Here is today’s Gospel reading, from St Matthew: ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun […]

From today’s Gospel, from St Matthew: ‘If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift’. Here are some of St Benedict’s ‘Instruments of Good […]

From today’s Gospel, from St Matthew: ‘Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened’. St Augustine commented: ‘“Ask, and it shall be given you”. And that […]

Here is part of our Old Testament reading, from Jonah: ‘Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great […]

Here is part of the account of the martyrdom of St Polycarp, the disciple of St John the Evangelist: ‘They did not nail him then, but simply bound him. And he, placing his hands behind him, and being bound like a distinguished ram out of a great flock for sacrifice, and prepared to be an acceptable […]

Pope Benedict XVI said: ‘Today, the Latin-rite liturgy celebrates the Feast of the Chair of St Peter. This is a very ancient tradition, proven to have existed in Rome since the fourth century. On it we give thanks to God for the mission he entrusted to the Apostle Peter and his Successors. “Cathedra” literally means […]

Here, on this day, we enter the desert with Christ. As we ponder His temptations, conquered both by His strength and His humility, we pray that He may likewise conquer the evils of our own time, particularly the pandemic, by which we are all afflicted in different ways. May His peace rest upon us this […]

From Isaiah: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, […]

Here is part of our Old Testament reading, from Isaiah: ‘Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor […]

Here is today’s Old Testament reading, from Deuteronomy: ‘See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then […]