Thoughts for Saturday
You may have noticed the last verse of yesterday’s first reading (Acts 18:18) where we are told that St Paul ‘had his hair cut off, because of a vow he
Continue readingAscension Day and Human Nature
One of the texts for yesterday’s feast of the Ascension, an insert in the First Eucharistic Prayer, says this: ‘[we are] celebrating the most sacred day on which your Only
Continue readingAscension Day
Clergy are apt to say on Ascension Day that the feast gets rather a raw deal because, although it is only behind Easter, Christmas and Pentecost in importance we
Continue readingWednesday’s Reflections
I think I commented a few weeks ago that the long speeches in the book of Acts are amongst the most intriguing parts of the book, possibly from a different
Continue readingTuesday’s Reflections
Today’s first reading from Acts 16 shows Paul and Silas being flogged and imprisoned in Philippi in Macedonia, and then being miraculously released during an earthquake. The passage is remarkable
Continue readingMonday’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
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