EditorialBrave new Church?
Anthony Towey There are reasons to be hopeful as a new year dawns. Like London buses, a series of vaccines have suddenly appeared ready for ...
Focus: Fratelli TuttiWhither global governance?
The finer points of recent papal documents which feature Catholic Social Teaching on international governance are often lost in translation, writes ...
Fratelli tutti and popular politics
In Fratelli tutti, Pope Francis explores what contribution the Catholic tradition can make in politics, writes Amy Daughton, Lecturer in Practical ...
SpiritualityCovid and Exodus – a journey home
The author uses the biblical Exodus as a key to unlock the potential for theological reflections about the implications of Covid-19. M. C. Benitan ...
Resources for ministryWhere have all the children gone?
Sue Price, Acting Principal of the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in Cambridge, reflects on the witness children receive – and give – by ...
Breaking The Word
Weekdays in January, February and March 2021
These reflections on the weekday Bible readings are by Canon Mervyn Tower, parish priest of Corpus Christi, Headington, Oxford.
Friday 1 January
Mary, Mother of God (solemnity)
Numbers 6.22–27
Psalm 66
Galatians 4.4–7
Luke 2.16–21
Pope St Paul VI declared 1 January to be the World Day of Peace, so it is fitting that the blessing of Aaron is proclaimed. The Book of Numbers is known in Hebrew by its opening as Bemidbar (In the desert). Until Numbers 9.32, the scene is placed at Sinai ...
Year B
Sunday 3 January
Second Sunday after Christmas
Ecclesiasticus 24.1–2,8–12
Psalm 147
Ephesians 1.3–6,15–18
John 1.1–18 OR John 1.1–5,9–14
The Lectionary gives us a Gospel from John on this Sunday after Christmas for a very specific reason. The General Introduction to the Lectionary puts it thus: ‘On the second Sunday after Christmas, the readings are about the mystery of the Incarnation ...