Good morning from London’s Hyde Park where it’s a bit cloudy and I’m waiting for the sun to dispel the darkness.


This morning I got up early once again and went to morning mass at Tyburn Convent. I got there at about 7.10 and so was on time for the office of prayer before the 7.30 mass.

A young Irish-South African priest is now the chaplain at Tyburn convent and I must say that he celebrates mass very prayerfully with beautiful homilies and so this morning I was more than happy when I got to talk to him!

As God’s great sense of humour would have it, he too lived in France in the same place as I did and we know people in common!! Thank you Jesus!

What struck me in his sermon was one line:

‘Truth dispels error”

And just like the sun dispels the clouds, Jesus, God’s ‘son’ dispels the clouds of error and darkness in today’s world and church.



However some days the sun doesn’t come out and the day remains cloudy and gloomy until night. Is it the same with God? Are there some days that He doesn’t come out and that darkness reigns?!

Sadly the answer is yes because God doesn’t do everything Himself, He relies on us to cooperate with Him.


Preaching and teaching the truth and correcting error will get us nailed to the cross. This morning I took this picture at Tyburn and wasn’t aware that as I looked at Jesus, my reflection was on the image! It spoke volumes to me.

As we follow Jesus, we become like Jesus and we too get rejected and crucified for it. It’d be far easier to keep our mouths shut and our ‘powder dry’ as the saying goes!

Yet this type of self-preservation is not the gospel and the lack of clear teaching becomes a breeding ground for every sort of error and confusion.

Nowadays many hate the truth and they believe that it’s just a matter of opinion and so when faced with our confidence and faith they often revolt!

“You’re stubborn” my older brother once said to me as he tried to justify his own idiotic view on the spiritual realm. I’m not sure what I replied at the time but if I had to reply now I’d simply say:

‘I’m not stubborn, I’m confident”.


Yes, Jesus calls us to place all our trust in Him and to be boldly confident in His power, His presence and His truth.

We must challenge others who claim that God is some sort of ‘energy’ or that Jesus is just one of many ways…..

They may see us as stubborn or intolerant but so be it. That’s their problem and maybe our confidence will wake them up out of their ignorance.

Similarly with the current LGBT issue. It is not good enough to stay silent and to let the LGBT community be bullied and hurt once again by the church in the name of ‘truth’.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and we must always preach Jesus, preach the truth and preach His mercy.

Some will fall away because Jesus calls us to holiness and for some this sounds too much like hard work. Yet we must tell them and if they refuse it will be on their consciences and not ours.


And so as I sit here and as the sun is finally coming out my prayer today is for priests and preachers that they too will come out!

To come out and preach boldly and confidently of the crucified and risen Jesus, to come out and to fearlessly and publically rebuke error and yes …in some cases to ‘come out’ and show our church and world that one can be gay and be an excellent and holy celibate priest or preacher too!

So let the sun come out today and let the son of man come out today too and may we walk and talk fearlessly and confidently in the way, the truth and the life, Jesus.

Michael