Dear Editor, In relation to the article of David Quinn (IC 10/08/2017) on the atomic bomb, your readers might like to know that when that bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945 four Jesuit priests were saying the Rosary in a house at the epicentre of the blast, where every building was demolished…
Month: August 2017
We shouldn’t limit avenues of faith formation
Dear Editor, I agree with Fr Patrick Seaver (IC Letters 03/08/2017) regarding the centrality of parents in the faith formation of children. The family, as a ‘domestic church’ is of crucial importance in the handing on of faith. I also concede that sacramental preparation may be best served solely in a parish context, once adequate resources,…
Be careful of wording of old prayers
Dear Editor, I would like through the columns of your newspaper to call on people to be careful about the prayers they use which belong to a different time and era. They reflect a bad theology. I would suggest that people stop using a prayer which contains these words: “O Jesus, forgive us our sins,…
Exploring the great outdoors
With the popularity of electronics growing every day, it can be a challenge to get your children outdoors and into nature. To make the most of what is left of the summer weather, you should get out to explore the beauty that Ireland has to offer. So how do you get your whole family to…
A camp like no other
Colm Fitzpatrick
Summer camps for young girls are well underway across Ireland instilling values like friendship, loyalty and faith in remembrance and celebration of Michaela McAreavey. In July St Peter’s Primary School Cloughreagh outside Newry in Co. Down hosted the Michaela Foundation Girls’ Summer Camp for the fifth year running. The Armagh camp was one of 19…
The power of ritual
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
I don’t always find it easy to pray. Often I’m over-tired, distracted, caught-up in tasks, pressured by work, short on time, lacking the appetite for prayer, or more strongly drawn to do something else. But I do pray daily; despite the fact that I often don’t want to and despite the fact that many times…
Sixties blitzkrieg of racist Michigan violence
Aubrey Malone
A bullet rings out in the night sky. It’s been discharged from a toy gun by a black man in a hotel room. Shortly afterwards the room is stormed by policemen. The people in the room are thrown against a wall. For the next hour they’re insulted, assaulted and threatened with death. Then murder occurs…
Sometimes a plot is just plain implausible
Brendan O’Regan
I was looking forward to the new drama Trust Me (BBC 1, Tuesday nights) – it looked promising from the trailers and starred Jodie Whittaker, impressive as the bereaved mother in Broadchurch, and soon to become the new Doctor Who (more on the gender issue later). Here she plays a nurse who turns whistle-blower but…
A mature and loving faith for living in the world today
Peter Costello
What Does It All Mean? A Guide to Being More Faithful, Hopeful and Loving By Richard Leonard SJ (Paulist Press/ Alban Books £17.99) If Catholicism is what Catholics believe, then sometimes these days it is not what the Church purports to teach. Take for instance the question of angels. These days many Catholics believe that…
The social history of modern Ireland
Ian d’Alton The social history of modern Ireland Edited by Eugenio F. Balgini & Mary E. Daly (Cambridge University Press, £24.99) This substantial and weighty (literally – it’s 635 pages come in at a little under 3lbs) is self-described as a textbook. This does it both justice and injustice. The textbook element – the extraordinary…