The Feast of St John Ogilvy SJ | Friday 10 March 2023

Today is Friday the 10th of March, the feast of St John Ogilvy SJ, in the second week of Lent.

Paul Zach sings ‘O The Deep Deep Love Of Jesus’. How do you experience this love today?


O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast unmeasured, boundless, free
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me
Underneath me, all around me
Is the current of His love
Leading onward, leading homeward to
Thy glorious rest above
O the deep, deep love of Jesus
'Tis a heav'n of heav'ns to me
And it lifts me up to glory
For it lifts me up to Thee
O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore
How He loveth, ever loveth
Changeth never, nevermore




Today’s reading is from St Paul’s letter to the Romans.


Rom 5:1-5

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

St John Ogilvie is a martyr from the time of the Reformation. After 22 years abroad, he spent only 11 months ministering in his native Scotland before his arrest. After three trials where he protected the identity of other Catholics, he was executed.


You can, perhaps, imagine John Ogilvie remembering this passage in his prayers as he faces his accusers.

For people of faith, there may be times when they know, without doubt, that it is God who sustains them.


Is this an experience of God that you can share in?

There can be many circumstances in life where we are personally challenged.


When have you experienced a sense of God’s grace in difficult times?

Do you recognise any personal truth in Paul’s avowal that suffering ultimately produces hope that does not disappoint?

“God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” Despite Paul’s boasting, he reveals that it is God who is doing the work. As we listen again to part of the reading, notice what calls to you and why.


In this reading we experience God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Which aspect of God are you drawn to? Take some time now to express what you feel.

You have given all to me,
To You Lord, I return it.
Everything is Yours, do with it what You will.
Give me only Your love and Your grace,
That is enough for me.
Amen.