Today is also the Optional Memoria of Saints Dunstan, Ethelwold and Oswald, Bishops. St Ethelwold was a tenth century Bishop of Winchester. He laboured with Saints Dunstan and Oswald for the revival of English monastic life, and it is thought that the Regularis Concordia, which brought together the various monastic rules into a single document, […]
‘I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing’. These words are from our Gospel reading, from St John. St John Chrysostom commented: ‘Do you see that the Son contributes not less […]
‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid’. These words are from our Gospel reading for today, from St John. We pray today for peace in our hearts, but also most importantly […]
‘If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him’. These words are from St John, our Gospel reading today. St John was later to write: ‘See what love the Father has given us, that we should […]
Today’s second Mass Reading is from the Apocalypse: ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned […]
St Matthias is the Apostle selected to replace Judas Iscariot and so join the Eleven: ‘They put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen to take the place in this ministry […]
On this day in 1917, Our Lady appeared to the three children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, in Portugal. One year after the assassination attempt on Pope (now St) John Paul II, he went to Fatima on 13 May 1982 to give thanks that his life had been saved. After the Mass, he consecrated the world […]
From today’s Gospel, from St John: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives any one whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me’. The Rule of our Holy Father St Benedict teaches us that Christ is received in the guest, and in all to whom hospitality […]
The four Abbot Saints founded and established a renewed monastic life from 910 till 1109. Later, Blessed Peter the Venerable, was to reform it once again after being elected Abbot in 1122. He was much venerated by his contemporaries, although he stood somewhat in the shadow of the great St Bernard. Let us pray today […]
Today is also the Optional Memoria of the sixteenth century St John of Avila, Spanish Priest, who was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Giving advice in times of trial, he wrote: ‘Blessed be God, for so bountifully providing for us that He even bestows on us His very Self. The […]