At a conference which I attended, a psychiatrist shared this story. A woman came to see him in considerable distress. Her anguish had to do with her last conversation with her husband before he died. She shared how they had enjoyed a good marriage for more than thirty years, with never more than a minor…
A few years ago, literary critic Declan Kiberd wrote a masterful preface to an edition of Richard Power’s novel, The Hungry Grass. The novel’s hero, Fr Tom Conroy, is a somewhat angular priest, who does not fit easily into either the lives of his people or the structures of the Church he serves. Of Conroy’s…
Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; Ps 46 (45); 1 Cor 3:9-11, 16-17; John 2:13-22 John 2:13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2:14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 2:15 Making a whip of cords, he…
What’s the difference between a homily and a eulogy? The difference usually seems very clear-cut — until you go to a priest’s funeral (or a bishop’s). For a clergy funeral, the homilist eulogises and homilises, all at the same time. As a fictional homilist-eulogist might put it, “Fr X was a mighty priest, who was nice…
We are living in a challenging generation in terms of our belief in and understanding of the spiritual. Many Christian ideas that used to inform our lives have faded. What used to be seen as dangerous or even evil is now normalised and often celebrated. Starting in the 1970s, just about all seminaries taught that…
During these celebrations, we unite our hearts with the faithful departed whether they be in heaven or purgatory writes D.D. Emmons It seems unusual that our Church liturgical calendar schedules two major celebrations on days that are back-to-back. But that is precisely the situation with the solemnity of All Saints, a liturgical feast, and…
When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her Luke 7:11 Soon afterwards Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. Luke 7:12 As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only…
A number of years ago I walked the final stretch of five days of the Camino in Spain. It was during the last day of the walk on the outskirts of the goal of Santiago with about four hours to go that I met a young Orthodox Jewish lady named Ruth. We quickly got into…
“God behaves in the psalms in ways he is not allowed to behave in systemic theology.” That quip from Sebastian Moore might be highlighted at a time when fewer people want to use the psalms as a form of prayer because they feel offended that the psalms speak of murder, revenge, anger, violence, war-making, and…
Q: At Mass we typically pray for the souls of ‘those in purgatory,’ often mentioning names of persons long since passed, sometimes 10 or even 20 years ago. Is there any way to know how long a person could be in purgatory? Could a deceased person still be in purgatory 20 years later? A: Generally,…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser