We say that words are ten a penny. But that depends on who’s saying them. It also depends on what the words are about. Sad to say, we live in a time when the words of politicians and other public figures cannot always be trusted. In recent times, people have...

Early last year a relative of mine died and I was asked to do the funeral. The night before the funeral, as you know, the coffin is often brought to the church. There used to be the custom in my home parish that, after the coffin was received, the priest...

I remember once at a UN meeting in Geneva, a delegate from a Western country proposed a redefinition of the family. Rather than basing family relations on flesh and blood, she said, the family should be based on relations of economic dependence. I recall taking the microphone and saying that this new definition meant...

So, we return to green vestments! After the purple of Advent and Lent, the white of Christmas and Easter and the red of Palm Sunday and Pentecost, we pick up once more what is called “Ordinary Time.” Green is the colour of life and fertility, yet the life it symbolises...

Muslims and Jews are scandalized that Christians believe God became man. God cannot humiliate himself in this way, they contend. Indeed, among human beings as a whole there is often a negative or pessimistic attitude towards our own human flesh. So, it is an utter scandal that the Holy and...

My father was a quiet man. He never said much about himself. Being the youngest, there was also for me the slight disadvantage that he was in his sixties before I was eighteen, so conversation was not easy. I got to know him a little better in his final years,...

I love walking in the sea breeze. Brought up in Ardrossan, the breeze, or should I say the gale, was always blowing! So, it was good last week, when I was on holiday in Brighton, to spend a long time walking along the sea front. One day, there was a...

If Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, then our union with Him in this mortal life means we are already united with eternal life. Because of that, we can look at death in a way that is not possible for those who do not believe. Jesus himself...

Baptism is a vocation, a call to be united to the life of the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Confirmation is a vocation to go out and witness to that life. But there are many ways of living out the vocation of baptism and confirmation. Two...

“Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?” Think of that image: a burning heart. What is that fire? It can certainly be the fire of love. It can also be the fire enkindled when you begin...