About Today
Tuesday 27 January 2026
Tuesday of week 3 in Ordinary Time
or Saint Angela Merici, Virgin
The Lord is a great king: come, let us adore him.
Year: A(II). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: Green.
St Angela Merici (1470 - 1540)
She was born in Desenziano, in Lombardy, in about 1470. She became a Franciscan tertiary and set up a school to instruct girls in Christianity and good works. In 1535 she founded the Ursulines, an order of nuns devoted to giving a Christian education to girls from poor families. She died in 1540. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.
Other saints: Blessed Edward Oldcorne (1561-1606)
Birmingham
Edward Oldcorne was born in the City of York in 1561, the son of a bricklayer. He studied abroad from 1581, first at Rheims, then at the Venerable English College, Rome, where he was ordained in 1587. While in Rome, he joined the Society of Jesus. Once back in England, he worked in Worcestershire for eighteen years with great success in reconciling men and women to the Church. At the time of the Gunpowder Plot he was captured at Hindlip House on 27 January 1606, taken to London and racked. His trial for treason took place at Worcester, where he was executed on 7 April 1606 on Red Hill. He was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929; his memorial is kept on the day of his capture.
Other saints: St Henry de Osso (1840-1896)
27 Jan (where celebrated)
Other saints: Bl. Marcolino of Forli OP (1317 - 1397)
27 Jan (where celebrated)
Dominican Friar and Priest.
The mother of Jesus and his brothers were standing outside
Gospel: Mark 3:31-35
At that time: The mother of Jesus and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.’ And he answered them, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister andmother.’
Reflection on the painting
Today’s Gospel can feel unsettling at first. It almost sounds as if Jesus is brushing aside his own family. But that is not what is happening. The Gospel carefully tells us, twice, that his family are outside. Quite literally, they are standing physically outside the house where Jesus is teaching. Meanwhile, those seated around him form a circle on the inside. Jesus uses this simple physical contrast to make a deeper point: belonging in God’s family is not determined by proximity, bloodline, or privilege, but only by relationship. What matters is not where you physically stand, but whether you are listening, responding, and seeking to do God’s will within the community of others.
That distinction speaks powerfully into our world today. We are very quick to divide peopleinto insiders and outsiders; into who belongs, who doesn’t; who is “one of us” and who is not.Too often, being an insider is treated like membership of an exclusive club, guarded byboundaries that keep others out. Our Christian faith does speak about belonging — we areindeed joined together by baptism and faith into the Body of Christ — but it is never meantto become exclusive. Quite the opposite. To belong to Christ is to belong to a family withopen doors. The true insider, Jesus tells us, is anyone who listens, follows, and desires to doGod’s will. And if that is the case, then our task as Christians is clear: to make sure that noone feels shut outside, fling open the doors, and make sure that everyone knows there is aplace for them in the circle around Christ.
Everyone on the outside can move to the inside. Today's reading made me think of VincentVan Gogh. He is a striking example of this movement from outsider to insider. During hislifetime, Van Gogh lived on the margins. He was misunderstood, poor, mentally unwell, andlargely ignored by the art world. He sold almost nothing, was often dismissed as a failure,and died believing he had achieved very little. He was, in every sense, an outsider. And yet,over time, the very qualities that once excluded him (his intensity, his honesty, his refusal toconform) became the reasons he is now so deeply treasured. Today his paintings hang at thecentre of the world’s greatest museums, loved by millions. Van Gogh’s story reminds us howeasily we misjudge, and how often true value is recognised only later. It echoes the Gospel’swarning: those we place on the outside may, in time, be revealed as those closest to theheart of what truly matters. So it is important to keep the doors always open to outsiders.
Painted shortly after a mental breakdown, this self-portrait painted in 1889 confronts us withVan Gogh’s vulnerability rather than artistic bravura. He does not present himself as acelebrated insider, but as a wounded, fragile human being. Yet the intensity of his gazereveals a dignity and depth the world failed to recognise at the time.
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear,Painting by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890),Painted in 1889,Oil on canvas© The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Tuesday of week 3 in Ordinary Time
or Saint Angela Merici, Virgin
The Lord is a great king: come, let us adore him.
Year: A(II). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: Green.
St Angela Merici (1470 - 1540)
She was born in Desenziano, in Lombardy, in about 1470. She became a Franciscan tertiary and set up a school to instruct girls in Christianity and good works. In 1535 she founded the Ursulines, an order of nuns devoted to giving a Christian education to girls from poor families. She died in 1540. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.
Other saints: Blessed Edward Oldcorne (1561-1606)
Birmingham
Edward Oldcorne was born in the City of York in 1561, the son of a bricklayer. He studied abroad from 1581, first at Rheims, then at the Venerable English College, Rome, where he was ordained in 1587. While in Rome, he joined the Society of Jesus. Once back in England, he worked in Worcestershire for eighteen years with great success in reconciling men and women to the Church. At the time of the Gunpowder Plot he was captured at Hindlip House on 27 January 1606, taken to London and racked. His trial for treason took place at Worcester, where he was executed on 7 April 1606 on Red Hill. He was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929; his memorial is kept on the day of his capture.
Other saints: St Henry de Osso (1840-1896)
27 Jan (where celebrated)
Other saints: Bl. Marcolino of Forli OP (1317 - 1397)
27 Jan (where celebrated)
Dominican Friar and Priest.
The mother of Jesus and his brothers were standing outside
Gospel: Mark 3:31-35
At that time: The mother of Jesus and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.’ And he answered them, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister andmother.’
Reflection on the painting
Today’s Gospel can feel unsettling at first. It almost sounds as if Jesus is brushing aside his own family. But that is not what is happening. The Gospel carefully tells us, twice, that his family are outside. Quite literally, they are standing physically outside the house where Jesus is teaching. Meanwhile, those seated around him form a circle on the inside. Jesus uses this simple physical contrast to make a deeper point: belonging in God’s family is not determined by proximity, bloodline, or privilege, but only by relationship. What matters is not where you physically stand, but whether you are listening, responding, and seeking to do God’s will within the community of others.
That distinction speaks powerfully into our world today. We are very quick to divide peopleinto insiders and outsiders; into who belongs, who doesn’t; who is “one of us” and who is not.Too often, being an insider is treated like membership of an exclusive club, guarded byboundaries that keep others out. Our Christian faith does speak about belonging — we areindeed joined together by baptism and faith into the Body of Christ — but it is never meantto become exclusive. Quite the opposite. To belong to Christ is to belong to a family withopen doors. The true insider, Jesus tells us, is anyone who listens, follows, and desires to doGod’s will. And if that is the case, then our task as Christians is clear: to make sure that noone feels shut outside, fling open the doors, and make sure that everyone knows there is aplace for them in the circle around Christ.
Everyone on the outside can move to the inside. Today's reading made me think of VincentVan Gogh. He is a striking example of this movement from outsider to insider. During hislifetime, Van Gogh lived on the margins. He was misunderstood, poor, mentally unwell, andlargely ignored by the art world. He sold almost nothing, was often dismissed as a failure,and died believing he had achieved very little. He was, in every sense, an outsider. And yet,over time, the very qualities that once excluded him (his intensity, his honesty, his refusal toconform) became the reasons he is now so deeply treasured. Today his paintings hang at thecentre of the world’s greatest museums, loved by millions. Van Gogh’s story reminds us howeasily we misjudge, and how often true value is recognised only later. It echoes the Gospel’swarning: those we place on the outside may, in time, be revealed as those closest to theheart of what truly matters. So it is important to keep the doors always open to outsiders.
Painted shortly after a mental breakdown, this self-portrait painted in 1889 confronts us withVan Gogh’s vulnerability rather than artistic bravura. He does not present himself as acelebrated insider, but as a wounded, fragile human being. Yet the intensity of his gazereveals a dignity and depth the world failed to recognise at the time.
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear,Painting by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890),Painted in 1889,Oil on canvas© The Courtauld Institute of Art, London