Daily Prayers

Prayer is Love, I want to Love

Category: Fr John’s Weekly

  • Life and Death

    On Monday 4th April my sister phoned at 7.15 am to tell me my nephew had died, suddenly but peacefully. David had been a wonderfully inspiring nephew. He was everything a boy could want to be – loving family, good studies, good at sport (played football for Cardiff schools, was Glamorgan junior tennis champion) – but at the age of sixteen he…

  • Asylum Seeking Migrants & ISIS Motivation

    What items of news stood out for you this week? The first one for me was that on Monday and Tuesday more than 4,000 refugees/asylum seekers and economic migrants landed in Italy from Libya. Four thousand in two days! That made over 24,000 since the beginning of the year, and the weather is now improving.…

  • Joy of Love

    Conscience is paramount in moral decisions. The Church is called to form consciences, not to replace them. We are personally responsible for our decisions.

  • The Name of God is Mercy

    Pope Francis has recently published a book “The name of God is Mercy”. He quotes John XXIII’s words at the opening of the Vatican Council in 1962 “Now the Bride of Christ wishes to use the medicine of mercy rather than taking up arms of severity and wants to show herself a loving mother to…

  • Easter Faith

    “Is there is a moment in life where you would choose to be? It might be on that first Easter Sunday, in the Garden, with Mary Magdalen. What a joy to see his hands – with the wounds still in them – touching us out of love.” (Cardinal Basil Hume)

  • First Holy Week

    MONDAY Judas agreed with the Jewish authorities to betray Jesus, knowing Jesus would go to the Garden of Gethsemane after the Paschal Meal (The Last Supper). TUESDAY: …

  • One Day A Week Priests!

    My friend is seventy and knows he is slowing down. He has asked his bishop’s permission for two days off each week instead of one. Should he tell his people or just carry on as well as he can and hope the people won’t notice? The cynics will sneer, a priest works only one day…

  • Asylum Seekers

    Mother’s Day is a time to think about Mothers and to give thanks for the care and love they give us. It is also a time for families to come together and to celebrate the support they offer each other. Imagine being torn away from your family, through war or conflict. Imagine having to flee to a…

  • World War II And The Catholic Church

    They had all been Catholics (don’t say “once a Catholic, always a Catholic” – it isn’t true). That is part of the horror of the collective memory of the Catholic Church in Germany: that “the Final Solution (extermination of the Jews)” and the conquest of Europe and, perhaps, eventually, the whole world, was directed by…

  • Pope Francis, This Week by the Press

    Our dear Pope Francis has surprised us again – three times this week. What did you think of his meeting Patriarch Kirill of Moscow at Havana Airport? What an amusing background there must be to that meeting. We can hardly imagine the Patriarch feeling like a day trip to Cuba. He must have been persuaded…