The Immaculate Conception Church Spinkhill

11/10/2026

10/10/2026

Fr Peter offers a ‘Thought for the Week’

We all have priorities in our lives and they will vary, often dramatically, according to the circumstances of our lives. Our own needs and the needs of those we share our lives with will surely be high on our list and what these are may vary from essential needs for survival to luxuries which we have come to expect. But deep down in our lives there should be some priorities which we can and should all share.

Whether we share the same or similar faith or not, there must be some times when we all get close to asking profound questions which add up in one way or other to something like “what is life all about?” We may be prompted to ask such things when life is hard and tragedy, sickness, or poverty strike us or those we love. But, at the other extreme, it could be when all goes well that we ask the same question in a kind of disbelief that we are so blessed. At both extremes we can wonder “Why?”

Today’s Gospel parable (Matthew 22: 1-10) first of all assures us that there is a purpose and meaning to life and secondly helps us to acknowledge that there is a power which is greater than ourselves. We know that power as God who has invited us to the feast which is a share in God’s life. And, if we know that invitation, we would be foolish to ignore it because the feast will be celebrated and there is a place there intended for every one of us.

03/10/2026

03/10/2026

Fr Peter offers a ‘Thought for the Week’

There almost always seems to be someone who wants to spoil things even when they are going well. And in God’s great plan for his creation, our world and we who call it home, we still experience the consequences of selfishness and pride which caused (and still cause) human downfall. But not everyone falls into these traps, at least not permanently, and todays parable, shocking though its story is, gives us encouragement to rise above them.

This parable (Matthew 21: 33-43) reminds us that it was not his father’s will that his son should be treated so badly, just as it was not God the Father’s desire that Jesus, his Son, should suffer as he did. It was the selfishness and pride of the others who so mistreated these sons and caused their unjust suffering and so suffered themselves. But those who refuse to be seduced by human selfishness and pride will be rewarded because they will produce good fruit and be keystones in the building up of God’s Kingdom.

26/09/2026

PASTORAL LETTER FOR THE SEASON OF CREATION from Bishop Marcus

19/09/2026

Fr Peter offers a ‘Thought for the Week’

How many times have we all been tested by what we have observed in other people? It could well have been a lesson learnt from others about something that they may take for granted but which we should best avoid. Or it could be the exact opposite: something wonderful that others have in their lives which we might want to imitate but doubt if we can manage it. Hopefully we all know those gifts which we admire and value in others and just as hopefully there are gifts in our lives that others admire and value in us. But none of us is complete and there will always be ways in which we need to try to improve and ways which we can as yet only aspire to make part of our lives.

The complaint of the workers in the vineyard who thought they had been harshly treated acknowledged, but found hard to accept, a virtue which Christ teaches us about God: generosity not to some but to all. And to see the value of God’s generosity we only need to see ourselves on the other side of the complaint the owner of the vineyard received. If we think about ourselves being the last to be hired rather than the first, we will surely not complain but rather be grateful for benefit of that generosity.

This parable doesn’t ask us to think of our relationship with God as us not being first in the queue but being the last who will become first. That lesson is there for us all.

Picture: Parable of the Vineyard: Ursuline Sisters of Louisville

12/09/2026

Fr Peter offers a ‘Thought for the Week’

The Gospel this Sunday continues the theme of other recent passages in reminding us about the importance of forgiveness and insisting that we should be generous and not miserly with this gift. (Matthew 18: 21-25) This encouragement can also be said about so many other aspects of Christian life. Being a follower of Christ is not something we should switch on and off depending on the situation we find ourselves in. Being a follower of Christ is part of our identity, something we always have with us.

In our calendar this is “Education Sunday”. As we welcome the pupils and staff after the summer break, we are asked to pray for them and for all our Catholic schools. When our Church was taking its place once again in public life in this country, in years following the “Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829”, one of the decisions made by our bishops then was that if parishes had to make a choice between building a church or a school, they should build a school first. The school could, of course, always be used as a church, and many were, but this decision showed our Church’s commitment to education for our young people, including education in the faith. Our schools then, since, and now are called to be beacons of Christ which invite everyone involved in them to share an experience of what living faith means. Our schools should strengthen those who have faith and show those without faith what living faith is like. Just like all of us, our schools are called to demonstrate our faith in Christ as naturally as the way we walk all the other paths of our lives. We must all and always walk with Christ, following his footsteps. We enjoy a great privilege with our Catholic schools. They are envied by many.