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…
The Sunday Gospel The Gospel according to Luke will be read at Sunday Mass this year. Today’s Gospel might well be called ‘introductions’. In two separate extracts we have Luke’s introduction to his writing (Luke 1: 1-4), followed by his introduction to the public ministry of Jesus (Luke 4:14-21). In classical style he addresses his…
In the world of the arts, they make a distinction between persons who create an artifact, an artist, a sculptor, or a novelist, and persons who write about artists and their works. We have novelists and literary critics, artists and art critics, and both are important. Critics keep art and literature from bad form, sentimentality,…
No one is an island; indeed, no one is ever really alone. If you are a person of faith or even just someone with a highly attuned intuitive sense, you will know that there is no such thing as a truly private act, for good or bad. Everything we do, no matter how private, affects…
The Sunday Gospel Christmas may be gone but we are still celebrating the Epiphany, that is the manifestation of the divinity of Jesus. There were three great moments of revelation. First was the adoration of the Magi and the three symbolic gifts. Next was last Sunday’s reading of the Baptism of Jesus when the voice…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser