Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of (Matthew 25: 1-13) in which Jesus tells the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids and says, ‘keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour’. 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.

On this day, Fr Paul invites us to ask, ‘St Cecilia… Pray for us!’