In today’s gospel the Pharisees and the Herodians ask Jesus “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” Jesus says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God, the things that are God’s.” I grew up in Zimbabwe, or Rhodesia as it was called then. It’s a country I loved, and still […]
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Welcome Back!
Few Mirfield students think their time here quite complete until they have returned for Deacons’ Week. It was our privilege, last month, to welcome back seven deacons who left the College in 2019. Their visit allowed us to trial our social distancing measures for the new term and so it was with some confidence that […]
Book Review – Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin and the World it Created.
By Nicholas Ostler Latin is a language dead as dead could be;first it killed the Romans and now it’s killing me. So we used to chant as schoolboys, though actually I loved Latin even then. What people do not realise is that Latin was not confined to the Ancient Romans but remained, in many different […]
Book Review – Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times
By Jonathan Sacks Jonathan Sacks is the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and a well-known writer and speaker. In this fascinating book he deals with a problem which has arisen in the Western world over the past century, but especially since the Sixties: is there a moral law we can all sign up to? […]
Book Review – Austin Farrer: Oxford Warden, Scholar, Preacher
Edited by Professor Marcus Bockmuehl and Bishop Stephen Platten with Nevsky Everett I am currently reading with much enjoyment a book, recently acquired by our library, Austin Farrer: Oxford Warden,Scholar, Preacher, edited by Professor Marcus Bockmuehl and Bishop Stephen Platten with Nevsky Everett. SCM Press 2020. I was privileged to be tutored by Farrer for […]
Book Review – Saint Augustine on the Resurrection of Christ: Teaching, Rhetoric, and Reception
By Gerald O’Collins, SJ This is a curious little book, and that for at least two, somewhat contradictory, reasons. St Augustine of Hippo is such a towering figure in the history of Christianity, about whom such a wealth of material has been written, that it would be easy to mistake this slender volume for one […]
Book Review – How to Read a Latin Poem: If you Can’t Read Latin yet.
By William Fitzgerald Latin is a beautiful language but very different from English. One really important difference is the case system. The meaning of words in a sentence does not depend on their position but on their case, so words can be positioned anywhere without losing their meaning. This can mean that reading Latin, especially […]
The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Matthew 21.33-end
Today’s Gospel is an allegory. The various features in the story need to be interpreted to understand its meaning. The vineyard is the kingdom of God and its owner is God, who demands the grape harvest from the tenants. The tenants are the leaders of God’s Chosen People the Jews. The story is a judgement […]
For you say, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ ‘O House of Israel, are my ways unfair?’
If you came to the College last Monday, there have probably already been occasions when you have heard yourself saying, ‘the way of the Lord is unfair.’ Wrenched from my family and friends, from my church, into this unfamiliar place. If not, there is time yet … The words appeared in the reading at […]