“I thought my first cappuccino after 54 days was amazing, but being at Mass after 10 weeks was even better,” a Roman friend said this week. Churches in the eternal city were re-opened for public Masses this week after a long Lent. “It finally felt like Easter,” my friend wrote. Italy has been devastated by coronavirus.…

Like many people, I am acutely feeling the absence of Sunday Mass. Parishes are doing their best, and there is a wealth of creativity in many of the Masses that are being streamed online. But it isn’t the same – not really. I am blessed where I live that churches remain open as places of…

I n our Catholic tradition we often speak of the communion of saints as that spiritual union between the members of the Church on earth and those of us who have died in God’s friendship. Death is not the end for us, and those who have gone before us remain a part of us and…

I feel blessed under lockdown that within the allocated two kilometres from my home in Dublin are two beautiful churches which remain open for prayer despite this pandemic. As part of the permitted daily exercise, I always make a short visit to either Holy Cross in Dundrum or the Church of St John the Evangelist in…

“Easter glory fills the sky” were the words of the hymns proclaimed at many livestreamed Masses on Sunday. We’ve heard it again and again down the years and the rousing words gladden the heart. But, it’s a very different Easter this year and there is no mistaking the fact that the joy of the resurrection…

The Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible tells the story of the enslavement of the Israelites in ancient Egypt, their liberation from captivity at the hands of the Lord, their wandering in the desert and the revelation of the Promised Land. Theologically, it is the story of God’s abiding and eternal presence with his…

With most Masses cancelled, this is the first St Patrick’s Day since I was an infant that I was not physically at the Celebration of the Eucharist. And yet in tuning in to my parish’s online Mass at Newman’s University Church in Dublin I felt very connected and the ancient faith seemed very much alive.…

I’ve just returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Led by Bishop Kevin Doran, 100 Irish pilgrims visited the sites associated with the earthly life of Jesus. It’s always a fascinating and moving experience. As well as the Christian sites, that land is also holy to both Jews and Muslims and understanding this is…

Thirty or 40 years ago when vocations to the priesthood in Ireland were plentiful, the prospect of becoming a bishop probably seemed quite appealing to parish priests – at least to the ambitious ones. The joke was that once a man had been appointed to the episcopate, he would never again eat a bad meal…or…