The Sunday Gospel Last Saturday I had the great privilege of baptising my beautiful grandniece, Juliet. Actually, I prefer to refer to the sacrament as a Christening. Baptism means having a bath, being washed and cleansed. Christening, or Christ-ening, expresses the new life received, a living relationship with Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord. After naming…
In a recent issue of Comment magazine, Timothy Keller, theologian and pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, wrote an insightful essay entitled, ‘The Fading of Forgiveness’, within which he highlights how, more and more, forgiveness is being seen as a weakness and a naivete. Hence, our culture sees forgiveness more negatively than…
The Sunday Gospel Jesus was deeply disturbed by the travesty of a religion enmeshed in legalism. “You put aside the commandments of God to cling to human traditions.” Rules about ritual purification had sucked the beauty out of true worship. Pope Francis wrote that certain customs not directly related to the heart of the Gospel…
What is the Eucharist? What is supposed to happen when we gather to celebrate the ritual that Jesus gave us at the Last Supper and asked us to perpetuate until his return? Is this meant to be a family meal or a re-enactment of Jesus’ sacrificial death? Is it meant to look like the old…
The Sunday Gospel Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap. This is the fifth and final Sunday when the Gospel reading is taken from John Chapter Six. It began with the multiplication of the loaves and fishes to feed the hunger of the physical body. This was a sign to move on to the second bread: Jesus…
Reading the Letters of Dorothy Day recently, I ran into this line, “doubtless we need a Savonarola as well as a St Francis”. She was speaking about what spirituality needs in order to be healthy and balanced. That triggered something inside me, something I have never been able to sort out. I have always been…
Who has God’s sympathy? For whom especially should we be praying? For whom should we be asking God’s blessing? We are in the middle of the Olympic Games. What we see there are the healthiest bodies in the world, beautifully adorned with colourful spandex and youthful smiles. The Olympic Games are a celebration of health.…
I wrote my doctoral thesis on the value of various philosophical arguments that try to prove the existence of God. Can there be such a proof? Brilliant philosophers, from Anselm, through Aquinas, through Descartes, through contemporary intellectuals like Charles Hartshorne, submit that the existence of God can be proven through rational argument. Except, a lot depends…
“Some things need to be said and said and said again until they don’t need to be said anymore.” Margaret Atwood wrote that. I quote it here because each year I write a column on suicide and mostly say the same thing each time because certain things need to be said repeatedly about suicide until…
Several weeks ago after giving a lecture at a religious conference, the first question from the audience was this one: How can you continue to stay in a Church that played such a pivotal part in setting up and maintaining residential schools for the indigenous people of Canada? How can you stay in a Church…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser