Purple magnolia

Notes from a homily given on Wednesday 22 March, 9.30am Mass. Luke 15.1 – 3, 11b - 32 [from the 4 th Sunday of Lent] Sometimes we can be like that second son, who runs away from home, runs away from his responsibilities until one day he wakes up his money's run out, he's hungry, and he's lost his friends Comes back to his father – not at first because he realises he's done wrong, or because he wants to make amends but because he realises he needs his help, he needs a job. He asks only to be treated as a servant. But he finds so much more is there for him he finds that he has indeed returned home that that loving home and his father's love which he thought he could never come back to, was still there for him. Sometimes we can be like the second son. Sometimes we can be like the first son. He's hardworking and diligent. He's stayed while his brother ran away. Perhaps he loves his father and has always

A sermon given at St Paulinus Church , Crayford Sunday 4 March 2007 , 10am Mass Second Sunday of Lent, Year C Genesis 15.1–12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3.17-4.1; Luke 13.31-35 I'd like you to do a bit of brainstorming, as we begin. Do you have any role models? People who you especially admire? If you think of the children you know, who do you think their role models are? Perhaps you are a role model for your child – which is a bit scary... Who do you want to be like. I shall return to this in a moment. In Lent we are called to practice holiness; we are, through disciplines such as prayer and fasting, to become better disciples of Christ, to become more holy. Well, in a literal way, holy means nothing more than something has something to do with God. Something or someone is holy if it or he or she has something to do with God. In that sense, the most general sense, everything is holy, because everything was created by God. (This is