Burns Supper

January always seems a bit of an anti-climax after December, but today is an excuse to celebrate! The same inventive Scots who gave you Hogmanay and the first hangover of the year gave us Burns night - Rabbie Burns (1759-1796) came from a family of small to middling Ayrshire farmers who, although far from wealthy, made sure he got a good education.

Unity in the Church

"It has been reported to me...that there is quarreling among you..."

My sermon for last Sunday, 3rd in Ordinary Time, Year A:

In the few short lines of today's second reading it seems that Saint Paul is anxious to restore the spirit of unity and harmony to the divided Corinthian church. Differences of opinion have in some way solidified into separate factions. Church members have grouped themselves around a number of individual leaders - including Paul himself.

Jesus Christ the one true way to God

Yesterday's sermon, for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time,Year A:

John the Baptist's words about Jesus - "there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" - encapsulate a conviction which is central to the Christian faith. The human race is fallen, separated from God. The way we are now - prone to selfishness and evil in all sorts of ways - isn't the way God made us or intended us to be.

Trip to Wrexham

Last Saturday afternoon the altar servers, their parents and friends took a trip down to Wrexham  - first of all to see a Pax Christi exhibition in the cathedral.

Penance, Prayer & Service

My sermon for yesterday, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. I can't pretend that the idea is my own; I nicked it from this book, by the Jesuit academic, Patrick Madigan.

The men and women who were baptised by John in the river Jordan were answering his appeal to repent their past sins and make a new start in their relationship with God, and that means that there's a bit of a puzzle in Jesus presenting himself for baptism, because he didn't need to leave behind a life of sin and re-dedicate himself to God.

The Collect for the First Sunday after the Epiphany

O LORD, we beseech thee mercifully
to receive the prayers of thy people
who call upon thee; and grant that they
may both perceive and know what things
they ought to do, and also may have grace
and power faithfully to fulfil the same;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Epiphany: "children come to the children's king"

A few edifying photographs taken at the end of the 4.30pm Mass on Sunday. A box of frankincense and myrrh miraculously appeared too, but no gold - it must have ended up in the Gold-for-Cash shop in Vale Street.

Epiphany

My sermon for last Sunday, the feast of the Epiphany:

There are passages of the Old Testament which look forward to a time when God's gift of salvation will be offered not just to the Chosen People but to the whole of humanity. The great theme of today's feast, the Epiphany of the Lord, is that with the birth of Jesus that time has arrived.