March 2022 newsletter

Happy Annunciation!

That isn’t something people say. You didn’t wake up this morning expecting to hear it or planning to say it to everyone you met. Just as well, because you would be disappointed (on the one hand) and (on the other hand) come across as some kind of lunatic. But all the same it is true: the Annunciation is a great feast because it is the feast of the Incarnation. It is when our salvation started.

Creed in Slow Motion in Lent

Hodder and Stoughton, the publishers of The Creed in Slow Motion, are sending out daily tweets throughout Lent, giving quotations from the book. If you live any part of your life on Twitter then you may enjoy following them.

Hodder and Stoughton tweet as @HodderFaith, and the daily tweets have the hashtag #creedinslowmotion.

February 2022 newsletter

Every year, Lent seems to arrive suddenly: almost as a surprise. This year, the benefit of a later Lent is that it is a lighter Lent (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), which reminds us that, sombre though Lent is liturgically, gloom is not really what Lent is about. Lent is about joy.

Copy and paste on iPhone/iPad

In the latest versions of Universalis and Catholic Calendar for iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) the way you select text for copying and pasting into another app has changed.

The Epiphany again

Some people get into a terrible flap after the Epiphany, and six years out of seven they write to us to say that we have got the readings wrong. So this post really ought to appear every year.

In religious parts of the world the Epiphany is celebrated when it always has been: on the 6th of January, when good children get presents from the Kings. In more commercial parts of the world the Epiphany is moved to the Sunday after New Year’s Day, so that the Twelve Days of Christmas become the Eight Days or the Fourteen Days.

The reason for all the panic is that a day such as Saturday 8 January 2022 has different readings depending on where you are. In religious countries (including England and Wales) it is 8 January, the second day after the Epiphany. In commercial countries (including Scotland and the USA) it is Saturday after Epiphany Sunday, the sixth day after the Epiphany.

The Sacred Heart in 2022

The Birthday of St John the Baptist is celebrated on 24 June each year. The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated a fixed time after Easter, and in 2022 (and 2033 and 2044) this puts it on 24 June as well.

The standard rules for coinciding feasts would keep the Sacred Heart on the 24th, as being the more important celebration, and move the Baptist back to Saturday the 25th.

However, there is a certain discomfort in having major celebrations on Saturdays, and so the Congregation of Divine Worship has decided to bring the Birthday of St John the Baptist forward to Thursday 23 June 2022. You can find the official document here.

(The one exception is in places of which St John the Baptist is the patron: in that case he remains on the 24th and the Sacred Heart is brought forward to the 23rd).

Advent 2021 newsletter

Advent can be an embarrassing time for those of us who like to live a quiet life as “compatible Christians”, rubbing along next to our pagan neighbours with just a handful of quaint beliefs to distinguish us. Advent rather sabotages the feeling that we are just like everyone else really (or perhaps that little bit nicer).

“The Creed in Slow Motion”

“The Creed in Slow Motion”, by Martin Kochanski, will be published by Hodder & Stoughton on 30 June 2022.

Read all about it here.

“Resurrection is Now”

The book Resurrection is Now, by Dom Aelred Watkin, has been the “sleeping hit” of the Daily Books feature in the Universalis apps. You, the readers, have been so enthusiastic in your response to it that there are now plans to re-publish the printed book. Limited stocks of the original edition have been discovered so that you can buy it now if you don’t want to wait. The remaining and rediscovered stocks of the first edition sold out within 24 hours of this blog post being published!

“Journey into Light”

We are delighted to be able to announce that the recently published book Journey into Light, by Roderick Strange, is now available as a Daily Book in the Universalis apps.