At the beginning of the Scottish leg of my priestly career, I was talking to a local man at a reception. In our casual, informal chat I shared my general views on the British and their habits. The first sentence I heard after I’d stopped was: ‘Father, I’m Scottish, not British.’ At that time it was a surprising declaration for…
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Last Wednesday, 4 June, President Obama joined many other world leaders gathered in Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, for a special celebration, which surprisingly was completely overlooked by the British media. Exactly 25 years earlier anti-communist opposition had a landslide victory in the first free, though constrained, general election since World War II. The domino effect soon followed in…
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So, Jesus has gone. We will not see him any more. What are we supposed to do? I think these or similar thoughts were lingering in the Apostles’ heads after they had said goodbye to their master. I’m pretty sure that, after so intense a time that they had spent following him, all of a sudden they somehow felt abandoned…
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Almost exactly seventeen years ago to the day and the hour, in a distant country, fifteen young men were ordained as priests. It was the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Today, we are in the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, this Mass is being said by one of those fifteen young men. None of the Sisters…
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A few months ago there was a hot discussion on one of my favourite radio shows about the words used by farmers to call up their sheep. It turned out that they were distinctively different in different regions of Scotland, though working well for those using them. My personal experience is that, everywhere I come across sheep while walking, they…