Holy Trinity Catholic Church Johannesburg

12/08/2026

✨ 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Sermon Recap ✨

Theme: From Communion to Mission

This Sunday, Fr Russell concluded our series, God’s Banquet: A Pilgrimage Through the Mass, by reflecting on the Communion Rite and the Dismissal.

The final movement of the Mass takes us on a remarkable journey. We walk towards Christ to receive Him, carrying our joys, struggles, anxieties and doubts. Christ reaches out to us, as He reached out to Peter on the stormy sea. And having received Him, we are sent back into the world to live Eucharistic lives.

🙏 1. The Prayer Jesus Gave Us
Immediately after the Eucharistic Prayer, we pray the words Jesus Himself taught us: the Our Father.
Before approaching the altar, we place our needs before the Father. We ask for daily bread, forgiveness and deliverance from evil.
Then we pray the Lamb of God, preparing ourselves to encounter Christ who comes to us.

🌊 2. Christ Reaches Out His Hand
Fr Russell invited us to imagine Peter walking across the stormy water towards Jesus.
Peter comes carrying his fear, anxiety and doubt. When he begins to sink, Jesus stretches out His hand.
Our movement towards Holy Communion is also a pilgrimage towards Christ.
We come carrying everything that makes up our lives: our joys and struggles, our confidence and uncertainty, our faith and our doubts.
And Christ reaches out to us.

🍞 3. God Comes in the Ordinary
Elijah discovered that God was not in the wind, earthquake or fire, but in the quiet whisper.
So too, Christ comes to us through something remarkably simple.
Bread and wine.

There need be nothing spectacular about the encounter. In these ordinary signs, Christ gives Himself completely to us.
The extraordinary God comes to meet us in the ordinary.

🕊️ 4. “Truly, You Are the Son of God”
After receiving Communion, we return to our places.
Like the disciples in the boat, our response should become a proclamation:

“Truly, you are the Son of God.”

But that proclamation cannot remain only on our lips.
Receiving the Eucharist should gradually shape the people we become.

🚪 5. The Mass Ends, Our Mission Begins
The dismissal is not simply an announcement that Mass is finished.

We are sent.

Fr Russell reminded us that, in a sense, our Eucharistic pilgrimage does not end at the church doors. It begins there.
We are sent to our families, friends, neighbours, colleagues and those in need.
We are sent to live lives of service, compassion, kindness and affirmation, and sometimes to have the courage to proclaim prophetic truths.
What happens after we leave church reveals whether we are truly becoming Eucharistic people.

💭 Reflection:
When I come forward for Communion, can I imagine Christ reaching out His hand to me?
And when I hear the words “Go”, where is the Lord sending me this week?
The Eucharist is not simply something we receive.

We are called to become Eucharistic people.

Listen to the full homily at https://trinityjhb.co.za/formation/sermons/from-communion-to-mission

12/08/2026

Holy Trinity Parish & Holy Family College joyfully announce the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation!

All are warmly invited!

10/08/2026

WATCH: “From Communion to Mission” - reflect on last Sunday’s sermon: where or to whom is God sending you?

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A — Fr Russell Pollitt, SJ

05/08/2026

✨ Solemnity of St Ignatius of Loyola | Sermon Recap ✨

Theme: An Appetite for Christ

This Sunday, Fr Brendon Nayanah, SJ invited us to reflect on the deepest hunger of the human heart.

We all have appetites. We hunger for success, security, approval, comfort and fulfilment. But St Ignatius discovered that no earthly ambition could satisfy the deepest longing within him.

The real question is not whether we are hungry.

The question is: What are we hungry for?

🥖 1. Chasing What Cannot Satisfy
Through the prophet Isaiah, God asks:
"Why spend your money on what is not bread?"

So much of our lives can become a pursuit of things we hope will satisfy us.

Yet every achievement, every possession and every success eventually leaves us longing for more.

God gently invites us instead to the One who truly satisfies.

🤲 2. Compassion Before Miracles
When Jesus looked upon the great crowd, the disciples saw a problem.
Jesus saw people.

The miracle of the loaves and fishes did not begin with bread.
It began with compassion.

Where the disciples began with scarcity...
"We have only..."

Jesus began with trust:
"Bring them here to me."

Everything changes when we place our little into Christ's hands.

✨ 3. St Ignatius' Great Discovery
The cannonball that shattered Ignatius' leg did not convert him.

It simply interrupted the life he had planned.

During his recovery he realised that the ambitions he had been pursuing could never satisfy his deepest hunger.

Instead of asking,
"What do I want from life?"
he began asking,
"What is Christ inviting me to become?"
That question changed everything.

🕊️ 4. Bring Yourself
St Paul reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

We do not have to bring enough.

We do not have to be enough.

We simply have to bring ourselves.

Christ receives our poverty, our questions, our weaknesses, and transforms them through His love.

🌍 5. Fed to Become Bread
Around the altar we come from different countries, cultures, languages and life stories.

Yet we all come with the same hunger.

Christ does not ask where we come from before He feeds us.

He simply invites us to come.

And once we have been fed, He sends us out to become bread for others.

The lonely.
The weary.
The forgotten.
The searching.

Our appetite for Christ becomes nourishment for the world.

💭 Reflection:
What appetite is shaping my life?
Am I pursuing things that can never truly satisfy.....or am I allowing Christ to reorder the desires of my heart?

The deepest hunger of the human heart can only be filled by the Bread of Life.

Listen to the homily at https://trinityjhb.co.za/formation/sermons/an-appetite-for-christ

03/08/2026

Struggling with addiction? Living with an addict? In recovery? Want to know more about addiction? You are most welcome! Tuesday, 4 August 19h00.

31/07/2026

Come and celebrate this special day of faith as we honour St. Ignatius Loyola and rejoice in the First Holy Mass of Rev. Fr. Brendon Nayanah, SJ.

Everyone is welcome! ✨

31/07/2026

29/07/2026

WATCH: Take time to reflect on the message of last Sunday’s sermon from Holy Trinity.

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A — Fr Russell Pollitt, SJ

27/07/2026

Struggling with addiction? Know someone who is struggling with an addiction? Want to know more about the 12-step program to regain your life, family and self-respect? TUESDAY, 4 August 2026 at 19h00 at Trinity.

22/07/2026

✨ 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Sermon Recap ✨

Theme: Bringing Our Whole Lives to the Altar

This Sunday, Deacon Brendon Nayanah, SJ continued our series, The Banquet of God: A Pilgrimage to the Mass, by reflecting on the Preparation of the Gifts.
At first glance, this part of the Mass can seem like a practical pause while the altar is prepared and the collection is taken. But the Church sees something far deeper.
It is the moment when we place our lives on the altar with Christ.

🌾 1. We Bring More Than Bread and Wine
When the priest prays,
"Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation..."
the bread and wine represent far more than simple gifts.
They represent our work, our time, our sacrifices, our generosity, and everything we have lived since we last gathered.
We never come to Mass empty-handed.
We bring our lives.

🌿 2. Bring the Wheat and the Weeds
Reflecting on the Gospel, Deacon Brendon reminded us that God tells His servants to let the wheat and weeds grow together.
How often do we think we need to fix ourselves before coming to God?
Once I'm more patient...
Once I pray better...
Once I've overcome my weaknesses...
The Preparation of the Gifts teaches the opposite.
We come because we are not perfect.
We bring our successes and failures, our gratitude and regrets, our faith and our doubts.
We bring the whole field.

💧 3. Our Lives Become Part of Christ's Offering
One of the smallest gestures in the Mass is also one of the most profound.
A drop of water is mixed into the wine with the prayer:
"May we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity."
Like that drop of water, our ordinary lives are taken up into Christ's perfect sacrifice.
Nothing we bring is too small for Him to transform.

🕊️ 4. Even Our Weakness Is Received
St Paul reminds us that we do not know how to pray as we ought.
Yet the Holy Spirit takes our imperfect prayers and perfects them before the Father.
Even our weakness becomes an offering in God's hands.
The altar is not for perfect people.
It is where God transforms imperfect people.

✨ 5. My Sacrifice and Yours
Before the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest says:
"Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God."
Notice those words.
My sacrifice... and yours.
Every person brings something different.
Yet Christ gathers every offering, unites it to His own perfect sacrifice, and returns us transformed by His grace.
The invitation is not to bring only the best parts of ourselves.
The invitation is to bring everything.

💭 Reflection:
What am I carrying with me to Mass this Sunday?
Am I still trying to become "good enough" before coming to God?
Or am I trusting Christ enough to place my whole life upon the altar?

Bring the whole field.
Bring the wheat and the weeds.
Christ knows what to do with both.

Listen to the full homily at https://trinityjhb.co.za/formation/sermons/bring-the-whole-field