Elgin Cathedral was founded by King Alexander II 800 years ago, in the year 1224.
Historic Scotland, who own and maintain the site, have done their best to mark this significant anniversary. But among all the events and promotions, there seems to have been no Christian religious service included anywhere.
Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass (also St. Margaret’s, Forres), 28 July 2024 Sunday 17B: John 6:1-15
As everyone here is intensely aware, this year our Sunday Gospels are generally taken from St. Mark. But because this Gospel is so short, when we come to the feeding of the 5,000, the lectionary switches instead to Chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel. This Chapter begins with St. John’s account of the feeding of the 5,000, and then continues on with the long Bread of Life discourse that follows. We shall read extracts from that discourse over the next 4 Sundays.
Homily for Sunday 16B, 21 July 2024, Ephesians 2:13-18
When St. Paul fell off his horse on the road to Damascus, blinded by light from heaven, his life, his outlook, his mission was turned upside down. What Paul saw, or encountered then was Jesus Christ. And in that moment he understood, with unbreakable conviction, that he had been wrong, wrong, wrong. Jesus was not an enemy, a blasphemer, a false prophet, a corrupter of Israel, as Paul had previously thought.
Homily for 7 July 2024, Sunday 14B: Ezk 2:2-5, 2 Cor 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6 DJC
In today’s first reading we meet Ezekiel at the beginning of his prophetic ministry. The year is 592 BC. He is one of the many inhabitants of Jerusalem taken in the first wave of the deportations to Babylon. It is by one of the rivers of Babylon that we find Ezekiel. He has been commissioned by God to be a prophet to the Israelites in captivity.
Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, 9 June 2024: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
The 1960s compilers of our current lectionary offer us a series of readings these Sundays from 2 Corinthians. There are 7 little snippets or extracts, given for the second reading at Mass, for Sundays 7 to 14. We missed the first 3 in the series because of Pentecost, then Trinity Sunday, then Corpus Christi. So we’re starting now today, on the 10th Sunday, with a little passage from the end of 2 Corinthians Chapter 4.
Homily for the Feast of the Holy Trinity, 26 May 2024: DJC
Heavenly Father, You so loved the world that You sent Your only Begotten Son to be one of us, not to condemn the world but to redeem the world. Before Your Son went to the Cross to destroy the power of sin and death, he prayed to You. And in this prayer he said that before the foundation of the world, before anything was ever made, he shared Your glory as Your only begotten Son. This love You have for Your Son, this glory You give to Him, is the Holy Spirit. This same love and glory Jesus gives to us so that we may be one, as You and the Son are One.
Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, Easter 7B, Sunday 12 May 2024, on John 17:11-16
On this last Sunday of Eastertide before Pentecost, we reach the climax of the Last Discourse of Jesus, given in St. John’s Gospel. This is the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus: Chapter 17. This year we read the central section of this prayer, which is concerned above all with the 11 disciples sitting there with Jesus at the Last Supper.
Homily for Easter 6B, Sunday 5 May 2024: John 15:9-17
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love (15:9)
We are in the central Chapter of the Last Discourse of Jesus, as recorded by St. John. Here we find ourselves at the heart of the teaching of Jesus, of his life, of his mission. In these sublime words, so full of consolation for us, Jesus as it were opens for us a window into his own heart, and into the heart of God.