Today is also the Optional Memoria of St Oliver Plunkett, the last Catholic Martyr to die in England, on this day in 1681. An Irishman, he had studied at the Irish College in Rome, remaining there until he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland in 1669. Much of his time as […]

Today, we commemorate the many martyrs who died during the reign of the emperor Nero, who ruled from the year 54 till the year 68. The martyrs were followers of the first Christians, and were brutally tortured before being put to death for their faith. It is said of them that they died with dignity […]

Here is today’s Gospel reading: ‘Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the […]

Here is one of the texts for the Solemnity – about halfway down, the words ‘Tu es Petrus’ can just be made out. The manuscript shows a form of chant notation which predates the four-line stave, indicating merely the structure and direction of the melody. It is still used today to determine accuracy of interpretation […]

Pope Benedict said of St Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt: ‘The Christian faith is first and foremost the encounter with Jesus, “a Person, which gives life a new horizon”. St Cyril of Alexandria was an unflagging, staunch witness of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, emphasising above all his unity, as he repeats […]

The image shows the Fourteenth Station of the Cross from our chapel, with our Lady and either Joseph of Arimathaea, or Nicodemus – they were both present, according to St John – laying our Lord in the tomb. In this time of pandemic, in which so many have died worldwide, it is good to place […]

From today’s Gospel: ‘Not every one who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven’. St John Chrysostom, commenting on this saying of our Lord, wrote: ‘Wherefore said He not, but he that does my will? Because for the time it […]

Here is the story of the birth of John the Baptist, from St Luke’s Gospel: ‘Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbours and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they […]

There have been many monasteries of nuns throughout British history up till the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, and again up till our own day. Hence, a great body of pray-ers has supported us, and continues to do so. In the Midlands, we may mention St Modwenna, St Osburga, St Editha, to name […]

These two martyrs both lost their lives in the year 1535; St John Fisher was Bishop of Rochester, and a Cardinal, and St Thomas More was Chancellor of England. They died for the true faith. Here we are in our own times, where issues of faith are massively disregarded. May the Truth for which they […]