The 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
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
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