Plenty of secular accounts pertaining to morality co-exist in the world today – some hold that objective moral values are real; others that moral actions can be reduced down to evolutionary behaviour; and many that morals don’t exist at all but have been created to allow for a functioning society. In opposition to some of…
In a poem entitled, Is/Not, Margaret Atwood suggests that when a love grows numb, this is where we find ourselves: We’re stuck here on this side of the border in this country of thumbed streets and stale buildings where there is nothing spectacular to see and the weather is ordinary where love…
Jem Sullivan June 4, 2023 Trinity Sunday Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9 Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56 2 Cor 13:11-13 Jn 3:16-18 Our computers and phones are meant to connect us to the community. However, through the daily traffic of communication in emails, texts, and social media posts, the digital culture in which we…
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,…
There are four distinct kinds of Christian prayer: There is incarnational prayer, mystical prayer, affective prayer, and priestly prayer. What are these? How are they different from each other? Incarnational prayer St Paul invites us to “pray always”. How is this possible? We can’t always be praying – or can we? What Paul is inviting…
May 28 – Pentecost Acts 2:1-11 Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13 Jn 20:19-23I Deacon Greg Kandra I can’t remember the last time I heard anyone say, “Happy Pentecost”. We are so eager to send glad tidings at Christmas and Easter, exchanging gifts or food or flowers, but shouldn’t Pentecost be…
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…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Ruadhán Jones