“Surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) we do well to remember that the saints also have free will and personality. They desire to help us, because this pleases God – and the…

The Father is greater than I. Hidden within the Gospel text for Pentecost is one of the greatest challenges that a preacher might encounter. For that reason, I very much doubt whether you have…

In His encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-41) the Lord uses his natural thirst in the heat of the day as a springboard to a deeper…

We are in the Ascensiontide, the time between the Ascension of Our Blessed Lord on the Mount of Olives, which we celebrated on Thursday, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which is…

Join us for Pentecost at the Oratory on Sunday, May 28th, Solemn High Mass

In this, the original ‘Novena’ – the nine days of intense prayer between the Ascension of Our Lord and Pentecost – it is difficult to imagine the maelstrom of excitement and bewilderment the ‘Men…

Whenever we see something that provokes a sense of awe and wonder within us, we are, in fact, gazing upon God. Our ability to discern beauty doesn’t need to serve any practical end: it’s simply…

There is a deeper and more intimate way to consider the Farewell Discourse: every priest at his Ordination receives from the bishop the gift of a sermon. Every priest remembers that sermon for…

In the American hymn, Bring flowers of the rarest, the refrain to Our Lady has always puzzled me. Why does ‘May’ have the definite article, ‘the’? It goes like this: O Mary! We crown thee with…