You can read a brief biography of St Vincent de Paul and the readings set for today (27th September), when we remember his life and ministry, here. If there was ever a saint who matched their set gospel reading, it is Vincent de Paul: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty … More St Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)
Luke 14.25-33 is another one of those horrible gospel readings where you read it and think, ‘Really? Jesus said this?’ And then you realise you’re supposed to be preaching on it – in other words, making sense of it not just for yourself but for other people too. So you’re not just talking about hating … More Thoughts towards a homily on Luke 14.25-33
I wrote a hymn a couple of months ago, to the tune ‘King’s Lynn’ (aka O God of earth and altar), and it turned out that quite a lot of people didn’t know the tune, and asked if it would go to anything else. The simple answer was, it can go to most 7676D* tunes. (*If … More Which tune?
This isn’t a sermon, it’s some thoughts that might lead to one. Luke 12.49-56 is a really hard gospel. I like to find good news in the gospel, and I also like to inhabit the grey areas, but today’s reading leaves me very little scope for either; it seems full of judgement and harsh dividing … More It’s the 5th time this gospel reading has come up in the lectionary since I was ordained and I still don’t know what to say about it…
Actually it isn’t. But I wrote this on the train the other day, as a very belated response to someone’s request for a song to go with the lighting of the Advent wreath, and I thought I might forget about if it I waited till November. Advent Wreath Song to the tune ‘Father we place … More It’s beginning to look a lot like Advent
Some sermony thoughts on Luke 11.1-13 I’ve always found the parable of the persistent neighbour rather troubling. Our habit is to map parables onto the real world – us and God – as an exact one to one allegory, and in this case, that would cast God as the grudging friend with his own family safely … More Teach us to pray…
Some people may not agree with everything in this post. Normally I just post useful resources, but this actually has some questions and possibly contentious things in it. I took the post down yesterday, as it might have been contravening my rule of life.* But I’ve re-written it now, so it’s hopefully nicer, and has benefitted from the … More Liturgical objections
