Here in Vatican City where I live in Rome, St Peter’s Basilica is about fifty metres from my front door. I try to visit it most days to pray and go to the tombs of the popes, especially the recent ones, who are buried there. One grave that keeps drawing me to it to pray…
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…
The Anglican bishop N.T. Wright once contrasted the preaching of the Gospel by St Paul and his own efforts to do the same. “When Paul preached the Gospel, they tried to stone him. When I preach the Gospel, kind ladies make me tea!” Here he was pointing to the contrast between the effect of preaching…
To be a committed Christian today requires us to face danger. This is certainly true in places like Nigeria and other parts of the world where persecution is a real possibility with regular attacks taking place on places of worship and where Christians gather. But there is another sense, closer to home, where our faith…
In the early Church, after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, and having reflected at length on his parables, miracles, suffering and death, the focus of the debate about him moved from what Jesus did to who Jesus was. This conversation was not without pain and controversy. Positions on Jesus’ identity moved between two extreme…
The American theologian and commentator Stanley Hauerwas once said that the problem with Christianity is not that it is socially conservative or politically liberal but that “it is just too damned dull”! On April 29, the Church celebrates the feast day of a saint for whom faith was anything but dull or boring. For St…
Easter is a time to re-centre the faith, hope and mission of the Church on Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. As St Paul reminds us, it is the foundation of our faith. If it never happened, or if we reduce it to a mere symbol, then we are the most pitiful of all people…
In her wonderful prayer of the ‘Magnificat’, Mary glorifies God who has “brought down the powerful from their thrones and raised up the lowly” (Luke 1:52). With these words, Mary testifies to the reversal of order inaugurated by the kingdom of her Son whereby worldly power structures and expectations would be turned on their heads…
This week, I conclude the triduum of reflections on saints who were centrally involved in the events of Jesus’s death and resurrection. This week we focus on St John, also known as the Beloved Disciple. This term was not given to John by anyone but himself in the Gospel that bears his name. John is…
Last week, we highlighted the figure of Peter who is one of the saints that features prominently in the Gospels during Holy Week and Easter. This week, we feature another, namely that of Mary of Magdala and see in her the beauty of a life transformed by Christ. Mary became one of Jesus’s most prominent…