Thursday: Feast of St Barnabas

Today 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 reading

Our Church Reopening Plans

As 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 reading

St Ephraem the Syrian

Not 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

Continue reading

Trinity Sunday, and Church doors to open again…

I have written about Trinity Sunday in our parish newsletter this weekend, available on our website HERE, and I don’t really want to add very much: I will be posting some recent reflections from CARJ which have been published following the recent tragic events in the United States. God bless and

Continue reading

St Boniface, the European

Some years ago on this day at Mass in St Edmund’s I commented in my homily that today’s saint reminded us of the Catholic Church’s commitment to European unity. A very faithful worshipper, who has now gone to his rest, was so offended by this remark that he asked to

Continue reading

Mary, Mother of the Church

The Easter season ended yesterday so our cycle of readings at Mass resumes as ‘Ordinary Time’, which we left ages ago on Shrove Tuesday (and it really does feel like a long time ago). The first readings this week are from the Second Letter of Peter (1:2-7). This composition reads

Continue reading

Whitsunday: Reflection for Pentecost

Today is Whitsunday (the old English name), the feast of Pentecost. Again,I don’t want to repeat my homily at the livestreamed 9:30 Mass today (www.saintedmunds.net). I have also reposted a note from the Catholic Womens League reminding us that a large number of young people from our parish were due

Continue reading