My Christmas blessings to the people of the diocese of Paisley and to all people of good will, wishing you joy and peace in this season of new life and grace.

Feast of Corpus Christi Fiftieth Anniversary of the Opening of Saint Andrews Church   Dear brothers and sisters, it is a joy for me to be with you in Saint Andrew’s Parish, Greenock, on one of the most precious of Solemnities in our Liturgical Calendar, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord. 

Dear brothers and sisters, Today we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priest-hood and Religious Life.

Easter Vigil 2018   Dear brothers and sisters, we have made a long journey already this Easter Night, having begun our pilgrimage gathered together outside around the Fire that acknowledges God’s greatness and actions, all of which show His wisdom and love.  Around this fire of Divine Love we remembered how, in the Beginning and with ardent joy, our Triune Lord formed us in His own likeness and set us over the whole world to serve Him as our Creator, and to rule over all creatures.

Easter Message 2018   Dear brothers and sisters.   May God, the Father of Mercies, confer on you every Paschal blessing and grace through His Risen Son, Who holds out to our world the offer of untold new life and hope.

Mass of the Lord’s Supper 2018 Holy Rosary Residence   Dearest Mother, Sisters and brethren,   I cannot think of a better place for celebrating the Mass of the Lord’s Supper than here with you in this Holy Rosary Residence.  It is good to be with you who have welcomed in our loved ones who, through age and infirmity, became too small in their own household to prepare a Lamb, and who therefore have joined you in your blessed household to share this Sacred Meal.

Chrism Mass Homily 2018   Dear brothers and sisters, it is a joy to be with you as we gather together in our diocesan family for our annual Chrism Mass.   We gather to thank our Heavenly Father that He gave us His Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, as our Great High Priest forever, anointing and consecrating Him to Sacred Ministry on our behalf.  As His Church we will go on thanking Our Lord Jesus Christ till the end of time that He, the Eternal Priest by His own right, saw fit to ensure that the graces and blessing of His Priesthood would continue to be near at hand for us, His Beloved Flock, in every age down through the history of our world.  He has done so by calling sons out of our midst, and setting them apart like Him as His brothers, consecrating them to share in His own Sacred Ministry.  Today we gather to pray for our priests, my brothers and your dear fathers, and I know you will not mind if I dedicate my words personally to them on this evening that they hold so dear in their hearts.  

Happy Christmas everybody.   As I look down from my office and see everyone rushing about in the town below it is lovely to sit still, I am glad of the opportunity every year to offer some ideas to lead you into the true joy of this season.  

Opening of Saint Conval’s Church Fiftieth Anniversary   Dear brothers and sisters, it is a great joy for me to be with you as your bishop as you celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of this parish church.   As we celebrate the Golden Jubilee of this church, of course, we give thanks to God for the long and noble history of our parish that first came to light nearly one hundred and thirty years ago, in 1898. 

Dear brothers and sisters and friends,  It is good to be with you in Saint Aidan’s today for this Kirking of East Renfrewshire Council welcomed, as we have been so finely, by Canon Nicholas Taylor and the parish community.  Personally it is a joy to see Bishop Gregor with us, as well as fellow representatives from the Jewish and Muslim faiths (and we are honoured by the presence of our Presiding Officer of Parliament, Ken Mackintosh MSP). 

Dear brothers and  sisters,  it is always the sweetest pleasure to join with you here in Carfin as our Paisley diocese makes its annual Pilgrimage in homage to Mary, our Mother, the Immaculately Conceived of God.  Our pilgrimage to Our Blessed Mother is annual, by turn going to meet Her at Lourdes in the Pyrenees and then meeting Her here at home in Carfin.  We come to thank Her, the Mother of our diocese, for all the graces She has obtained for us from Her Son, to ask Her to obtain Her Son’s blessing and protection in the year to come, and just to honour Her as the love of our hearts and our hope of salvation.

Dear Brothers and Sisters It is a joy to welcome you to Paisley Diocese for your conference on New Movements and the wider Christian community.   I am particularly pleased at how the Holy Spirit has inspired you to think about how to encourage and foster Christian family life.

I want to congratulate Catholic Charismatic Renewal on their Golden Jubilee.  It is quite something to think that this Renewal of the Holy Spirit came down to us and blew mightily in our Church and world over half a century ago now.   As Renewal’s liaison with the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland it is a pleasure for me to write a few words to reflect the joy and of this Jubilee and the challenge facing Renewal in Scotland in the decades ahead.

Dear brothers and sisters,   Today we gather to confer the ministry of Lectorate on one of our brothers, Paul Graham, as he takes his first ministerial step to become a Deacon in our diocese and enter into the order of the diaconate. 

Dear Provost, Canons, Fathers, brothers and sisters This evening we gather with our Cathedral Canons for our bi-annual chapter and, once again, it is with the special joy of raising two of our senior priests  of the diocese to the order of Canon so as to make complete once again our Cathedral  Chapter.

Dear brothers and sisters, We gather this evening on the Feast of Saint Columba who was perhaps Scotland’s most effective evangeliser and who is surely with us now from heaven as our friend, teacher and intercessor as we take up the challenge of a new evangelisation of our land today.  Columba’s coming to Scotland marked a personal conversion in the journey of his Catholic faith and it was so powerful that it became one of the forces that created the nation of Scotland itself, unified and founded on his faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ

My dear brother Jonathan, there is hardly a greater joy for a bishop than presiding at the ordination of a new priest and seeing stand before him the joy and hope of our Church as it stretches out into the generation ahead. 

Dear brothers and sisters, dear Fr. Ben, it is a joy to be with you today as we celebrate your first Mass, a Mass of thanksgiving for your priestly ordination, offered up through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, Immaculately Conceived.

Dear brothers and sisters, it is a joy for me to be with you here in Saint Mary’s, the Mother Church of Greenock and all Lower Clydeside, this Easter Sunday. Your parish can trace its Christian roots close to Gospel times themselves and certainly from the sixth century mission chapel founded here by Saint Blane of Bute. Re-established in post-Reformation times as the Greenock Mission, the first priests of Saint Mary’s preached the Gospel across the river into Dumbarton and down through Ayrshire, founding many parishes that thrive still today, far and wide.

Dear brothers and sisters, we gather for these Vigil rites as a people of faith, all prepared to share in the adventure of a Communion of Life with God Himself, in His Risen Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.