On May 22 each year, the Church celebrates the feast day of St Rita of Cascia. She is the patron saint of desperate situations and difficult marriages. From the story of her life, it is easy to see why. Rita was born near Cascia in Italy into a noble family in 1381. From a young…
“We can end up as good people, no big betrayals, though no big self-sacrifices either,” writes Fr Ronald Rolheiser Thomas Merton once said that what he feared in his own life was not so much a massive betrayal of his vocation, but a series of “mini treasons” that lead to a different kind of death.…
There are feasts in the Church year that we celebrate almost instinctively. Christmas appeals to the imagination. Easter speaks to the deepest human longing for life stronger than death. Pentecost, however, is often more difficult. The Holy Spirit can seem elusive, abstract, almost impossible to grasp. We understand the Father as Creator. We understand the…
“It is sad that the Irish church is only now admitting that it failed to draw on the experience of our missionaries and on those Irish priests who were leading international orders – Msgr Denis O’Callaghan in Putting Hand to the Plough, Veritas, 2007. But a little bit of our foreign based missionary background might…
I was reading a book in Eason’s one day some years ago when I got the distinct impression the words were familiar to me. After a few minutes I realised why. They were my own ones. But someone else’s name was on the cover. Plagiarism is as rampant in the music business as in literature.…
Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104 (103); 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13; John 20:19-23 Jesus breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Gospel John 20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of…
AI offers new possibilities, but technology must remain a servant of human dignity, not its master Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the modern world. It is reshaping how people access knowledge, form beliefs, communicate with one another and discern what is true. Yet it also raises profound ethical, socio-anthropological and spiritual questions. As machines…
Recently, I had the gift of spending a few precious days walking through the wild, unspoilt beauty of Connemara with colleagues who, over the years, have quietly become true and trusted friends. Surrounded by mountains, sea, and the deep stillness that only nature can hold, we found ourselves gently letting go of work, worries, and…
After covering some contentious issues in the last few weeks, I’m back on a positive trail this week. There have been some good news stories. On Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) Aaron McElroy reported from the ordination of young priest Fr Stephen Sherry in Monaghan. An increase of interest in vocations was noted along…
Michael Collins will be a familiar figure to readers. For many years he was an important commentator for international television services on events and personalities in Rome. He brings all that experience to bear in this new biography of Pope Leo XIV. This is the second biography of the Pope to come to hand recently,…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Fr Dominik Domagala
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello