It was on this Sunday last year that I preached to you about the Alive in Christ campaign for our parish. That was the time of our parish-wide launch of the campaign and I quoted words from the second reading of the day, taken from the Letter of Saint James: ... Continue

This weekend we celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the highest grade of feast day - a Solemnity - so it takes the place of the usual Sunday (it would have been the 20th in Ordinary Time). In much of Europe it is always a public ... Continue

At the end of my homily last week I quoted from the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts”. It was written by Elder Joseph Brackett (1797-1882) while he was at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine in 1848. I’ve always had a great respect for the Shakers, although they have almost died ... Continue

It was good to be back among you last weekend, especially as I was celebrating an important personal anniversary. It was on July 25th 1978 - 32 years ago now - that I was received into the Catholic Church, and it’s always a day I remember with thanksgiving. I’d been ... Continue

Today the Gospel records the disciples’ request “Lord, teach us to pray” and the reply of Jesus which included teaching them the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. It’s an amazing prayer, treasured by every Christian denomination and containing praise, petition and penitence. Much has been written on it, one of ... Continue

Last week, on July 4th, I celebrated Mass at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in Monmouth, dating back to 1793 and the first Catholic church to be built in Wales since the Reformation had made Catholics into outlaws. I compared the American revolutionaries to the persecuted Catholics of Britain who also ... Continue

I discovered recently that the legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain actually occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence. In fact John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most ... Continue

I have to write these bulletin articles some days in advance and often I do them some weeks in advance, but that habit has the disadvantage of not being able to comment on things that have just happened. Last week, two good things happened and I want to thank those ... Continue

Last year Pope Benedict XVI declared a “Year for Priests” beginning with the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19, 2009. At the same time he named St. John Vianney as the Universal Patron of Priests on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death ... Continue

The liturgical year started, as it always does, with a concentration on the mystery of the Incarnation during the weeks of Advent and Christmastide. Then we had six weeks of Ordinary Time, beginning with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, before we turned our attention to the mystery ... Continue