In the musical Les Misérables, there’s a particularly haunting song, sung by a dying woman (Fantine) who has been crushed by virtually every unfairness life can deal a person. Abandoned by her husband, sexually harassed by her employer, caught in abject poverty, physically ill and dying, even as her main anxiety is about what will…
There are moments in life when we look, and yet we do not really see. Our eyes function perfectly, but something inside us is still blind. Only when something shifts within the heart do we begin to notice what was there all along. The readings of this Sunday speak precisely about such a miracle: the…
God created everything: the heavens, the earth, the trees, the flowers and every creature on the earth; God did not create worry. Call it by any name- despair, anxiety, concern -God did not create it. We mortals often get worried and preoccupied about something in the future that will never happen. The great American writer…
Q: I’ve recently decided to return to my childhood Catholic faith after many years aways, and my priest told me I need to get an annulment. When I called the marriage tribunal, they said they needed to contact my ex-husband for this. But I don’t see any need to drag him through this whole process. Does my…
Difficulties and suffering are part of the journey of life in this world. There is no life without difficulties and suffering. We all certainly have moments of suffering and difficulty in life. Therefore, we need to realise that suffering and difficulties in life are not something to be avoided but something we must face with…
“I thirst” is the shortest phrase of the Lord’s last words (Jn 19:28). Short though it may be, it contains unsearchable depths. The Lord was telling of his physical thirst on a first and properly literal level. The physical thirst of the Lord was no trivial detail in the Passion story but was foretold in…
All I know is I once was blind but now I see! As the gospel is very long, it is more practical to read it from your own Bible. Initial observations This story is found only in the Fourth Gospel, although the other Gospels do tell of blind men (never women!) recovering their sight. Our…
Lent invites us to journey through the landscapes of Matthew’s Gospel, where Christ enters every terrain of human experience says Fr Barry White While exploring Southeast Asia—especially Cambodia and Vietnam—I discovered how travel opens a window into the soul of a people. The ancient temples of Angkor Wat, Buddha statues, incense, and lotus flowers revealed…
I have been standing at lecterns for most of my adult life. As a drama student in Manchester in the 1970s, as a performer of traditional Irish music in pubs across Spain, as an executive coach teaching people to speak with confidence and clarity — and, for many years now, as a lector at Sunday…
The Sisters and Brothers of St John of God have made an immense contribution to the Irish and Universal Church in the areas of education, physical and mental health care. As their numbers declined, they looked forward to the future to ensure that the ethos of mercy and care would continue in the same spirit…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Fr Dominik Domagala
Fr Barry White