Ash Wednesday 5 March 2025 Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the season of Lent. We start a journey and like all journeys it has a destination and ours is Easter. St Benedict encourages us in the chapter on Lent, to look forward with the joy of spiritual longing to the holy feast of […]
The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord – Candlemas This year, as the feast falls on a Sunday, we have the joy of celebrating both first and second Vespers. Sr Philippa shares some thoughts on this day. Malachi 3,1-4; Hebrews 2, 14-18; Luke 2, 22-40 The feast of the Presentation of the Lord in […]
An Epiphany in Snow It was predicted, forecast, expected, but, like death, still took us by surprise: everything the same yet changed, a landscape both familiar and strange. Our senses numbed and heightened, pierced, muffled, blinded by the white on every side; the pale white of mourning before enlightenment descends slowly to hush outward frenzy, […]
Reflection for 1 January ‘Red sky at night, shepherds’ delight…’ Many will be familiar with this saying which foretells fine weather the next day. Heavenly phenomena – the sun, moon, stars, rainbows – have an endless capacity to lift the spirits, even in the most unpromising circumstances. Memorably, in his Holocaust memoir ‘Man’s Search for […]
‘If only you knew the gift of God’, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well. He then revealed himself as that gift. Christmas is about gifts, gift-giving and gift-receiving, and about enjoying the gifts because we know they are given, and received, in love. The greatest gift of all is the Son of […]
O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, expectatio gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Deus noster. O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the One for whom the gentiles longed and their Saviour, come and save us, O Lord our God! We come to the last and one of the shortest of the O […]
O Rex gentium et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum, veni et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti. ‘King of the nations and their desire, cornerstone, who make both one, come and save man, whom you formed from mud.’ Throughout Advent we have been focussing on the One who is coming, Jesus Christ, […]
O Oriens, Splendor lucis aeternae, et sol iustitiae: VENI, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis. ‘O Rising Sun, Splendour of eternal light and sun of justice: COME, shine on those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death’. ‘…The heart will save, when the dawn will appear with the splendour of the first […]
O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel, qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis et nemo aperit: veni et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris et umbra mortis. O Key of David and Sceptre of the House of Israel! You open and no one can shut. You shut and no one can open: Come […]
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: Veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare. O root of Jesse, you stand as a sign for the nations; kings fall silent before you whom the peoples acclaim. O come to deliver us and do not delay. Today, […]
O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti et in Sina legem dedisti, veni ad redimendu nos in brachio extento. O Adonai and leader of Israel, […]
During this last week of Advent our spiritual preparations for Christmas intensify and include praying at Vespers the Great ‘O’ antiphons for the Magnificat. These are ancient Gregorian chants which capture something of our desire for the coming of Christ. Members of the community will be sharing reflections on each ‘O’ antiphon, beginning on 17th […]