Posts from October 2024

Dearest friends, This week sees the start of our pre-advent course – Holy Habits.  It’s a four part course designed to help us understand the habits that we have picked up over the years and also to suggest some new habits that may help deepen your faith, or at least open some new questions in your mind. The course is split into four evenings. The first evening concentrates on identifying what a Holy Habit is – and we start with…

Dearest friends, Praying for the dead, what’s the point? Some will tell you that praying for the dead is simply an exercise in futility. The person you are praying for is already dead, they’ve lived their life and presumably made their own decisions about that life, their actions and most importantly – their faith in Jesus Christ. What more can we do now they are gone? The simple truth is that we know God is merciful. In multiple parts of…

Dearest friends, This week we celebrate the patronal festival of St. Luke’s. A patronal is a moment to celebrate the parish and all it has achieved. It’s a joy that we’re able to celebrate it with our brothers and sisters at St. John’s and enjoy each others successes. St. Luke’s has a welcoming heart. I’ve seen and heard time and time again how someone who was lost has somehow found their way back to faith within the community of St.…

Dearest friends, On Monday I travelled to London to teach ordinands (people training for the Priesthood) about Catholic Spirituality.  I always love teaching this course and I enjoy the reaction to the discovery that whilst Faith is our search for understanding and our relationship with God – Spirituality is the HOW we walk on that journey. Both of  our churches enjoy incense, candles, bells, vestments, and other things that lift our experience in worship to be as close to heaven…

Dearest friends, Autumn is now well and truly with us. The excitement of the new term has died down, and the reality of the coming darkness of winter is slowly edging into our awareness.  There’s been a lot of change in the past five months (October marks my sixth month with you) and I wanted to assure you that there should be no more changes in the near future.  After two very good PCC meetings this week it’s clear that…