Short Talks
This section of the website comprises short stand-alone talks and articles on different aspects of the Christian Faith, including the teaching of Jesus, the seasons of the Church’s Year and Feasts and Festivals. More talks/sermons/homilies/articles will be added in due course.
The section of the website entitled The Christian Faith provides more extended teaching on larger content areas, such as the Creed and the Sacraments.
The Inseparables
“And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” (King James Bible, Luke 1:28)
Highly favoured indeed, for Our Lady had been created by God to fulfil the most sublime task that has ever been entrusted – or indeed could ever be entrusted to a human being – to be the Mother of his Divine Son, to be the Mother of God.
Ten lepers: the leper’s return
“…one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him” (NRSV, Luke 17:15,16).
In Our Lord’s day lepers were the ultimate outcasts of society. They were forbidden to mix with anyone except a fellow-leper, and were required at all times to give warning to passers-by by calling out “Unclean! Unclean!” Hence we are told in St Luke’s Gospel that the lepers stood and addressed Our Lord from some way off.
Blind Bartimaeus
"Jesus of Nazareth is passing by" (RSV, Luke 18:37)
For how many years Blind Bartimaeus had taken up his pitch each morning outside the gates of Jericho we do not know. On this particular day, which was to be the most memorable of his life, he would have got there early because it was Passover time and Jericho was astride the pilgrims’ route to Jerusalem from the north. From the large crowds passing through he would be able to beg enough to keep him going when times were hard.