The Sunday Gospel On this Sunday we have the third extract from the great sermon on the plain where Jesus sets out the ideals of Christian life. Last Sunday we reflected on the ideal of being forgiving and compassionate like our Father in heaven. The ideal is beyond human nature unaided, but with the supernatural…
Medical Matters Nearly one in five people or just over 1.25 million have tested PCR positive for Covid in Ireland since the pandemic began. With hundreds of thousands more infected but not officially tested the proportion of the population that have escaped Covid may be a lot smaller than many would have anticipated. The death…
Personal Profile Charlotte Gormley’s faith is grounded in her experience of well-run youth retreats. Having been raised in a Catholic family, retreats during her teenage years reinvigorated her faith. Now, having taken on the role of faith formation co-ordinator for the parishes of Banagher and Claudy, she hopes to give back what she has received.…
In November 2021, Pope Francis launched the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, a seven-year programme for the church to live out the call to care more deeply for God’s creation. The platform is based on achieving seven Laudato Si’ Goals (LSGs) across seven church ‘sectors’ over seven years – a jubilee for the earth. Last month…
The Sunday Gospel This Sunday our Gospel (Luke 6:27-38) picks up from last Sunday when we were introduced to the Sermon on the Mount which is the charter of Christian living. This charter is inspired by a new revelation of God’s relationship with us. God is revealed as our Father in a way never previously…
The role of Ordinary Time and the seasons in the Church year are often overlooked, but they have much to teach us, writes Jason Osborne We find ourselves a couple of weeks out from Lent yet, and smack in the middle of Ordinary Time in the Liturgical calendar. I think most of us are guilty…
Red wine and berries may improve Parkinson’s life expectancy Recent research from Queen’s University Belfast has found that people with Parkinson’s disease who eat more flavonoids – found in foods like berries, cocoa, tea and red wine – may have improved life expectancy compared to those who don’t. The research followed over 1,200 people who…
Mindful Living My wife and I celebrated 45 years of marriage in August. I have made many commitments in my life, but two of them stand out as having shaped me, as having been deeply formative influences on the person I am today. Those two factors are marriage and meditation. While we married at a…
For some reason the last week felt very long. When Friday night, February 4, finally came last week I found myself sitting at the kitchen table, in front of the laptop, watching the live stream from the synodal path in Germany. It was the third out of four major gatherings taking place in Frankfurt/Main. I…
The concept of chastity has fallen on hard times. Several years ago, I was invited to speak to a group of students at a Catholic university. The invitation came with a request and a caveat. I was to speak on chastity, but ideally, I was to avoid using the word. The Dean of Theology, who…
Dr Kevin McCarroll
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser