Today the Church honours St Paul Miki and his twenty-five companions, martyred by being crucified in Japan, in the year 1597. Jesuit priests had brought the Christian message to the country and Paul Miki had been educated by them. He himself was a seminarian at the time of his death.
Continue readingWe pray with Pope Francis for women who are victims of violence, that they may be protected by society and have their sufferings considered and heeded. LINK: Pray With the Pope – “The heart of the Church’s mission is prayer”
Continue readingCandlemas, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Normally we would mark this day with the traditional procession of candles before Mass. It is also the World Day of Prayer for those in the Consecrated Life, the 25th such observance since it was set up by St John Paul
Continue readingThe gospel reading today [Monday] is the account in Mark chapter 5 of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac. It’s rather scary story; we are meant to be terrified by the man possessed by many demons, ‘for they are legion’. Commentators have pointed out that Mark’s use of that word
Continue readingGiven the large numbers of people being admitted to hospital at this time, it is particularly important to be clear about what you should do if you or a friend or family member is admitted and seriously ill. The most important thing to do is to get a message to
Continue readingAs we mark Racial Justice Sunday this weekend it has been announced that the Archbishop of Southwark has set up a new Commission for Promoting Racial Justice and Cultural Inclusion. Details at: http://rcsouthwark.co.uk/indexold.html God bless and take care Fr Ashley l
Continue readingThe Salesian Sisters at Village Way ask you to join them in prayer as they celebrate the feast of their founder, St John Bosco. He entrusted all to Our Lady. She guided his life’s work especially that of helping the young know Jesus and live full and happy lives.
Continue readingToday is the feast of St Thomas Aquinas, patron saint of students. He once wrote that through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ ‘humanity knows from this how much God loves us; so that we are stirred by this to love him in return. This is the perfection of
Continue readingThis Sunday we keep the second annual Sunday of the Word of God, a special observance for this Sunday set up by Pope Francis in September 2019. I have written about the importance of this in our parish newsletter for this weekend. One opportunity the pandemic has given us is
Continue readingToday the Church honours St Vincent of Saragossa, the first martyr of Spain. Like St Agnes whom we recalled yesterday, he was martyred at the beginning of the fourth century in the persecution of Diocletian. In the early Church deacons had a particularly close relationship with the bishop, and in
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