Always at my side

One of the earliest prayers I learned was this:

Angel of God, my guardian dear
To whom God’s love commits me here
Ever this day be at my side
To light and guard, to rule and guide.
Amen

Today, the feast of the Guardian Angels, reminds us that on the journey of life we are not alone.  Many seek wisdom, friendship and protection.  With a mustard seed size of faith we can be sure that an angelic presence assigned to us at the first moment of our existence in the womb accompanies us.  Praying with and to one’s guardian angel is not a substitute for a living, deep and personal relationship with Jesus. Rather, it is a boost, a complementary help.

In the heart of the Church: St Thérèse and the Eucharist

St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), Doctor of the Church was a Carmelite nun known to older generations as ‘the Little Flower’.  She had a deep and distinctive relationship with the Eucharist that shaped both her spirituality and her life. She grew up in a loving and devout family but was not spared suffering in childhood. Her mother, St Zélie Martin, died when Thérèse was only four years old, a loss that left a lasting mark on her sensitive nature.

Following several of her sisters into the Carmelite monastery in her hometown of Lisieux, she entered Carmel at the age of fifteen. There she lived a remarkable life of hidden holiness, simplicity and spiritual insight before her death from tuberculosis in 1897 at the age of twenty-four. She never lived to see the twentieth century, yet in many ways she can be regarded as a remarkably modern saint, living at a time of growing scepticism, rapid material progress and increasing pressures on the Church. Her mission, as she eventually discovered, was simply ‘to be love in the heart of the Church’.

Two tables, one Body

 

Today the Church celebrates the memorial of St Jerome (c. 347-420), best known for translating much of the Bible into Latin.  His famous saying still echoes:

Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.

Jerome's love of Scripture was inseparable from his love of the Eucharist. His writings provide an important witness to what Christians believed about the Eucharist at the beginning of the fifth century.  In a letter to Heliodorus, Jerome speaks of priests as those who:

confect by their sacred word the Body of Christ.

In a text translated and transmitted by Jerome, we find a striking comparison between reverence for Scripture and reverence for the Eucharist.  The text was written by Origen and later translated and transmitted by Jerome. The source cited by John Paul II explicitly identifies it as an Origen homily preserved through Jerome.  The passage observes that Christians are distressed if even the smallest fragment of the consecrated bread should fall to the ground. Such care reflects their belief that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. St John Paul II said:

Origen, who comments on our Psalm in one of his homilies, translated and disseminated by St Jerome in the West, actually interweaves the Word of God with the Eucharist: "We read the Holy Scriptures. I believe that the Gospel is the Body of Christ. I believe that the holy Scriptures are his teaching. And when he says: he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood (Jn 6,53), although these words can also refer to the [Eucharistic] Mystery, yet the Body and Blood of Christ is truly a word of Scripture, the teaching of God. When we are about to receive the [Eucharistic] Mystery, if even a tiny crumb falls, we feel lost. When we are listening to God's Word, when our ears perceive the Word of God and the body and blood of Christ, what great danger would we not fall into were we to think about something else?"

It is a reminder that the two tables of the Mass, the table of the Word and the table of the Eucharist, belong together.

In Against the Pelagians he refers to clergy participating in:

the offering of the sacrifices.

Such language reflects the Church's understanding that the Mass is not simply a communal meal but a participation in Christ's once-for-all sacrifice made present sacramentally in every age.

The Christ who speaks in the Scriptures is the same Christ who feeds his people in the Eucharist, drawing earth into communion with heaven itself.

When heaven touches earth

At every Mass we are in the presence of angels.  They join our worship in ways that are silent and hidden to us.  At each celebration of the Eucharist we are joined with  Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael whose feast day is today.  

Who are these three Archangels? 

St Michael (literally ‘who is like God’) is the defender of God's people against evil (Revelation 12:7-9).

St Gabriel (literally ‘strength of God’) announced or brought the message of the Word to Mary when the Word became flesh and lived among us (Luke 1:26-38).

St Raphael (literally ‘healing of God) who accompanies travellers, restores sight and brings healing and reconciliation (Tobit 12:11-15). He declares:

I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord (Tobit 12:15).

Lord, Who at Thy First Eucharist Did Pray

An old and familiar hymn to me is one composed by William Harry Turton (1856-1938), a British army officer (Royal Engineers) and hymn writer. Used across many parts of the Anglican communion and in recent time in Roman Catholic and other denominations it captures so well the sentiments for unity. That all may be one and that one day we may, all of us, share at the same table. May it be. Amen. Amen. Amen. Here it is:

The road to the altar

A particular town in Northern Ireland has made international headlines, once again, for all the wrong reasons. Two communities remain locked in a standoff along a road leading from a church on the hill.  Gathered early in the morning for a service of prayer a group of men wished to assert their cultural rights to walk along the King’s highway. Another community living down the road objected because of the historical associations between triumphalism and subjugation of a minority.  They will not budge.

My sense is that only a return to humility, repentance, obedience and reconciliation can bring a lasting peace. Let Christ’s words be said out loud:

Saying yes with our lives

 

Sunday 27 September 2026

Lectio Divina:*

Ezekiel 18:25-28 Psalm 25(24) Philippians 2:1-11 Matthew 21:28-32

Meditatio:

“Which of the two did the will of his father?” (Matthew 21:31)

Commentary:

An old Latin phrase says, dictum meum pactum -  ‘my word is my bond’.  Ideally, a person's word should be trustworthy. Yet experience teaches us that promises are often made in moments of enthusiasm, only to be tested when difficulties arise. Like the seed in Jesus' parable of the Sower, our good intentions can be threatened by worries, trials, distractions, and changing circumstances. Doubts emerge, enthusiasm fades, and the clarity we once possessed can become obscured.

This Sunday’s readings from Ezekiel, Philippians and Matthew invite us to reflect on the relationship between words, actions, repentance and true discipleship.