Monday’s Reflections
Our first reading today (Acts 16:11-15) introduces us to St Lydia of Thyatira, ‘a devout woman who was in the purple-dye trade.’ She is converted to Christianity and is traditionally
Continue readingLaudato Si Week: Care for Creation
We begin this weekend all over the world a special ‘Laudato Si’ week, to mark the fifth anniversary of the Holy Father’s encyclical about care for creation. You can read
Continue readingReflections on the Sixth Sunday of Easter
We begin this evening the Sixth Sunday of Easter. This beautiful piece of music by the English Tudor composer Thomas Tallis is a setting of part of this Sunday’s gospel
Continue readingSt Paul and the call to Missionary Work
The first reading from Acts this morning (1:1-10) shows really a ‘whistle-stop’ journey of St Paul round Asia Minor. However the vision he has in a dream at the end
Continue readingSt Simon Stock, Carmelite Friar
In the calendar of the Southwark archdiocese today is the feast day of St Simon Stock, the thirteenth century Carmelite friar from Kent, associated with the shrine at Aylesford, one
Continue reading“Love one another, as I have loved you”
Today’s first reading (Acts 15:22-31) includes the first appearance of Silas, who will be Paul’s companion for much of the rest of Acts. The letter recounted here is the result
Continue readingToday: A Special Day of Prayer
See the note below about today’s special Day of Prayer being led by Pope Francis. It’s also the feast of St Matthias, who was chosen to be added to the
Continue readingJesus: “I am the vine, you are the branches”
The reading today from Acts (15:1-6) begins an account of what seems to have been the first really big argument in the early Church: whether Gentiles (that is Greeks, Romans,
Continue reading“They put fresh heart into the disciples”
In today’s first reading from Acts (14:19-28) Luke concludes his narrative of the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas – we see dramatic contrasts. First we’re told that Paul
Continue readingSt Pancras, the Teenage Martyr
Today is the feast of St Pancras. We don’t know much about him, but he is thought to have been martyred at the beginning of the fourth century in Rome
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