Today as we celebrate the feast of St Andrew, Fr Paul reads the Gospel from Matthew (4: 18-22), in which Jesus calls Simon (later called Peter) and his brother Andrew. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about St Andrew.

Andrew was born in Bethsaida in Galilee and as we learn in today’s Gospel he worked as a fisherman. He may have been a disciple of John the Baptist.  Andrew became one of the first to follow Jesus and introduced his brother Simon-Peter to Jesus.  As one of the apostles, he was widely venerated in ancient times and became Patron Saint of Scotland because, as legend has it, some of his bones were brought there and buried at the place where the town called ‘St Andrews’ now stands.

As we remember and celebrate the life of St Andrew, Fr Paul invites us, together, to pray ‘St Andrew, pray for us!’