Sermons from the Mount

Homily by Father Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel: John 2:1-11 There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. When they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the wedding was all finished, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said ‘Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come yet...

Homily by Father Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel: Luke 3:15-16,21-22 A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12 After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When Herod heard this, he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem....

Homily by Father Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel: Luke 2:41-52 Every year the parents of Jesus used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual. When they were on their way home after the feast, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it. They assumed he was with the caravan, and...

Gospel 21-22 December 2024 - Fourth Sunday of Advent, Yr C. Homily by Father Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel: Luke 1:39-44 Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spi...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel - Luke 3:10-18 When all the people asked John, ‘What must we do?’ he answered, ‘If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.’ There were tax collectors too who came for baptism, and these said to him, ‘Master, what must we do?’ He said to them, ‘Exact no more...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel: Luke 21:25-28,34-36 Jesus said to his disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they awaitwhat menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a clou...

Homily by Father Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel: Luke 3:1-6 In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the lands of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas the word of God came to John son of Zechariah, in the wi...

Homily by Father Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel: John 18:33-37 ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked. Jesus replied, ‘Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others spoken to you about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?’ Jesus replied, ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world;...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Mark 13:24-32 - Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In those days, after the time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too he w...

Gospel 9-10 November 2024, 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Father Olek Stirrat - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Mark 12:38-44 - In his teaching Jesus said, ‘Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted obsequiously in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets; these are the men who swallow the pro...

Gospel 2-3 November 2024 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Father Olek Stirrat - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Mark 12:28-34 - One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with al...

Gospel 26-27 October 2024 - 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Mark 10:46-52. As Jesus left Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and to say, ‘Son of David, Jesus, have...

Gospel 19-20 October 2024 - 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Mark 10:35-45 - James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached Jesus. ‘Master,’ they said to him ‘we want you to do us a favour.’ He said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left...

12-13 October 2024 - 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Mark 10:17-30 Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, ‘Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You must not...

5-6 October 2024 - 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B Homily by Fr Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, ‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?’ They were testing him. He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ ‘Moses allowed us’ they said, ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘It was becaus...

7 - 8 September 2024 - 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Fr Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel Mark 7:31-37 - Returning from the district of Tyre, Jesus went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, right through the Decapolis region. And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in...

28-29 September 2024 - 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Fr Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel: Mark 38-43,45,47-48 - John said to Jesus, ‘Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us, we tried to stop him.’ But Jesus said, ‘You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak ev...

21-22 September 2024 - 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Fr Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel: Mark 9:30 -37 - After leaving the mountain Jesus and his disciples made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him t...

14-15 September 2024 - 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B Homily by Fr Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel: Mark 8:27 -35 Jesus and his disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,’ they said, ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he a...

31 August - 1 September 2024 - 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B Homily by Fr Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus, and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. For the Pharisees, and the Jews in general, follow the tradi...

24-25 August 2024 - 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Fr Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?...

17-18 August 2024 - 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B- Homily by Fr Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - John 6:51 -58 - Jesus said to the crowd: ‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’ Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man giv...

10-11 August 2024 - 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Fr Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - John 6:41 -51 - The Jews were complaining to each other about Jesus, because he had said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ ‘Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph’ they said. ‘We know his father and mother. How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus said in rep...

3-4 August 2024 - 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Yr B - Homily by Fr Olek Stirrat Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - John 6:24 -35 - When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus. When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ Jesus answered: ‘I tell you most solemnly, you a...