For this first Sunday in Lent, things are a little different in our Eucharist this morning. The penitential section, which concludes with the sign of ash, follows this homily and it is much longer than usual with more time for us to reflect, at the beginning of Lent, on our failures and sins. As a...
Some years ago, I went round a gallery at which there was an exhibition of modern art depicting the human face. What I saw was a very varied selection of paintings – some of the ‘faces’ so deconstructed as to be only just recognisably human – yet there was always something even in the most...
Last week, we thought a lot about light on the Feast of Christ’s Presentation in the Temple, and the person of Simeon – the priest who recognised the mysterious reality about the baby he held in his arms. We heard his words – echoed to this day in the Church’s Daily Office – which celebrated...
Friday last week was Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January. That was the date in 1945 when the Soviet Army liberated the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. The theme of this year’s commemoration is Ordinary People. It is, the organisers remind us, ordinary people who perpetrate the horrors of genocide, just as it is ordinary people...
Wednesday this coming week is the feast day of the Conversion of S. Paul. It must be one of the most influential of conversions that the world has ever known, so it is no wonder that it has a special day of commemoration unlike that associated with any other saint! And Wednesday also marks the...
It’s probably not great to start with some statistics but I am going to take the risk! The first is a good one – even in our secular times Christianity is the largest world religion and one third of the world’s population embrace it. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest part of the Christian...
Today, which we are keeping as the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, brings to a conclusion our celebrations of Christmas. It is also the day when traditionally we celebrate Christ as the Light of the world with a procession with candles. The thing about liturgy is that it uses...
