Our rather incomplete coverage at weekday Mass of the cycle of stories about the prophet Elijah concludes today (2 Kings 2) with the account of his assumption into heaven on a chariot – he passes on his cloak and his mission to his disciple Elisha. Interestingly here he is surrounded
Continue readingIn our first reading at Mass today (1 Kings 21:17-29) we hear the aftermath to the killing of Naboth. This picture by the Victorian artist Frederick Leighton shows the prophet encountering King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. God, through the prophet, holds the king and queen accountable for the innocent blood
Continue readingToday’s first reading from 1 Kings (21), the story of Naboth, is one of the most chilling and powerful stories in the Old Testament. In the biblical world-view false religion and idolatry go hand in hand with injustice and oppression. Ahab and Jezebel are motivated by pure greed, and they
Continue readingIn this country we keep today (rather than last Thursday) the feast of Corpus Christi. This feast developed in the Middle Ages as a way of marking even more joyfully what we celebrate on Maundy Thursday – the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus at the Last Supper. It also
Continue readingToday is the feast of St Anthony of Padua, the great thirteenth century Franciscan preacher and one of the most popular saints in the Church; his statue in our church (which replaces one which was smashed in an act of vandalism a few years ago) is shown here. While we
Continue readingEvelyn Underhill, the Catholic writer once said, “A lot of the road to heaven has to be taken at thirty miles an hour.” Sometimes we would like life to move much quicker and things to happen earlier than they do. Since the third week of March, when Covid19 invaded our
Continue readingThe final verse of this much-loved hymn, with the words ‘O still small voice of calm’ is a reference to today’s first reading at Mass from 1 Kings 19: 9- 16. Here God reveals himself to the prophet Elijah not in an earthquake, or in the wind, or in fire,
Continue readingToday is the feast of St Barnabas. A few weeks ago in the season of Eastertide we heard at Mass in our readings from Acts about his missionary journeys with St Paul. A reading not included I think is 15:36ff when we’re told basically that they have a row and
Continue readingAs you know it was announced at the weekend that the government is permitting churches and other places of worship to be open from next week. Your clergy team are working with others to ensure that this happens and details of the date when this can take place will be
Continue readingNot many deacons have been canonised or occur in the universal calendar of the Church. Ephraem the Syrian, whose feast day is today, was also a major theologian of the late 4th century – a contemporary of major Greek and Latin theologians like Basil and Ambrose, but much less well
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