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Knowing Your Faith
On 31st October we celebrated (remembered or regretted) the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, Martin Luther’s challenging theses against the teachings and corruption of Rome. If only the Church and the Papacy had instigated their own reformation, so desperately needed . . . History tells us what devastation and sadness were the…
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Let The Children Live
We were on a parish day pilgrimage to Walsingham. I saw something in a shop window that I knew would make a little gift for one of our people not able to come. The small shop was busy and I waited in the queue. On the counter was a pile of leaflets headed “Let the Children…
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Refugees (By Brian Bilston)
They have no need of our helpSo do not tell meThese haggard faces could belong to you or meShould life have dealt a different handWe need to see them for who they really areChancers and scroungersLayabouts and loungersWith bombs up their sleevesCut-throats and thievesThey are notWelcome hereWe should make themGo back to where they came…
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Others First
I told you of the lady who complained that no one from the church had called to see her when she was unwell. The lady had retired from work a few years previously and I had asked her if she would like to visit the elderly and the housebound in the parish, but she didn’t.…
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Prayer Life
One of the blessings of being housebound has been to share world news in greater detail than I normally can – the floods, hurricanes, suffering and loss, wars, threats of wars, injustice, hatreds, prejudices, refugees and asylum seekers. It has been hard. Why do people hate others on account of religion or racial or national…
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Down’s Syndrome Eliminated!
The headline was surprising, claiming that Downs’ Syndrome had almost been eliminated in Iceland. A medical advance? No. As I read on I discovered that with improved screening of children in the womb it is now possible to identify Downs’ Syndrome babies and atermination offered. That’s what elimination meant: babies being eliminated. I remembered the…
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Our Blessings
How good to welcome our pilgrims home from Stresa and Lake Maggiore. They had a wonderful week in a beautiful setting. Photographs and messages during the week showed how happy they were, good as a group, excellent hotel, fascinating days out. Almost all said how ready they would be to go there again. We shall,…
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The Greatest Human Attribute
Just three weeks since the operation. Now I can walk without pain, can manage the stairscomfortably but slowly and look forward to seeing the surgeon for a reassuring report. I am grateful for all that has happened for me, at the hospital and at home in the parish where Sister Mary and Alison have been…
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Rev. Fr. Peter Coyle RIP
Fr Peter Coyle died a short while ago. He was one of my saints. I was the privileged one who said the prayer for the dying for him at the General Hospital. Just that afternoon he had been transferred from the Glenfield. Deacon John Parker brought him Holy Communion and then phoned me to ask…
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Kindness, Care and Prayer
Thank you. It has been a wonderful week. The skills and kindness at the hospital brought me through a difficult operation. The hip joint had almost disintegrated and when the nurses saw how Mr Kershaw had rebuilt it they were full of admiration. I needed a general anaesthetic rather than the planned epidural and my…
Daily Prayers
Prayer is Love, I want to Love