Solemnity of Saint Scholastica, 10th February, 2021 The language, in our readings today and those of last night, seems very primal – part of that side of us which we try to keep very much under control: the language of feelings, employed here to describe God’s relationship to us and …
The Epiphany of the Lord, 6th January 2021 Death stalks the land and people are afraid. Can we learn anything from the Christmas story to abate this fear or at least address it? Today, we celebrate the coming of the Magi : three wise men to greet the newly born …
Mary Mother of God, 1st January 2021 It is often said that truth is the first casualty of war. Well, if so, we seem to have been at war for a very long time, if not forever. It’s certainly harder at the moment to discern the true word, with so …
Christmas Day 2020 The people that walked in darknesshas seen a great light:on those who live in a land of deep shadowa light has shone. We looked to the skies for a conjunction of planets but rain came instead.Br Herbert remarked on Wednesday that he’d never seen the day so …
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady We may think we are seeking God but it is really God who is seeking us. We are the ones in hiding and God who asks ‘Where are you?’ but no one, of course, can hide from God. It’s like the child …
Christ the King, 22nd November, 2020 . . . we meet (the) God of transcendence, (the) God of mystery, only in the earthiness of things. We have no other way of finding God, and we also have no way of escaping God’s presence. (p.5 Gerard W. Hughes: God where are …
Dedication of the Oratory of Our Lady of Peace, Turvey Abbey We live in the midst of an extraordinary welter of uncertainties, highlighted today, by an, as yet, unresolved American election and the beginning here of another Covid 19 lockdown with Brexit still looming and the issue of climate change, …
All Saints, 1st November 2020 Most people cast in their lot with the visible world; but true Christians with saints and angels. (John Henry Newman: Parochial & Plain Sermons IV, 234) Be prepared, then, to be misunderstood: Because the world refused to acknowledge him.therefore it does not acknowledge us. It’s …
Birthday of Our Lady, 8 September 2020 Genealogies are ordinarily expected to give information about ancestry. We trace our family trees to find out how various bloodlines intermingle and have finally come to reside in oneself – or whoever. But this is not the prime purpose, perhaps, of either Matthew’s …
St Bernard Tolomei, 19 August 2020 We can get a taste of St. Bernard Tolomei’s self-effacing and generous nature in the letter we heard read last night. He’s giving advice to a fellow monk on how best to pursue his vocation and it’s advice applicable to us all: Every action …
