Yearly Archives: 2016

THE FATHERS AND BROTHERS OF THE BIRMINGHAM ORATORY WISH ALL OUR PARISHIONERS, FRIENDS, AND BENEFACTORS THE PEACE AND BLESSINGS OF CHRISTMAS  

Adonai is the Old Testament’s way of writing the name of God. Via its Greek equivalent, Kyrios, it is best translated into English as Lord. That same title includes the connotation of Israel’s Lawgiver and Leader. Israel’s Lord manifested His presence to Moses on Mount Sinai. Moses perceived the divine presence as something which suggested the likeness of a burning bush. This was [...]

Christ said that John the Baptist was the greatest man ever born of woman. That makes John greater than Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or any of the other prophets. Why? Because those earlier prophets had foretold that Christ would come. But John correctly identified Him when He finally did arrive, pointing to him and saying "Behold the Lamb of God!"   The [...]

The Almighty gave this world into our charge as His stewards. He gave us a garden of surpassing loveliness to care for. What a mess we have made of our stewardship. Spiritually and morally we have turned the garden into a jungle. Since the Fall from grace of our primordial parents, all human beings come into the world fatally flawed, [...]

Advent brings our wandering attention back to the four Last Things; death, judgement, hell and heaven. In Advent we look up towards the transcendental horizon from whence Christ the Lord will return. The coming of the Lord is contemplated under a double focus. First we are assailed by St John the Baptist, the Lord’s stern and uncompromising precursor. John warns [...]

Christ’s prediction of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem was fulfilled in AD70. In our own day and indeed in every generation another of His divine prophecies is also proved true - that His disciples can always expect to suffer persecution and ill-treatment. When we look at the present state of the Church Christ founded maybe we are sometimes [...]

O valiant hearts who to your glory came through dust of conflict and through battle flame; tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved, your memory hallowed in the land you loved. Proudly you gathered, rank on rank, to war as who had heard God's message from afar; all you had hoped for, all you had, you gave, to save mankind [...]

At its particular judgement the soul sees the unveiled splendour of the Godhead. In that instant the soul also realizes how unfit it is for heaven, and so it longs for its purging to begin. Metaphors can play some part in helping us to understand our faith. Some people imagine sinking down into purgatory, as though into a lake. Others prefer Dante’s [...]

When Christ the King was brought before Pontius Pilate, the Romans were running a European superstate which they called their ‘Empire’. Roman laws and Roman taxes were enforced by a well-organised network of local administrators, backed up by a powerful military and political machine. For Pontius Pilate, the administrator of Judea, ‘kingship’ meant simply the sort of power you wield [...]