Feast of St John the Evangelist, 27th December 2021 You hear it all the time, ‘We grew up poor but we didn’t know it’ – a comment on and by Appalachian coal miners who suddenly find themselves at the mercy of forces far away: hedge fund investors who see them …
Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday 26th December 2021 Reality is where you place your attention That’s a quote worth pondering on from Dom Lawrence Freeman, as is the following as he wanders around the exhibits at the recent Cop26 conference in Glasgow: I listened to a presentation at a …
Saint Andrew, 30th November 2021 We need a fisherman to comment on a text like this but one can imagine that part of the fascination and joy of fishing is that one doesn’t quite know what one is going to catch or quite where the fish are. But this is …
All Saints O.S.B. 13th November 2021 We’ve tended to conflate All Saints OSB and All Souls OSB, in recent years, partly because we’ve already celebrated them, in a sense, within the feasts of All Saints and All Souls of last week and partly because we recognise, now, that it’s not …
Saint Martin of Tours, 11th November 2021 What is it that has made St. Martin so popular a saint, in both his own day, and ever since? Perhaps it’s partly no doubt because of Sulpicius Severus’ successful hagiography and especially the story of his dividing of his cloak (or capella …
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, 9th November 2021Patronal feast of the Monastery of Christ Our Saviour Before it was ever known as Turvey Abbey in the eighteenth century, this site was known simply as Turvey Farm or Farmhouse and, until the mid-twentieth century, was indeed, a working farm, almost, that …
All Souls, 2nd November 2021 We said yesterday that other people become part of us – and we a part of them. This is true for us whether dead or alive. And it’s not just a question of memory or DNA but of a living tradition which transcends death: a …
Saints Simon and Jude, 28th October 2021 Simon and Jude are little known and, indeed, Jude has attracted to himself the title ‘patron of lost causes’ because, supposedly, few people would pray to a man otherwise known as Judas. But we were reminded last night, by Paul, that it’s not …
Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, 29th September 2021 In an interesting article in this week’s Tablet the contribution to the European Union of the French Catholic statesman, Robert Schumann, is explored and the time seemed ripe for such a move because of the strength of the Christian Democratic movement in …
Feast of Saint Matthew, 21st September 2021 In a recent article in our ecumenical journal, One In Christ, Professor Thomas O’Loughlin makes much of the recognition earlier this year that lay members of the Church are now eligible to become ‘instituted’ as lector, acolyte and catechist – roles which were …
