After reading from the Gospel of Mark (7:14-23), Fr Paul shares a little about the life of St Scholastica, whose memorial we celebrate today. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples it is what is inside a person’s heart, rather than the food they eat, that makes them unclean.

St Scholastica was born in Nursia around 480 and it is held that she is the twin sister of St Benedict. She was dedicated to God from an early age and she followed her brother to Cassino where she died around the year 547. She is held to have founded the Benedictine Sisters.

So today as we remember her life and celebrate what she has done for our Church and what she has done for the world, Fr Paul says, we ask St Scholastica to pray for us.