Advent to Easter

From today Thursday 18 January until St Paul’s Day on Thursday 25 January  Christians are both praying for the unity of churches and sharing services and social events. The idea of the annual prayer for unity came in 1907 from Spencer Jones, the Rector of St David’s Moreton -in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, and was suggested as […]

Today, the Monday after The Epiphany, is known as Plough Monday since it was the day workers returned to the land after the twelve day Christmas holiday. They did so slowly by spending this first working day dressing up and touring around villages collecting money. Some of this went to the parish church. In Belgium […]

What is today? The Epiphany, Baptism Sunday or Plough Sunday? This time Advent and  Christmas has been difficult to follow with so many special days falling unusually on a Sunday. Now The Epiphany was yesterday which was a Saturday. This caused the Roman Catholic Church and some Anglican Churches to postpone observing The Epiphany to […]

Today we recall the Three Kings arriving to see the Christ Child in Bethlehem. By tradition they are  said to come with their gifts from different lands and so represent the first showing of Jesus to non-Jews. Further manifestations of Christ came thirty years later including Christ’s baptism. Some churches will remember the Baptism on […]

Today is the 12th Day of Christmas. Tonight is Twelfth Night for many, especially abroad, although by old tradition the evening of tomorrow 6 January is often also known as Twelfth Night. In Spain this evening, the eve of The Epiphany, there will be street processions involving Three Kings and at home much sharing of […]

Today on the 10th Day of Christmas there is the optional designation of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. This recalls the naming and circumcision of Jesus which was once  more widely kept on New Year’s Day which was right if we follow real time. The 8th day after a birth was the time of […]

New Year’s Day is marked by the Solemnity of Mary and World Day of Prayer for Peace. So today, the 8th Day of Christmas and the first day of 2018, is dedicated to Jesus’ Mother. Pope Francis has chosen as this year’s Peace theme: Migrants and refugees: men and women in search of peace. Many […]

As the 7th Day of Christmas is a Sunday so the Holy Family takes precedence over St Sylvester’s Day which falls on New Year’s Eve. On the Sunday of Christmas week we think of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus still in the Bethlehem stable. We can also recall them as Jesus grows up in the […]

Today we remember St James the Great who was one of the apostles and therefore someone who knew Jesus during his ministry. The Translation refers to the arrival in about 814 of his body in Santiago de Compostela, northern Spain, where today many go on walking pilgrimage from France, Portugal and even England. Many winter […]

On this day in 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. The attack came just as Vespers was starting so today during 3.15pm evensong at Canterbury Cathedral there is a procession to the Martyrdom site. His shrine inspired the great pilgrimage in England which has been compared with the camino of St James […]