Born and raised as an evangelical Christian in the South of England, I grew up immersed in Protestant Christianity. My father was one of the three leaders of the congregation I attended. Every Sunday, I was brought to church and participated in youth groups throughout my childhood. Christianity was a significant part of my upbringing.…

In the 21st century, a sense of spiritualism has taken over. This is the sense that people are really made up only of their souls – their bodies do not matter. This is an attractive philosophy because it says that all that really matters is that someone is a good person ‘on the inside’, and…

Watch what parents do when they pick up a baby. Whether a swaddled newborn, a smiling infant or a squirmy toddler, parents start to sway when they hold their child. Swaying is our primal rhythm, the instinct to move to calm and comfort. Slow, steady rocking can soothe a baby, relax their body, soften their…

Do you feel like you’re on a treadmill that never stops? Do you need some quiet time? Some family time? Some time when you can renew your mind, your body and your spirit? Then maybe it’s time to reclaim Sunday as a day of rest! There was a time when Sunday was a special day.…

There is a saying, dubiously attributed to St Francis de Sales but it sounds more like Venerable Fulton Sheen to me: “Every one of us needs half an hour of prayer every day, except when we are busy – then we need an hour.” It’s a clever phrase – and true, too. When parenthood and…

We all like things neat, uncomplicated and in good order. But as we step over the threshold into the virtual world created by artificial intelligence, it seems to me that inclination may be more problematic than ever. Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen a number of images circulating on social media. A baby dolphin,…

When an individual or secularised culture has largely abandoned Faith, the Virgin Mary often lingers in grace-filled whispers. Take the ‘Hail Mary pass’ in football, or the lovely musical renditions of the ‘Ave Maria’, both of which remain popular in secular society today. As the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris burned in 2019, strains…

Regular prayer has always been regarded as an essential part of Christian life. In capitalistic Psalms, the believer is compared to a tree planted by a stream that still bears fruit, even in times of drought, remaining full of sap and green, even in old age. Jesus is the one who can give us living…

What does it mean to listen to survivors of abuse? It’s something that the Church repeatedly and emphatically calls us to do. But the call to listen is in danger of becoming an empty slogan if we do not take the time to stop and think about what, exactly, this listening involves. To help us,…