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.

All Souls' Day

In 998 AD St Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, ordered that in all his monasteries November 2nd should be observed as a day to remember the departed and to pray for them.  This observance of All Souls’ Day afterwards spread to the whole of the Western Church. (1)

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Praying for the dead

Jesus said, “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you…” (NRSV, Matthew 7:12)

Praying for the departed differs in no way from praying for the living, for in both instances we ask God to help those for whom we are offering up our prayers.  Thus, although the prayers themselves will vary according to the varying needs of the living and the departed, both operate on the same principle.

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Eternal life

Jesus said, “…he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life…has passed from death to life” (RSV Catholic edition, John 5:24)

Is life after death just wishful thinking or are there any real grounds for believing in it?  The Christian finds the answer to that question in the only quarter where it is to be found, and that is in the character of God who made us. For it is he who is the Giver of life whether in this life or in the next.  We have received our present life from him as his gift.  The question is, therefore, will God – does God – use death as the occasion and the means of cancelling that gift?

Read more: Eternal life