God to be God, free of our rigid expectations. And if we feel that is ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 18 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-17T06:00
We all get faced with making choices all through our lives, sometimes every day of our lives. And every choice we make comes at a cost. Here at the beginning of Lent we are faced with that reality ...
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Homilies: Ash Wednesday February 17, 2021 from 2021-02-17T02:29
Lent gives us a chance to taste the emptiness of their lives so that we will be better motivated to share the good news with them that they, like we, are invited to leave our ashes behind and take ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 17 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-16T06:00
Today is Ash Wednesday when we take the sign of the cross marked on our foreheads if we can to remind us just how simple and basic our being marked by God is. The ashes come from the burnt remains ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 16 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-15T06:00
Today’s Gospel offers Jesus to comment again on the feeding of the 5,000 and to appreciate how obtuse his followers are. This story, like the feeding of the 5000 drives the Christian imagination ba...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 15 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-14T06:00
Once more, we register just how frustrated Jesus becomes with the lack of faith and real obtuseness of his followers. They just don’t understand who he is or what his message is. It must be discour...
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Homilies: Fourth Sunday of the Year February 14, 2021 from 2021-02-13T08:30
We followers of Jesus are called to be supernatural. In other words, we must be people noteworthy for our willingness to go beyond the natural in us. That means developing the ability to look upon ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 14 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-13T06:00
Today’s gospel reading is a short one from very early in the Gospel of Mark but in many ways it summarizes one of the central themes of Mark’s gospel- the contest between the spirit of light and li...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, February 12, 2021 from 2021-02-12T09:31:03
This week, Asian nations have experienced violations of political and democratic rights, while religious and ethnic minorities have struggled against abuses and oppression. These and much more in t...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 13 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-12T06:00
Of all the stories Jesus tells to focus our attention on his providential and abundant care of us, none is more powerful than the stories of his feeding the multitudes. They are a sign and expressi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 12 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-11T06:00
Today’s readings at Mass are direct treatments of different types of burdensome evil - physical evils that the disabled endure and which Jesus heals and the more sophisticated treatment that the wr...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 11 Feb, 2021 from 2021-02-10T06:00
Today’s Gospel from Mark is another account familiar to us now of how we are cured and healed of the destructive effects of spirits and impulses and disordered movements at work in us that we need ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 1 Feb, 2021 from 2021-01-31T06:00
We are on a journey with God as our companion. Progress in the journey can be so slow that we can’t really measure or observe whether there’s been any development at all. But often we are asking th...
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Homilies: Fourth Sunday of the Year January 31, 2021 from 2021-01-30T08:30
The first step in repentance is to admit our guilt, as when we go to confession. We admit our faults and failures out loud, making them painfully and embarrassingly real to ourselves. Then, we are ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 31 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-30T06:00
This is such a familiar story that sets the scene very early in Mark’s gospel for one of the central features of the narrative of this gospel: then contest between the good and life enhancing spiri...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, January 29, 2021 from 2021-01-29T11:08:41
This week, Asian nations have witnessed violence including the murder of a Catholic priest and attacks on Christians by extremists as the space shrinks for religious freedom. These and much more i...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 30 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-29T06:00
Today’s Gospel is so familiar to us because we find ourselves trapped and fearful in turbulence a great deal of the time in our lives and wonder how we will ever be saved from it. We understand thi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 29 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-28T06:00
Today we get some insight into the way Jesus communicates, how and why he tells us the story of God’s engagement with us through the stories, the narrative Jesus spends all his time creating and ex...
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Observations: A new way for rest of Church: Unusual Japanese weddings from 2021-01-28T05:51:55
The Catholic Church in Japan has a unique practice, providing wedding ceremonies for non-Christians. As new civil and social forms of shared life appear in various places, that practice may be a hi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 28 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-27T06:00
Today is the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, the commanding genius of medieval Catholicism. He is a living instance of the effective engagement between faith and reason. But reason always follows the ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 27 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-26T06:00
Faith is a mysterious gift of God. It comes to us and we need to nourish it. But we can take it for granted and when we do, it withers and it can die. That this parable in here so early the first o...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 26 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-25T06:00
Loyalties and religious allegiances are always vexed issues and evidently Jesus’ life that was also the case. Family bonds and their place in the hierarchy of commitment are the focus in today’s go...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 25 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-24T06:00
Today is the feast day of the conversation of St. Paul and there can be no other celebration of the conversion of anyone more important to the Christianity than St. Paul’s conversion. Both his arti...
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Homilies: Third Sunday of the Year January 24, 2021 from 2021-01-23T08:30
The clearest presence of the reign is Jesus, God's reign made flesh. "The time of fulfillment has come" is another way of saying, "Here I am!"
