• Sermon - Year A

    17th Sunday in Ordinary time

    Three friends were stuck on a desert island for a long time, until one day they found a magic lamp. They rubbed the lamp hard, and out popped a genie. The genie said that he could only give three wishes: so, since there were three men, each man would get one wish. The first one went: “I hate it here.…

  • Sermon - Year A

    16th Sunday in Ordinary time

    Last Thursday started out as an exceptionally beautiful and unusually relaxing day for me. After a pleasant long walk from Portgordon to Spey Bay and back, I took a wee nap, which was interrupted suddenly by a sound on my mobile phone. Still half asleep I read a notification from the BBC that a Malaysian airliner had been lost. Startled…

  • Sermon - Year A

    15th Sunday in Ordinary time

    Last winter my mum suddenly found out that she would be having two weeks off, so I invited her to come over for a wee break. Obviously with my adopted Scottish soul I didn’t want to pay through the nose for her flights, and I didn’t want to waste my precious time checking every possible airline’s website. So I turned…

  • Sermon - Year A

    14th Sunday in Ordinary time

    Once a month we, the students in the seminary, had a talk by our rector. Every time he was talking about the spiritual life, current affairs and recent happenings. I held a genuine respect for that man, but in his talks he tended to pick up negative examples from seminary life and consequently the overall picture was always pretty gloomy…

  • Munros - Outdoors

    Loch Lochy Munros

    A few years ago I was driving between Fort William and Inverness; part of that route led along the west bank of Loch Lochy. My attention was drawn by the hills on the other side. At that time they looked distant not only geographically. Eventually their time has come. The forecast for the day predicted rain in the afternoon, so…