The shrine of St Francis Xavier in India is located in Old Goa, India, where his incorrupt body is preserved. A co-founder with St Ignatius of Loyola of the Society of Jesus, he preached the Gospel in the Far East as far as Japan. He was about to go to China at the time of […]

Here is part of our Old Testament reading, from Isaiah: ‘In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in. Thou dost keep him in perfect […]

In the Archdiocese of Birmingham, today is kept as the Feast of St Edmund Campion, Priest and Martyr. A convert to the Catholic Faith, he studied at Douai and Rome and became a Jesuit. Eventually he was sent on the English Mission, where he was hunted down, and martyred at Tyburn. Campion Hall, the Jesuit […]

We learn from the Gospel of St John that St Andrew was the first called by Our Lord to be a disciple, hence his title ‘Protokletos’, or ‘First-called’: ‘The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples; and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two […]

Advent always has strong associations with Isaiah, and today’s Old Testament reading is from his writings: ‘It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to […]

‘Drop down, ye heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness’. These words are in the hearts and voices of the Church as we begin the holy season. This gentle time of waiting for the Lord brings to mind the very short poem of St John of the Cross, about Our Lady at […]

Today is also the very last day of Ordinary Time in the Church’s Year – so a time to look back, and to look forward. We also remember Our Lady on this day, she who accompanies us on all our journeys of the heart and spirit. Her spirit of ‘Let it be to me according […]

Part of today’s Old Testament reading, from the Book of Daniel, is a text closely associated with the Kingship of Christ: ‘Thrones were placed and one that was Ancient of Days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, its […]

Today we remember also St Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr, fourth century. Very little is known of her, but she is a canonised saint of the Undivided Church, which means we venerate her in common with our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Church. Her monastery is in Sinai, though the saint herself grew […]

Today we remember the long suffering and martyrdoms of Vietnamese Christians. Among them, between 130,000 and 300,000 Catholics were martyred between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Here is the Mass Collect for the day: ‘O God, source and origin of all fatherhood, who kept the Martyrs Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions faithful to the […]