We celebrate today the feast of the Apostles Peter & Paul. Foremost among the followers of Christ. But what is it precisely about these two men that caused God to exalt them so? On the surface there is much that separates these two saints. St. Peter was a poor and simple man, unlearned and uncultured; St. Paul was a Roma citizen, “a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee” one educated at the feet of Gamaliel. St. Peter was with our Lord from the very beginning of His public ministry

This morning, as I am in York, Fr Lawrence will be presiding and preaching at the Masses at St Stephen’s, and I am very grateful to him for doing so. As I do not wish to repeat what he (might) be saying, I instead offer a few thoughts on this month of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, in which we celebrate the very great love that Jesus has for us. This month we find ourselves faced with the Holy truth of His great love for us and finding ourselves the object of this love, we t

Have you ever been overlooked, not chosen for something which you really wanted, something which could have been life affirming? Maybe a fantastic job prospect, or a key member of an important team. It can be quite disheartening, maybe even soul destroying especially if you had set your heart on whatever it might be. I’ll bet the overriding emotion at the time was disappointment, maybe some resentment and maybe even some feeling of a lack of self-worth. It has happened to me

During his time of teaching in the flesh, Christ often expressed his love for, and his desire to be one with people, especially for those who were rejected and unloved. One quite obvious way He did this was to share meals with them. We only need to think of the familiar feeding of the five thousand where he miraculously provided a great meal for a huge crowd of people who came to listen to him and be healed by him. Shared meals were, for the Jews, signs of acceptance and frie

A number of people ask about our vestments and the colours of them, so here are a few thoughts. However I preface them with two cautions: It doesn’t really matter that much, but if you’re going to do it, you may as well do it consistently and correctly. Whole libraries have been written about this, and it’s only a short Facebook post, so it doesn’t contain all the world of scholarship. Initially, try and think of a liveried servant in a country house in the old days, or an ar