Sometimes places can have associations of failure and pain. The story of Simon Peter in today’s Gospel shows how the risen Jesus can transform these places into ones of hope and renewal.

Readings for Easter Friday can be found here.

In 2011 Queen Elizabeth II paid a state visit to Ireland, the first by a British monarch in 100 years. At a dinner in Dublin Castle she impressed many by opening her speech in the Irish language. For centuries Dublin Castle had been the hated symbol of British rule in Ireland. Now, here was the very symbol of the British state transforming that place from one of bitterness and pain to one of hope and reconciliation. The Castle’s legacy was not erased or forgotten, but changed.

In today’s Gospel, the risen Jesus gathers his disciples around a charcoal fire on the beach and cooks them breakfast. Among this group was Simon Peter, who had just jumped from the fishing boat into the water. The setting on the lakeside takes us back to the night of Jesus’ trial. Simon Peter stood near a different charcoal fire, warming himself outside the High Priest’s house. It was there that he denied knowing Jesus, the greatest betrayal. Jesus takes what had been a place of shame and failure for Peter, and now uses it to feed him and the other disciples. Again, it is a case of a memory transformed not erased. In the next section of John’s Gospel Jesus goes further, and says to Peter three times “feed my sheep”, thus commissioning him for leadership in the church. This sense of a place being transformed from failure to hope is at the heart of Easter. As Peter says in his testimony before the elders and scribes “Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone”. The Cross, that symbol of and disaster, is now the sign of God’s victory over sin and evil.

Perhaps we have places which remind us of past failures, times we have sinned, or betrayed our Lord. Jesus does not condemn us to be trapped in those places with the legacy of our mistakes. He who transformed Calvary, and transformed the charcoal fire for Peter, can take our sins and failings, and transform us as he feeds us in the Eucharist. Then, like with Peter, he enables us to boldly proclaim his message and serve him.

Mass today is in St Saviour’s at 10am.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our Day By Day pages.

Life can be confusing and frightening. The risen Jesus gently leads us to understanding, peace and faith, as he did with the first disciples. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.

Readings for Easter Thursday can be found here.

Have you ever woken up and wondered where you are? Perhaps it’s the first night of a holiday and you’re in a strange bed and unfamiliar room. You come to, and for a few moments you’re completely confused and bewildered. It’s a bizarre or even slightly scary sensation. Then you switch on the light, or take a moment to wake up properly, and gradually everything becomes clear.

This journey from fear and confusion to realisation and understanding is one that we see a lot in the Easter stories, and it’s happening in our readings today. The disciples have been told a couple of times that Jesus has risen from the dead. When he suddenly appears in their midst in today’s Gospel, however, they react with disbelief and terror, thinking that they are seeing a ghost. Jesus reacts beautifully to their situation. First he invites them to touch him, and even goes to the lengths of eating some fish to prove he’s real. It’s only after Jesus has calmed their fears that he proceeds to help them understand the significance of his death and resurrection, and what they must do next. The crowd in Jerusalem are equally as astounded at the healing they have just seen Peter and John perform. Peter notices this, and rather than leave the people in this state of confusion, he gently leads them to greater knowledge. Once he has explained the significance of what happened to Jesus, he then tells the people what this means for them – that they must repent.

Many times in life we will be like the disciples in that upper room, or the crowd in Jerusalem. We can often feel disorientated, confused, uncertain, and fearful. And yet our readings today show us that God can work with that. He doesn’t expect us to understand everything or have all the answers in order to be his followers. Instead, the risen Jesus comes to us in gentleness and love with his greeting of peace. He invites us to see and touch his wounds. He gently guides us to greater knowledge and then, and only then, does he send us out as his servants to bring his peace and love to a confused and fearful world.

Mass today is in St Dyfrig & St Samson, Grangetown, at 10am.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, then check out our Day By Day pages.

Like the first disciples, the gift of the Holy Spirit and encountering Jesus in the Eucharist enable us to put our faith into action. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.

Readings for Easter Wednesday can be found here.

Have you ever thought about doing some exercise but never actually got round to it? If so, then you are in good company. In 2023 the British Journal of Sports Medicine published a study on what they termed “the intention-behaviour gap in physical activity”. Of 30,000 people questioned, 33% were “unsuccessful intenders” – they planned to exercise but didn’t follow through. What would make the difference? Perhaps having a friend who was already exercising would be the encouragement they needed – someone who could go with them to the gym, show them the equipment, or even just go out for a walk together.

In our readings today we see people being led from faith in God to action, and we discover what the decisive factor is. In the beautiful Emmaus Road story, the two disciples are on a physical journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus. But they also experience a spiritual journey as well. Originally downcast following Jesus’ death, they meet the risen Lord but don’t recognise him. He opens the Scriptures to them and then reveals himself in the breaking of bread. At that moment the two are prompted to action: they rush back to Jerusalem (a 7-mile trip) to tell others that Jesus is risen. In the reading from Acts, the apostles have recently received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Now we see Peter and John acting in the name of Jesus by healing a lame man in the Temple.

Like Peter and John we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism and Confirmation. Like the two on the Emmaus Road, we encounter the risen Jesus in this and every Eucharist, who opens the Scriptures to us. May these precious gifts, given by God, be the factor which overcomes the “intention-behaviour gap” in our life of faith. Filled with the Holy Spirit, and fed by the Lord himself at the altar, may we go out into the world to act in Jesus’ name, spreading the news of his resurrection and continuing his healing work.

Mass today is in St Paul’s at 10am and St Mary’s at 11am.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our Day by Day pages.

When someone remembers our name we feel loved, valued and empowered. This is is what Jesus does with Mary Magdalene, and all of us. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.

Readings for Easter Tuesday can be found here.

Some people have a knack for remembering names – they are introduced to a person once and the name sticks in their head straight away. Others are quite hopeless; no matter how many times they are told a person’s name, they can never recall it. Remembering names is not just a gift – there are techniques which can help. One is to conjure up a mental picture as soon as you’re told someone’s name. For example, a person called Rose will make you think of the person holding a big bunch of red roses. Next time you meet the person you will recall the image and so their name. When someone remembers our name it makes us feel valued and special; when they forget it, it’s as though our very existence has failed to register.

In our Gospel today Mary Magdalene is grief-stricken and fearful as she stands outside the empty tomb. Not only has her Lord been executed, it now appears that the body has been stolen as well. Like with the disciples on the Emmaus Road, Mary fails to recognise the risen Jesus when she encounters him. It is only when he calls her by name that she realises this is the same Lord who knew her, valued her, and loved her during his earthly ministry. The remembrance of her name, and the empowerment which comes with it, transforms Mary. She goes from being sad and afraid to the first witness of the Resurrection. The crowd that Peter is addressing in our reading from Acts is similarly transformed from fear to hope. As soon as he says that the promise of the Holy Spirit is “for everyone the Lord our God calls to himself” – calls by name, in fact – they come forward with joy to be baptised.

There’s a double challenge for us in these readings. First, may we accept that God knows us and calls us by name; may that knowledge transform us to be confident witnesses like Mary. Second, whose name can we remember, treasure in our heart, and then use, so that the person knows they are loved and valued, and empowered for God’s work in the world?

Mass today is in St Mary’s at 6.30pm.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our Day By Day pages.

The Easter story is urgent news for the world that we all have a duty to pass on. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.

Readings for Easter Monday can be found here.

What is the most urgent news you have ever had to deliver? Does it compare to Pheidippides of Ancient Greek legend? After the Greek army defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, he was sent from the battlefield to the city of Athens to deliver the news. He is said to have run roughly 25 miles, burst into the assembly, and exclaimed “Nike!” (Victory) before collapsing and dying from exhaustion. Pheidippides’s journey later gave rise to the marathon race of modern athletics.

There’s a sense of urgency in our readings today. In the Gospel we meet the women on Easter Day just after the discovery of the empty tomb. They depart quickly from the tomb to tell the disciples what has happened. On the way they encounter the risen Jesus. He gives them an urgent message – go and tell the disciples to make haste for Galilee where they will see him. Although Peter isn’t journeying at speed in the first reading, his speech on the day of Pentecost has an urgency about it. He is keen for the people of Jerusalem to understand what has happened in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The temptation for us is to see Easter Day as marking the completion of a busy liturgical schedule. Easter Monday is the time for a rest. That may be no bad thing, but our readings remind us that Easter is the beginning not the end. Like Peter we are called upon to proclaim the good news that Jesus is risen. The Lord himself gives us the same command as to the women at the tomb: “go and tell”. We may not all have the energy or endurance of Pheidippides, but let us go out from this Mass with an eager urgency to deliver the Easter news to all.

