14 February 2025 - Friday of the 5th ordinary week

1R 11, 29-32. 12, 19; Mk 7, 31-37

Homily

          The Gospels rarely show us Jesus outside the territory of Israel. In the Gospel of Mark that we have been reading these days, Jesus went to the region of Tyre, north of the Lake of Galilee. It was a border region, with a mixed population, mostly of pagan origin. It was there that he had healed the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman. And at the beginning of today's text, we see him leave Tyre, go through Sidon towards the Lake of Galilee and go straight to pagan territory, to the federation of ten cities called the Decapolis.

13 February 2025 - Thursday of the 5th ordinary week

Gen 2:18-25; Mk 7:24-30

HOMILY

          This Gospel reveals many things to us, both about the person of Jesus and about prayer. Moreover, our attitude to prayer generally reveals quite well the image we have of God and of Christ.

12 février 2025, mercredi de la 5^ème semaine ordinaire

Gn 2, 4b- 9.15-17; Mc 7,14-15.17-23

Homélie

          La lecture d’Évangile que nous venons d’entendre est la continuation de celle d’hier. Marc nous y raconte l'une des rencontres difficiles et douloureuses entre Jésus et les autorités du peuple – c’est-à-dire Pharisiens et Scribes -- qui se sont donnés comme tâche de le prendre en faute, pour se débarrasser de lui. Jésus les traite une fois de plus d'hypocrites, car ils ont fini par donner tellement d'importance aux pratiques religieuses extérieures, qu'ils ont perdu de vue la relation entre ces pratiques et l'expérience personnelle de Dieu.

12 February 2025, Wednesday 5^th week of Ordinary Time

Gen 2:4b-9,15-17; Mk 7:14-15,17-23

Homily

The Gospel reading we have just heard is a continuation of yesterday's. In it, Mark tells us about one of the difficult and painful encounters between Jesus and the authorities of the people - that is to say, the Pharisees and Scribes - who set themselves the task of finding fault with Him, in order to get rid of Him. Jesus once again calls them hypocrites, because they ended up attaching so much importance to external religious practices that they lost sight of the relationship between these practices and the personal experience of God.

11 février 2025 - mardi de la 5^ème semaine du Temps Ordinaire

Gn 1, 20 – 2, 4a: Mc 7,1-13 

H O M É L I E

          Jésus, dans l’Évangile, rappelle, aussi bien aux foules qui viennent à lui qu’aux Pharisiens et aux scribes, que la pureté qui compte devant Dieu n’est pas la « pureté rituelle » dont se préoccupaient les religions anciennes, y compris celle d’Israël, et qu’on s’efforçait d’obtenir à travers des rites et des pratiques cultuelles, mais bien la pureté du coeur.

11 February 2025 - Tuesday of the 5th week in Ordinary Time

Gen 1:20 - 2:4a: Mk 7:1-13

Homily

          In the Gospel, Jesus reminds both the crowds who come to Him and the Pharisees and scribes that the purity that counts before God is not the ‘ritual purity’ with which ancient religions, including that of Israel, were concerned, and which they strove to achieve through rituals and cultic practices, but the purity of the heart.