Here is part of today’s Gospel, from St Matthew: ‘Beware of practising your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. … And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that […]

Today is the last day of ‘Ordinary Time’, for tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Today is a day for prayerfully pondering the choices we will make for our keeping of the holy season. This year, much is laid upon us that by its very nature is Lenten; it is for us […]

‘At that time men began to call upon the name of the Lord’. These are the final words of our Old Testament reading, from Genesis 4, after the killing of Abel by Cain, and the birth of Seth. In these days of pandemic, may we all learn the lesson of calling upon the name of the […]

Here is our New Testament reading for today, from 1 Corinthians: ‘So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my […]

In the Gospel for today, Jesus says, ‘I have compassion on the crowd’. The people have been with Him now for three days, and have eaten nothing. This is the prelude to the feeding of the four thousand, with seven loaves. It is Jesus’ compassion that is at the heart of this story, and that […]

St Benedict of Aniane is known as the ‘Second St Benedict’, after his reform of Western monasticism in the eighth and ninth centuries. His biographer wrote of him: ‘Benedict had great concern not only to refresh his own people with food of preaching, but also to nourish with heavenly bread whomever he happened to encounter. […]

Today marks the first apparition of Our Lady in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous at the grotto of Lourdes. ‘Accompanied by her sister and a friend, Bernadette went to Massabielle on the banks of the Gave to collect bones and dead wood. Removing her socks in order to cross the stream, she heard a noise like […]

St Scholastica’s emblem is the dove, in which form her twin brother, St Benedict, saw her departing soul. Here is St Gregory’s account: ‘As he [St Benedict] stood in his room looking up toward the sky, he beheld his sister’s soul leaving her body and entering the heavenly court in the form of a dove. […]

From Genesis, from today’s Old Testament reading: ‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon […]

Here is part of today’s Old Testament reading – the creation account from Genesis: ‘And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the […]