Lord, we do not know where you are going. This short phrase from today’s gospel can summarise how many of us feel after two months of Great Eucharistic Deprivation and – in many cases – facing personal or domestic challenges, troubles or tragedies caused directly and indirectly by the pandemic. Even if we fully accept the restrictions on the cognitive,…
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I had some great ideas for this sermon. Then on Friday Pope Francis used up all my ideas in his powerful sermon in the Vatican and I was back to the drawing board. By Saturday lunchtime I scraped some other ideas, planning to turn them into a sermon, but then Bishop Hugh recorded and published on social media his powerful…
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There seems to be a recent theme with my walks: large bodies of water! Loch Kinord last week, Loch Muick this time round. Actually, I planned this walk for a few weeks. I walked along its eastern shore in May 2011, on my way back from climbing the White Mounth range, and the loch really made a great and long-lasting…
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It took two visits to the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve to walk the route I had planned. My first attempt was cut short by deteriorating weather (driving snow). Rather unexpectedly I had another chance a couple of days later thanks to an unusual alignment of stars and a leap year (just kidding…). Unlike at the first attempt, the…
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How do you like today’s gospel reading? Jesus’ call here is so demanding that it goes beyond what’s doable, doesn’t it? What do we do with such bits of the Bible that on the one hand can be really moving and captivating but on the other hand go well beyond what’s achievable? Well, quite often we just skip them effectively;…