Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days
Featuring the Saints whose feast-day is this month
- 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...30th May – Ascension Day: 40 Days with the Risen Christ
- 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...30th May – Joan of Arc: saving France from the English
- 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...31st May – Mary, the Blessed Virgin, visits Elizabeth
- 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...High Days and Holy Days (all) for April 2019
- 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...1 April – Fooling Around
- 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...1 April – All Fools’ Day
- 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,...2 April – Hugh of Grenoble – he fought corruption and built hospitals
- 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...3 April – Richard of Chichester – more clearly, dearly and nearly
- 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,...5 April – Vincent Ferrer: Dominican who opposed a Pope
- Zeno of Verona (d. 371) should be the patron saint of all ministers who suspect that the more things change, the more they remain the same. For instance: ethnic diversity…church-planting… teaching…. concern for the poor… women’s ministry in the church… sound like modern-day Christian concerns? Not a bit of it – this was the life...12 April – Zeno of Verona: the more things change….
- In the month of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice of Himself for us, the martyrdoms of Carpus, Papylus and Agathonice are well worth remembering. What they said as they died could be said by the many thousands of Christians who are facing persecution all over the world today. Carpus, Papylus and Agathonice lived in Pergamum (Asia Minor)...13 April – Carpus, Papylus and Agathonice: martyrs of the Early Church
- Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, when the Church remembers how Jesus arrived at the gates of Jerusalem just a few days before the Passover was due to be held. He was the Messiah come to his own people in their capital city, and yet he came in humility, riding on a young donkey, not...14 April – Palm Sunday: Jesus at the gates of Jerusalem