IF I may - today is also the feast day of Saint Alban Roe.

When I was confirmed, as a green behind the ears 11 year old, the 40 martyrs of England and Wales were in the process of being beatified (made saints). IT made sense therefore to consider using one of them as my confirmation saint - I read their lives (and gruesome deaths) and chose Alban Roe.

Trouble is - I was confirmed a few weeks before the beatification ceremony in Rome. The Bishop, when I told him my saint's name, said 'Who!!??" and I had to explain.

I guess I survived the experience!

Alban Roe was born in East Anglia of Church of England parents as Bartholomew Roe, July 20, 1583. He studied for a time at Cambridge where he first met a number of Catholics and began to have doubts about the faith in which he had been brought up. For some time he wrestled with his doubts until it became clear to him that he was in conscience bound to become a Catholic. He studied first of all at Douai but after a year he was sent back to England, on the grounds that he had disturbed the peace and order of the College (he was apparently an ebullient character, a characteristic which stayed with him all his life). Having left he was accepted into the Benedictine community at Dieulouard (from which the monastery at Ampleforth is descended), was professed as Bro Alban in 1614, and was ordained priest a year later. Very soon he was sent to England. After working for three years as a priest in London he was arrested and taken to the Fleet prison. He spent three years in the Fleet when the Spanish ambassador obtained his release, conditional on his leaving the country for good. However he soon returned, spent a further three years working in London, was again arrested and was this time first imprisoned in St Alban’s (a particularly harsh prison) and then transferred to the Fleet where he stayed for many years. In 1641 he was transferred to Newgate to face trial, when he was found guilty of treason. On 21 January 1642 he died on the scaffold, being allowed to hang until he was dead. According to a contemporary source, in his death he showed “joy, contentment, constancy, fortitude and valour”. The feast is on 31 January according to the modern Gregorian calendar, already in use on the Continent: this corresponds to 21 January in the previous Julian calendar, which England was still using at that time.

Jesus used, we are told, many parables when teaching the people. Now - it seems - he did not explain them at the time, but left the people to ponder on them. The apostles did get the meaning explained. They also seem on the whole to have accepted Jesus's teaching methods and those who wrote the Gospels did not write down those explanations!

Although agriculture was very different back then, these two parables about growing plants still seem to make sense today - the surface o the story seems to have an obvious meaning. Parables, however, always have layers of deeper meaning and it is well to linger with the story a while and see if we can get to the deeper meanings.

Seeds often grow secretly - and for a long time. Perhaps Jesus is telling us that the long wait for understanding, or acceptance oft he faith that many go through is important, and of value in itself. Our RCIA group has both young, fast moving souls, and souls that have been pondering this movement into the Catholic Church for decades. And the mustard seed - could be an individuals' impression of their own tiny and weak faith, or of the small numbers of believers who can by example and persistence, save an entire population!

Let parables mull on your mind, like a good wine lives on your palette, so that they grow in flavour, meaning and joy!

I am sure Jesus had a good sense of humour. Beds of his time were made of animal hair or rushes, bound in sacks and laid on a wooden framework. And the light source of his day was the open flame of an oil lamp... It seems unnecessary to point out the folly of placing a lamp under a bed!

A good teacher might use such a nonsense story to attract the attention of their students - then the message taught punches home the more readily and with some sticking power. The key is "with the measure that you give, will what you receive be measured" . So let us be generous - the more we love, the more shall we be loved. The more we teach, the more we learn.

St Thomas Aquinas, Bishop and Doctor, is most noted for his theological writing. If you find your understanding of doctrine and faith is challenged by confusion and want a simple, straightforward and uncompromising guidance - then choose to read St Thomas.

His masterpiece is perhaps the Suma Theologica. The Suma was for a very long time the standard textbook or reference for theological certainty and is still so valuable today. Beware of an urge to study it - it will take you a lifetime or two to get to grips with it.

Somewhat like St Benedict's Rule on monastic life, the Summa begins with an exemplar of clarity:

Because the doctor of Catholic truth ought not only to teach the proficient, but also to instruct beginners (according to the Apostle: As unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat—1 Corinthians 3:1-2), we purpose in this book to treat of whatever belongs to the Christian religion, in such a way as may tend to the instruction of beginners. We have considered that students in this doctrine have not seldom been hampered by what they have found written by other authors, partly on account of the multiplication of useless questions, articles, and arguments, partly also because those things that are needful for them to know are not taught according to the order of the subject matter, but according as the plan of the book might require, or the occasion of the argument offer, partly, too, because frequent repetition brought weariness and confusion to the minds of readers.

Endeavouring to avoid these and other like faults, we shall try, by God's help, to set forth whatever is included in this sacred doctrine as briefly and clearly as the matter itself may allow.

The Gospels treat this event - the apparent rejection of his own family by Jesus, including his Mother! - in rather different ways. Mark is quite blunt - those who are called his brothers and sisters are those who hear and follow his word and example. Our human family is not as important as our heavenly one. Luke however places the scene after all the parables, and removes the condemnation - so that his Mother, and other relatives become the first who do hear and accept his teaching.

I think they are each making the same point, but to different audiences. The important thing to Jesus is our relationship with God, not our family, race, country or perhaps even, our creed. We all can choose to belong to the Christian family - into which we are baptised - and that is what matters.