One of the most ancient problems in philosophy is the question of ‘the one and the many’, whether reality is ultimately a unity or a plurality and how these interrelate. We might ask the same question regarding the plurality of religious faiths, Churches, and forms of worship in our world. Is there some inherent oneness…
This Sunday’s Gospel (John 1:29-34) begins with John the Baptist pointing towards Jesus and saying, “Look, there is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”. His words are repeated at Mass in order to alert us to the awesome privilege of welcoming the Lord in the Eucharist. “Behold the Lamb…
Lindsey Weishar In the past few years, the term visio divina has gained traction in the Catholic lexicon. Like lectio divina, which is a way to pray with Scripture, visio divina translates to “divine seeing” and is a way to pray with art or other visual media alongside Scripture. I first encountered visio divina in…
Who is this child born in Bethlehem? The manifestation of his divinity is known as an epiphany. On Friday, the sixth of January, we recall the first of three epiphanies. The Wise Men coming from the east brought gold to proclaim Jesus as king, frankincense to represent his priesthood, and myrrh which is used for…
‘The book you need to read finds you, and finds you at that time in your life when you need to read it’. I believe that old axiom, and offer it here as an apologia for my selection of books for 2022. Good art and good literature always have an objective element to them, a…
The Wisdom of Pope Francis Christian faith, inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of God’s total love and opens us to the power of that love, penetrates to the core of our human experience. Each of us comes to the light because of love, and each of us is called to love in order to…
Swiss theologian, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, once wrote: “After a mother has smiled for a long time at her child, the child will begin to smile back; she has awakened love in its heart, and in awakening love in its heart, she awakes recognition as well…In the same way, God explains himself before us as…
The Sunday Gospel The liturgical celebration of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, has been ascribed to several different dates down through the ages. The liturgical reform which prepared the way for the Second Vatican Council prompted the restoration of the feast to January 1, the completion of the Octave of Christmas, the eighth day,…
I did my doctoral thesis on the classical, philosophical proofs for the existence of God. The concept had always intrigued me: ‘Can you prove that God exists?’ After researching the thought of Aquinas, Anselm, Descartes, Leibnitz, and Spinoza (all of whom assert that you can ‘prove’ the existence of God through rational argument) what was the…
The Sunday Gospel Have we forgotten why we celebrate Christmas? A friend told me she got a card wishing her a very merry winter festival? Could you beat that! People tell me they have to search in shops for cards that portray the Nativity but there is no shortage of snowy fir trees, red robins,…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser