Latest Thought for the Week

War, Partygate, the cost of living, the latest virus: the news is so depressing that it’s easy to forget about things for which we can be thankful.

I’m intrigued by the teaching style of Jesus, his well-known propensity for responding to a catch question with an equally or more challenging question, or embarking on a story leaving listeners puzzling, or saying they need to be like little children to understand.

Just before Easter we spent a few days in Valencia, where we saw, what turns out to be, a copy of Caravaggio’s painting of the Taking of Christ.

From the sixth century the sixth Sunday of Easter and the three days leading up to Ascension Day have been known as Rogation Days. Rogation is the flipside of Harvest; you pray in intercession as you plant the seed, and you pray in thanksgiving as you harvest the crops.

My late Aunt Jean’s recent memorial service has been one of several things recently that have prompted me to ask myself what people will consider my impact has been on those around me when I shuffle off this mortal coil.

It’s annual meeting season.

The third time Jesus appears to his disciples after He was raised from the dead was on the shore of Lake Tiberias.

The luxury of Easter Bank Holiday Monday allows me to watch this year’s Oscar’s best foreign picture ‘Drive My Car’, adapted from a short story from Murakami Haruki.

Last week, on day 40 of the war in Ukraine, I found myself doing an interview on the radio about the Diocese in Europe’s appeal for humanitarian aid.