The Roman Gradual offers five proper Chants for the Mass of each Sunday: the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory and Communion. We don’t know who selected the texts for these Chants, or who composed the music, or where…
One of the characteristic features, and curses, of modern life is excessive busyness. With all our labour saving devices and computer automation, the pace of life seems to get just faster all the time. So many people these days have…
Today’s Second Reading is the last in the sequence we’ve been having from 2 Corinthians. This is the letter St. Paul wrote at a time when the loyalty of the Corinthians to him was wavering, and the relationship…
Visitors to the monastery very frequently remark upon the peace and tranquillity of Pluscarden, and the beauty of its surroundings, and how natural and easy it is to sense God's presence and holiness here. They express wonder…
One of St. Paul’s preoccupations during his missionary journeys was fund raising, or the collection of money. He thought it very important that his Gentile Christian converts should support the Jewish Christians…
Joseph Ratzinger, commenting on this passage, observes that our canonical Greek text must derive from an Aramaic original. There is a direct citation of Aramaic in the name “Simon Bar-Jonah”. There are also typical Aramaic…