Today’s feast invites us to consider our unique Christian understanding of God. In our limited capacity to comprehend the Divine, we understand from revelation in the Scriptures that there is one God, the Creator of all, who has three distinct natures of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is far from easy to understand and…
Author: Fr Michael Campion
Homily, Pentecost Sunday 2022
Many of us, I suspect, have an item in a kitchen cupboard that we seldom if ever use. We may have received it as a gift; or it may have been an impulse buy that seemed like a good idea at the time. But it’s lain there ever since and may not even have been…
Homily, Seventh Sunday of Easter (C) 2019
On this last Sunday before Pentecost, the Gospel text for Mass is always from the 17th chapter of St John's Gospel. This chapter comes at the conclusion of what is known as Our Lord’s ‘Farewell Discourse’ – a lengthy address he makes to his disciples at the Last Supper. The whole of this chapter is…
Canon Law will not bring people back to Mass
from THE TABLET Editor, 20 May 2022 When the word “obligation” – referring to the duty on Catholics under Canon Law to attend Mass on Sundays – occurs six times in a statement of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, there appears to be a hidden message. At the onset of the Covid pandemic…
Homily, Sixth Sunday of Easter (C) 2022
At yesterday’s evening Mass (Saturday) we formally dedicated our new Creation Window that is situated in the curved bay at the rear of the church (formerly the baptistry). Working visually as one piece, the three windows together celebrate the rich beauty of our natural world and the love, care and protection given and received during…
Returning to Mass at Pentecost – An invitation from the Bishops of England and Wales
This is the bread come down from heaven (John 6:58) A beautiful hallmark of the Catholic faith is the profound desire to participate in the Holy Mass and share in the Eucharist. We do so with deep gratitude and joy. The Eucharist gives the Church her identity – “The Eucharist makes the Church, and the…
Homily, Fourth Sunday of Easter C 2022
In the Church today is Good Shepherd Sunday. In the Gospel Jesus uses the image of a shepherd to describe his care for us. He is the Shepherd who risked everything for us have the best possible relationship with God. At this time of year lambs are gambolling in the fields while their mother ewes…
Homily, Third Sunday of Easter C 2022
The Gospel Reading for Mass today – John 21:1-19 – describes the first meeting between Peter and Jesus after the Lord’s resurrection. The last time they had seen each other was when Jesus was arrested and Peter denied knowing him. In betraying Jesus, Peter was no different from Judas who also betrayed Jesus . Yet,…
We need more religion in politics, not less
David Aaronovitch in THE TIMES, 21 April 2022 At prime minister’s questions today Boris Johnson vehemently denied beating up on the BBC the night before for being hard on him but soft on Russia. But had he accused the Church of England of being “less vociferous in their condemnation on Easter Sunday of Putin than…
Why Celibacy?
By Chris McDonnell in “La Croix International”, 25 February 2022 Following the death of a good man, Bishop Edward Daly, who went to the Lord on August 8th 2016 there was an appreciation of his life published on the website of the Association of Catholic Priests, ACP, the forum of Irish priests that has been…
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