John 14:27-31 ‘Peace I bequeath to you,my own peace I give you,a peace the world cannot give,this is my gift to you. ‘Oh, sister, it’s so peaceful here in the monastery.’ We hear this very often and, of course, there is a good deal of truth in this. We are a low stimulus environment, with …
Monthly Archives: May 2023
Monday, Fifth Week of Easter
John 14:21-26 One of my favourite Psalms is 118/9. It’s very long and arranged as an acrostic. Some people find it a bit tedious as it is very repetitious and turns around a small list of words: law, word, will, statutes, commands, decrees and precepts. Every four lines uses at least one of these words. …
Fifth Sunday of Easter
John 14:1-12 We have heard today’s Gospel text over the course of the week in our weekday liturgy. So I come to the text with a little more familiarity than usual. The opening words set a tone of comfort: Do not let your hearts be troubled.Trust in God still, and trust in me.There are many …
Saturday, Fourth Week of Easter
John 14:7-14 Philip said, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? We can perhaps quite easily put ourselves in Philip’s position and hear these words addressed to ourselves. If I think …
Friday, Fourth Week of Easter
John 14:1-6 Our experience of the pandemic has brought the reality of death very close to us. We remember 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 …
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 …
Saints Philip and James
John 14:6-14 ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ If you Google this famous quotation you’ll get quite a few pictures of roads and paths. It is the easiest of the three concepts to illustrate. We know where we are with a clear path. When Jesus says he is the Way we have …
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 10:11-18 I am the good shepherd;I know my ownand my own know me,just as the Father knows meand I know the Father;and I lay down my life for my sheep. A local farmer grazes his sheep on our land. I asked him once if he named his sheep, he said, ‘No’. I asked him …