Chai Brady discusses keeping Lenten promises Steering clear of constantly searching for instant gratification and focusing on the needs of others in addition to our personal wellbeing sounds like good advice all year around, but perhaps Lent can be a time we take a closer look at making this more of an everyday reality.…
Sweet Treats Laura Anderson Fruit buns like these were and remain a familiar sight in many Irish homes, and with a cup of tea in the evening these humble sweet treats cannot be beaten. They are so easy and fast to whip up, perfect for the most beginner of bakers or for making with…
A colleague of mine, a clinical therapist, shares this story: a woman came to him in considerable distress. Her husband had recently died of a heart attack. His death had been sudden and at a most inept time. They’d been happily married for 30 years and, during all those years, had never had a major crisis…
Saint Patrick: An Ancient Saint for Modern Times by Edmond Grace SJ (Sacred Heart Messenger, €4.95) At this time of the year we Irish tend to think of St Patrick as ‘our saint’, but Edmund Grace begins his brief book with a very insightful encounter far from Ireland. In St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York he…
The Supreme Court is sending a death-row case back to the lower courts to determine if the inmate’s dementia, brought on by strokes he suffered while on death row, should prevent him from being executed. In the 5-3 ruling at the end of last month, the justices sided with Alabama prisoner Vernon Madison for now,…
An investigation into alleged serious sectarian activity in a Belfast hospital “harks back to the past” and “can’t be tolerated” a Fermanagh-based priest has said. This comes as a covert probe into sectarianism instigated by NHS bosses relating to events in Belfast City Hospital has come to light. It was launched after allegations of harassment…
I love the idea that our senses are the doorway to the soul. So, it is through our touching and tasting, our listening and seeing, even our smelling and our sense of our own body that we encounter God. The bottom line is, we are people of the Incarnation and it is through being incarnate –…
For good or for ill, the symbiosis between nationalism and Catholicism that was once a given all across Ireland is still potent in the North. It’s not surprising given the sectarian nature of the six-county state from its creation almost a century ago that Catholics united in opposition. From the beginning, anti-Catholicism was endemic and…
The Notebook Fr Conor McDonough March 8 is International Women’s Day, a day set aside for celebrating the achievements of women and campaigning in favour of equality. Recent years have focussed on celebrating pioneering women scientists and encouraging girls to choose STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) at school and university. Even…
Cold Pursuit (16) Why would one of the most beloved actors of our country, someone who received a tsunami of reverence for the dignified manner in which he dealt with the freakish death of his wife Natasha some years ago, commit career suicide through a racist rant? Unless you’ve been living under a stone in recent…
Chai Brady
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Bairbre Cahill
Michael Kelly
Aubrey Malone