St John Henry Newman knew that the Catholic Church was the Church of the earliest Christians, writes Mike Aquilina At the heart of St John Henry Newman’s conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism was his study of the early Christians, the fathers of the Church. As an Anglican clergyman, he believed that they held the answer…
Someone once asked Thérèse of Lisieux if it was wrong to fall asleep while in prayer. Her answer: “Absolutely not. A little child is equally pleasing to her parents, awake or asleep – probably more when asleep!” That’s more than a warm, cute answer. There’s a wisdom in her reply that’s generally lost to us,…
Jem Sullivan September 10 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Ez 33:7-9 Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 Rom 13:8-10 Mt 18:15-20 The bold witness to Christian faith expressed in the lives of many prophets and saints often resulted in their rejection, false accusations, and condemnation to death. Take Ss Peter and Paul, who were both martyred for their fearless…
You cannot will yourself to faithfulness, writes Bert Ghezzi I gave up ‘trying’ to pray daily many years ago. I discovered that if I did not build praying into my routine, then I routinely replaced it with lesser priorities. Willpower does not account for my faithfulness. My will is not strong enough to get me…
Brett Salkeld I don’t own a smartphone. Well, that’s not quite true. I have an old phone that could technically access the internet, but I have never set it up to do so. I use it to call my wife when I am traveling and, very occasionally, to text. I have taken a small handful…
David Mills An internationally best-selling novelist who might have won the Nobel Prize in literature, a patriotic Pole, a devout Catholic, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka was also an ardent anti-semite. And she is a model for us – not despite her bigotry but because of it. “Our feeling toward the Jews has not changed,” she wrote in…
Q: We’ve been wondering about the wording in the prayer used for those who attend Sunday Mass virtually. The phrases: “Come AT LEAST spiritually into my heart” and “I love You AS IF You were already there” don’t reflect good theology. Don’t we believe that the Bible and our faith assure us of God’s constant…
A friend of mine shares this story. He was an only child. When he was in his late twenties, still single, building a successful career and living in the same city as his mother and father, his father died, leaving his mother widowed. His mother, who had centred her life on her family and on…
Deacon Greg Kandra September 3 Jer 20:7-9 Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 Rom 12:1-2 Mt 16:21-27 It’s probably the last thing Peter ever expected to hear. There, in that moment, Jesus Christ was speaking of suffering and death, how he would be killed and yet be raised. What Jesus was describing was shocking. Peter, hearing…
Mother Teresa’s imitation of Christ provides an example for us all, writes Amy Welborn No modern figure has been more revered as a saint in life, so the rapid progress of Mother Teresa’s cause from her death to her canonisation within two decades came as no surprise. From the day Mother Teresa rode on a…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser