Discernment isn’t an easy thing. Take this dilemma: when we find ourselves in a situation that’s causing us deep interior anguish do we walk away, assuming that the presence of such pain is an indication that this isn’t the right place for us, that something’s terminally wrong here? Or, like Jesus, do we accept to…

Notebook   Last week I had a very sad phone call from a colleague of mine in another part of the country. He has been a very dedicated priest for almost 50 years. For the last eight weeks he has been cocooning in his home unable to celebrate any kind of public Mass or have…

I’m fascinated by the cycle of history and the way in which things discarded as outdated often come back into fashion again. The classic example is the tram: declared redundant in 1949, the city tram has returned as a wonderfully efficient and environmentally-friendly form of public transport. And now the wretched coronavirus is producing a…

The Church should be lobbying for a swifter return to public worship, writes David Quinn   For the first time in the history of Christianity, churches have been closed across much of Europe to public Masses and other religious ceremonies. But the picture varies, and the speed at which public worship is being restored from…

The View   As we face another week in lockdown it would be easy to become discouraged, to wonder how on earth we can survive all this: these are difficult days. However, it is sometimes important to put things into context and reflect on where we are from a wider perspective. Yes, there are profoundly…

To look at this coronavirus spiritually is to see it as a call to conversion, both personally and as the Church, writes Fr John Harris OP   On many occasions over the last few weeks I have been asked where is God in this lockdown and coronavirus crisis. Needless to say from the perspective of…

Notebook   “Patience is a virtue, get it if you can, seldom in a woman, never in a man.” One of my earliest memories is hearing my grandmother recite this proverb. I’m not sure what impatience on my part warranted this correction, and I’m not sure it had much effect either! What does patience mean,…

Is the coronavirus ‘God’s judgement’ to punish humanity for the errors of its ways? Surely not, and Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick is quite right to describe such ideas as a form of blasphemy. Pope Francis had previously given the lead in dismissing any such notion that the virus is some kind of Old Testament…

The View   There was a tragic case recently in Mullingar when the wrong body was given to a family for burial. It was spotted by a mortician when a name on a body bag matched that of someone whose remains had allegedly already been collected by a funeral director. Imagine the distress of the…