Today is also the Optional Memoria of the sixteenth century St John of Avila, Spanish Priest, who was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Giving advice in times of trial, he wrote: ‘Blessed be God, for so bountifully providing for us that He even bestows on us His very Self. The […]
From today’s Gospel, from St John: ‘He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, […]
Here is 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 […]
Continuing with Acts, here is part of today’s Mass reading: ‘Now there was at Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which means Dorcas or Gazelle. She was full of good works and acts of charity. In those days she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Since Lydda […]
Our New Testament reading today is the conversion of St Paul. Here is part of the account: ‘Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or […]
The Gospel reading from St John is following the ‘Bread of Life’ discourse, and concludes with these words: ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh’. Here is […]
The three named saints were all Benedictine monks, numbered among the Reformation Martyrs of England and Wales. St John Roberts was a Welshman who had studied at Oxford. After he became a Catholic, he went to Paris, becoming an Benedictine priest in 1602, the first Prior of St Gregory’s, Douai. He returned to England as […]
From today’s Gospel: ‘Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father…”’ St Augustine commented: ‘Why, then, Philip, do you say, “Show us […]
This Bishop of Alexandria and Greek Father of the Church is perhaps best known amongst monastics for his ‘Life of Antony’, of which here is part of his introduction: ‘Athanasius the bishop to the brethren in foreign parts. You have entered upon a noble rivalry with the monks of Egypt by your determination either to […]
Here is the Second Reading for Mass, from the Apocalypse: ‘Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth […]