This Week
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
26/7/2026
July is the Month of the Most Precious Blood
In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Last weekend, I had the privilege of going on pilgrimage to the shrines of St Cuthbert Mayne and St Boniface with a group of 65 young people and catechists This was a vocational pilgrimage, inviting these young people to discover what God is calling them to. The theme of the pilgrimage was trust. St Cuthbert Mayne before his martyrdom echoed the words of Christ on the Cross: In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum—”Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”
This pilgrimage was an invitation for these young people to place their lives into the hands of the Lord, trusting that He will never disappoint those who seek Him. One simple but profound experience stayed with me. A young woman in our group lost one of her earrings as we travelled by boat to the replica of Mont Saint-Michel in Cornwall. Naturally, she was upset. But once we reached the island, she accepted what had happened and continued to enjoy the day with remarkable peace. Later, because the tide had gone out, we returned to the mainland on foot across the causeway. By then she had almost forgotten about the earring, until someone reminded her where she had lost it. She returned to that very spot and, to everyone’s amazement, found it. That simple moment reminded me of the Gospel. God does not take things away from us to leave us empty. Rather, He desires to free us from our attachments so that, when His gifts are returned to us—or when He gives us something even greater—we receive them with new hearts and deeper gratitude. The real gift she received was not simply her earring. It was a deeper trust that God was with her throughout the journey. In many ways, that was the grace of the pilgrimage for all of us. We discovered that when we entrust ourselves to the Lord, He changes us. The journey itself becomes a place of encounter, where faith grows and hope is renewed.
May we all have the courage to make the words of St Cuthbert Mayne our own “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”
With every blessing,
Fr Axcel
Readings at Mass Today
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Psalm
Second Reading
Gospel
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