After the build-up through Lent, the drama of Holy Week, and the glorious resurrection of Easter Day, the period leading to our Lord’s ascension is often a bit of an anticlimax, mirroring the uncertainty that his first disciples must have felt. But on the Sundays in May this year our readings from Acts and I Peter … [Read more…]
This work by a fifteenth-century artist, now in a Turin gallery, combines most of the familiar scenes from the Passion story into a single painting. The story of Jesus’ last hours begins in the top left corner with his entry into Jerusalem, then winds its way through town into the Garden of Gethsemane (bottom left). … [Read more…]
The first Friday of March is celebrated as the World Day of Prayer, when women and men, old and young, in over 180 countries make time to come together to sing, think and pray around a common theme. The theme for 2011 is “How many loaves have you?”. Before starting work, Norma Ulloa tried to … [Read more…]
Hard on the heels of Candlemas, where Christ is remembered as “a light to lighten the Gentiles”, we come to Epiphany 5, for which the Gospel reading comes from the Sermon on the Mount, where one of Christ’s themes also concerns light. But this time it’s our turn to be the light! As the Authorised … [Read more…]
The twelve days of Christmas have come to end, but the season of joyful celebration that began then continues through the Sundays of Epiphany, which this year extends beyond February, because Easter is so late. The Epiphany (‘manifestation’) refers to the visit of the far-travelled magi, who “followed the star wherever it went” and “arrived … [Read more…]