Mindful Living My wife and I celebrated 45 years of marriage in August. I have made many commitments in my life, but two of them stand out as having shaped me, as having been deeply formative influences on the person I am today. Those two factors are marriage and meditation. While we married at a…
Category: Family & Faith
Faith in the family
For some reason the last week felt very long. When Friday night, February 4, finally came last week I found myself sitting at the kitchen table, in front of the laptop, watching the live stream from the synodal path in Germany. It was the third out of four major gatherings taking place in Frankfurt/Main. I…
Chocolate choc-a-bloc cookies
These cookies are wonderful if you want something for dessert but don’t know what to make. They are chewy, chocolatey parcels of goodness which you can customise to your own tastes. You can use pecans or walnuts, or your favourite nuts, and I would suggest using a different chocolate chip than the baking chocolate. For…
Family News
Weather warning over falling iguanas in Florida People in Florida have been warned that immobilised iguanas could fall out of trees due to unusually cold temperatures across the region. “Iguanas are cold-blooded. They slow down or become immobile when temps drop into the 40s (4-9 Celsius). They may fall from trees, but they are not…
Confirmation is not just a rite of passage
A Parent’s Perspective If you were to believe some of our popular media, you could be convinced that Confirmation is just a mere rite of passage, a cultural or ceremonial ritual that marks the passage of childhood into adulthood. It’s often presented as a Sacrament involving a decision to embrace or choose the Catholic faith,…
El Salvador via Ireland and Rome
Personal Profile Bishop Michael Lenihan OFM’s faith may have started in Ireland, but it’s been shaped by El Salvador, where he’s currently ministering. “I feel like I have been blessed in the time I’ve spent here as a bishop,” he tells The Irish Catholic newspaper. But that’s not where his story begins, a strong rooting…
Some bacteria a day keeps the doctor away
Children’s Corner Bacteria have unfortunately got a very bad name due to their association with spreading sickness and causing food to decay. However, despite the ‘bad eggs’ bacteria are pivotal when it comes to how our body work. It helps humans digest food, neutralise toxins and even helps us get nutrients. It is a fascinating…
Family News
Driverless trucks set to take over roads in Texas A giant 18-wheel transport truck is barrelling down a multi-lane Texas motorway, and there is no one behind the wheel. The futuristic idea may seem surreal, but it is being tested in this vast southern US state, which has become the epicentre of a rapidly developing…
Faith in the Family
“After 39 years it is time to hand it over to someone else.” These are the words of a 80-year-old parishioner who has been in charge of the parish shop for half her life. A Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) member for over 12 years recently said, “If I don’t do it, who else will do…
Reviving hospitality as our homes reopen
Marta Osborne Both myself and my wife were very concerned about the virus and reduced our social contacts to the minimum since the beginning of the pandemic. Now with restrictions lifted, we’d like to make a renewed effort with our friends and family. Any advice? Most of us breathed a sigh of relief after hearing…