UCA News Podcast

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 fulfillment of God’s promise to provide for his people. What does this ask of us? Alertness and a readiness to be attentive to God’s fulfillment of his promises to be faithful to his people and to save the...

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 grounding and founding the first Christian communities. Today’s feast of St. Andrew celebrates the Apostle seen as the fountainhead of the Church of “the East” which we would now see as he Greek Church. But wha...

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 the way God has been revealed to Israel. It is an event recalled everyday in every Mass we celebrate by stating just how graciously blessed we to be welcoming Jesus as Communion and then to look forward to...

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." About the Speaker: Father William J Grimm is a Maryknoll Missioner of 40 year’s experience in Asia-mostly Japan, Hong Kong and Cambodia. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.uca...

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 one for the First Sunday in Advent. What is the point of this literature and imagery? It serves to underline that history’s unfolding and the passage of our lives are in the hands of God and if we are to...

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes. 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 rights and justice. Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John La...

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 Jesus is a way of life that costs us not less than everything. But, as today’s Gospel reminds us, we cannot pay that price all on our own. It is only with God’s grace - the power and presence of the Spirit a...

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 those who present embarrassing facts its proclamation of the Gospel suffers. People will not believe the truth of the Gospel if its messengers are afraid of the truth of its mundane life. The Church need...

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 Temple is to knock out that point of meeting. So, Jesus advice on this point is vitally important for the Jews to appreciate and for the Christian community to absorb and accept as the new People God. About t...

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 is patron of music in Rome and devotion to her has produced some rich musical outcomes for the Church and indeed the city of Rome. But often what happened in the past was the attribution of achievements a...

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. About the Speaker: Father William J Grimm is a Maryknoll Missioner of 40 year’s experience in Asia-mostly Japan, Hong Kong and Cambodia. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Chur...

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 questions Pilate’s asks is not what answers he receives from Pilate but the degree to which the answers Jesus offers take Pilate and us as we try to answer them in our lives into the mystery of Jesus and ou...

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes. 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 injustice.  Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John Laurenson, ba...

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 opportunity for Jesus to take the scribes right out other comfort zone and into a place where Jesus can explain just how different life with him is. A life lived close to Jesus takes us to a place where we don’t...

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 it. And what is he making of it? That the destruction of Jerusalem comes because Jesus own people have failed to grasp the opportunity to respond to God’s compelling invitation to welcome the Kingdom Jes...

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 the destruction of Jerusalem comes because Jesus own people have failed to grasp the opportunity to respond to God’s compelling invitation to welcome the Kingdom Jesus is inviting them to become part of so...

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. And what does it require and expect? Not only faith but a readiness to take risks for the sake of creating the space for the Kingdom of God to grow. About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit pr...

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 a journey to assume more authority; everyone in all the stories is asked to show initiative in their journeys. The point of the travel and action is that God invites us to respond and that is the meaning...

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 others’ lives. What does Jesus lay about this? This story is important for seeing how Jesus cuts through all that negativity so that the blind man is healed. Our perseverance in prayer, asking God for the...

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.   About the Speaker: Father William J Grimm is a Maryknoll Missioner of 40 year’s experience in Asia-mostly Japan, Hong Kong and Cambodia. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For n...

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 approaching the end of the Church’s year and the beginning of a new year with the approach of Advent in preparation for the world changing event of God’s birth among us in Jesus. About the Speaker: Father...

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes. 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.  Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John Laurenson, background sco...

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- He couldn’t depend on any of his followers to appreciate what he was offering. In so far as we know such abandonment, we can discover what Jesus found - intimate union with God as his only reassurance....

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 doing in these mysterious circumstances is the best place to be so we can hear what God is inviting us to embrace every day. About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English langua...

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 political takeover. It is the action of God and needs sensitivity to the action of God and the movement of the Spirit. About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher...