2 Timothy 4:1-8 ; Matthew 13:44-46 St Margaret of Antioch, as she is known in the West, is the same as St Marina the Great celebrated in the Eastern churches. St Margaret of Antioch (on the left) together with St Margaret of Scotland. Stained glass window, St Margarets' Church, Burnham Norton. According to a C9th Martyrology (a record that tells the lives of the martyrs), Marina/Margaret suffered and died in 304. An audio of this talk can be found here She was the daughter of a pagan priest, Aedesius, and her mother died when she was very young. She was nursed by a Christian woman, who lived 15 miles or so from Antioch. She embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to Christ. It was at about this time that men were beginning to go off into the desert to consecrate themselves to Christ – the earliest monks; and so we could say that Margaret was one of the earliest nuns. She was disowned by her father, adopted by the Christian woman, and lived in the country keeping sheep. ...
Luke 10:38-end Jesus gave the wrong answer. I know that because I asked the children in an assembly last week. An audio of the talk can be found here I had Martha peeling a potato, cutting an onion, tidying up and washing up, setting the table – and I had Mary sitting with Jesus and listening to him. And Martha became more and more angry and irritated because she was doing all the work, and Mary was doing nothing. So I asked them, ‘What should Jesus have said to Mary?’ And they said that he should have told her to help! But he gave the wrong answer. Christ in the Home of Martha and Mary, Johannes Vemeer , Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh What is going on? 1. Don’t ask Jesus to do your dirty work for you Martha says to Jesus, ‘Tell Mary to help me’ But Jesus, it seems, challenges Martha and not Mary That also happens later in Luke 12:13-15 . A man goes to Jesus and says, ‘Tell my brother to share the inheritance with me’, and Jesus replies, ‘Friend, who appoi...