In St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus on his way to Jerusalem has been sounding various dark warnings: Alas for you... I tell you, this generation will have to answer for every prophet’s blood (11:50); The Master will come on a day he does not expect and cut him off (12:46); Unless you …
Homily given at the 8 o’clock Mass, Sunday 18 C, 4 August 2019, Luke 12:13-21
Nothing is more certain than that life is short, and that all of us will have to die. You don’t really need divine revelation to tell you that: it’s been a favourite theme of poets and philosophers throughout the ages. The Wisdom writers of the Old Testament, who were both poets and philosophers, loved to dwell…
Homily for Sunday 17C, 28 July 2019: Genesis 18:20-32; Luke 11:1-13
In our first reading today we heard the Genesis account of Abraham’s intercession for the City of Sodom. And in the Gospel we heard Jesus teaching his disciples about prayer, especially by giving them the Lord’s Prayer. I should like now to put the two readings together. For convenience though, I take the…
Homily given at Quarr Abbey, Wednesday 17 July by the Prior of Pluscarden
We began our Mass today with a very fine Introit, set in the Third mode. This is the “tonus iratus” – the angry mode – or the anguished mode – or the mode of heightened emotion. Dum clamarem ad Dominum exaudivit vocem meam – When I cried to the Lord he heard my voice; he saved me from those who surrounded me. The text is from…