Mass today is in St Dyfrig & St Samson at 10am.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our Day By Day pages.

The Cross is the means by which God heals the broken relationship between himself and humanity, borne out of love. Here is Fr Richard’s homily for today’s Good Friday Liturgy.

Readings for the Liturgy can be found here.

Have you ever fallen out with someone that you care about? Ever had an argument, a row, a tiff? I’m sure all of us have, at one point or another. Sometimes it might be a minor disagreement; or it might be a major bust-up. A breakdown in a relationship doesn’t just happen. There is usually a cause – something said, something done (or not done) by us, the other party, or maybe both. And if it’s a relationship we care about, then the fact a rift has occurred will cause pain and upset. We will want to patch things up, to heal what has gone wrong, and bring about reconciliation. How do we do this? Well first of all we need to meet with the other person. Then we need to acknowledge what has gone wrong, and address the source of the rift. And then somehow we need to overcome it, to get beyond it, perhaps by being prepared to forgive, or be forgiven. Then, at last, we can hope to move forward in hope.

This is what is happening on Good Friday, as recorded in the great Passion Narrative from John that we have just heard, but on a cosmic scale. It is all about God acting to repair the relationship of love between himself and humanity which has been rent asunder by human wickedness and sin. The extent of this sinfulness is laid in the Passion Narrative as we see an innocent man – the Son of God, no less – arrested, beaten, mocked, and executed in the cruellest and most barbaric fashion. But the evidence of human sin is also all around us. Every time we switch on the news or open the papers we see violence, destruction, pain and suffering in our world. Sometimes folk might question the relevance of our Holy Week ceremonies for the modern world. In answer we just have to say, “look around you”. See the terrible things going on in the world, and we see them all summed up in the suffering of Jesus upon the Cross.

But God in Christ on Good Friday is not simply the victim of the forces of sin and evil in the world. He is acting decisively to bring healing to our broken world. And how does he do this? In any human relationship which needs mending, the cause of the breakdown needs to be addressed, confronted, and then overcome. Now surely the worst consequence of human sin is the taking of another life, especially an innocent life. Again, this is something we see all of the time on our news feeds. Life, the most precious gift God can give, is so often treated as worthless by the actions of others. And so God confronts this. Somehow he must take away its power to separate us from him. He does this in the most amazing way possible by undergoing death himself – experiencing the worst of humanity in order to cancel out its power. He is prepared to go to the darkest corner of this world, and by laying down his life, shining the light of his love even there.

Good Friday says to us there is no place, no situation, no experience, no matter how bleak or desparate or awful, where God is not present. He has experienced the worst of this world, and so he is always there with us and with all those who suffer today. As the author of Hebrews says in our second reading “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses”. Jesus takes away the power of sin and death by showing us there is nothing to fear, because he is alongside us every step of the way. But of course, he takes away death’s power over us in another way. Here we must look ahead to Easter Day – indeed we cannot make sense of Good Friday without it, just as we cannot make sense of Easter Day without Good Friday. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead shows us that death, that worst thing standing between us and God, has been decisively defeated. The people who wage war in our world, the people who murder, who terrorise and devalue others, do not have the final say. God has the final say, and it looks like the empty tomb.

Why does God do all of this? Why does he go to such lengths to reach out to us, to undergo all that suffering for our sakes, in order to repair the relationship between himself and humanity? The answer, of course is love. As John says earlier in his Gospel, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish but have eternal life”. God loves all of us so much that he reaches out to us and is prepared to go to any lengths to bring us back to him. As the hymn puts it, “it is a thing most wonderful, almost too wonderful to be, that God’s own Son should come from heaven, and die to save a child like me”. Perhaps today we seek to understand, to make sense of what is going on at Calvary. Yet understanding can take us only so far. Ultimately we just have to accept. Accept his love, shown to us so starkly, so plainly, and so beautifully upon the wood of the Cross. 

The Good Friday Liturgy takes place today at 3pm in St Dyfrig & St Samson, Grangetown.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our Day By Day pages.