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 24 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-23T06:00
An important if very short extract from Mark’s gospel today: John the baptist has been arrested by Herod and that triggers Jesus into beginning his ministry. To start it, he attracts his first foll...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, January 22, 2021 from 2021-01-22T11:08:20
The inauguration of US President Joe Biden made headlines in Asian and global media this week. Christians in Asia have joined prayers and gatherings to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 23 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-22T06:00
Today’s Gospel story, where Jesus is told by his family that he’s “mad” underlines what trouble he is even for people well disposed to him. He is disturbing and the only way to live with that distu...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 22 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-21T06:00
This a very familiar Gospel because it relativizes the force of rules and regulations and makes them all subject to the over-riding rule of love and to what makes common sense when seeking and doin...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 21 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-20T06:00
Let’s look at the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews today and see the way it informs us on just how Jesus influences and mediates the person and the believer we become. Unconsciously we do thi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 20 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-19T06:00
Today’s Gospel from John’s Gospel is the first of what John calls the Signs in the Book of Signs. These are the five signs that God’s kingdom alive and at work among us. This one uses wine and its ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 19 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-18T06:00
Today’s readings offer a very important lesson for us as we seek to get closer to God: start from where we really are -needy, deficient human beings. Sinners. That where God can meet us - where we...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 18 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-17T06:00
As individuals, as members of families, workplaces and other institutions, we always try to fit whatever appears to be fresh and different to patterns that applied elsewhere and before. It doesn’t ...
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Homilies: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time January 17, 2021 from 2021-01-16T08:30
When the disciples went with Jesus, they entered into a path of healing, forgiveness, and liberation for others. Such lives will lead us to what it is, whom it is, we are seeking.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 17 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-16T06:00
The earliest part of John’s Gospel returns several times to the question of the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist and the followers of Jesus and the followers of John. The Evangelist ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, January 15, 2021 from 2021-01-15T10:30
This week, Asian nations have struggled against repressive laws and the muzzling of political and civil rights, while the threat, fallouts and vaccines of Covid-19 continued to make headlines.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 16 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-15T06:00
The best is the enemy of the good. Jesus believed that and that’s why he spent time with tax collectors and sinners - the not-perfect children of God who needed the circuit breaker of His intervent...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 15 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-14T06:00
Is Jesus a wonder worker who can do what we want to bring comfort and consolation to us when we want? Or does God have a mind and will of his own and our journey is to see and find the will of God ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 14 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-13T06:00
Jesus goes about his healing way only to have the leper he cures make him into a celebrity. To meet the challenge of these circumstances, Jesus goes into virtual hiding only to be sought out by the...
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Observations: Mephistopheles in America from 2021-01-13T01:30
Thinking about American Church prompted by last week’s attack on Capitol Hill where the bishops and their clerical underlings have failed to guide America’s Catholics to be a discerning, peaceful, ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 13 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-12T06:00
The daily chores of Jesus life were teaching, healing, renewing and forgiving. That’s how he announced in deed and not just in word what his message was and how the people of his time and now of ou...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 12 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-11T10:30
Jesus begins his ministry in Mark’s Gospel once John the Baptist is arrested by Herod. And the first story in the narrative of his ministry is a characteristic one: driving out destructive spirits.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 11 Jan, 2021 from 2021-01-10T10:30
Mark is unique among the Gospels in highlighting the arrest of John the Baptist as the trigger for Jesus to commence his ministry. Now is the time for him to get on with his vocation, to seek and d...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 1 Jan, 2021 from 2020-12-31T10:30
A new year begins and the Church does it returning to a Gospel that goes back to our origins in God, connects us to the way we live in God through welcoming the God who is with us (our Christmas ce...
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Homilies: Mary, Mother of God January 1, 2021 from 2020-12-31T08:30
Each of us is presented with the same vocation as Mary. God says to you and to me, "Make my Son present in the world. Forgive sins. Bring healing. Live with faith that my love is stronger than your...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 31 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-30T10:30
Strangely enough, the year ends with a Gospel that for john’s Gospel describes Christian origins - “In the beginning was the Word - And then goes on to show how God is presenting many ways till the...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 30 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-29T10:30
Today’s Gospel brings to a close Luke introduction to the life of Jesus in his family - he returns to Nazareth to take up a normal life as the son of his parents, in the midst of his family and rel...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 29 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-28T10:30
This Gospel today closes the story of how Jesus and his family fled from Israel for their safety and returned when their persecutor Herod died. It also is the setting for seeing something central a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 28 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-27T10:30
Matthew’s infancy narrative sets some of the key pieces of his whole account of Jesus, his message and his ministry in place. Jesus is the new Moses, the new Law maker, the new leader of his people...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 27 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-26T10:30
The feast of the Holy family can be sentimentalized and fin so, the whole point of the feast is missed. Family life is always messy because human beings are messy. Finding God in the mess is what J...
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Homilies: Holy Family December 27, 2020 from 2020-12-26T08:30
If there were no answer to our search and longing, then, indeed, our lives would be futile. What use is there for a hunger that cannot be filled? What sense can there be to an existence defined in ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 26 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-25T10:30
The earliest church discovered what today we call “the cost of discipleship” which was death when we saw what happened to St. Stephen, the first martyr for the faith.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 25 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-24T10:30
In contrast to the way Christmas is marked in some places around the world, the original Christmas occurred in an obscure place among insignificant people . Christmas is always paradoxical and each...
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Homilies: Christmas Day December 25, 2020 from 2020-12-24T08:30
Today we remember and celebrate the fact that we can know God's glory and power not as some sort of information, but as a person. So, on Christmas Day we move from the story to the program, from wh...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 24 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-23T10:30
Today - Christmas Eve - the Gospel chosen for today’s Mass celebrates what Christmas Day vindicates - that here is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel and the world: that he will take us to ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 23 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-22T10:30
I've always been fascinated and attracted of John the Baptist, who is the central subject of today's Gospel, for the simple reason because he's such a different character who doesn't fit in and I t...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 22 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-21T10:30
The rich and rewarding thing about following the Gospels through the week before Christmas is the way in which we follow the evangelist in company with Mary who is the bearer of good news of the bi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 21 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-20T10:30
The alternative first reading today is from the book of the Song of Songs and it's the closest thing we'll find in the Old Testament to a piece of erotic poetry. All of which is done for real reaso...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 20 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-19T10:30
What I like about the readings that come at this time of the year - Christmas time - is that they are full of familiar references which is very helpful for prayer. Particularly the reading that com...
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Homilies: Fourth Sunday of Advent December 20, 2020 from 2020-12-19T08:30
God doesn't choose the way we would. God chooses worldly weakness to proclaim divine power. That's the reason Mary was chosen and the reason we have been chosen.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, December 18, 2020 from 2020-12-18T13:30
Church leaders and activists in Asia have called for upholding human rights and dignity amid an onslaught of rights abuses while nations continue to grapple with fallouts from Covid-19.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 19 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-18T10:30
Today in the Gospel from Luke we have another vivid demonstration of the Evangelist’s capacity to write a rich narrative full of suggestive details. We get taken into the story and we get enriched ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 18 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-17T10:30
Any stories in the Gospel we can't really understand if we don't move inside them and become part of them. They are not just a description of a set of factual events that we get the detail from the...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 17 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-16T10:30
What Matthew does is begin with a genealogy to show Jesus heritage because he's not only son of God but he is also a human being and as a human being he has precedence, ancestors and relatives.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 16 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-15T10:30
In today's Gospel we have another chapter in the discussion in the early church about the role of John the Baptist, the place of his followers and the relationship with Jesus. We have some of John ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 15 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-14T10:51:51
It's the Paradox of human achievement that we can go and do extraordinary things and then they hang around our necks and eventually choke us. That's what Jesus is getting us at the Gospel today.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 14 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-13T10:30
Today's Gospel puts us in a place that's quite familiar if we think about it. It is one of those situations that occur when we're trying to avoid accepting something that might have unpleasant, unw...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 13 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-12T10:30
Jesus is an outsider. Jesus is someone who comes and he's a threat to the establishment in Israel at the time. Jesus is someone sent on a mission of universal significance, but no one seems to reco...
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Homilies: Third Sunday of Advent December 13, 2020 from 2020-12-12T08:30
The place we really live our faith is not in a church. It is in the desert of our workplaces, our schools, our streets, our homes. There is no other place for the world to hear our call to prepare ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, December 11, 2020 from 2020-12-11T13:30
International Human Rights Day was observed across the globe this week. Rights watchdogs and media outlets have reported an escalation in violations of people’s basic freedoms and rights around the...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 12 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-11T10:30
Quite appropriately for this time of year as we head towards Christmas the readings at Mass drawn on some of the great stories that point the significance of the mystery of the Incarnation. God com...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 11 Dec, 2020 from 2020-12-10T10:30
Both reading today focus on the unlikely and difficult subject of missed opportunities. Missed opportunities are things that all of us can identify with things that we've done poorly and nothing fr...
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Homilies: First Sunday of Advent Nov 29, 2020 from 2020-11-28T08:30
Faith, hope and love are virtues directed toward past, future and present. In Advent, we remind ourselves to be ever ready to meet and love the Lord who has come, who will come, who comes.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, November 27, 2020 from 2020-11-27T13:30
Across Asia, rights violations and abuses against women and minorities dominated the news this week. It comes against the backdrop of a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hitting Asia and other r...
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Observations: Better luck next time? from 2020-11-24T13:30
Even while the world is facing a new spike in cases and deaths, there have been encouragement news of development of vaccine and prevents the Corona Virus. Besides being a source of hope for us all...
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Homilies: 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time Nov 22, 2020 from 2020-11-21T08:30
We must be such followers of the crucified Jesus, giving our strength and even our lives for the sake of others that they will respond to us as the bystander at the crucifixion did who tried to giv...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, November 20, 2020 from 2020-11-20T13:30
Across Asia, natural calamities made headlines this week as many nations continued to struggle against the Covid-19 pandemic. The region also earned a black mark for state restrictions on religious...
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Homilies: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Nov 15, 2020 from 2020-11-14T08:30
It is to us as servants and for the sake of being servants that God gives us talents. Let us not bury them, but put them forth for the whole world.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, November 13, 2020 from 2020-11-13T13:30
The US presidential election filled Asian media last week, drowning out news about Myanmar's general election. Despite elections, Asian nations continue to report shrinking space for democracy and ...
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Homilies: All Saints Day, Nov 1, 2020 from 2020-10-31T08:30
Remembering all saints becomes a reminder that God can be, and in fact is at work in the time, place and life which I live.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, October 30, 2020 from 2020-10-30T16:30
Asia this week witnessed a series of attacks on religious and democratic freedoms amid the grand news of Pope Francis naming two Asians among 13 new cardinals. Religious minorities across Asia cont...
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Homilies: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Oct 25, 2020 from 2020-10-24T08:30
The law of Christ is simple. Love. Love God by loving your neighbor. And your neighbor is anyone close enough to be loved, anyone in the world.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, October 23, 2020 from 2020-10-23T14:57:19
China and the Vatican this week agreed to extend an agreement on the appointment of bishops in the communist country. The Vatican said the extension aims to help the Church in China, at a time when...
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Observations: T-shirts, mothers and life everlasting from 2020-10-21T13:30
The world’s political news is full of people fixated on the short term. They pander to the fears and frustrations of others in order to gain and keep power, wealth and prestige without considering ...
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Q&A - The UCA News Interviews - Australian Catholic teacher Garry Mulroy freed from a Cambodian jail from 2020-10-20T13:30
Australian Catholic teacher Garry Mulroy, who has been freed from a Cambodian jail on appeal, has vowed to fight his conviction for indecently assaulting six children. Mulroy claims he was the vict...
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Homilies: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Oct 18, 2020 from 2020-10-17T08:30
We Christians have been shown Christ, the image of God, so that we can proclaim that image to all the world. In order to do so, we must clear away whatever mars that image in us.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, October 16, 2020 from 2020-10-16T13:30
The arrest of an 84-year-old Jesuit priest accused of terrorist links continues to generate protests from Christians and rights groups across India. But the arrest was just one in a series of suppr...
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Homilies: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Oct 11, 2020 from 2020-10-10T08:30
In the Eucharist, in the worship and service of the community of good and bad folks that Jesus invites to the banquet of God's Kingdom, I am offered a foretaste of heaven. How could I do other than...
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Homilies: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Sep 27, 2020 from 2020-09-26T08:30:16
The test of Christian faith is not merely whether or not we are in church on Sunday. Going to church is the renewing of our "yes" to the call of God. But, do we follow through on the promise?
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UCA News Weekly Summary, September 25, 2020 from 2020-09-25T14:30:21
Developments in Asia this week show how governments are directly or indirectly moving against religious minorities including Christians. Religious freedom is threatened by attacks, murders and drac...
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Homilies: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Sep 20, 2020 from 2020-09-19T08:30:11
Just as the parables of Jesus show the love of God in stories about lost coins, vineyards and generous landowners, the followers of Jesus must make the events of everyday life point to God's loving...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, September 18, 2020 from 2020-09-18T13:30:01
The Covid-19 pandemic has tightened its grip on India, where daily some 90,000 people are now infected. The contagion is weakening in most Asian nations, but its socio-economic impact on the poor h...
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Observations: The armed man: perpetrator, victim, and instrument of God’s justice from 2020-09-16T06:30:02
Violence is unjustified, but it remains one of the tragedies of our sin-marred, sin-deformed world that it too often takes violence to end or control worse violence. Resort to violence cannot, of c...
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Homilies: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Sep 13, 2020 from 2020-09-12T08:30:01
The way out of the paradox is to realize that forgiving and being forgiven is not a parade of activities that happen in order – God forgives, then I forgive, then God forgives. God’s forgiving me a...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, September 11, 2020 from 2020-09-11T14:38:01
The feast of Mother Teresa, who toiled for the poor, passed off quietly this week as Asia’s poor continued to suffer from floods, the coronavirus pandemic and oppressive regimes. Christian communit...
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Homilies: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Aug 30, 2020 from 2020-08-29T08:30:13
The temptation to avoid the cross is not one that Jesus alone faced. We, too, face it. That is the reason Jesus tells us that we must be willing to take up the cross.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, August 28, 2020 from 2020-08-28T17:29:46
The struggle for democracy and freedom of religion and speech continued across Asia as the world observed International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief...
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Observations: Japanese Christians may have something to teach us from 2020-08-25T14:30:02
The corona virus pandemic has forced limits upon Christians’ ability to gather in churches to pray and celebrate liturgy. In some places, churches are closed. In others, the number of those who can...
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Homilies: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - Aug 23, 2020 from 2020-08-22T08:30:03
The important thing about Peter and the important thing about me is that Christ has chosen us to be Church. He has set us up in all our weakness and declared that the gates of death will not prevai...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, August 21, 2020 from 2020-08-21T13:30:16
Three Asian nations observed independence days this week, marking their freedom from colonial rule in the middle of the last century. It is more than seven decades since India, Indonesia and Pakist...
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Homilies: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Aug 16, 2020 from 2020-08-15T08:30:11
The Incarnation means that Jesus really was a man of his time, his place and his people. He spoke their language, he dressed as they dressed, he had the same prejudices they had.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, August 14, 2020 from 2020-08-14T13:30:10
Several parts of Asia witnessed heavy rain and floods this week as the region continued to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the natural disasters did not deter governments from violating peopl...
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Observations: Ending World War II from 2020-08-11T14:30:24
It is not even a year since Pope Francis visited Japan to answer critics of his declaration that even the possession of nuclear weapons is immoral. But did the World War II truly end? From Japan, F...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 31, 2020 from 2020-07-31T15:49:35
Apart from Turkey converting Hagia Sophia back to a mosque, a major confrontation between the executive and Church in Philippines also made news headlines. Amid all these, Covid-19 pandemic continu...
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Observations: Don’t resume, renew from 2020-07-28T14:30:04
My totally unscientific projection is that in the months after the pandemic subsides enough to allow gathering once again, on average, communities will be much smaller who will seek each other out ...
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Homilies: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 26, 2020 from 2020-07-25T08:30:11
How can I become like some learned scribe who can speak with confident knowledge of the Reign of God?
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 24, 2020 from 2020-07-24T15:12:15
Floods, displacement, persecution and rights violations continue to make waves across Asia this week, while the Covid-19 pandemic is reaching deep into the Catholic Church's hierarchy.
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Observations - Mumbai Catholics team up with state to fight pandemic from 2020-07-21T11:46:52
Bombay Archdiocese is among India’s oldest Catholic pockets on western coast. Some 500,000 of its Catholics in 126 parishes form a vibrant church community in India’s commercial capital Mumbai, for...
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Homilies: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 19, 2020 from 2020-07-19T08:30:10
In our prayer, God makes the seemingly impossible happen. The seed of good flourishes, the world is leavened. All we need do is pray. But how?
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 17, 2020 from 2020-07-17T15:40:43
Floods and the Covid-19 pandemic have continued to wreak havoc across several Asian nations this week, while Church communities upped their fight against sexual violence and exploitation.
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Observations - Nuclear problem is not limited to weapons anymore from 2020-07-15T12:30:18
July 16 is the 75th anniversary of an event that blights the lives of every one of us on this planet. On that morning in 1945 scientists in the desert of New Mexico in the United States detonated t...
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Homilies: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 12, 2020 from 2020-07-11T08:30:10
No matter where some of the seed may land and the odds against it, the growth of the Reign of God is unstoppable. That's the seed, but what of the sower?
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UCA News Weekly Summary, July 10, 2020 from 2020-07-10T12:30:13
While China’s communist regime strengthens its stranglehold on Hong Kong with its controversial security law, it is banning children from entering churches in mainland China. Amid the Covid-19 pand...
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Homilies: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - June 28, 2020 from 2020-06-27T08:30:03
Part of the call of Christ is a call to repentance. It is not something I can reserve to Lent oran occasional confession. Because nearly my whole life is a nay-saying to God, my whole life must be ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, June 26, 2020 from 2020-06-26T15:32:34
Depressing stories of deaths and oppression continued across Asia this week along with the raging Covid-19 pandemic that claims hundreds of lives each day. Technologically ill-equipped students are...
