Devotion to the Sacred Heart will always be central to the life of the Church, writes Fr James Hanvey SJ The image of the Sacred Heart can be found in many of our churches. Once it was a familiar feature of many Catholic homes, as were the prayers and practices that went with it: the…
A consistent life ethic takes us beyond ideas of the deserving and undeserving poor and vulnerable, writes Aimee Murphy When approached to write this piece, I first considered expounding upon my understanding of all the various issues that the consistent life ethic touches on: ending abortion, war, the death penalty, euthanasia, embryo destruction, police brutality,…
Parishes and lay associations can be a leaven for each other, writes Prof. Susan Timoney “To speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body.” Rather than a contemporary summary of the Second Vatican Council’s idea of the renewal of the vocation of…
There are, to my mind, two great Jane Austen adaptations. One, the 1990s miniseries of Pride and Prejudice, I think many will know already and it’s available on Netflix. The second adaptation is less well known, a 1995 TV film version of Persuasion, Jane Austen’s last novel. It’s a wonderful film, as different from the…
May 20 the Church celebrates Saint Bernardine of Siena, a Franciscan theologian and preacher renowned for his great eloquence, who went to great lengths to revive and strengthen Italy’s faith during the 15th Century. Born in 1380 to a noble family, Bernardine Albizeschi, as with so many of the saints, and as with so many…
Lisa Hendey Lately I note a trend on social media, among my peers of a certain age. Amid the cute grandbaby pictures at Christmas there were pleas for intercessory prayer for their aging parents. Going home for the holidays can be a real wakeup call as we realise that – seemingly overnight – our…
Pope Francis carries with him a particular fondness for a Marian devotion that he had encountered in Bavaria, writes Fr Hedwig Lewis SJ ‘Mary Untier of Knots, pray for us’ would be a strange-sounding invocation in the Litany to Our Lady to which we are so accustomed. In fact, devotion to the Blessed Virgin under this…
Athanasius I of Alexandria (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Church Father and the 20th Pope of Alexandria. His intermittent episcopacy spanned 45 years (c. June 8, 328– May 2, 373), of which over 17 encompassed five exiles, when…
On the night before he entered into his Passion and death, Jesus gave all of us a compelling model to follow. Serve as Christ serves; give as Christ gives, freely and fully. Jesus asks us – priests, deacons, religious, married, single – to follow in his footsteps. We know that Jesus’ footsteps led him to…
Cultivating the imagination of a toddler is the best way to pass along the Faith, writes Jonathan Lewis Parenting a toddler involves allowing them to transport you into their world of adventure and imagination. Passing along faith to our toddler has involved introducing our child to a Catholic imagination for the world around us. Like a growing gallery wall, each year…
Ruadhán Jones