Three ways to Golgotha

Although suffering is unavoidable, we can see in it an ultimate meaning and value, says Jason Conroy Well, how has your Lent gone? Forgive me if I’m not surprised if your record isn’t exactly pristine. I’ve always noticed that by the time Good Friday comes around I’ve often been practically brought to my knees trying…

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The trial of temptation and the good fight

Everyone loves a good ‘battle-between-good-and-evil’ – luckily, it’s not just for the movies, it’s for all of us! Like Solzhenitsyn said, the battle line between good and evil runs through every human heart. Our enemy is the devil and his demons; our comrades, the angels and saints; our captain, the Lord. Exciting stuff! But most…

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Penance – What’s the point?

What’s the point of all these penances? Well, in fact, they’re pointless – on their own, that is! With faith, however, all our Lent penances acquire a special power. Why do Christians fast? The name gives it away: we fast because Christ fasted. When you fast with faith, you are really, spiritually with Christ in…

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Are you an intentional disciple yet?

Sherry Weddell was stumped. She had given dozens of parish seminars before, helping parish leaders discover their God-given charism, and interviewing them one-to-one to discern how the Spirit was moving in each of their lives. But with this particular woman, the interview was getting nowhere: though she was a parish leader, there seemed to be…

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My favourite prophet: Jonah the depressed

As a boy, my favourite Old Testament heroes were the prophets Elijah and Jonah. Elijah’s story is like the ‘Die Hard’ of the Old Testament – instead of John McClane single handedly taking out a building full of terrorists, it’s Elijah singlehandedly overcoming the evil King Ahab and the 450 priests of the demon Baal,…