Covid may be on everyone’s mind, but watching our weight is still essential, writes Jason Osborne Perhaps we should have anticipated it, but one of the real challenges of lockdown life has been making sure that our weight doesn’t change for the worse. There is any number of reasons why it could, from stress about…
Personal Profile When Catholics are in school or college, they receive education on the Catholic Faith and have ready-made Faith communities. When they leave school for the world of work, this access to education and community can fall away. This was the experience of Patrick Edmund McCormick Williams, an Austrian Catholic who moved to Ireland…
Mindful Living We have been exploring the depth of meaning in the John Main prayer which we say before meditation. The prayer is very simple and reads ‘Heavenly Father, open our hearts to the silent presence of the spirit of your son. Lead us into that mysterious silence where your love is revealed to all…
Many of the readings in the early weeks of Lent have reminded us of God’s call to break the rod of oppression, to feed the hungry and care for the homeless poor, to learn to do good and to love our neighbour. I know people who live their lives faithful to this but they may…
In 1986, Czechoslovakian novelist Ivan Klima published a series of autobiographical essays entitled, My First Loves. These essays describe some of his moral struggles as a young agnostic seeking for answers without any explicit moral framework within which to frame those struggles. He’s a young man, full of sexual passion, but hesitant to act out…
Italian landslide pushes hundreds of coffins into the sea An estimated 200 coffins tumbled from their places in northwest Italy when a landslide destabilised a 100-year-old cliffside cemetery last week. Video emerged on social media which showed emergency response workers in boats searching for the coffins in the waters of Camogli, near Genoa. Two chapels…
Sweet Treats These biscuits are quick to make and taste so much better than the shop-bought version! Traditionally they are sandwiched with strawberry jam but you can try anything – apricot, chocolate spread, whatever you fancy. Ingredients Makes about 10 sandwich biscuits – 175g unsalted butter – 100g icing sugar – 1 medium egg yolk…
A good night’s sleep is the firm foundation upon which to build an effective Lent, writes Jason Osborne Sleep remains a mystery right at the heart of our daily existence. We know we need it, and we have some sense of what goes wrong when we don’t get enough or when it’s of a poor…
Personal Profile Canon Brendan Murray’s career as a priest began in 1957 and has spanned six decades of momentous change on the island of Ireland, some for better, some for worse. “I grew up in a different age from the present one, where religion was accepted simply as a matter of fact,” Fr Murray tells…
A Parent’s Perspective I was chatting with my family about what we are all doing for Lent this year. My 10-year old son was adding more and more tough penances onto his list including daily cold showers, giving up all sweets and treats, saying more prayers and a schedule that even the most saintly would find challenging.…
Ruadhán Jones
Bairbre Cahill
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Maria Byrne