Category Archives: The Christian life

Charity to God and man (the 30th Sunday of OT)

“Listen then, Israel; there is no Lord but the Lord our God, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with the love of thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and thy whole strength.” Deuteronomy, 6: 4-5 [link] Above is the call of the Hebrew and the Jew, and the Catholic, from the bookContinue reading “Charity to God and man (the 30th Sunday of OT)”

The evil inclination

This is an interesting inheritance that Christians have from Jewish theology: the יֵצֶר הַרַע‎. The evil inclination. It is given by S. Paul in our reading at Mass this morning, from his letter to the Romans: “My own actions bewilder me; what I do is not what I wish to do, but something which IContinue reading “The evil inclination”

Ss. Chad and Cedd, early English bishops

This morning, we had the ordinary weekday readings, with a strong message from S. Paul on the observance of ritual purity, which is to remain within the Christian Church as it did within the Temple Judaism of Paul’s day. “I am speaking in the language of common life, because nature is still strong in you.Continue reading “Ss. Chad and Cedd, early English bishops”

Jews and Gentiles together (the 20th Sunday of OT)

“…the time had come for the promises made by God to the Hebrews to be applied to non-Jews. It took a long time for the Apostles themselves to realise this…”

The Transfiguration of the Lord

This weekend by a coincidence, the feast day of the Transfiguration falls on the Sunday and, being a feast, ranks with the Sunday and is able to ride over the Sunday, filling our churches with white, a colour that is vividly described in the gospels by the men who heard first-hand descriptions (from the ApostlesContinue reading “The Transfiguration of the Lord”

We’ve lost two clerics last weekend…

And they are both men I knew and worked with. I knew Father Gradwell when he joined my seminary during my last months there as a permanent deacon preparing for the priesthood, following the death of his wife Susan. As for the Reverend Stephen Doona, he was our active deacon at the Cathedral when IContinue reading “We’ve lost two clerics last weekend…”