2nd Ordinary Time | The Garden Mass | Redemptorist Publications | 19th January 2025

[@ElizabethMokhoanatsi]

Thank you so much farther for the mass 😇😇😇🙏🙏🙏Amen

[@DenisMcBride-ey3dh]

Many thanks to you, Elizabeth: delighted you join us.

[@sunnyl1032]

Thank You so much for the Mass,Blesses

[@DenisMcBride-ey3dh]

Thanks, Sunny, and every blessing to you in India.

[@AliceTheresa88]

As ever, thank you so much for this beautiful Garden Mass, dear Fr. Denis, Alessandro, Paul, Giselle, Cosmo (who is growing so fast and so well-behaved today!) and sleepy Kallistos. Thank you for reading my prayer aloud, such a surprise, indeed! Thank you too for the lovely homily, touching on how Jesus is the real Bridegroom, foreshadowed by a reading from Isaiah on how "the bridegroom was filled with joy upon seeing his bride." There is indeed a loving relationship between Jesus and His people, because he is generous: "From His fullness, all of us have received." I remember also listening for the first time in catechism when we were small about the miracle of the water turning into wine during the wedding in Cana: I was so awed and wide-eyed, my imagination piqued, and the story stayed with me for a long, long time. Thank you for that excerpt from "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," by Louis de Bernières. After being married for almost 37 years (an anniversary is coming up next week!) there is much truth in what was said: after the initial passion and excitement, we joyfully settle to the dailiness of it, yet every relationship is still "hard work": one has to nourish and feed that love, be alert to each other's needs, so that there will only be "one tree, not two."

[@DenisMcBride-ey3dh]

Many thanks, Alice, and a very happy anniversary to you and Alex. I hope you have a special celebration. You had a wonderful imagination as a child and am delighted that the sheer generosity of what happened in changing water into wine stayed with you for long. And yes, all relationships - in family and religious community - demands hard work, and daily investment of love and understanding.

[@joycepomfret4114]

What is the picture of three figures over the fireplace? The Holy Trinity?

[@DenisMcBride-ey3dh]

No, Joyce, not the Trinity. If you Google the Brera Madonna by Piero della Francesca, you will see the painting that is behind the one above the fireplace. The modern Dutch artist who signs herself Bierenbroobspot painting her version of della Francesca's Madonna (1996) focusing only on Mary and two attending angels. She gave me a print of this as a present and I think it is very beautiful.

[@joycepomfret4114]

Thank you very much Father Denis.