It was supposed to be a glorious return and the triumph of the formerly rejected man. His accusations of the king had put his life in such danger that he’d had to hide in the wilderness and then in exile. His calls to reform had seemed to fall on deaf ears. He’d been blamed as the cause of drought and…

Last Sunday Jesus fed five thousand men using five loaves of bread and two fish, collecting twelve hampers of scraps at the end. It’s quite an achievement, isn’t it? So it’s hardly surprising the crowd is looking for Jesus in today’s gospel. St John reports them crossing the lake in boats in their pursuit and then finding Jesus in a…

Since the year 2008 we’ve been living in financial crisis. Cuts, austerity measures, bailouts, recessions – these are the keywords used to describe our economic misery. Politicians propose a variety of solutions, quite often mutually contradictory. One of the most popular is giving away money, directly or indirectly. With regard to other nations or countries, we call this approach populism.…

Last Sunday we saw in the gospel Jesus sending the Apostles on a mission to preach and to cure people. A week later we see them coming back and telling Jesus what they’ve done and taught. They must have been incredibly effective as there were so many coming and going that the Apostles had no time even to eat. Their…

In the early 1990s I spotted a new fashion in mountain trekking: retractable poles. In my eyes, people using them looked very professional. I would have been happy to have my own set, but they were horrendously expensive. Luckily I had a pair of disused one-piece ski poles, and I decided to use one of them. What a boost to…