Christ Alive: Reflections from the Shadows of Life into the Light of God, John Deane-O’Keefe (Resource Publications, Eugene, Oregon USA, £19.50; available through Amazon) This is an unusual book. The note on the author tells us that John Deane -O’’Keefe is a church pastor, prison and hospital chaplain, and forensic criminologist. This suggests a rare…
‘It takes a village to raise a child’. Following the saying, a group of Catholic mothers who wish to raise their children in the Catholic faith founded a group to be that ‘village’ to each other, providing the necessary support not only to the children but also to the mothers. The Catholic Mothers Ireland (CMI)…
“Soon the sun will set” — said Benjamin. “Is that prophecy? No, it’s merely an assertion of faith in the consistency of events.” In A Canticle for Leibowitz, the post-apocalyptic novel by Walter M. Miller Jr, such grim ‘consistency’ refers to humanity’s habit of circling back to self-destruction. Knowledge, once rediscovered after nuclear holocaust, is…
He invites us to accept him as our friend and be his disciple who will imitate his unselfish dedication to do good for others, oppose evil, free the destitute and the downtrodden from their hardships, and support victims of child abuse. He calls on sinners to repent and do penance. He saved the world from…
Michaelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, Ross King (Pimlico, £9.99) Quite by chance I was reading this book at the time the Conclave began. I thought it would be interesting to make the decorations of the Sistine Chapel the focus of some reflections on the election of the Pope. But like the rest of the world I…
The altar servers and animators gathering 2025, titled ‘Savio Fest’, took place on May 17 in the Church of the Guardian Angel, Blackrock. The event, organised by the Syro Malabar Catholic Church, was led by the Missionaries of the Apostolic Grace and had 275 altar servers attending and about 40 animators from different Mass centres.…
“I would like that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world,” said Pope Leo XIV formally beginning his tenure as the successor to St Peter. “In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused…
Last week, I managed to get my hands on a copy of a PhD thesis from 1987 entitled ‘The office and authority of the local prior in the order of Saint Augustine’ by one Robert Prevost, then a doctoral student only a few years older than myself. For years it had lain totally untouched in…
“The more you farm out to an AI what you should be doing yourself, the more you make yourself obsolete… Mediocrity is going to put a lot of people out of work,” said Fr Phillip Larrey. Fr Larrey, PhD, is a Catholic priest and professor of philosophy at Boston College. He previously served as dean…
It was a small, almost hidden message that captured the essence of Aoife Shelly’s life. In the hospital, while her family kept vigil at her bedside, an alarm went off on her phone. When they reached for it to silence the alarm, they found a note in her notifications: “10pm: Time for Prayer.” In the…
Peter Costello
Renata Steffens
Chai Brady