Today is the feast day of St Augustine of Canterbury, secondary patron of our archdiocese of Southwark, shown here in a panel in Westminster Cathedral alongside Pope St Gregory the Great, who sent him to England in 597 to re-evangelise the country. He had been a monk in Rome and
Continue reading Today is the feast of St Philip Neri, one of the best love saints of the Counter-Reformation period in the 16th century – the founder of the Oratory religious congregation which runs the Oratory school in Fulham which a number of boys from our parish have attended over the
Continue readingSome of you may watch the popular TV series ‘The Last Kingdom’ which, although fictional, does fill in the gaps for many of us in our knowledge of the history of Anglo Saxon England. Another way to fill that gap is to read the history written by the ‘Venerable Bede’
Continue readingIt was a great joy to be able to celebrate the livestreamed Vigil Mass from church last night. As some of you know our younger daughter Iris came out of the most vulnerable health category earlier this month as she completed six months since the end of her leukaemia treatment
Continue readingYou 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 had made.’ Many of us are glad at the moment that we haven’t made such a vow as we can’t
Continue readingOne 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 Begotten Son, our Lord, placed at the right hand of your glory our weak human nature, which he had united
Continue reading 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 tend not to mark its celebration very clearly. For a few years in this country it was moved to the
Continue readingI 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 source than other material. Of those of St Paul the speech in today’s first reading (17: 15, 22 – 18:1)
Continue readingToday’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 for two reasons. First, the narrative reflects traditional Christian and Jewish antipathy to suicide, as Paul stops the jailer from
Continue readingOur 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 seen as the first convert from the continent of Europe (from Macedonia). Devotion to her is particularly strong in the
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