Several decades ago I was at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper in Westminster Cathedral. Shortly before he was due to remove his chasuble, don an apron and get down on his knees to wash the feet of twelve old men, the Cardinal Archbishop got up to preach. He was
Continue readingWhen Peter witnesses the glory of Jesus on the mountain he cries out with obvious delight, “Master, it is wonderful for us to be here, so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” We have all felt this way in the events
Continue readingThe first question that comes up in our family as we approach Lent is “What are we giving up for Lent this year?” Basically the children want to know, during Lent, will we give up meat only on Fridays and Wednesdays, or all days of the week during Lent. Another
Continue readingTHE PICTURE HERE is of the Ukrainian Cathedral of the Holy Family in Mayfair (Duke Street, W1) which is the base of the Ukrainian Catholic eparchy (diocese) in the United Kingdom. These are Catholics, in full Communion with the Holy See and our bishops, who use Eastern Orthodox liturgy and
Continue readingTODAY the churches keep Racial Justice Sunday and we have a second collection at the end of Masses for the work of the Catholic Association for Racial Justice (CARJ). Reflections and other material for this Sunday has been produced by the association and can be found HERE. At the heart
Continue readingWhen they are required to address the evil of sexual abuse by priests, religious and others within the Church, it is not uncommon for those wanting to protect the ‘good name of the Church’ to refer to the perpetrator as a ‘bad apple’, or some such. It’s a way of
Continue readingNEXT SATURDAY is the 100th anniversary of the death of the man who is probably the most neglected and overlooked pope of the 20th century, Benedict XV. He wasn’t very old and had no history of particularly bad health. Pneumonia was a killer a hundred years ago (my mother, who
Continue readingTHIS WEEKEND we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the final day and climax of the season of Christmas. It is joined very closely to last Thursday’s feast of the Epiphany – indeed at various times both the manifestation of the baby Jesus to the Magi and
Continue readingOften, we can experience the briefest encounters which cause us to stop and reflect about the Goodness of God. This happens all the time and I would like to mention just four things that happened to me this Advent. The woman who received Holy Communion from me in her home
Continue readingAdvent, as we all know, is a journey towards Christmas; we all look forward through this season to celebrating the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ and rightly so. We should be looking forward to such an occasion, because if he wasn’t born in human form and experienced the emotions
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