Reflections, sermons and homilies.
Cardinal Nichols gave the following homily during the Easter Vigil at Westminster Cathedral.
Tonight is a family party. It's a big family, and so a big party!
At a family 'do' we happily reminisce. 'Do you remember when this happened?' 'How on earth did we get out of that mess?' 'Remember Auntie May?' Memory is such an important part of how we identify and understand ourse...
The women bring spices to the tomb, but they fear that their journey is in vain, since a large stone bars the entrance to the sepulchre.
The journey of those women is also our own journey; it resembles the journey of salvation that we have made this evening. At times, it seems that everything comes up against a stone: the beauty of creation against the tragedy of sin; liberation from slav...
Holy Pascha
This man God raised (on) the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.* (Acts 10:40-42)
I doubt if we ever re...
I've had an interesting Lent and a very quirky Holy Week, it all happened as things do, when in my prayer time a thought came unbidden in my head, it suggested that I take a different route than normal, start my Lent and Holy Week from the point of view of the Resurrection and hold on to that image throughout. It's certainly shifted my perception of `Lent and in fact challenged my views of the ...
Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher to the Pontifical Household, gave this homily for the Solemn Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord, in St Peter's Basilica on Good Friday afternoon.
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not...
Cardinal Vincent Nichols gave this homily during the Good Friday liturgy at Westminster Cathedral.
This is the hour. The hour of Jesus has come.
Jesus often said, as at the wedding feast of Cana, that his hour had not yet come. But now that moment has come. And we are here to enter into it.
What do we see and hear? Jesus arrested; spending a night in a pit which ser...
The meditations for this evening's Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, in Rome were written by Sr Eugenia Bonetti. The 14 Stations highlight the victims of human trafficking, minors who are bought and sold, prostituted women, and migrants.
Sr Eugenia is a Consolata Missionary and President of the Association 'Slaves no more'. Pope Francis invited her to prepare the meditations for this ye...
Rev Paul Lansu is Senior Policy Advisor, Pax Christi International
Is 52:13-53:12 | Ps 31 (30) | Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9 | Jn 18:1-19:42
Believers gather around the cross today. They listen to the stories from the Scriptures. These stories offer us a message that is new: suffering acquires meaning in God. Death never has the last word in Him. Through the suffering of Christ, God...
The British national character appears to be changing amid an atmosphere in public debate of "bitterness and intolerance", the Bishop of Shrewsbury will say in his Easter homily. The Rt Rev Mark Davies will reflect on how legitimate differences of opinion were no longer being treated with tolerance and too often responded to with "anger, enmity, no- platforming, and even threats of v...
The faithful have the responsibility of purifying the Catholic Church through their growth in holiness, the Bishop of Shrewsbury has said.
In a homily preached at the Mass of Sacred Chrism on April 17, Bishop Mark Davies reminded the congregation that the Catholic Church was always holy because it was a divine institution united to Christ.
But he also told them that the Second Vatic...
Cardinal Vincent Nichols celebrated the Chrism Mass at Westminster Cathedral yesterday, 16th April 2019, with more that 300 clergy. His full homily text follows:
This beautiful Mass of Chrism centres on a strong Scriptural theme: 'The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me, he has sent me, to bring the good news... to be the faithful witness'.
The...
'..at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father'. ( Phil 2:10,11)
I sometimes like to think about things in reverse, starting from another vantage point-so to speak. Often it b...
This reflection for Palm/Passion Sunday has been produced by the Senior Policy Advisor of Pax Christi International.
Lk 19:28-40 | Is 50:4-7 | Ps 22 (21) | Phil 2:6-11 | Lk 22:14-23:56
We are at the beginning of Christianity's most impressive week. One in every three people in the world calls him/herself a ...
When coming away from my regular visit to one of our Irish Chaplaincy Seniors I was reflecting on how uplifted I felt and how it had to do, in part, by how much we had laughed during the visit. This particular lady is only in her 70s but has fairly advanced dementia, and her sister moved over from Ireland to stay in the one-bedroom flat as a live-in carer. It's a challenging situation but we al...
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