I have always been comforted by the soothing sound of people praying the rosary when I enter St Edmund’s church to celebrate the 10 am Mass. Above all it comforts me to know the efficacy of such a powerful weapon of intercession and protection. As you may know we have
Continue readingTHE SPEECH by the young Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg at the United Nations last week, together with her powerful glance at the man who thinks he’s the leader of the free world, made a dramatic impression. The UN conference came days after the Climate change protests here last
Continue readingWhen I look at the Chapel in St. John’s, I often think about all of the Seminarians and Priests over the ages who have prayed there and I think about how the Church has changed over those 125+ years! Mgr. Gerry, our Vice-Rector has been making a recent appeal for
Continue readingI promised a couple of weeks ago to tell you something about the annual conference of the Catholic Theological Association, which took place at the beginning of the month in Twickenham. The title of the conference was Word of God, Words of God: Words, Image and Ritual in Religion and
Continue readingI am always hoping and praying for more young people to be engaged with their faith and involved in parish life. I know I am not alone in this. Equally, I am well aware of my inadequacy, my inability to make this happen. Again, this frustration may well be the
Continue readingIN 2015 the Holy Father, following the example of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, designated today as a special Day of Prayer for Creation, in his encyclical Laudato Si’. One of the rather facile criticisms made of that letter at the time was that the pope was too pessimistic in his
Continue readingA FEW WEEKS AGO we celebrated at school our Year 6 Leavers’ Mass. This is always a poignant and emotional occasion, for parents as much as for children (possibly more so). For many, a ‘tear-jerker’ is this contemporary hymn, written by Eugene O’Reilly, which has been sung on this occasion
Continue readingTHIS is the great east window in St George’s Cathedral, the mother church of our diocese of Catholics in South London and Kent. Later this month it will be the place of the installation of our new archbishop, John Wilson. However it is on the page because in the cathedral,
Continue readingSOME OF YOU will recognise this picture. The large piece of rock in front of the altar is the traditional rock of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where Our Lord prayed after the Last Supper before his arrest. Because of the importance of this site, the church built
Continue readingSOMETIMES AT CLERGY DEANERY MEETINGS priests are apt to complain about second collections, arguing that people complain to them about them, that there are too many of them, and so on. As it happens people don’t complain here about them, at least not to me; in Beckenham you give very
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