Today we mark Mary’s day. Mary the Mother of our Lord. As Anglicans, we tend to have an uneasy relationship with Mary; we are uncomfortable with deifying her or sentimentalising her, but as so often happens, in dismissing her and pushing her aside, we throw the baby out with the bathwater and forget her genuine …
By faith…by faith….by faith. These words echo through today’s epistle like a heartbeat. Faced with challenges, faced with difficult circumstances, the thing all these heroes have in common is that they trusted in God, stepping out in faith often against the odds. They acted in faith, and by faith. What then is this faith, where …
Today we mark the Feast Day of St James, apostle and martyr. We celebrate Saints’ days as a reminder that we are all called to be Saints, and to remember that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who call us on in faith. We remember great saints and lesser saints, all of whom struggled …
We are all familiar with this story of life in the house at Bethany, and most women have a secret soft spot for Martha and her dilemma! But here in this house, with his good friends, Jesus points out just how we can lose sight of what’s really important. There is no one who hasn’t been worried, …
Last week we were thinking together about Jesus’ invitation to each of us; ‘follow me’. Jesus is not inviting us to be part of an established religion, but part of a lifestyle that is simple, non-violent, shared and above all, loving. But today, we find that this is not only a call for us to …
Today we enter into a long period of ‘Ordinary Time’, a time when all the big festivals are over, and we can settle into some simple quiet time, if spending time with Jesus could ever be called ‘quiet time’. Jesus has a habit of stirring us up, and unsettling our nice settled, ordered ways. Throughout this …
This final week of the Easter season before we reach Pentecost, is marked as the week for Christian Unity. It is a call for us to join with all our Christian brothers and sisters across the world as we look forward to the festival of the coming of the Holy Spirit among us, and the …
Today’s Gospel forms part of Jesus’ farewell discourse – his last words to his disciples before he went out to the Mount of Olives. Among these last words is that so simple, and yet so difficult commandment; love one another. Jesus describes this as a ‘new commandment’, and it really does lie at the heart …
As we move through the Easter season, we meet the risen Christ, and we spend time reflecting on what the reality of the resurrection is for us, here and now. In the coming weeks we will hear about the hope, joy and peace that is ours to take hold of in our lives, because Jesus …
Who doesn’t like breakfast on the beach! Weary of all the drama, the disciples return to doing what they know best; pushing out the boats and going fishing. It would be a welcome distraction from the pain and guilt of the past few weeks. But they had a non-productive night, and there were no fish …