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Reflection for Mothering Sunday, 2021.

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Back in the mid-90s when I was at University (the same University and College Fr Peter attended, though not at the same time as me!) I had a fridge magnet that said ‘Call your mother, she worries’ . I cannot admit to honouring that call assiduously, but it is a reminder that the responsibility of parenthood extends beyond childhood. Our parents never stop being our parents, even when we are adults, which is why it can be such a profound shift when our parents die, and we in effect become orphans.   Mary the mother of Jesus is told from the beginning that her son is to be special, the ‘Son of the most high God’ as the angel puts it in the Annunciation. Agéd Simeon the priest who blesses the infant Jesus confirms that call: he will be someone who changes the world around him. But that will come at a great cost to you Mary, and to him. For you it will mean your very heart being pierced with grief; for him it will mean submitting to death on the cross.   At around the s...
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Mass for Ash Wednesday

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The President introduces the service You are merciful to all, O Lord, and despise nothing you have made. You overlook people’s sins, to bring them to repentance, and you spare them, for you are the Lord our God.   In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.   Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you and also with you.   THE LITURGY OF THE WORD Introduction Brothers and sisters in Christ, since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord’s passion and resurrection and prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting.   By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.   I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by sel...
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