by Sr Ann Catherine Swailes
Autumn days
Every year in Oxford, on 1st May, crowds gather in the early morning outside Magdalen College. At precisely 6am, the chapel choir appears at the top of the tower, singing hymns and madrigals to welcome the coming summer.
by Sr Tamsin Mary
Today we saw the laying of wreaths at the Cenotaph. For the soldiers who marched it was a remembrance of lost companions, and for most who watched, either at home or in London, or who attended similar events in their home towns, a reminder of the uncle, the grandfather, the brother or the sister, mother, aunt who did not come home, or who was lost in the bombing raids. No family in these islands went untouched, though some were luckier.
by Sr Tamsin Mary A talk for parents of first communicants
In the next couple of weeks we will be talking to your children about baptism, and they will perhaps ask you questions. This session is a reflection on the type of answer you might want to give to them.
Between seven and ten years ago you became the parents of a new little person. Your lives changed forever, and you entered (or re-entered) a world of sleep deprivation and nappies, baby-grows and feeding times. In among all of this you fell in love. And you chose to have your baby baptised.
What were you thinking, what were you doing when you did that?
A sermon preached at Vespers for the Opening of the Academic Year at Fisher House, the Roman Catholic Chaplaincy to the University of Cambridge by Sr Ann Catherine Swailes o.p.
A Dominican and a Carmelite walk into a bar…
This isn’t the opening line of a terrible joke, but an invitation to a kind of thought experiment for the opening of the academic year. Those of you who are new to Cambridge will doubtless have been bombarded already with well-meaning, and more or less helpful, advice about what to expect from your time here and how to make the most of it. Some of this will have been in official induction sessions in college or faculty, but more useful information is often communicated in more informal settings.
A reflection by Sr Valery Walker
JOHN 6.60 – 69 Ben Ant. Sunday 21 “To whom shall we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and we know that you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Alleluiah! Our Lord says in today’s Gospel, “It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer.” And yet in last week’s Gospel we heard him say, “ If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man …you will not have life in you.” Clearly, therefore, since the flesh offers life, but it is the Spirit that gives life, we must hold “flesh” and “Spirit” together and understand that by this union something new is brought about.
Read more …“ If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man …you will not have life in you.”