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Observations - Covid-19 brings war-like situation from 2020-06-24T14:30:03
Today we live restricted in our movement, similar to the situation of being hunkered down in an air raid shelter during an attack. We live with uncertainty, unable to know when a virus may bombard ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 21 June, 2020 from 2020-06-20T13:30:04
Prophets invariably get a hard time and it could be a measure of the authenticity of a prophet if they take a hammering for what they have to say or suggest what should be done. And this is because...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, June 19, 2020 from 2020-06-19T15:32:30
China continues to dominate the news this week as tension rises on the India-China border and a fresh bout of Covid-19 infections is reported from Chinese capital Beijing. China is forging ahead wi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 20 June, 2020 from 2020-06-19T13:30:19
Today's Gospel which is a story that is unique to Luke, we have a picture of Jesus presented as a boy of twelve and the point that is being made by the story is that it's set in Jerusalem to which ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 19 June, 2020 from 2020-06-18T01:30:32
Sacred Heart, the feast of which is today, is an approach to Jesus that has been much more popular in previous entries than it is now. But it is of perennial significance because he emphasises one...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 18 June, 2020 from 2020-06-17T13:30:16
Gospel reading today is the supreme prayer of all Christians. The Our Father. Every line of it is worthy of extended contemplation and extended thought.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 17 June, 2020 from 2020-06-16T13:30:03
In today's Gospel we have the three great things the mark the way that Christians should behave. Prayer, alms giving and all the things that go into showing how we should respond generously to what...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 16 June, 2020 from 2020-06-15T13:30:33
As we all know in our lives our understanding of life, the world, ourselves and one another grows with experience. Todays’ reading impresses us this is also true for people who develop their unders...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 15 June, 2020 from 2020-06-14T13:30:20
Today’s first reading lead us to wonder why on earth bad things happen to good people and the second reading Jesus puts in that usually exaggerated way the Jesus adopts which is common in the rabbi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 14 June, 2020 from 2020-06-13T13:30:03
Today we come to the feast that is about celebrating how we are nourished in the Journey of Faith through the body and blood of Christ or Corpus Christi in the old language.
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Homilies: Body and Blood of Christ Sunday - June 14, 2020 from 2020-06-13T08:30:02
Fortunately, Christ is not so choosy. He is willing to be present in the bread and wine that his people share. He is willing to be present in that people and in what they do as individuals and a co...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, June 12, 2020 from 2020-06-12T16:54:36
More than three months after the Covid-19 ordeal began, South Asia’s 1.7 billion people, one fifth of the world’s population, are fearfully awaiting a grave human tragedy. Current trends in most So...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 13 June, 2020 from 2020-06-12T13:30:01
Journey of faith in our lives is simple yet challenging. Its simplicity is demonstrated and advocated by Jesus in the reading today from the Gospel of Mathew.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 12 June, 2020 from 2020-06-11T13:30:25
In the first reading today Elijah is portrayed as caught in a moment in the first reading at mass today which is not unfamiliar to us all.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 11 June, 2020 from 2020-06-10T13:30:09
Many Christians get it wrong when they hear stories such as the one in today's readings. First reading is about the growth at the church and the way in which unfolds from the Acts of the Apostles. ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 1 June, 2020 from 2020-05-31T13:30:04
Today's feast of Mary as mother of the church is a relatively recent feast in the history of the church but whether it's recent to a long-standing doesn't really alter the fact that she is celebrat...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 31 May, 2020 from 2020-05-30T13:30:13
Luke is the most graphic in his gospel of all the writers in the new testament full of memorable scenes and stories. Who can ever forget the story of The Prodigal son which is really the story of t...
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Homilies: Pentecost Sunday - May 31, 2020 from 2020-05-30T07:30:19
We sometimes forget that the reason the Church exists is not to be a club of the saved, but to be the herald of the Gospel. Our first concern must always be with those who are outside, for the men ...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, May 29, 2020 from 2020-05-29T17:29:22
China’s move to clamp down on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong dominated events in Asia. This week’s Podcast includes a subdued celebration of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, clashes in M...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 30 May, 2020 from 2020-05-29T13:30:03
Both readings today are tied up with what one can term as judicial procedures. Paul is trapped under guard in Rome, identified and charged in Jerusalem. But Because he is a Roman citizen he doesn't...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 29 May, 2020 from 2020-05-28T13:30:05
Today's Gospel is a rich and intimate expression of just what the following of Jesus is all about. After resurrection, Jesus meets and have breakfast with the apostles. He then asks Peter if he lov...
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Observations - Surviving Prejudice and Pandemic in Pakistan - 27 May, 2020 from 2020-05-27T14:30:13
In this weekly Observations, Kamran Choudhry, a Lahore-based journalist, explains the trauma of religious minorities in Pakistan who live outside the social mainstream. Conservative Muslim groups a...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 28 May, 2020 from 2020-05-27T13:30:23
Among today’s readings, first in the Acts of the Apostles Paul's life comes to a very sharp point in Jerusalem he's being accused of various things and brought before the Roman officials charged wi...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 27 May, 2020 from 2020-05-26T01:30:13
There is a lot of grief in today’s readings. Jesus is in his farewell discourse to his disciples fully knowing that he will be in trouble from next day. But as a human being Jesus is feeling exactl...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 26 May, 2020 from 2020-05-25T13:30:01
Today's mass is all about parting and departures and emotions runs high and predictable in the week of the Ascension prior to Pentecost.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 25 May, 2020 from 2020-05-24T13:30:13
In today's Gospel Jesus has been trying to get his followers to understand who he is and what message he has all with a view for them becoming his believers.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 24 May, 2020 from 2020-05-23T13:30:10
The fullest description of the Ascension is given by Luke. In the Gospel first and then in the opening words of the Acts of the Apostles. This is what we hear from today's first reading. It is abo...
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UCA News Weekly Summary, May 22, 2020 from 2020-05-22T14:30:07
Covid-19 infections are receding in East Asia and much of South East Asia, but the numbers are rising in South Asia. Churches are reopening in Pakistan's Punjab province as part of a gradual easin...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 23 May, 2020 from 2020-05-22T13:30:10
There is a marvellous instance in today's first reading of just how disputes in the church should be resolved. We all have different views about what is or is not the case which way we should go wh...
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Homilies: Ascension Sunday - May 24, 2020 from 2020-05-22T04:30:22
The Lord assures us that in his glory he is no longer limited by time and place and is with us today and always. That assurance gives us the confidence we need to obey his great command.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 22 May, 2020 from 2020-05-21T13:30:03
In many parts of the world believers get into a lot of trouble for being believers. In today's first reading the way in which someone comes to the aid of believers in the most unexpected way.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 21 May, 2020 from 2020-05-20T06:30:39
In some parts of the world today Thursday is celebrated as Ascension while in other parts of the world it is moved to next Sunday. Ascension is something that is used in Luke's gospel to bring an e...
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Observations - Terrorism and Pandemic in Indonesia - 19 May, 2020 from 2020-05-19T14:30:04
Indonesia is fighting terrorism along with Covid-19. With limited resources, this nation of some 270 million people, is the worst pandemic-affected country in Southeast Asia. More than 1,100 are al...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 20 May, 2020 from 2020-05-19T13:30:03
In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles today, we see a very important departure by Paul from his usual way of evangelizing during his travels. He goes through the whole history of God's deali...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 19 May, 2020 from 2020-05-18T13:30:07
We think we are going to win the trophies that we set out to acquire and then suddenly something happens, and it all gets out of overthrown. This experience reversal is a common human experience an...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 18 May, 2020 from 2020-05-17T13:30:12
There were two very contrasting pictures of what following Jesus is like in the two readings we have today - first from the Act of the Apostles and the second from the Gospel of St. John. Listen he...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 17 May, 2020 from 2020-05-16T13:30:02
In today's Gospel Jesus is talking about many whys of engaging in love. Life changes, doesn’t end. Take the case of death. Many cultures believe that the dead lives in present spirits.
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Homilies: Sixth Sunday of Easter - May 17, 2020 from 2020-05-15T20:30:03
Because the Spirit of the Risen Christ is in us we can face our own crosses with confidence that God is still at work, that God's will is done even when it is thwarted, as it so often is.
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UCA News Weekly Summary, May 15, 2020 from 2020-05-15T15:17:43
The Covid-19 pandemic continued to affect lives across Asia this week. In Hong Kong, police arrested 200 pro-democracy protesters following clashes. Chinese officials are also accused of imposing s...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 16 May, 2020 from 2020-05-15T13:30:09
Hatred is not a subject that Christians like to explore or investigate. On the contrary it is the complete antithesis of what Jesus invites us to do to love one another. In today’s Gospel Jesus del...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 15 May, 2020 from 2020-05-14T13:30:12
Today in the Acts of the Apostles we hear about the resolution where Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem and they have it out with Peter in the other apostles. And then they come up together with min...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 14 May, 2020 from 2020-05-13T13:30:06
What to do when everything goes in reverse when all your expectations are upset. When people you trusted turn up to be untrustworthy. Today we hear one way in which the early church resolved the ma...
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Q&A - The UCA News Interviews - Removing crosses from Chinese churches from 2020-05-13T10:22:55
Joining us today is Benedict Rogers, an internationally known rights activist and East Asia team leader of the international human rights organization - Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). The ri...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 13 May, 2020 from 2020-05-12T13:30:13
Today's first reading records the basis to what was the first big contest in the early church. They were those early converts to Christianity who thought the following Jesus was really about the re...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 12 May, 2020 from 2020-05-11T13:30:20
Paul and his companions seem to get into trouble and face obstacles and projection and hardships as they go around and speak to communities evangelizing about the mystery of Jesus Christ. And you j...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 11 May, 2020 from 2020-05-10T13:30:34
Today’s reading from the Acts of Apostles shows us an example of why good people suffer reversals for the very good things they do and why bad things happen to them.
