Today’s picture has been sent in to us, and shows an empty beach in the early morning. It speaks so much of silence and stillness. Today is also the Solemnity of Easter for the Orthodox Churches, who follow the Julian calendar. We greet them and say, ‘Christ is risen!’ In these days, let us seek […]
Today begins the month of Mary, so we greet her specially on this day. St Bernard wrote: ‘O you, whoever you are, who feel that in the tidal wave of this world you are nearer to being tossed about among the squalls and gales than treading on dry land: if you do not want to […]
Here is today’s Gospel, from St John: ‘“Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will […]
St Catherine of Siena lived from 1347 – 1380, thus dying at the significant age of 33. In her short life she achieved much, including being instrumental in the return of Pope Gregory XI from Avignon to Rome. She was also a profound mystic, and her writings have influenced many. She said: ‘Be who God […]
Today is also the Optional Memoria of St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. He is well known for his ‘Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary’. Here is one paragraph of the consecration prayer: ‘Hail, then, O immaculate Mary, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the Eternal Wisdom willed to be hidden and to be adored […]
From today’s Gospel, from St John: ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to […]
Not far from the city of Rome, in the small town of Genazzano, the image of Our Lady of Good Counsel is venerated. In the year 1467, a group of pilgrims who had come together to celebrate the feast of St Mark (yesterday), were surprised by sweet music. They saw what seemed like a little […]
From today’s Gospel, from St John: ‘I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep’. In a homily of Pope St Gregory the Great, preached in the year 591, we learn: ‘You have […]
From today’s Gospel, from St John: ‘Many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, “Will you also go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are […]
St George, whose Solemnity we keep today, is a powerful symbol of the victory of Christ over the powers of evil, represented by the dragon. It was during the Crusades that he was formally named as the Protector of England. He is buried in Lod, Israel. May his prayers assist us, especially in these challenging […]