Every year when I come back from holidays after a time of refreshment and family time, we often return with really bad post-holiday blues. How can I avoid them this year? This is totally normal and natural. You work hard all year, you save, you spend hours daydreaming about your two week holiday. Yet…
Category: Your Faith
Combining new and old experiences
Personal Profile Fr Sean Coyle and Fr Donal O’Hanlon are retired Columban missionaries who are now based in Dalgan Park, Co. Meath. Both spent the vast majority of their ministry in the Philippines, where they encountered both tragedy and fulfilment in the turbulent state. The two priests were involved in the Legion of Mary before…
The nuance in putting God first
In Walker Percy’s 1971 novel, Love Among the Ruins, his central character is a psychiatrist named Tom More. Dr More is a Catholic who is no longer practicing his faith, albeit he still believes. This is how he describes his situation: “I believe in God and the whole business but I love women best, music…
The sanctity of marriage
The Sunday Gospel Today’s Gospel (Mark 10: 2-16) is first of all about the sanctity of marriage between husband and wife, and then about the touch of God on their children. The background is a trick question about divorce in an attempt to trap Jesus. “Is it against the law for a man to divorce…
Family News
Minority pupils more likely to have negative school experience Pupils from Muslim minority backgrounds are more likely to have a negative relationship with their teacher, new research from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) shows. The study, lasting three years and involving more than 3,000 students, showed that 94.5% of majority students experienced positive or moderately positive…
Building up your bones
The cooler weather will soon enough be instilling a chill in our bones, but there’s no reason why we can’t strengthen them before then, writes Jason Osborne Brittle bones, or ‘osteoporosis’, is the most common bone disorder to occur. It’s most common in older, post-menopausal females, but it can affect adults of any age or…
Learn CPR: It can triple cardiac arrest survival Chances
Medical Matters Every year in Ireland, there are approximately 2,500 out of hospital cardiac arrests, with a rising proportion of cases that occur outside the home having CPR performed by bystanders. The cardiac arrest of the Danish footballer Christian Eriksen on live television has highlighted the importance and success of rapid CPR and defibrillation. Indeed,…
Living the Gospel values in university
Personal Profile For some young people, and their parents, there can be a fear when the time comes for them to leave home and head to college. However, as Gerard Scullion learned during his time at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), being a person of Faith and a student need not be an antagonistic relationship. Mr…
Lift voice of vulnerable and sign petition
Laudato Si’ The Season of Creation continues through September up until October 4 (the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology). This year many parishes are engaging in prayer, reflection and action, growing in deeper awareness of what it means to protect our common home. I was delighted to read Archbishop…
Do we really believe that our prayers can stop a pandemic?
We need to pray even when that seems the most lifeless thing to do. That’s a counsel from Michael J. Buckley with which we need to challenge ourselves daily. In the face of real life, prayer can often seem like the most lifeless thing to do. What difference does prayer make? I will pray for…

Wendy Grace

Fr Ronald Rolheiser



Dr Kevin McCarroll
Ruadhán Jones

