Children aged 12-15 to be offered Covid booster dose Children aged 12 to 15 are to be offered a booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine in a bid to reduce infection rates among this age group. The move follows a recommendation by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac), which has been accepted by Minister for Health…
Everyday Philosophy Do we live in a simulation? No, of course not. Would it matter if we did? Of course it would. The great philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein had a particular view of what philosophy was really about. He saw it as a kind of therapy for confusion. Rather than seeking to answer deep questions about…
When I take a passage of scripture for reflection, I begin with my pencil to underline words that strike me. For the First Sunday of Lent, we have Luke’s account of the temptations of Jesus (Luke 4:1-13). First, I underlined Holy Spirit. Luke is the evangelists of the Holy Spirit so it comes as no surprise…
“I wish it was Tuesday already. Can we please skip the days in between?” It is my daughter’s birthday next week and while her excitement is nearly too much for her to handle, hearing those words nearly creates a knot in my stomach. Skipping a day or two, even a year or two brings back memories…
Personal Profile Fr John Harris OP was set on the path to the priesthood from the age of seven, and hasn’t looked back since. Elected last year as the provincial for the Dominicans in Ireland, he sees his task as being to encourage his brethren to preach the Gospel. “My vocation story is very boring,”…
For 15 years, I taught a course entitled The Theology of God. The students in that course were predominately seminarians preparing for ministry, along with a number of lay students who were preparing to serve as ministers in various capacities in their churches. I would always teach what the curriculum called for: the key biblical…
Marta Osborne Do you have any suggestions for approaching lent with your spouse? I think we’d be more successful if we tried to go through it together. Lent is difficult at the best of times, but it can be especially so if we try to go it alone. As married couples, we’re blessed to have…
Lent is the ultimate time for re-focusing on the most important things in life, writes Jason Osborne Life is a hectic thing. Work, family, hobbies and many, many other things vie for our attention and demand our efforts day in, day out. These are all very good things, of course, but none of them are…
Man tests positive for Covid for 14 months straight When Muzaffer Kayasan first caught Covid-19, he thought he was destined to die, as he was already suffering from leukaemia. Fourteen months and 78 straight positive tests later, he is still alive – and still battling to shake off the infection. Mr Kayasan, 56, has Turkey’s…
Sometimes it takes an outsider to help you to see the beauty and depth of something you have never fully appreciated. I suspect this true for many of us, myself no exception, regarding the celebration of the Eucharist in our churches. David P. Gushee, an Evangelical, recently published a book entitled After Evangelicalism, within which…
Ben Conroy
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser