Maundy Thursday
Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all, how can I love Thee as I ought?
And how revere this wondrous gift so far surpassing hope or thought?[1]
The summoning of the twelve apostles to the Upper Room on the eve of the Jewish Passover by the Lord is an essential indicator of the sacerdotal nature of what was soon to unfold there. It is noteworthy that these twelve are the sole invitees. The Virgin Mary, Martha, Mary, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene or the seventy two disciples were not included. Why was this so? St John, who was present, has recorded an eye-witness account affirming its reliability at the conclusion his gospel.[2]
The reason soon becomes clear when the entire narrative is explored more closely since it describes a Mandatum, a commandment, that constitutes the order of priesthood and the institution of the Eucharist which are in fact manifestations of God’s love for mankind: “… Jesus knowing that his hour had arrived when he would pass from this world to the Father: while …More

Beatus vir qui in lege Domini voluptas eius est, et de lege eius meditatur die ac nocte.
Blessed the man whose delight is the law of the Lord, and ponders his law, day and night.
Come with me to the first of the psalms to get a glimpse of the character the scriptures give of this enigmatic Joseph, drawn for us by both St Luke and St Matthew in their infancy narratives. St Matthew handed down a text that is written from the perspective of Joseph, as the descendent of the royal line of King David. Two strands are evident in his account, the first being the genealogy of Joseph and the second, the annunciation by the angelic messenger. The first is designed to show Joseph’s descent from Abraham and the royal Davidic line in a torrent of begetting repeated thirty-nine times. Abraham begot[1] Isaac… Jesse begot David… and so on, only to halt abruptly with Jacob begot Joseph. Given the rhythm of the text one expects the next step to be Joseph begot… but no! Joseph does not beget. In the language …More

On the Feast of the Annunciation
This air, which, by life’s law
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy Welcome in womb and breast, Birth, milk, and all the rest But mothers each new grace That does now reach our race – Mary Immaculate. These lines of Gerard Manley Hopkins, when thoughtfully considered, offer within the framework of poetic meditation, an aesthetic catechism comparing the Blessed Virgin Mary to the air we breathe. They turn one’s mind at once to that most important of all the New Testament texts about Mary, the narrative of St Luke’s gospel concerning the Annunciation. This text is arguably the one that is best known and most loved throughout the Christian tradition. Artists, sculptors and painters of renown have chosen to depict its subject with all its potential for delicacy, for mystery, for drama, for conveying both uttered and unuttered dialogue.[1] The Fathers of the …More