“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”  Mark 12:29-30

Jesus’ words are from the Jewish prayer,  “Shema Israel”, “Hear, O Israel”, they are from the daily prayers of the Jewish people; they were known to all his listeners; they express the heart of their faith. The scribe listening to Jesus knows the words; they are words that he and Jesus …

” . . . whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” Mark 10:44

Four words from today’s Gospel reading beginning with the letter “g” can help reflection on what it might have to say: grant, glory, great and give.

In chapter nine of Saint Mark’s Gospel and the earlier verses of chapter 10,  Jesus talks to his followers about the sort of people they should be, they should be like little children, they should put others first, they should not seek things for themselves. How …

‘Some Pharisees came, and to test him.’  Mark 10:2

Pharisees and children: there are lessons to be learned from both of the groups. Lessons can be learned from what the Pharisees do, and from what the children don’t do.

The Pharisees have been unfairly treated. They were not the two dimensional villains they have come to be in people’s minds.

The Pharisees were a lay movement, they were a reaction to the Temple in Jerusalem and the corruption with which it had become associated. The Pharisees would have sympathised with …