Short Talks

This section of the website comprises short stand-alone talks and articles on different aspects of the Christian Faith, including the teaching of Jesus, the seasons of the Church’s Year and Feasts and Festivals.  More talks/sermons/homilies/articles will be added in due course.

The section of the website entitled The Christian Faith provides more extended teaching on larger content areas, such as the Creed and the Sacraments.

Presence of the Risen Christ

Jesus said, “…remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (NRSV, Matthew 28:20)

How impossible it is for us to put ourselves in the place of the disciples and holy women that first Good Friday. In a few short hours all their hopes had been wrecked and their faith stretched to breaking point.

For the past three years their whole lives had been centred on our Blessed Lord. He had literally been their Master because they had throughout that time acted on his instructions, going where he sent them, and doing as he ordered. He alone had given their life its meaning so that, without him, everything would be empty and purposeless.

Read more: Presence of the Risen Christ

The Last Supper: its meaning

“…as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (NRSV, 1 Corinthians 11:26)

To all outward appearances, the Crucifixion of Our Lord was the judicial murder of an innocent Person, devoid of all significance except as an illustration of the saying that might is greater than right. Certainly the Apostles, when warned by Our Lord beforehand, looked on it as a useless waste of life that ought at all costs to be avoided.

Read more: The Last Supper: its meaning

The True Vine

Jesus said, “I am the true vine…” (NRSV, John 15:1)

What really went on in the heart of Judas Iscariot must remain a mystery: what St Paul calls “…the mystery of iniquity…” (King James Bible, 2 Thessalonians 2:7). Yet, although the full depths cannot be plumbed, the general process by which Judas the Apostle became Judas the Traitor is easy to see, if hard to comprehend. He was the only one of the Twelve who ceased to love and trust Our Lord.

Read more: The True Vine