As we commemorated St Anthony this past week I thought it worthwhile to look at one of his sayings: Our life and our death is with our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have gained God, but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ. How often do we think of our brothers and sisters as if our survival depended upon them - “our life and our death is with our neighbor”? We are much more likely to think of them as, at best, companions or fellow travelers, but

It is a sort of happy coincidence that on the civil calendar the New Year begins in the midst of the Church season when we are keeping the feasts that celebrate the birth of the Lord, His circumcision, baptism, and finally His meeting in the temple on February 2. This is, as I say, a coincidence because, among other things, the Church New Year falls on September 1. Nevertheless, I would like to exploit this happy coincidence as we enter the New Year of 2020. All four of the G