Daily Prayers

Prayer is Love, I want to Love

Fr Johns Weekly:

  • Synod: 2021/23

    At the beginning of the week the World Health Organisation told us that half the population of the world has been vaccinated but that only 7% of the peoples of Africa have been. The following day India announced it would be producing one billion vaccines for Africa. That was wonderful to hear. No mention of…

  • Moral Compass (3)

    What has occupied your mind most this past week – the economy, the Church’s synod, climate change? What do you think has pre-occupied our Prime Minister most – living his Catholic Faith, carefully considering his cabinet so that none of them becomes a threat, wondering how long he can stay in power . . .…

  • Original Sin And The Immaculate Conception (3)

    Feast Of Immaculate Conception – 8th DECEMBER Were you born with original sin or in original sin? The difference is immense. Born with original sin means you are guilty; born in original sin you are innocent but surrounded by sin, becoming guilty only when you do wrong for the first time and then you share…

  • God’s Infinite Love

    ‘Hope for the Flowers’ is an adult fable, telling the story of a young buck caterpillar who finds himself in a heaving column of other caterpillars. He enjoys the struggle, pushing others out of the way, climbing over weaker ones smaller than he is. He hears a voice “Please, help me.” A young lady caterpillar…

  • Your Moral Compass (2)

    What has occupied your mind most this past week – the Budget, the Church’s Synod, Climate Change? What do you think has pre-occupied our Prime Minister most – living his Catholic Faith, carefully considering his cabinet so that none of them become a threat, wondering how far he can go in breaking agreements made about…

  • Family And Divorce

    You hid the truth. You lied. You are selfish. You didn’t care who was hurt as long as you had your own way. You did that out of jealousy and spite . . . Have you ever said those words or had them spoken to you? They are harsh – but the intention is clear:…

  • Pope Benedict Emeritus

    Pope Benedict is very frail now – the first Pope Emeritus in the history of the Church, waiting in silence and peace for the Lord. He is part of our future. His wonderful intelligence has served and will continue to serve the Church: science and religion, physics and metaphysics, thought and prayer, the beauty of…

  • “Small Is Beautiful” – E. F. Schumacher

    A good business makes a fair profit so that it may continue to grow, pay fair wages/salaries to employees who feel appreciated and are happy, and serve the people who are assured of value and honesty. So simple – the economic theory I studied for A level and later taught. That three-part analysis is an…

  • Rose

    I read about a little girl, Rose her name. She was in her early teens. Her mother had died and Rose had taken her mother’s place in looking after the younger children, including the baby, Michael, just one year old. Her father desperately sought part-time work to try to earn enough for the family to…

  • A Church In My Home (2)

    Last week I told you about the tradition of the “poustinia” in the Russian Orthodox Church, a setting aside space for God. The original “space” was a comfortable hut in the forest near the village but when the idea came to Western Christianity that space became a small room in the house, even a corner…

  • A Church In My Home (1)

    A poustinia is a place set apart for God and comes from a tradition in the Russian Orthodox Church. Imagine a small hut in the woods or forest near the village. Someone wishing for a quiet time with God would live in that hut, even for a few days, trusting the community to bring meals…

  • St Hugh Of Lincoln School

    I don’t like exams. Students freeze, questions can be complicated, markers and adjudicators differ and the students are crammed to produce good results in order to justify high school fees. “Exam factory” said one student to me who reached Cambridge University from his expensively selective public school “and I hated it there. We were exam…