There are times when our world unravels. Who hasn’t had the feeling? “I’m falling apart! This is beyond me! My heart is broken! I feel betrayed by everything! Nothing makes sense anymore! Life is upside down!” Jesus had a cosmic image for this. In the Gospels, he talks about how the world as we experience…
Category: Your Faith
The mysteries of Christ’s life
Catechism of the Catholic Church According to circumstances catechesis will make use of all the richness of the mysteries of Jesus. Here it is enough merely to indicate some elements common to all the mysteries of Christ’s life, in order then to sketch the principal mysteries of Jesus’ hidden and public life. Many things about…
Look beyond the world you know
Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14 Philippians 3:17 – 4:1 or Philippians 3:20 – 4:1 Luke 9:28b-36 This Sunday’s readings seem to be all about wonder – in Genesis, we hear about a sky filled with countless stars, and then in Luke, we learn of Christ’s radiant transfiguration on a mountaintop. There…
St Cyril of Jerusalem: True charity
St Cyril of Jerusalem, born around 315, was a key figure in the early Church, renowned for his defence of Christian orthodoxy amidst the tumult of the Arian heresy. A committed bishop, he lived during a period of the Church’s life marked by theological turmoil and imperial politics. His contributions to the Church are significant,…
Are we simply moviegoers in our own lives?
While many book reviews tend to focus on new releases it is of course important as well to call attention to works that, though they are long standing, still have much to offer. These foundational works of fiction, whether Catholic or not, can enrich the lives of readers of all ages and from all ages.…
Take up your cross
For some years now, it has been fashionable for Catholics to declare that we’re not giving up anything for Lent but instead are doing something positive. This false dichotomy makes sense within the modern, post-Christian worldview, which sometimes seems to view self-denial as the only modern equivalent to sin; but the words of Christ himself…
Love and Faith as fidelity
Several years ago, a friend of mine made a very unromantic type of marriage proposal to his fiancé. He was in his mid-forties and had suffered several disillusioning heartbreaks, some of which by his own admission were his fault, the result of feelings shifting unexpectedly on his part. Now, in mid-life, struggling not to be…
Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
Catechism of the Catholic Church The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates “the fullness of time”. Mary was invited to conceive him in whom the whole fullness of deity would dwell bodily. The divine response to her question, “How can this be, since I know not man?”, was given by the power of the Spirit: “The Holy…
The hope of resurrection
Discipleship is a journey of trust in Christ’s sacrificial love says, Fr Barry White As a priest, I have the privilege of accompanying the dying, from the bedside to the graveside. Recently, while proclaiming the Gospel of John (11:1-44) at a funeral, a phrase stood out to me: “Come and see”. This phrase appears…
What does Hope mean?
Dermot Byrne As we approach the month of March and the much longed for stretch in the evening begins to make its presence felt, we can justifiably start to think about spring. Awaiting tender shoots, daffodils and the subtle hint of green that will soon return to the canopies of the woodlands, our minds…