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Observations - Mothers Day - 10 May, 2020 from 2020-05-10T05:30:04
Today is Mothers’ Day. A mother embodies the mystery of life. Mother is forgiveness that fills the world with second chances and new beginnings. But have you heard her voice crying in the tempest? ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 01 May, 2020 from 2020-04-30T13:30:23
The reality of our lives with everyone else comes down to the way in which engage or transact in our relationships. Today's Gospel reading is all about that.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Thursday 30 April, 2020 from 2020-04-29T13:30:01
Today we are looking at the Gospel of John. Our real focus in life is Jesus and His message. But how much time do we spend in His conscious presence., sharing our lives with God.
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Q&A - The UCA News Interviews from 2020-04-29T00:30:09
Today we are discussing family relations in the midst of Covid Pandemic. Contrary to the perception that a lockdown is the best time to be together, it actually poses many unseen challenges. Cramme...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 29 April, 2020 from 2020-04-28T13:30:13
Today we are looking at the Gospel of John. Our real focus in life is Jesus and His message. But how much time do we spend in His conscious presence., sharing our lives with God.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 28 April, 2020 from 2020-04-27T13:30:18
How do we grow and change? When we are confronted with puzzles or uncertainties, we are invited to be different. Todays readings presents us with ways to change.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 27 April, 2020 from 2020-04-26T13:30:07
Today's first reading is about a case building against Stephen, the first martyr. In today's world, there are a lot of people who are treated like Stephen - for blasphemy.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Sunday 26 April, 2020 from 2020-04-25T13:30:01
Today's Gospel is by the master story teller, St. Luke. The story of two disciples under duress into whose midst comes a stranger. How God comes into their lives.
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UCA News Summary of Fourth Week of April 2020 from 2020-04-24T18:55:04
As the holy week of Christians were in the confinement of homes due to Covid-19 pandemic, it was deja-vu for Muslims across the world as they began their holy month of Ramadan this Thursday. China ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Saturday 25 April, 2020 from 2020-04-24T13:30:07
Todays reading of Mark reminds us that every blessing graces an opportunity but it also brings along with it responsibilities. Just as the ones bestowed on the disciples by Jesus.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Friday 24 April, 2020 from 2020-04-23T13:30:01
How do we resolve conflicts? Acts of the Apostles does give an answer to it. Very essentials to us as Christians.
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Homilies: Third Sunday of Easter - April 26, 2020 from 2020-04-23T12:30:16
We share the Eucharist, and in that sacrament we know that the Lord is with us on all our roads, at all our tables. Then, we go to share that Good News with all. A Christian's encounter with Jesus ...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Wednesday 22 April, 2020 from 2020-04-21T13:30:01
God loved the world so much that He gave His own son. That is why Jesus came to us. Our faith is in the God who loves us not the virtues we display. Todays Gospel from John emphatically gives us th...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Tuesday 21 April, 2020 from 2020-04-20T13:30:02
Jesus in John's Gospel is dealing with one of the biggest puzzles. Why are humans so stupid and so self destructive?
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Observations by UCANews 20 April, 2020 from 2020-04-20T04:47:58
Will COVID-19 change everything that we do now? It is not possible now to go back to pre-Corona days. One change that is inevitable is the domain of health, one of the most neglected areas anywhere...
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - Monday 20 April, 2020 from 2020-04-19T14:39
Today’s Gospel speaks about Nicodemus, a Pharisee mentioned in three places in the Gospel of John
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UCA News Summary of Third Week of April 2020 from 2020-04-18T10:31:08
Listen to news from around the Asia in a capsule under 10 minutes. You have everything that you need to know right here.
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Reflections with Fr. Michael Kelly - 19 April, First Week of Easter from 2020-04-18T08:36:19
This Sunday we are discussing how in the central account of resurrection and core faith of Christian believers there is a story about doubt and uncertainty. Nothing can be coincidental than the per...
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Homilies: Second Sunday of Easter - April 19, 2020 from 2020-04-17T15:30:03
This is Easter time. We proclaim that Christ is risen. We say that God’s love has overcome the power of sin and death. We say that the power of evil is broken. Yet, when we check the news we see th...
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Homilies: Easter Sunday (A) for April 12, 2020 from 2020-04-11T05:30:23
Easter is the anniversary celebration of your new birth in Christ through Baptism. It is the day on which eternal life became available to you through his Resurrection. It is the day you renew your...
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UCA News Summary of Second Week of April 2020 from 2020-04-10T14:00:46
Listen to news from around the Asia in a capsule under 10 minutes. You have everything that you need to know right here
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Observations by UCANews from 2020-04-10T13:40:55
In this programme, I ask for opinions on any contemporary topic that is of interest to the Church.
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