The 38th annual Gerard Manley Hopkins International Festival is set to be held from July 24 to July 30 at Newbridge College in Co. Kildare. The festival, dedicated to Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins, celebrates his interest of poetry, painting, music, philosophy and conservation as well as his mentor John Henry Newman. Throughout the week, these…
A priest I know shares this story. Recently, on their priests’ retreat, the retreat director began his opening presentation with these words: we take for granted that most people are going to hell. Then he tried to ground this assertion by quoting Jesus: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad…
Salt Wind and Rising Water: Planting a Wood on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Coast, by John S. Doyle (Merrion Press, €18.99 / £16.99) I suspect that since the invention of cities there have ever been those who longed to fly from the crowded streets to the flowing streams of the countryside. From the Epic of…
Q: I’m a Catholic who loves the traditional Latin Mass. I’m completely against the recent episcopal consecrations that happened against the pope’s warnings, but I used to be supportive of the SSPX and have regularly attended Mass at their chapels at different points in my life. How do I know if I’m excommunicated now? A:…
The community of Glencairn Abbey celebrated the first profession of three novices last Sunday. The solemn monastic profession of Sr Beatrice Brady, at St Mary’s Abbey, Glencairn, Co. Waterford, took place on July 12. Presiding over the ceremony was Dom Michael Ryan, Abbot of Bolton Abbey, Co. Kildare and Dom Augustine McGregor, former Abbot of…
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 Romans 8:26-27 Matthew 13:24-43 There is scarcely a question more frequently asked than this: Why does God allow evil? Why does He permit injustice to flourish, the innocent to suffer, the wicked to prosper, and cruelty to scar the lives of countless people? If God is all-powerful, why does He not…
The Four Heavens: A New History of the Ancient Maya, by David Stuart (Princeton University Press, £30.00 / €36.00) This year as we are all too well aware is a year of special celebration in the United States, to many 1776 being “the beginning of America”. In my personal experience from living in the great…
Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth and Proceed Sergeant Lamb, two novels by Robert Graves (Penguin Modern Classics, £10.99 each) Oliver Wiswell, by Kenneth Roberts (Published in 1940, and though no longer in print, early editions are widely available on the internet) === Starting at the beginning of this month, the celebrations and ceremonies to mark the anniversary…
Any of us who has ever suffered a grievous loss, a terrible illness, a physical or mental handicap that consumes us, knows the pain of such loss. Why did my brother have to die? Why do I have this disease or this limitation? Yet at the same time, many of us know that losing someone…
The loneliness of the long-distance believer Dear Editor, Like so many of my friends, I find myself alone at weekly Mass in our small local church. Lately my granddaughter, who has recently made her First Holy Communion joins me; ‘girl Friday’ to my ‘Robinson Crusoe’, both cast adrift on our island of obligation, striving to…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Peter Costello
Renata Steffens
Fr Dominik Domagala