Fr John Writes: O come, O come, Emmanuel!

As we light our final purple candle this week, we enter the last week of Advent. At evening prayer in the latter days of Advent, from very early times the Church has prepared with...

Fr John Writes: “All who are on the side of truth listen to my voice”

The Church’s year concludes this weekend with our Solemnity dedicated to Christ the King. This celebration was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, who was at that time concerned about increasing secularism and...

Fr John Writes: “The Lord upholds the widow and orphan” ( Psalm 145)

Our first reading today tells the story of Elijah being sent to request water and food from a poor widow who is herself in dire straits. It was a story well known enough for...

Fr John writes: This Sunday is World Mission Sunday

This Sunday is World Mission Sunday and we are asked to pray and support the work of all those who reach out to share the Gospel with people who have yet to hear about...

Fr John Writes: “The Word of God is something alive and active” Hebrews 4:12

“The Word of God is something alive and active” Hebrews 4:12 At every Mass, indeed whenever the Church celebrates a sacrament or any liturgy, we listen to something from the Word of God set...

Fr John Writes: “Anyone who is not against us is for us”

When the disciple John tells Jesus that they had tried to stop someone who was not a disciple performing a miracle in the Lord’s name, Jesus tells him that they were wrong to try...

Fr John Writes: Faith: If good works do not go with it, it is quite dead. (James 2:17)

Above all we know that we are called to perform good works because Jesus himself showed us that this was the way to put faith into practice. “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord”, Jesus...

Fr John Writes: The Assumption of our Lady

On 1st November 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed “for the joy and exultation of the entire Church;” that it was a divinely revealed truth that the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of...

Fr John writes: “Before the word was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ”

Our second readings for the next few weeks are taken from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We know from the Acts of the Apostles that Paul spent three years in Ephesus, preaching in...