Here is today’s New Testament reading, from 1 Thessalonians: ‘But as to the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober’.

‘You are not in darkness … you are all sons of light …’ as the winter darkness of November closes in, let us remember that God’s light shines in the spirit irrespective of the season! May we trust that light, its source and its direction, and live from its kindness – ‘Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom …’ – as St John Henry Newman prayed.

May God bless you this day, and fill you with His light and His peace.