Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, Sunday 5B, 4 February 2024: Mark 1:29-39

We are still near the beginning of St. Mark’s Gospel, in his first Chapter. So Mark is putting before us, as if for the first time, in his typically breathless sort of way, the person of Jesus. Mark wants us to feel for ourselves what it was like to be there, right at the beginning: to be an eye witness; to see the ministry of Jesus unfold.

Homily for Sunday 4B, 28 January 2024: Mark 1:21-28

Although all the other decorations are down, our Christmas crib is still up, until the 2nd of February. Through it we love to meditate on the ordinariness of Jesus: on his littleness, his dependence, his vulnerability, his likeness to us. Today though, in his first public miracle according to St. Mark, we see some hint of his divine power.

Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family Year B (2023)

Genesis 15:1-6,21:1-3 Hebrews 11:8.11-12.17-19 Luke 2:22-40

Today is the last day of the year. We could do worse than to hear the Canticle of Simeon read out in the Gospel. In the Liturgy of the Hours, this Canticle belongs with Compline, the last prayer of the day, recited or sung just before bed-time.

Homily for the Funeral of Jacqueline Carron, Mother of Fr. Joseph Carron Pluscarden Abbey: Thursday 21 December 2023 Fr. Joseph Carron

Mum was quite specific about what she wanted me to emphasise to you - it was what she wanted me to say to everyone gathered for her Mass in the parish Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Birmingham last Thursday. It was one thing. To pray for her. To pray for the repose of her soul.

No eulogy – simply an exhortation to pray.