Sometimes it takes an outsider to help you to see the beauty and depth of something you have never fully appreciated. I suspect this true for many of us, myself no exception, regarding the celebration of the Eucharist in our churches. David P. Gushee, an Evangelical, recently published a book entitled After Evangelicalism, within which…
The Sunday Gospel On this Sunday we have the third extract from the great sermon on the plain where Jesus sets out the ideals of Christian life. Last Sunday we reflected on the ideal of being forgiving and compassionate like our Father in heaven. The ideal is beyond human nature unaided, but with the supernatural…
The Sunday Gospel This Sunday our Gospel (Luke 6:27-38) picks up from last Sunday when we were introduced to the Sermon on the Mount which is the charter of Christian living. This charter is inspired by a new revelation of God’s relationship with us. God is revealed as our Father in a way never previously…
The concept of chastity has fallen on hard times. Several years ago, I was invited to speak to a group of students at a Catholic university. The invitation came with a request and a caveat. I was to speak on chastity, but ideally, I was to avoid using the word. The Dean of Theology, who…
The early years of my adulthood and priesthood were spent teaching theology at Newman Theological College in Edmonton, Canada. I was young, full of energy, loved teaching, and was discovering the joys of ministry. For the most part, these were good years. However, they weren’t always easy. Restlessness and inner chaos find us all. The…
The Sunday Gospel If you want to know what to believe, study the Creed: if you want to know how to pray, study the Our Father; and if you want to know how to behave, study the Sermon on the Mount. In today’s Mass we have Luke’s version of the Beatitudes at the beginning of…
The Sunday Gospel The days are lengthening, daffodils are here and there is encouraging news about control of the Covid-19 pandemic. Is there any possibility that the virus of sin might be stamped out? Sadly, following the news any night, the evidence is depressing. The readings at Mass today are about two people, Isaiah (Isaiah…
Pornography is the biggest addiction in the world today, and by a wide margin. Mostly it afflicts men, but is also a growing addiction among women. Much of this of course is driven by its easy and free availability on the internet. Everyone now (not least our own young children) has immediate access to it…
The Sunday Gospel In today’s Gospel Reading (Luke 4: 21-30) we continue last Sunday’s story of Jesus returning to his home town, Nazareth, where he preached in the local synagogue. After reading from Isaiah about the power of the Holy Spirit inaugurating a time of liberation and a new way of seeing life, he handed…
Kabir, a 15th-century Hindu mystic, writes: “What you call ‘salvation’ belongs to the time before death. If you don’t break your ropes while you’re alive, do you think ghosts will do it after? …. What is found now is found then. If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser