Today we welcome back Fr Paul Gooley. He also takes the opportunity to thank those that presented the gospel reflections while he was on leave. Today he reads from the Gospel of Luke (6: 12-19), in which Jesus, after spending the night on the mountainside praying to God, calls his disciples to him and chooses twelve of them to be apostle. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about Sts Simon and Jude whose feast we celebrate today.

Simon is eleventh in the list of the twelve Apostles. He is known as Simon the Zealot, but nothing else is known about him. His other name of “Simon Cananaeus” simply adapts another Hebrew word for “zeal” and has nothing to do with the town of Cana.

Jude, also called Thaddaeus, is the apostle who at the Last Supper asked the Lord why he showed himself only to the disciples and not to the world. For many centuries he was scarcely venerated because people confused him with Judas Iscariot. He is the patron saint of lost and desperate causes.

 Today as we celebrate the lives of these two Apostles, Fr Paul invites us to pray,’ St Simon and Jude, pray for us!’