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.
Queen of Heaven
“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars…” (Revelation, 12:1)
The Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady commemorates her passing from this earthly scene to be reunited for ever with her divine Son in Heaven. So the saintly Bishop Ken wrote in one of his lovely hymns:
“Heaven with transcendent joys her entrance graced,
next to his throne her Son his Mother placed;
and here below, now she's of heaven possessed,
all generations are to call her blessed”. (1)
The Visitation
“And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (NRSV, Luke 1:43)
The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a summer festival and it shares in all the beauty which we associate with summer – the bright and multi-coloured flowers, the leafy trees and the singing birds.
Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
Matthew was a tax-collector, a job that involved collecting taxes from his fellow countrymen. It was a despised occupation because the taxes supported the alien Roman rule and tax-collectors were therefore collaborators with the occupying power. Tax-collectors were also unpopular with the citizens because they often extorted more than the correct amount of money, and kept the difference for themselves. Moreover, it is very likely that, in return for bribes, they let off rich citizens from paying their proper share of the taxes. (1)