Take up the Sword of the Spirit” St Paul tells us, in order to “stand against the wiles of the devil.” October, the month of the Rosary, recalls how this prayer, entrusted to St Dominic by Our Lady, became the Church’s spiritual weapon. Every Dominican still wears the rosary where a medieval knight would wear…
It’s fair to say that the world has been very fractured lately,” said celebrated musician Malachi Cush, who offers up a potential lifeboat for those feeling the weight of growing division, violence, and anxiety with his recent album Healing Sounds. The album, released on October 3, is Mr Cush’s seventh studio album and features a…
Catholic leaders in Nigeria have weighed in on a recent call by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for the Trump administration to redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC) over alleged Christian persecution. Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced legislation in September that would require the Trump administration to adopt the…
Some Sundays and weekdays, I slip quietly into the chapel of the Poor Clare convent in Galway for Mass. There is something profoundly moving about beginning the Lord’s Day in such stillness, surrounded by women whose entire lives are given to prayer. Sitting in their simple chapel, I often sense that heaven is nearer than…
Those Pharisees! They keep showing up at awkward moments in the narrative of the Gospel – those pesky taskmasters. Like the bad guy in a play, or those baddies in beloved Christmas pantomimes, trying to foil goodness! Wouldn’t they just leave Jesus alone, cop themselves on and get over themselves?! You want to shake them…
Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18; Ps 34 (33); 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14 Two men went up to the temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector uke 18:9 Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: Luke 18:10 “Two men went up…
Face to Face: The Theology of the Icon, by Aidan Hart (Gracewing, £9.95 / €11.50) The title is, of course, as allusion to the text of St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see as in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then…
On October 16, Pope Leo XIV called on world leaders to show responsibility as he urged the international community to focus on the multitudes across the globe who face hunger, wars and misery. Addressing the World Food Day global ceremony that also marked the 80th anniversary of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation at its…
The Writings of Padraic Colum: “That Queer Thing, Genius”, edited by Pádraic Whyte and Keith O’Sullivan (Routledge Studies in Irish Literature, £135.00 / €156.00) There was a time, long, long ago, when Padraic Colum was one of the most quoted by heart poets in Ireland, a man whose words were happily on the lips of…
A few of last week’s programmes were more food for thought than fuel for anger or frustration. I was happy with that! Sunday Morning Live (BBC One) returned recently, with our own Cara O’Brien subbing as co-host with Sean Fletcher. Last Sunday morning, discussing climate change, I wondered how the balance of views would work…
Fr John McCarthy
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan