With the plethora of feasts this week, this is the first time we can use the title, ‘Feria in Ordinary Time’! We come in at Week 8 of the year.

The Gospel, from St Mark, gives us the story of the cleansing of the Temple. Here is part of the account: ‘And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he taught, and said to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”’

The ‘temple’ of our own heart is also a house of prayer, where praise can be offered up continually. Wesley’s hymn is apposite here: ‘O thou who camest from above / the fire celestial to impart, / kindle a flame of sacred love / on the mean altar of my heart.’

May the flame of love for Our Lord burn brightly this day in our heart, and may God bless you.