Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days

Have you ever been the victim of someone else’s malice and ambition?  Then William of York (d 1154) is the saint for you.  William Fitzherbert was born into a noble family, with royal connections.  He was also smart – appointed treasurer of York at a young age, and also as a chaplain to King Stephen. ...

By Canon David Winter We used to call it Whitsun – White Sunday because long ago children marched to church in white on that day. No processions nowadays, and we’ve even changed its name. It’s now ‘Pentecost’, which is more accurate but needs explaining. This year Whitsun/Pentecost is on Sunday June 9th. Pentecost marks a...

Pentecost took place on the well-established Jewish festival of Firstfruits, which was observed at the beginning of the wheat harvest. It was seven weeks after Easter, or 50 days including Easter. A feast day to celebrate the country’s wheat harvest does not sound exactly world-changing, but that year, it became one of the most important...

On that long ago first morning of Pentecost, Jerusalem was crowded with thousands of visitors, for it was one of the most popular feast-days in the Jewish calendar – the Feast of Firstfruits, looking forward to the wheat harvest. In one small room of that great city, a small group of people who had followed...

2013 marked the 1450th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the UK.  It was brought by St Columba from Ireland to Iona – a tiny island off Mull, in the Western Highlands. Columba (c. 521 -97) was born in Donegal of the royal Ui Neill clan, and trained as a monk.  He founded the...

Are you going to Cyprus on holiday this year?  If so, spare a thought for the Cypriot who played such a key role in the New Testament. He was Joseph, a Jewish Cypriot and a Levite, who is first mentioned in Acts 4:36, when the early church was sharing a communal lifestyle.  Joseph sold a...

Antony of Padua knew St Francis of Assisi.  Both men were true followers of Christ in a time of great religious confusion and social turmoil. Like Francis, Antony (1193 – 1231) was born into a wealthy family.  Antony’s father was a nobleman of Lisbon, Portugal, who sent his son at 16 to study the Bible...

If Richard Baxter were alive today, he would probably be contributing to the Thought for the Day on Radio 4, because he had a gift for the sound-bite.   Try these memorable quotes: Preaching a man a sermon with a broken head, and telling him to be right with God is equal to telling a man...

For anyone interested in Christian mysticism, Evelyn Underhill may be a good place to begin.   She died on 10th June 1941 after a life full of remarkable achievements:  author of more than 30 books that explored the intersection between the spiritual and the physical, the first woman ever to lecture to the CofE clergy, the...

Trying to explain the doctrine of the Trinity has kept many a theologian busy down the centuries.   One helpful picture is to imagine the sun shining in the sky.  The sun itself – way out there in space, and unapproachable in its fiery majesty – is the Father.  The light that flows from it, and...

Wanting God more clearly, dearly and nearly 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...

In the UK, USA and Canada, the third Sunday in June is Father’s Day.  It’s a good time for sons and daughters to take their father to his favourite restaurant, or to watch a favoured sport, or whatever else he enjoys doing. How will you celebrate it this year?  If your own father cannot be...