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whole new film movement called Italian Neo-realism; filmed in the streets of Rome at the end of WWII, it is also a rare historical document.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…
One of the things that most hinders the Church in its mission and makes people reluctant to interact with it is the real presence of sin in those who profess to be Catholic. Every person walking the earth is a sinner, but those who claim to be adhering to the heights of goodness, truth and…
New York Times columnist David Brooks recently wrote an article about a lifelong friend who died by suicide. In describing his friend and his descent into a suicidal illness, Brooks sheds some needed light on how we still have a long ways to go in our understanding of suicide. (New York Times, February 9, 2023)…
Last Sunday we had the story of Jesus sitting with the woman at the well, offering her the living water of friendship and mercy. It is a story about the grace of Baptism. Today we have a second baptismal story from John’s Gospel, the miracle of sight for the blind. In the early centuries of…
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser