Author name: Jessica Franks

Good Friday- not good because of the weather or receiving good news at work or winning the lottery- but ‘good’ because it reveals to us in painful detail the depth of God’s love for each person. Through horrific suffering- which we hear in today’s reading from the Gospel of John- we learn that God accepted

We all have ceremonies to remember special events whether birthdays, weddings or the death anniversaries of loved ones. It seems very human to remember the past as the past –whether for nations or individuals- always blends into and raises its head in the present. Today is a remembrance for the Christians. We remember the night

Only one more week left of our Lenten journey! Did we take the time and make the effort to reflect, begin some changes and, most importantly, ask the Lord for grace as well as increased sight to see Him in our daily lives. Like the end of any journey, we are probably ready for a

In John’s Gospel we hear the story of Jesus raising Lazarus, a good friend, who had been dead four days. The story is meant to convey not only the power of Jesus over death but also give the reader a hint of Jesus’ own Resurrection. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said but

Another well-known Gospel story from the Gospel of John, namely Jesus’ healing of the blind man at the pool of Siloam. The story is long but basic: Jesus encounters a blind man and heals him; he is brought before the Jewish officials who are confounded by the cure (and on the Sabbath), interrogate the man

Today is the United Nations World Water Day and the emphasis this year is on wastewater. Certainly an unglamorous topic and one we may prefer not to think about; after all, isn’t that why they put handles on our toilets? You press them and the problem goes away. This is not the case, though, for

This Sunday’s Gospel reading from the Gospel of John is the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. A beautiful story which can be read from many different perspectives; this is part of the richness of most Gospel stories. I once knew a theology professor who interpreted John’s Gospel as an

Today’s Gospel reading recounts the Transfiguration, which biblical scholars say is probably a post-Easter incident, when Jesus reveals his full divine glory to Peter, James and John. Why do we hear a story about this event during Lent? If you think about it, Lent, as well as Christian life, is about transfiguration- allowing God’s grace

We have begun our Lenten journey and the Gospel readings tell us the story of Jesus’ temptation by Satan when in the desert. It sounds dramatic, almost like a Hollywood movie, and remote to our daily 21st Century lives! Most of us live in large cities when we have little or no contact with nature,

Lent begins today and the Gospel reading from the Gospel of Matthew warns us three times about the danger of hypocrisy (in acts of charity, praying and fasting). Funny isn’t it? Many of us will go to church today and receive ashes on our foreheads which we wear throughout the day in a very public