The feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist is historically and culturally very important in this country because it’s a ‘Quarter day’, one of the signposts in the year when rents used to be due (like Lady Day), and it more or less coincides too with Midsummer Day,
Continue readingSt Etheldreda, or Aethelthryth (the name is also the original of the name Audrey) was one of the great female saints of Anglo Saxon England. If you’ve ever watched (as I have recently) the Netflix series ‘The Last Kingdom’ (which hopefully will have at least one more series) you see
Continue readingToday is a very special feast day in this country – Saints John Fisher and Thomas More – they weren’t martyred on the same day in 1535 – Fisher was killed on this day and More in early July. They symbolise jointly good and holy leadership of the Church (Fisher
Continue readingThe first reading at Mass today, the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, is from Jeremiah 20: 10-13. It shows how the prophet is aware that those who oppose him are out to get him – indeed he’s nearly killed. In the whole book the Jeremiah grapples with God and is
Continue readingIn the Church’s calendar the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart is the feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This stresses the closeness, the intimacy, between Our Lord and his Mother; we’re enabled to imagine his childhood (about which hardly anything is recorded) where he would
Continue readingWe have received a special message from the Archbishop and Bishops of Southwark addressed to the young people of the diocese. To read the letter: click here (PDF). The letter is also available on the Archdiocese website: click here. Please feel free to pass it on to others.
Continue readingToday is the feast of the Sacred Heart. I have written about the feast for this weekend’s parish newsletter. The readings for today this year (Deuteronomy 7: 6-11, 1 John 4: 7-16 and Matthew 11: 23-30) speak to us of the depth of God’s love, represented for us in the
Continue readingI have always been moved by the way in which the lectionary readings fit in coincidentally with what is going on our lives and in the life of the world. Our first reading today from the book of Ecclesiasticus (48:1-13) sums up, in very fulsome and elaborate language, Elijah, whose
Continue readingOur 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
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