Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days

by Canon David Winter Later this month the Church calendar celebrates the lives of John and Charles Wesley.  John’s great gift to the Christian cause was the little matter of founding the world-wide movement known as Methodism. His brother Charles had an equally profound impact through his hymns. He actually wrote over 6,000, most of...

Augustine, a 6th century Italian prior, holds a unique place in British history.  He became the ‘apostle to the English’ – although it was with great reluctance. In 596 Augustine was chosen by Pope Gregory to head a mission of monks whom he wanted to send to evangelise the Anglo-Saxons.  Augustine was not a bold...

Rogation means an asking of God – for blessing on the seed and land for the year ahead. It is appropriate in any emergency, war, plague, drought or foul weather. The practice began with the Romans, who invoked the help of the gods Terminus and Ambarvalia.  In those days a crowd moved in procession around...

40 days after Easter comes Ascension Day. These are the 40 days during which the Risen Christ appeared again and again to His disciples, following His death and resurrection.  (Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; and John 20.) The Gospels give us little of Christ’s teachings and deeds during those 40 days.  Jesus was seen...

How far would you go to respond to God’s call on your life?  When as the daughter of a peasant family in Champagne in 1426, 14 year-old Joan heard heavenly voices calling her to ‘save France’ from the English, she decided to obey the call, no matter what the consequences. Teenage girls who want to...

Mary – the virgin mother of Jesus.  For centuries the eastern and western churches have considered her pre-eminent among all the saints. In the gospels, Mary makes her first appearance as a teenager.  Nothing is known of her childhood, and what we do know of her is found mostly in Matthew 1 – 2 and...

Editor:  As the church year does not change, much of this material has appeared before.  The articles on ‘Fooling Around’ and ‘Mary Magdalene’ are new this year. NEW*1  Fooling around 1          April Fool’s Day 2          Hugh of Grenoble – the saint who fought corruption 3          Richard of Chichester – wanting God more clearly, dearly and...

by Canon David Winter I was about six when I began to enjoy April Fool’s Day. My older brother was very clever at appropriate hoaxes, not only deceiving me but also mum and dad. On the whole my childish efforts were encouraged. The day was full of laughs, even at school, where the teachers would...

In years gone by, the rules surrounding April Fool were this:  between midnight and noon on 1st April, everyone is ‘fair game’ to be made a fool of.  It is the morning of the practical joke.  But the aim is not just to discomfort the victim: he must be tricked into taking action himself, sent...

Murky crimes committed by various church leaders, local shops in trouble, roads needing repair, and hospitals in a sorry state…. wanting to retire, but the law said no… it seems that Hugh of Grenoble was dealing with 21st century problems in the 11th century. Born at Chateauneuf in 1052 as the son of a knight,...

Ever wonder where the prayer … ‘May I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day’ comes from?  Richard of Chichester, a bishop in the 13th century, wrote it. He began life as Richard de Wych of Droitwich, the son of a yeoman farmer.  But Richard was...

Leaving England to live in Spain was popular long before the TV show ‘Location Location Location’ became popular.  Back in 1350 Vincent Ferrer’s parents had left England to settle in Valencia, where their son Vincent was born and grew up.   In 1367, when he was 17, Vincent felt called by God to become a monk,...