29 December 2020

Homilies

(Fairly) Brief Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, Christmas Day, 25 December 2020

29 December 2020

Homilies

This is the only public Mass available for people here today because of the Restrictions, so I’ve skipped the Dawn Mass readings, and taken instead the tremendous words given us in the Day Mass readings: from the beginning of Hebrews, and the beginning of St. John’s Gospel. These two passages are so…

Pluscarden Abbey

28 July 2020

Homilies

Homily for Sunday 17A, 26 July 2020, Romans 8:28-30

Pluscarden Abbey

28 July 2020

Homilies

Of all St. Paul’s Letters, Romans is the longest, richest, densest, most difficult, most rewarding, most challenging, most perplexing, most commented on, most thoroughly Jewish, most obscurely Rabbinical, most radically universal in its all-embracing…

Pluscarden Abbey

22 October 2019

Homilies

Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, 20 October 2019, Sunday 29C, on Luke 18:1-8

Pluscarden Abbey

22 October 2019

Homilies

The parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge doesn’t work in the way most parables do. The Judge in the story is precisely not an image or figure of God. In fact, he’s the opposite of God in every respect, except that in the end he grants the widow’s…

Pluscarden Abbey

24 June 2019

Homilies

Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, 23 June 2019, the Feast of Corpus Christi

Pluscarden Abbey

24 June 2019

Homilies

Today’s magnificent Collect, or opening Prayer of the Mass, begins with the word “Deus” “O God”. Usually in a Collect the first word “Deus” would refer to God the Father, whom we address through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. But today the object…

Pluscarden Abbey

11 February 2019

Homilies

Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, Sunday 5C, 10 February 2019, on Luke 5:1-11

Pluscarden Abbey

11 February 2019

Homilies

Today’s liturgy offers us the vision of Isaiah in the Temple as an implied commentary on the Gospel scene in Peter’s boat. The parallel is a bold one, because it suggests that the man Jesus is to be identified with the transcendent God of Israel…

Pluscarden Abbey

25 July 2017

Homilies

Homily for Sunday 16A, 23 July 2017, on Romans 8:26-27

Pluscarden Abbey

25 July 2017

Homilies

I should like to speak about the two verses from Romans which we had in our second reading today. This being St. Paul, and especially his letter to...