The past two years have brought the reality of death very close to us. We’ve listened to the heartbreaking stories of people dying alone and of families not being able to be at the hospital bedside of a loved one. In our culture the idea of someone dying alone is something which haunts and troubles …
Category Archives: Monastic
Thursday, Fourth Week of Easter
In the round of the liturgical year there are certain texts which we might hear only once. John’s account of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet is one such text. We hear this at Maundy Thursday at the solemn beginning of the Triduum. Today’s Gospel verses come straight after the washing of the feet and this …
Wednesday, Fourth Week of Easter
John 12:44-50During my time in the monastery many people have asked me to pray for them. Sometimes they are seeking a way forward and might have the choice between two good things. I have found myself praying that they might have light enough for their paths. When Jesus speaks of himself as light he is …
Tuesday, Fourth Week of Easter
JOHN 10:22-30 ‘If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ I have such a lot of sympathy with the Jews of John’s Gospel when they say this. Jesus answers them in riddles and leaves them with more questions than answers. The more I sit with the Gospel texts, the more I realise that what I …
Monday, Fourth Week of Easter
JOHN 10:1-10‘I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.’ Biblical scholars tell us that the shepherds of Jesus’ day took the safety of the sheep so seriously that they would lie themselves across the entrance to the sheepfold …
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Fourth Sunday of Easter John 10:27-30 A local farmer grazes his sheep on our land. I asked him once if he named his sheep, he said, ‘No’. I asked him if the sheep ‘know’ him, he said ‘They know that I bring food.’ We can often romanticise Jesus’ words about being a shepherd and knowing …
Saturday, Third Week of Easter
John 6:60-69 Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’ Often in liturgy we are holding several time …
Friday, Third Week of Easter
John 6:52-59 ‘He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.’ When we gather together to give thanks to the Father and to share bread and wine we make a statement about who we are as individuals and who we are as community. We receive Christ’s broken …
Thursday, Third Week of Easter
John 6:44-51 ‘Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die.’ It’s worth reading the whole of the Bread of Life discourse (John 6:22-66) in one sitting to get a sense of …
Feast of the English Martyrs
Matthew 10:17-20 At baptism when we were anointed with chrism these words were said: ‘God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin, given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into his holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As …