Advent Sunday 3C, 12th December 2021 When Hitler was playing cat and mouse with the Christians of the Third Reich in the 1930s he had great success at first partly because he knew exactly how to play on their fears and hopes and divided loyalties and partly because Christianity itself …
Advent Sunday 2C, 5th December 2021 We were privileged last night to have a three year old and a five year old and a hundred year old all together in the same room – you can imagine how noisy that was, especially from the hundred year old, with all three …
Advent Sunday 1C, 28th November 2021 Dante has a special place in hell for the deceitful or intellectually dishonest – though he seems to have a special place in hell for everyone – and among these was, and perhaps is, Guido da Montefeltro who was asked by Pope Boniface VIII …
Solemnity of Christ the King, 21st November 2021 It’s easy to be divisive; it’s what human beings do; it’s what we’re good at – taking things apart, taking others apart whether individually or collectively, as peoples or nation-states. It’s much harder to be one or, better, to realise our potential …
Sunday 33B, 14th November 2021 We live and die by the moment – we may imagine life simply goes on, and on, and on and what we have to hold on to is this continual flow of never-ending life, characterised by pleasure, if possible, good health, surrounded by those we …
Sunday 32B, 7th November 2021 Many years ago I once asked Bishop Cormac Murphy O’Connor, as he was then, what a rich man had asked me that he should do, as a devout Catholic, with all his excess money. Cormac replied in jest ‘Tell him to give it to the …
Sunday 31B, 31st October 2021 We’ve all become very wary now of those phone calls which begin with ‘May I speak to the person who is in charge of your gas and electricity?’ and goes on to say ‘We’re not trying to sell you anything but you could save yourself …
Sunday 30B, 24th October 2021 We cannot truly know another person unless we can to some extent become that other person, experience the subjectivity of the other person as our own. Thomas Merton, p 91, ‘Redeeming Time’ The marvel is that Jesus does this, but without sin, knows us as …
Sunday 29B, 17th October 2021 Be careful what you ask for – you might get it in a way you didn’t expect. We’re now hosting a group of meditators at the monastery from the World Community of Christian Meditation and the theme for the weekend is Time and Eternity – …
Sunday 28B, 10th October 2021 Later in the gospel Jesus will answer a scribe’s question as to the first of the commandments with the commandment to love God and then one’s neighbour as oneself. But he doesn’t do that here. Perhaps because it would be too much for the rich …
