Hope is a funny thing. Everybody choses to be hopeful in different ways, says Rachel Garde In today’s world it is more difficult to have hope, we tend to fall into a trap of despair. Despair of the future and what will happen next, despair for our climate and as youth despair for what our…

God is the object of all desire, no matter how earthy and unholy our desire might seem. Everything we desire is inside of God. Both Jesus and the Psalms tell us this. God is the object of all desire and only in God will our deepest longings be satisfied. We express this in our prayers,…

Q: In a recent article, you quoted the Code of Canon Law for what constitutes a valid nonsacramental marriage. I’m not sure if you know this, but the Jewish marriage document – the ketubah – is essentially a prenuptial agreement that outlines the protections the spouses are to receive should either one initiate divorce proceedings.…

The Gospel given on this solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity invites us to embrace one of the most mysterious truths of our faith: “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.” In these words of…

In the first article, we uncovered the limitations of the secularisation narrative and explored religiosity in Ireland. The many hopeful opportunities that come with a country that is relatively religious in which many people do interact with the Church were explored. We went on to demonstrate the variability within identity, both of Catholics and those…

Recently I was asked to give a three-day course to a group of 23 enclosed nuns from different monasteries throughout Ireland on the theme of Contemplatives as Pilgrims of Hope. To the best of my knowledge there are 18 monasteries of enclosed nuns in Ireland, six Poor Clares, six Carmelites, two Benedictine and one each…

A: I assume by “St Michael prayer,” you mean the prayer that usually begins: “St Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle…” My own thought is that, since this is technically a devotional prayer and not part of the liturgy strictly speaking, if the St Michael prayer is prayed in connection with a Mass, then…

It is better for you that I go away” These are some of Jesus’ parting words on the night before he died. How can it be better for us when someone we love deeply goes away? That would make sense only if the relationship is dysfunctional or abusive. But how can that be true in…

Sport, when rightly ordered, can point towards God. Lived with integrity, sport cultivates virtues our world desperately needs, writes Fr Barry White Sunday, May 11, I was in Croke Park for two gripping Leinster finals. Meath, heartbreakingly, lost both the men’s and ladies’ matches, but football was the real winner that day. The games were…

With the feasts of the Holy Spirit and the Sacred Heart coming up, both celebrations of the Love of God, we can ask the perennial question: what is love? What does it mean to say ‘God is Love’? And what clues can love, as we know it, give us about the nature of God? There’s…