UCA News Podcast

In the early Church, there was quite a contest between the followers of John the Baptist and the followers of Jesus about who was preeminent. But the evangelists used that contest to underline the important things they wanted to emphasize about Jesus in their communities. Whatever John’s Gospel was emphasizing always came back to two things - faith in Jesus and God’s love us and our love of one another.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes.Politically troubled and divided Hong Kong has welcomed a new Catholic bishop who promises healing and bridge building. In other parts of Asia, people cling to hope for freedom, justice and unity in unfavorable environments.Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John Laurenson, background score by Andre Louis and produced by Binu Alex for ucanews.comFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateTwitter Handle: twitter.com/ucanews For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Jesus birth is attended by various pointers to its significance and meaning for redemption and God’s fidelity to his plan to redeem the human race. One of those concerns Elijah and misrule in pointing to the meaning and significance of the coming of Jesus. But, in the mind of the Evangelists, the Elijah pointing to Jesus is John the Baptist and the people rejected him and Jesus has been rejected, neglected and overlooked.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

The Church year begins and ends with disaster stories. They are a style of biblical literature called apocalypse that has now become a genre of popular entertainment. We are fascinated by apocalyptic stories because in many ways, they are our own stories. But there is more to apocalyptic than disaster. It is an important part of the Bible and faith because it tells us something about God’s presence with us. Father William Grimm, who lives in Japan, shares some thoughts on this.Produced by Binu AlexFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

This Gospel today contains more material to again show the focus of one of the early contests in the first Christian communities: how did Jesus fit into the unfolding history of Christianity and what was John the Baptist’s role announcing Jesus? But while the evangelist presents the material, it remains up to the believer drawn to hear that story to accept it and live with and from it.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Today’s Gospel is the most emphatic statement by Jesus about how determined he is to seek out and save whatever might be lost among us. He just won’t, perhaps even can’t give up on us. The implication for us and how we engage with and treat each other is completely obvious. What is completely obvious that God will go to any extent he can tisane, renew and invigorate us as believers.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

The crowds are staggered and amazed that Jesus can heal as he does, perform the miracles that he does, achieve the mighty outcomes that he does. But Jesus wants the crows to appreciate he has more he can do than just overwhelm natural problems we face and the set backs that confront us. He can actually turn lives around through the healing and forgiveness he can complete.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Sunday Gospel Reflection by Father Bill GrimmAdvent is the season in which the Church recommits itself to living a great adventure. We are a band of companions walking through a world of marvels and dangers to a promised goal, eternal life with God.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.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Today’s Gospel announces the mission and message of John the Baptist who comes in anticipation of Jesus to open the way for his mission and message. The evangelist seeks to be precise and exact about when this action took place because God’s entry into our history is very practical, exact and precise. And becomes with a very clear message proclaiming renewal and redemption.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes.Compensation bought some consolation for two sexually abused altar boys in Indonesia this week as Christians and other groups ramped up their battle against injustice and discrimination. Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John Laurenson, background score by Andre Louis and produced by Binu Alex for ucanews.comFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateTwitter Handle: twitter.com/ucanews For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Healing is the characteristic action of Jesus’ ministry. People in Jesus’ time saw illness and disease as an effect of sin and so the banishment of sickness and the healing of disease is part of the renewal that comes with Jesus’ ministry. Healing is a multidimensional activity. Delivering that transformation is part of new life of the Kingdom which God wants us to enjoy through Jesus’ agency. Let’s give ourselves to the action of his grace.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

St. Francis Xavier whose feast we celebrate today is a saint of wide significance for the Church across the world but especially for those of us in Asia and Australia. In Australia, he is a national Patron Saint and he did his saintly work of evangelization in Asia - in India, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan. But everywhere he went, he came to the poor and needy, healing the sick and binding up hears that are broken. And that is what he comes to us as today.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

One of the main things that discourages people from exploring the message of Jesus and becoming Christians is the life that Christians live that is so obviously at odds with message and example of Jesus. It is the hypocrisy of Christians that scandalizes aspiring Christians. Christians who live at odds with what Jesus lived and taught and are only Christians in name but not in deed doo themselves and others looking to them for light and guidance great harm. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is asking us to be authentic.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 them from their slavery and entrapment. That is the freedom that Christmas brings - the freedom promised to Israel throughout their history.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 whatever Church we want to celebrate, they all go back to the founding message of Jesus as given to the earliest communities and still venerated today.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 to the healing union with Jesus that lasts forever.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 avail ourselves of the meaning and richness of this type of discourse, it should take us to a place where ask God to take hold of us and see us through the unevenness and uncertainty of the raid and deep changes.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 Laurenson, background score by Andre Louis and produced by Binu Alex for ucanews.comFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateTwitter Handle: twitter.com/ucanews For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 and God’s support that coms to us through the generous attention of others - - that we can do and offer all that is asked of us.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 needs honest journalism for the sake of honest evangelization. Father William Grimm, who lives in Japan, shares some thoughts on this.Produced by Binu AlexFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 and outcomes collectively to a single person when in fact the artistic works or “opus” are those of several people. Each puts in their own best efforts which are at times only part 9f all that is claimed by the person celebrated at the feast, if anything can be claimed by that person, if they existed. The same is true of St. Christopher. Earlier generations did things differently.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 our own search for meaning and identity.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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, background score by Andre Louis and produced by Binu Alex for ucanews.comFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateTwitter Handle: twitter.com/ucanews For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 control its process or its outcomes. That’s what being in God’s hands means. And it’s not something to be afraid of because God is taking us through it and he only wants us to prosper.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 Jesus is inviting them to become part of so God’s Reign may commence. They continue trading and seeking to make of their worship at the Temple something completely inconsistent with the new moment that Jesus is offering them to be part of.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 God’s Reign may commence.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica.For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 of our faith journey.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 healing we need, can have just the same effect. But we need to persevere.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Sunday Gospel Reflection by Father Bill GrimmThe 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 news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 score by Andre Louis and produced by Binu Alex for ucanews.comFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateTwitter Handle: twitter.com/ucanews For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

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 of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Once again, faith is what triggers Jesus miraculous action and the mighty deed of cleansing is there to show something more of just who Jesus is and what his message is. But this cleansing has something more to say: it is an act that reaches to an outsider - to a Samaritan. In that, the evangelist is emphasizing the reach of God’s grace beyond the confines of race, ethnicity and even the borders of religion.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Poland’s bishops were recently in Rome for their ad limina visit that bishops make every five years. While there they complained about the rigor with which the Vatican now deals with bishops who have been derelict in their duty by failing to respond properly and promptly to sexual abuse by clergy. They are learning how the real world responds to dereliction. Father William Grimm, who lives in Japan, shares some thoughts on this.Produced by Binu AlexFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Today’s Gospel is not as simple as it might appear to be. It can’t just about having trading and worship compete because offering the animals is considered an appropriate sacrifice and can’t be dismissed out of hand as an unwarranted degradation of worship. The important consideration clearly is purpose and intention. We are buying off Good’s attention. We are simply giving back to God what he first gave us.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

At this stage in Luke’s Gospel, we are being introduced to a series of stories teaching us simple wisdom about how we grow in the love of and avoid the ways we can take people own the wrong path into darkness. Underlying this story today is the testimony to God’s relentless determination to fog, renew and restore us to God’s love.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Sunday Gospel Reflection by Father Bill GrimmThe woman knew better. She knew that what she had was nothing compared to what God offers. God offers me eternity. Can I, in gratitude, find ways to offer up my treasure of time?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.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

This is one of the most profound and moving stories from Jesus about just what generosity really means - surrendering all we have to live on and trusting that God will supply whatever it is we need. That is the heart of this story - trust. It means trust in God and trust in others and together God and the others supply all we need.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes.The meeting of Narendra Modi and Pope Francis as well as the Indian PM’s invitation to visit his country made global headlines. Religious leaders have appealed for peace and unity amid repression and abuses. Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John Laurenson, background score by Andre Louis and produced by Binu Alex for ucanews.comFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateTwitter Handle: twitter.com/ucanews For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Jesus commends the pragmatism of the cunning servant and suggests that his followers should be just as pragmatic when it comes to their own dealings and negotiations with God so that they aren’t trapped in their own deviousness. This pragmatism is yet another instance in the Gospels of the lack of any obsession with perfectionism. Why? Because perfectionism is something humans seek without any reference to God and the only thing Jesus recommends is dependence on the grace of God to see that his followers recognize what discipleship really means - living from God’s goodness and not their own virtue.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Jesus finds immense depth in a moment of deep bigotry and prejudice among those seeking to find fault with him and he puts it to good use in taking his message even deeper into the lives of the people of his time. He uses the exclusive judgment his critics put on him to emphasize something essential to his meaning and message - forgiveness that results in the inclusion of people seen to be not good enough to be. Included among those blessed by God.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Luke’s gospel is very strong and consistent in emphasizing that faith begins with God’s invitation. But then the evangelist is very insistent that the invitation requires our response if anything is to be made of the the invitation. And that is very much to the fore in today’s text: Jesus is emphasizing the response to his invitation and the costly nature that response. And the cost of response is not less than everything. But in paying everything, again it is the grace of God that allows us to let go and give ourselves to God in a fully generous way.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

Remembering our dead - what we do today, on All Souls Day - is a deeply mysterious event. It’s mysterious not simply because it is a direct engagement with something that all of us face and will face though we know nothing about what will become of us as such. But as well, it is an event we already are engaged in and have many intimations of “the next life” because we are engaged with it in memory of the deceased, in praying for them and in asking for their prayers for us. And in those acts, we are adventurously moving into an aspect of the next life before we have joined it. But the more we move into that space and anticipate that transition and the more we engage with those who’ve gone before us to fuller life with God, the more real it all becomes.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews

The Feast of all Saints today is both a solemn celebration of the destiny of us all and the actual condition of so many simply not recognized in the formal lists of those welcomed by God into everlasting life. But the presence of the Beatitudes as the Gospel for today’s Mass also reminds us of how we are all empowered to get to the saintly state - by God’s grace meeting us in all the ordinary events and occasions of our lives, all the common people who make upper days and in whom we see God inviting us to grow into the loving people we are invited to come every day.About the Speaker: Father Michael Kelly is a Jesuit priest and English language publisher of the respected Jesuit periodical, La Civilta Cattolica. For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.com For news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateOn Twitter Follow Or Connect through DM at : twitter.com/ucanewsTo view Video features please visit https://www.youtube.com/@ucanews