Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, In today’s Gospel, when speaking about forgiveness, Jesus tells Peter, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” This powerful teaching reminds us of the limitless and unconditional love of God. Through His mercy, we are offered forgiveness when we repent, and we are called in turn to be instruments of God’s love, grace, forgiveness and peace. Today, on Education Sunday, we celebrate the wonderful gift of Catholic educati

Many years ago (and in fact we might not have been old enough to drive at this time) someone said to me that he had been on holiday and he was surprised at how fast the cars were allowed to go on the motorway. The speed limit said 120! But I pointed out that this was in km/h. In mph it was only about 75. Correcting others – sometimes it’s easy, sometimes we just correct someone without thinking, and at other times it might be more awkward, and we might put it off, or wonder h

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, An identically flawed and widely criticised Private Members’ Bill is being brought back before Parliament. Its Second Reading is on 11 September when members of Parliament will be asked to vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. In addition to many members of the House of Lords, the Royal College of Physicians, Hospice UK, Sue Ryder Charity, British Association of Social Workers and the British Geriatrics Society have all exp

Today we celebrate Our Lady, being taken up into heaven, body and soul. Where she has gone, we hope one day to follow. It’s a good reminder that if we want to live well on this earth, we also need to have our gaze fixed on heaven. “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” That quote, from the Book of Revelation in the first reading, not only reminds us of Our Lady assumed into h

Today’s Gospel continues on from last Sunday’s. After the Feeding of the Five Thousand, Christ gets the disciples to get into the boat, He dismisses the crowds, and, finally, at last, gets some time for quality prayer. He is God the Son, yet He doesn’t see Himself as self-sufficient and not in need of anyone. He is desperate for that contact with His Father in the Holy Spirit in deep prayer, and in fact, unless He falls asleep part way through, He spends a considerable number

Back when I was a university student, I remember someone I knew saying to me: isn’t it so nice when you get to the supermarket and they’ve run out of cheap bread and so you’re forced to buy the more expensive sort? Last week I was mentioning that we have a new Prime Minister and that he has his work cut out ahead of him. But economic woes are not the be-all and end- all. Satisfaction in life is not achieved by material well-being. In the first reading it says: “Why do you spe

Just over a week ago at the parish school, the children in Year 6 said goodbye for the final time – off to pastures new in September. It’s quite a transition going from primary to secondary school. When I went from primary to secondary school, it was a bit like going back in time. We went from whiteboards to blackboards, although they were covered in so much chalk dust they were really greyboards. We went from a BBC computer in every classroom to no computers except in the on

Kim Philby was a British intelligence officer, but was also a double agent for the Soviet Union. In the 1940s and early 50s it is thought he was responsible for the deaths of many Western agents, because he was leaking the details of their secret operations to the communists. It was only in 1963 that he realised the game was up and fled to the USSR. There were also other communist agents operating in this country. He was a leading member of the so-called Cambridge spy ring, a

A few weeks ago I mentioned the error of universalism, the idea that, apart from one or two very serious exceptions, everyone gets to heaven, no matter how they have lived their lives. In the first reading today, God says that the word that goes out from His mouth will not return to Him empty, but shall succeed in the things for which He sent it. Does this mean, then, that I am wrong and in fact God always succeeds all the time with everyone? Sometimes, we can look back at ce

The motto of the BBC, which goes back to the Christian influence of its foundation, is “Nation shall speak peace unto nation”. The motto was changed in 1934 to just one word: “quaecumque”, meaning “whatsoever”. Rather than being a term of disrespect, it was based on St Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoev

Imagine you’re the Lord. I know it’s a bit of a strange thing to say. The Gospel needs to be spread over the whole world. Would you have chosen Simon and Saul? And out of all the Twelve, would you have chosen Simon to be the one in charge? Would you have chosen Saul to go across the Roman Empire on various missionary journeys, or one of the other of the Twelve instead? If we look at all of the Twelve, and the future St Paul, they all have their faults and shortcomings. Perhap

I can remember some time ago seeing on-line a meme that someone had put together, using a scene from one of the Back to the Future films. “The Doc” has returned in his time machine and he is saying to Marty McFly: whatever you do, don’t go to 2020. For most of us, that year started just like any other, but by the time we got to March we began to see it would be unlike anything we had ever experienced before. A priest friend of mine, who was in a parish in Birmingham at the ti