Fr Paul Gooley reads from Luke’s Gospel (19: 11-28) in which Jesus, because his followers believed the Kingdom of God was going to be revealed straight away, tells the parable of the ten pounds. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about the life of St Cecilia whose memorial we celebrate today. Fr Paul says devotion to St Cecilia, in whose honour a basilica was constructed in Rome in the fifth century, has spread far and wide because of the Passion of Saint Cecilia, which holds her up as a perfect example of a Christian woman, who embraced virginity and suffered martyrdom for the love of Christ. As with early martyrs, nothing much is known about Cecilia except her existence and her name. No-one knows quite why she should suddenly have become popular in the middle of the sixth century, some 200 years after her death, and her association with music is also a mystery. Today Fr Paul invites us to pray, ‘St Cecilia…Pray for us!’