“Peace comes when we put the pieces within us together to make a beautiful melody”, writes Fr Ron Rolheiser Catherine de Hueck Doherty, the founder of Madonna House, once gave a particularly insightful interview. She acknowledged that her path wasn’t easy, that she had her fair share of inner struggles. Why? Because, like the rest…
Q: Is it ever acceptable to say something other than “amen” when receiving Communion? Would “thank you,” “he’s alive” or even “hallelujah!” ever work? A: The short answer is no, the one and only appropriate response when receiving holy Communion is to say “amen” after the priest or Eucharistic minister says “the body of Christ.”…
Acts 6:1-7; Psalm 32 (33); 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12 I am the way, and the truth, and the life — no one comes to the Father except through me John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. John 14:2 In my Father’s house there are many…
If only the Madlanga Commission had been in Assisi! Once upon a time (800 years ago) there was a well-off teenager called Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone or simply Francis Bernardone who lived in Italy, in a small town called Assisi on top of a mountain. After fighting (hoping to be a celebrity war veteran)…
Lord, in this holy Myst’ry we give our love to you. / Offering our lives completely, humbly in gratitude.” – Byzantine Catholic communion hymn. For the second year in a row, I am spending a little time every day reading from The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers. When, after years of searching for a…
Q: One thing about which I’ve always been curious, especially this time of the year, is why in the various Gospel accounts of Jesus before Pilate, Jesus never directly answered, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Instead of simply saying “Yes,” full stop, Jesus gave what many consider to be sidestep answers like “If…
John 10:1 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. John 10:2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. John 10:3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the…
The American theologian and commentator Stanley Hauerwas once said that the problem with Christianity is not that it is socially conservative or politically liberal but that “it is just too damned dull”! On April 29, the Church celebrates the feast day of a saint for whom faith was anything but dull or boring. For St…
In 2007, Charles Taylor wrote a book entitled, A Secular Age which gave us a clear and comprehensive analysis of the secular age we live in and the implications of that for our faith. More than a thousand years before that an unknown author in the fourteenth century wrote a book, The Cloud of Unknowing,…
In Holy Communion, God completely gives himself to us – one might say surrenders himself to us, for our own good and happiness, writes Alan Martin It is clear from Scripture that the human race was intended by God to have a supernatural destiny. The first humans were raised to a supernatural state by grace…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser