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A Golden Celebration
We had the pleasure of welcoming Bishop Joseph Toal, of the Diocese of Motherwell, yesterday for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, one of the two Churches which make up our Parish of Saint Ambrose. As part of the celebration, we also welcomed two of the former parish priests, Monsignor John McIntyre and Fr Vivian Hayes, together with our current parish priest, Fr Tom Devlin. They were accompanied by our parish deacon, Michael Meechan, and visiting fellow deacon, Joe Gallagher. In his homily, Bishop Toal spoke about the time of the building of St Francis of Assisi Church, coming not so long…
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The Memory of the Cross
Around my neck, I wear a Cross on a chain. It isn’t externally visible – no-one at all can see it and neither do they so much as know it is there, because I keep it under my shirt. But I know it is there. And it terrifies me. That might seem like a strange thing to say, I know. It’s a heavy Cross, made from solid silver – though, I am certain, of no weight at all in comparison to the one upon which it based. But I can feel that weight all day – in fact, that was precisely the reason I purchased this particular Cross, just so…
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Holding The Cross
I have a large and very old bronze Crucifix – pictured above – which I think is somewhere over one hundred years old. I suspect it was once in the possession of a member of a religious order, given the quality of it and also the heavy chain originally attached to it, indicating that it was to be worn around the neck – only a religious would have worn such a large Crucifix. I find myself wondering who that religious was and where they went with the Crucifix, what they did and how it inspired them. This Crucifix takes pride of place in my little oratory, where it hangs above…
