(1 John 5:9-13; John 17: 6-19) This period in the Church’s year can seem rather strange – our Lord has ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father, yet we are waiting for the Spirit to come down at Pentecost and settle upon the disciples; so that the Church can begin to […]
Sermons
Fr George’s Sermon – 9th May 2021
In last week’s Economist there was a photograph of a huge robot in the shape of a human being, and where its head should be there was a driving-cab with a real man inside operating the controls. That’s how we tend to think about our minds and our bodies. Our mind is the most important […]
Fr John’s Sermon – Sunday 2nd May 2021
The Gospel for St Philip and St James Day is part of Jesus’s farewell discourse with the disciples before he goes to face his enemies and the Last Enemy. The Lord speaks in riddles and paradoxes and the disciples’ questionings show both bewilderment and impatience. He talks of leaving them, of some unknown Comforter after […]
“I am the Good Shepherd” (Jn 10: 11)
Some years ago I made a long retreat at St Beuno’s in Wales, that lovely Jesuit house where Gerard Manley Hopkins lived, and wrote the Wreck of the Deutschland. Each afternoon I would go out for a walk up and down the hills, enjoying that wonderful countryside, as Hopkins had done: “Lovely the woods, waters, […]
The Third Sunday of Easter
Luke 24. 36b-48 Unlike the other Gospels St Luke does not mention the disciples going to Galilee to see the risen Lord. He tells his readers only about the appearances in and about Jerusalem leading up to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles empowering them for the mission to all nations beginning […]
Lent 3 What was Jesus like?
Gentle Jesus meek and mild/ Look upon a little child/ Pity my simplicity/ Suffer me to come to thee. When I was very young we used to sing that before going to bed at night. I won’t comment on it except to say that I am sure it is good for children to know that […]
Sermon – Sunday 28th February 2021
Lent 2 Romans 4:13 – end Mark 8:30 – end The order the Scriptures are read at Mass isn’t always helpful. The Epistles in theory are written AFTER the events which are described in the Gospels. Of course we all know that they were written the other way round, the epistles first. So this morning […]
Sunday next before Lent
Mark 9.2-9 Jesus said to Peter, James and John, ‘Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.’ Peter had recently acclaimed Jesus as God’s anointed Messiah. James would be the first apostle to witness to Jesus by his martyrdom. John in the Gospel says Jesus is […]
Eucharist – Sunday 7th February 2021
‘The Sacred Bundle‘ – Canon Cathy Rowling (The first 10 seconds is silent)
Simeon and the child Jesus
In the constellation of Orion there are three tiny stars that make up the sword of Orion. The middle one is barely visible to the naked eye. Yet this is the Great Orion Nebula described in a catalogue of deep sky objects as: Orion Nebula Messier 42 (M42, NGC 1976) is the brightest starforming, and […]