Monthly Archives: September 2025

Our Lady of Sorrows

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His mother stood by the cross

The martyrdom of the Virgin is set forth both in the prophecy of Simeon and in the actual story of our Lord’s passion. The holy old man said of the infant Jesus: He has been established as a sign which will be contradicted. He went on to say to Mary: And your own heart will be pierced by a sword.
  Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart. For only by passing through your heart could the sword enter the flesh of your Son. Indeed, after your Jesus – who belongs to everyone, but is especially yours – gave up his life, the cruel spear, which was not withheld from his lifeless body, tore open his side. Clearly it did not touch his soul and could not harm him, but it did pierce your heart. For surely his soul was no longer there, but yours could not be torn away. Thus the violence of sorrow has cut through your heart, and we rightly call you more than martyr, since the effect of compassion in you has gone beyond the endurance of physical suffering.
  Or were those words, Woman, behold your Son, not more than a word to you, truly piercing your heart, cutting through to the division between soul and spirit? What an exchange! John is given to you in place of Jesus, the servant in place of the Lord, the disciple in place of the master; the son of Zebedee replaces the Son of God, a mere man replaces God himself. How could these words not pierce your most loving heart, when the mere remembrance of them breaks ours, hearts of iron and stone though they are!
  Do not be surprised, brothers, that Mary is said to be a martyr in spirit. Let him be surprised who does not remember the words of Paul, that one of the greatest crimes of the Gentiles was that they were without love. That was far from the heart of Mary; let it be far from her servants.
  Perhaps someone will say: “Had she not known before that he would not die?” Undoubtedly. “Did she not expect him to rise again at once?” Surely. “And still she grieved over her crucified Son?” Intensely. Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the passion of Mary’s Son? For if he could die in body, could she not die with him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since his.
St Bernard of Clairvaux

Saint Gregory the Great, Pope, Doctor

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they are not Angles, but Angels...

the famous quip, attributed to St Gregory, works in Latin (his native language) as well as English - he would have spoken

Non Angli, sed angeli.

The story is that he sent Augustine (feast day last Thursday) to England because he saw young slave children in the market in Rome. There were other reasons to send August to England (as we came to be known) and Pope Gregory may have had an invitation from King Aethelberht of Kent. In what feels like a step too far, he is also said to have made another pun on the roman province that the children had come from, Deira. He went on to add that they would be rescued from de ira (from the wrath).

Certainly many English churches, including of course our own, are dedicated to this Pope Saint, who for whatever reason decided to send the good news here in 596 AD. He also wrote including a manual on Pastoral life.

Tuesday of week 22 in Ordinary Time

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Christ died for us so that we might live with him.

The first letter to the Thessalonians is likely to have been the first letter written by St Paul (of those that have survived, he probably wrote many more letters!).

Paul and his correspondents lived within a hostile and pagan culture - sounds familiar? The letters are full of encouragement and advice on how to survive. Paul had founded the christian community at thesalonika on his journeys (See Acts chapter 16). Then as he continued on his travels he wrote to them and very probably got letters back from them (how sad it is that these are not preserved!).

Todays' text from Chapter 5 of the letter encourages us to not worry about when that day will come for our return to heaven. We need to trust, have faith - we will be where we belong in God's own good time.

St Teresa Margaret Redi of the Sacred Heart

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The mother of St Augustine

Teresa Margaret was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, in 1747 of the noble Redi family and baptised Anna Maria. At the age of nine, she was sent to a boarding school run by Benedictine nuns, St Apollonia’s in Florence. At the age of sixteen, as her time of schooling came to an end, Anna Maria discerned a call to religious life. During this time, in a quiet experience of prayer it became clear that she was called to the life of Carmel. She entered the Discalced Carmelites in Florence in 1764, taking the name Teresa of the Sacred Heart. Her writings and charity within the community attested to a deep interior life. On one occasion she writes of a special contemplative experience concerning the words of St John, “God is Love.” She worked with care and compassion in the community infirmary. A sudden onset of ill-health, in 1770, ended with her death, aged twenty-three.