St Jude, author of the New Testament epistle that bears his name, is called upon in desperate situations, when perseverance is called for. His relics are in St Peter’s Basilica with those of St Simon the Zealot, with whom he is commemorated today. May these two saints, who followed Our Lord till death, pray for […]

St Francis de Sales said: ‘Watch a bee hovering over the mountain thyme; — the juices it gathers are bitter, but the bee turns them all to honey, — and so tells the worldling, that though the devout soul finds bitter herbs along its path of devotion, they are all turned to sweetness and pleasantness […]

St John Chrysostom wrote, commenting on the passage from Romans which forms part of our New Testament reading today: ‘“The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”. Here, however, he does not allow that the afflictions were light; but still he mingles comfort with […]

From our Gospel reading for today, from St Luke: ‘Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to […]

Here is part of today’s Gospel reading: ‘And they came to Jericho; and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, […]

Here is part of our New Testament reading, from Romans: ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. … For those who live according to the flesh set their minds […]

Today is the Memoria of Pope St John Paul II, giant of the Catholic Church. In this Year of St Joseph, we quote from his Apostolic Exhortation on St Joseph, ‘Redemptoris Custos’: ‘The same aura of silence that envelops everything else about Joseph also shrouds his work as a carpenter in the house of Nazareth. […]

St Paul, writing in Romans, said: ‘Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’. St John Chrysostom […]

‘This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God’. These searching and challenging words are from our Gospel reading for today. One key element in preparing for the day that our soul […]

Today is also the Optional Memoria of St Paul of the Cross, the eighteenth century Founder of the Passionist Order. A missionary congregation with a special devotion to the passion of Our Lord, its Founder had a special interest in this country. Later, the Passionist Blessed Dominic Barberi was to come to this land and […]