Urbi et Orbi Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Christmas! The Word of God, who created the world and who gives meaning to history and to humanity’s journey, became flesh and […]

The Church has a custom of blessing homes on the Feast of the Epiphany.  Family and friends gather to ask God’s blessing on their homes and those who live in or […]

“With joy you shall draw water from the wells of salvation” In the 1980s I lived for 5 years in an old Victorian building, the former vicarage of Holy Trinity, […]

Homily on Mark 8.27-35 One of the greatest composers of the 20th century was the black musician, Edward Ellington – commonly known as ‘Duke’ Ellington.  Pianist, band leader, arranger & composer he […]

From the Book Deuteronomy: “Understand this and take it to heart, The Lord is God indeed, in heaven above as on earth beneath, he and no other.  Keep his laws and commandments […]

Acts 10: 25-48; I John 4: 7-10; John 15: 9-17 The Christian life is nothing other than a life of love.  “God is love,” says St John – and we were made in […]

John 15. 1-8 Each year from March through to May, Spring gets underway and the days lengthen once the northern hemisphere starts to tilt towards the sun.  It’s a time of […]

There are vacancies for two Lead Lay Chaplains within the Diocese of Nottingham, at the St Thérèse of Lisieux Catholic Multi Academy Trust and also the St Ralph Sherwin Catholic […]

The Gift of Self-control I’d be the first to admit I don’t at this stage in my life make much time to follow sport, but in my youth I used […]

How good it is to be back today, celebrating Mass together in church once more! For Christ is risen – he is risen indeed!  And while the parish may not be fully resurrected […]

In my last two blogs I considered in Julian of Norwich and Francis of Assisi two sharply contrasting personalities.  What they had in common was that both encountered Christ.  Also, that the […]

Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) has always been one of the most celebrated and popular of saints.  Born into middle-class affluence, he was a high-spirited youth with many friends.  Something changed in him […]

The author we know as Julian (or Dame Julian) of Norwich was a fourteenth century mystic living at St Julian’s Church in Norwich.  We don’t know her real name but she […]

The home page of our Parish website declares: We exist to worship and glorify God, To take up the call of Christ, To share the spirit of love and truth […]

The criminal trial began yesterday of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis policeman accused of causing George Floyd’s death ten months ago.  The arrest and restraint of Floyd was captured on camera […]

Netflix is showing a one-series drama written by Julian Fellowes.  Entitled The English Game and set in the mid-nineteenth century, it depicts the early days of the game as played by the recently-constituted […]

Final Extract, number 6. Love rejoices in seeing others grow. Hence it suffers when others are anguished, lonely, sick, homeless, despised or in need. Love is a leap of the […]

The Latin word for ‘rule’ is regula.  At school we used rulers to measure distances and draw straight lines.  This helped our work to be accurate and presentable, in a way that guesswork […]

If our inner focus needs constantly to be re-sought, we need to develop a rule of life that will support this.  I will consider that tomorrow.  It also helps if we have […]

In my blog yesterday, I wrote that Jesus’ human will was effortlessly at one with the Father’s will.  There will be something more to say about that on Maundy Thursday, a qualification […]

The sun, moon and stars are always on the move.  We don’t generally observe this because (especially in the West) we’re too busy, always on the go.  Working radio telescopes, like the […]

Some of our neighbours stood outside on the doorstep tonight at 8pm, with candles and torches.  But not so many.  This has been a difficult day for the nation.   It’s hard to […]

My respected colleague in the Deanery, Fr James Earley, died yesterday. I will miss him. Please pray for the repose of his soul. Hear with favour our prayers, which we […]

Extract 5. The Samaritan woman at the well, whom Jesus asks for a drink, does not understand what he means when he says that he can offer her “living water” (Jn 4:10). Naturally, […]

The Biblical writers certainly know how to tell a good story.  Once you have become acclimatised to their perspectives, they make compelling reading.  The Year of Scripture gave me the fillip I […]

This is being written in haste, or it will not get written at all.  One consequence of my decision during Lent to keep a meaningful Sabbath, from Friday evening to Saturday […]

Out for a walk this afternoon in the sunshine.  Not had time much this week, so this was the first day I had felt an appreciable warmth in the air.  The sap […]

In Driven By The Wide Boys (my blog yesterday) I pointed to an escalation of the Scottish desire for independence as a likely outcome of the Government’s proposal to steeply increase our […]

I’m beginning to think our Brexiteer Government is not just misguided and incompetent but dangerously unhinged.  The proposals announced by Boris Johnson in Parliament today would see an increase in Britain’s […]

This morning I have been on an interviewing panel to appoint a new Head Teacher to St Elizabeth’s School.  I was delighted that the unanimous decision of the panel was to […]

Extract 4. Lent is a time for believing, for welcoming God into our lives and allowing him to “make his dwelling” among us (cf. Jn 14:23). Fasting involves being freed from all that weighs us […]

If you try observing the Sabbath as a day of rest, you’ll start to notice things that usually elude your attention.  You may find a Jaffa cake, for example, tastes unusually […]

Today has largely been full on, as my Fridays tend to be, with admin.  As with each of the other days there are emails to catch up; also, numerous texts and […]

Goodness!  So, here we are: the twentieth day – half way through Lent.  (Remember, Sundays don’t count among the 40 days.)  As on any journey, it’s natural to pause and take stock at […]

A friend of long-standing has been prominently involved in creating an exhibition in her home city of St Albans. Due to the pandemic, it will not now be shown until the […]

I went on the first online session of the Nottingham Diocese Confirmation programme this evening (Tuesday). Brilliant!  A first for the Diocese – and possibly a first in Britain.  In the Parish we’ve […]

Margaret and I drove David back to Birmingham yesterday afternoon.  He was able to continue his studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire of Music after Christmas without too much difficulty during […]

Extract 3. Faith calls us to accept the truth and testify to it before God and all our brothers and sisters In this Lenten season, accepting and living the truth revealed […]

The author of the Joseph cycle in the Book of Genesis is a wonderful storyteller.  If you’ve been following the suggested daily readings in the parish bulletin you will by now […]

Last night I was invited to an online Zoom meeting, finding myself alongside eight members of five other churches in and around Belper.  So long as there are Christians locally with […]

With workmen on site, it’s hard to relax.  I feel the need to be vigilant, to make sure the work is being done to a satisfactory standard.  I need to feel happy […]

A neighbour was having some jet washing done on his drive at the beginning of the week.  It seemed a good opportunity to get ours done as well. Over time moss […]

I spent time yesterday afternoon cleaning out my summerhouse.  I generally vacate it in the last days of October.  I do have a heater in there, but by October it’s getting too […]

Lent blog: 11 – SPRING IS HERE! Today, St David’s day, is the officially the first day of meteorological spring.  Catkins have been out for some while.  But as I went […]

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem” (Mt 20:18)  Extract 2. In our Lenten journey towards Easter, let us remember the One who “humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on […]

A few years ago, I had an appointment with a GP at the surgery where I was registered.  The computer screen was slightly angled, and this enabled me to see some […]

Two of my parishioners are in hospital, on the same ward.  Alas, I am unable to visit them.  I have to say that on the two occasions in January I visited this […]

Prophets are sent in every generation.  Their role is to read the signs of the times.  To interpret these to the people.  To point out matters of great importance which we neglect at […]

I felt really distracted today as I was trying to pray.   In many ways it couldn’t be helped.  The time I normally prefer to pray was taken up by an appointment.  By […]

At the point of writing, I haven’t heard in detail about the Prime Minister’s road map for exiting lockdown.  Just snippets here and there during the course of Monday (22nd February) plus […]

I argued in my previous blog that we can’t be neutral in the Christian life without going backwards.  So, maintaining our freedom means actively choosing to go forwards.  We do this by […]

Extract 1.  “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem” (Mt 20:18)  Dear Brothers and Sisters,  Jesus revealed to his disciples the deepest meaning of his mission when he told them of his […]

Freedom to someone under the yoke sounds bliss.  Freedom from oppression.  From having to do what someone else says.  Freedom to be yourself and choose what you want to do. But what do you want […]

I had slipped somewhat from my commitment to meditate twice a day.  Hard to put my finger on just when it happened, but Lent comes as an opportunity to reclaim a […]

I seem to have spent a lot of time sorting things out lately.  First there were all the things at the Presbytery at Ripley to go through in May 2019.  So that […]

When my computer isn’t responding properly and nothing I try seems to work, I press the restart button.  Often it seems to help and the problem is overcome. I’m challenged by […]