LEAVING THE BUBBLE
On 10th November 2015 His Holiness Pope Francis said publicly “We are not living an era of change but a change of era.” I wholeheartedly echo the Holy Father’s words. We humans are adept at...
View ArticleAMBIGUITY WILL END
Human language can never attain ultimate clarity in expounding the truths of revelation or elucidating the things of the Spirit. Anything true that we say about God generally develops (not changes)...
View ArticlePAPAL WISDOM
Cardinals are priests of outstanding learning, piety, judgement and ability, chosen by the Pope to assist him in the government of the universal Church. God does not withdraw those admirable qualities...
View ArticleCREATOR ALME SIDERUM
In 1891 Pope Leo XIII re-founded the Vatican Observatory “so that everyone might see clearly that the Church and her pastors are not opposed to true and solid science, whether human or divine, but that...
View ArticleSON OF GOD, MESSIAH, SAVIOUR
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the merciful Saviour, confusion is still being sown on the subject of different religions, particularly in regard to the religious wars now being waged in...
View ArticleLORD JESUS, LIVING IN MARY
John in utero leapt for joy within Elizabeth his mother when she was greeted by cousin Mary. To outward appearances that visitation might have looked like the meeting of two ordinary women, one rather...
View ArticleJESUS IS LORD
The authority and power of the Holy Name of Jesus are clearly revealed in the New Testament. The Acts of the Apostles records many instances of the power of that Name to heal the sick and raise the...
View ArticleAN ICON OF THE TRINITY
Christ’s baptism in the Jordan marks the conclusion of His hidden life in Nazareth and the start of His public ministry. The silent Infant of Bethlehem did not proclaim the mysteries of divine...
View ArticleUT UNUM SINT
The week of prayer for Christian unity reminds us that the Catholic Church is irrevocably committed to ‘the ecumenical journey’. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) teaches the following: Who...
View ArticlePROMISE FULFILLED
St.Paul is the greatest convert and the greatest missionary that God has ever given to His Church. Saul of Tarsus was a well-educated and zealous young rabbi, very determined that nothing should change...
View ArticleTO BE A LIGHT
On Tuesday 1st February 1848 Fr.Newman established the Oratory of St.Philip Neri in England. The canonical foundation was made after first vespers of the Purification had been sung. God has given us...
View ArticleLENTEN FAST
St.Philip Neri fasted habitually, not only in Lent. He ate little and drank little. He did not impose his asceticism on others. He said that mortification of the razionale was more important than...
View ArticleAVOIDING THE FACILE
In Lent we are bidden to accompany Christ our Lord into the wilderness. What did He find in the Judean desert? He found hunger, coldness, dryness, emptiness. Most of all, He found temptation. He was...
View ArticleCONTAINERS
What happened on the high mountain was not without precedent. Centuries before, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, his face shone so brightly that he had to cover it with...
View ArticleHOLY GROUND
Many people are tempted to mess around with occultism in its various forms. Seances, tarot cards, crystal balls, Ouija boards and many other types of occultist hocus-pocus are much in demand. It’s a...
View ArticleRESPITE BEFORE PASSIONTIDE
Christ our Lord cared for the needs of His people, both by what He did and by what He said. Large crowds were eager to remain with the young rabbi who cured diseases, and so they followed Him to a...
View ArticlePASSIONTIDE
Christ did not redeem us by half measures. He offered up His lifeblood for our salvation. There is a prodigality about the way His Precious Blood was poured out; the Agony in Gethsemane, the scourging...
View ArticleWHOSE IMAGE?
In the former USSR under Communism, our long-suffering Russian Orthodox brethren were shown varying degrees of cynical tolerance by the state. The longer term aim of the Communist regime was to replace...
View ArticleEASTER REALITY
The Gospels give us chronologically sequential details of our Lord’s Passion, eyewitness accounts of all that was said and done. At the resurrection and thereafter until the Ascension, we seem to be in...
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