Bishop John Sherrington Homilies and Addresses

In May we celebrated the joyful coronation of King Charles III when he took the Oath to cause Law and Justice in Mercy. After his Coronation, he was presented with the Jewelled Sword, known as the Sword of Offering or the Sword of State. This…Read more

On Michaelmas Day, 1568, Douai College was founded in northern France. The College commenced in a hired house near to the theological schools in that small town and received papal approval on that same day. Cardinal William Allen, who inspired…Read more

Today we thank God for the gift of the parish of St Mary’s East Finchley. We celebrate 125 years since the foundation in 1898 and 70 years since the building of this Church in 1953, the first to be built in the diocese after the Second World…Read more

Let us witness to the preciousness of human life... We gather ahead of the March for Life to pray and ask the intercession of Christ and the saints for the peaceful witness to life in the womb that many thousands of people will make today. We…Read more

Chiselled into the stone above the door of the old Mansion House of All Hallows College, Dublin, are the words At his ordination, the priest hears the bishop pray the words of the Prayer of Consecration, ‘grant to this servant of yours the…Read more

The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick reveals to us the mercy and healing of God, the outpouring of an abundance of God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. After the laying on of hands invoking the transformation of the Holy Spirit,…Read more

Sing it in the valleys, shout it from the mountain tops; Jesus came to save us and his saving never stops. These words we sang in the opening hymn of the Mass. It is a great joy to be here in the Cité St Pierre, under the canopy of God’s…Read more

Today we begin to remember the foundation of the parish and this Church as we prepare for It is important to remember our beginnings, our history and those men and women whose generosity has provided the Church and buildings which we enjoy today.…Read more

Today we mark the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people died and the lives of so many families were changed in that dreadful event for ever. Many people carry the memories of those days deeply within them: the school…Read more

St John Henry Newman in The Idea of a University writes of St Philip, ‘And who was he, I say, all the while, but a humble priest, a stranger in Rome, with no distinction of family or letters, no claim to station or to office, great simply in…Read more

This reflection invites four moments of prayer. At the cross her station keeping… ‘At the cross her station keeping, stood the Virgin Mother weeping’. Our Blessed Lady, Mother of tenderness and compassion, stands and prays at the foot of…Read more

My brother John, It is a great joy to celebrate your ordination to the diaconate today on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. For some of your childhood, you grew up in the parish of St Bernadette, where you will have grown in love and appreciation…Read more

On Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. During the days of Advent and Christmas, we have celebrated God’s plan to save his people from sin, focused on the Incarnation, the Epiphany and now the spotlight moves to the baptism…Read more

O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. These words immediately remind us of the favourite carol In the first verse, we are summoned to Bethlehem to come and adore the King of Angels. When we…Read more