Q: I’m divorced and remarried, and have recently felt called to return to the Catholic faith. I just submitted my annulment paperwork to the tribunal, but they said the whole process can take at least a year. My parish priest said I could do something called the “brother-sister process” in the meantime to start receiving Communion again right…
I generally try to be sensitive to using politically correct language, though sometimes that can be exasperating because of various hyper-sensitivities where people are too easily offended. Simply put, someone can take offense at almost any word. However, despite our occasional exasperation with those who are too easily offended, we must admit that in the…
St Augustine uses the image of two cities to define the central conflict that runs throughout history between the self-love that constitutes the City of Man and the divine love that forms the City of God. Unsurprisingly, the first Augustinian Pope, Leo XIV, shapes Magnifica Humanitas, his first encyclical, around this image: “Humanity, created by…
In this season, we spend a lot of time congratulating others on their graduations, or their upcoming jobs or their new marriages. That’s all lovely, but there are times when, while genuinely glad for others, we feel a bit mired in our daily muck, wondering if there is anything new and exciting in store for…
A sower went out to sow… Let anyone with ears listen! The Gospel Matt 13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Matt 13:2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. Matt…
During the Palm Sunday Passion this year, one seemingly incidental detail caught my attention. As Jesus stands before Pontius Pilate, Matthew inserts an unexpected interruption: “Now as he was seated in the chair of judgement, his wife sent him a message: ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man. I have been greatly troubled today…
Jesus, ‘remember’ me when you come into your kingdom (Lk 23:42). The prayer of the Good Thief on Calvary is one of the most profound expressions of the human longing for remembrance. Facing death, he does not ask for power, privilege, or earthly consolation. He asks to be remembered. Human existence is inseparable from memory.…
Nettuno is an Italian coastal town about seventy kilometres south of Rome. I often travel there by train on my days off to walk the beach and pray. Nettuno is famous for a huge Military Cemetery where thousands of soldiers are buried who were killed during the Second World War in January 1944 when Allied…
It was a warm June Wednesday in Barcelona. Fresh off a few days in Rome, my friend and I had set out for the day, wandering the streets aimlessly and taking in the new foreign city. As we were strolling, we came across a large group of clergy in their vestments. Instinctively, I thought they…
Fifty-six years ago my father died, late on a December night. As clearly as I remember his death, I remember the bitter cold. Within a day the temperature dipped to minus forty degrees Fahrenheit. I was still young; too young (I thought, at the time) to lose a father. Later, I’d realise I was wrong.…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Fr Barry White