Bishop Robert Reed Perhaps you’re like me – I just love Christmas and though the liturgical calendar moves on as it must, I’m always sad to see it go. Like the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge, I try to hang on to it for as long as I can – the birth of the humble baby, told…
Faith in Film When A Hidden Life came out in 2019 from maverick American filmmaker Terrence Malick, it was greeted with almost unquestioning adulation. The film promised to tell the story of Blessed Franz Jagerstätter, an Austrian who was executed by the Nazis for refusing conscription. The Austrian farmer is a martyr of the Church,…
“Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” These words of Jesus apply not just to those who are ordained to ministry and administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but to everyone inside the body of Christ. All of us have the power…
Questions of Faith When Christians petition God for things they want, atheists and sometimes fellow Christian’s bristle. Isn’t that treating God like a fairy godparent or a gumball machine – you make your wish or put your prayers in and out comes what you want? This is a good question, given that the Catholic tradition…
The Sunday Gospel Blessed is the parish which has a catechumen on the final stages of the journey to Baptism at Easter. This Sunday’s Gospel, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, is the third story from John’s Gospel, chosen to throw light on the meaning of Baptism. First, at the well in Samaria, Jesus…
Saint of the Week A week on from the feast of one of Ireland’s three patron saints – St Patrick – we have the feast day of one of his heirs, St Macartan. The first bishop of Clogher diocese, he became known as St Patrick’s “Threin Fhir”, or “Strong Man”, both for his dedication to…
The Apostle to the Irish has influence far beyond these shores, writes Fr Emílio Bortolini Neto St Patrick and Ireland are deeply connected. You can’t think of one without being reminded of the other. Although he wasn’t Irish, after he came to Ireland, the country would never be the same. Patrick, an arrogant young man…
Rome, Open City (1945) is a film famous for a variety of reasons. It is credited with starting a whole new film movement called Italian Neo-realism; filmed in the streets of Rome at the end of WWII, it is also a rare historical document. What will likely cement its exalted position in film history long-term,…
Who else could feature as the saint of the week but our very own patron saint, St Patrick? Fortunately, we know a good deal about this archetypal holy man as he wrote two accounts that we have access to today – quite unique for that region at that time, as texts are scarcer than historians…
Mary DeTurris Poust Back when my husband and I taught a two-year confirmation prep program at our parish, many of the students in our class were attending because they had to be there. They did the work, asked good questions, trudging through the weekly evening sessions, but faith formation was just one more requirement on…
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser