Just over sixty years ago, good Pope John XXIII announced that there would be a Second Vatican Council. It was to renew how the Church announced her teaching to the world. Although some misunderstood the nature of that renewal, there were many wonderful fruits of genuine renewal which came, and...

The human voice is almost as expressive as the human face. Depending on its tone, pitch and strength, a voice tells us as much as the words it conveys. Someone’s voice can by itself bring comfort and reassurance or fear and upset. The voice is the instrument of our mind...

We know that Peter had a strong love for Jesus. He had wanted Jesus to be spared the Cross. He had wanted to walk with Jesus on the water. He had wanted to give his life for Jesus even if everyone else abandoned him. He had wanted Jesus to be...

They arrived too late. The stone had already been rolled away. The cloths on his body had already been cast aside. He had already gone. The Resurrection of Jesus, the most important event in history, the event that takes history beyond history and into the realm of the divine, was...

“Near the Cross of Jesus stood his mother.” Once upon a time, she had been nearer still to him: when he was in her womb, when he was in the crib. But those former nearnesses did not yet have the depth and maturity of her nearness to the Cross. In...

The truth about Christmas emerges in its fullness in the three holiest days ofthe year, the Sacred Triduum, which begin today with Holy Thursday. In theCreed we profess that the Son of God came down from heaven and took fleshof the Virgin for us and for our salvation. What is...

I always remember as a boy finding it difficult to make a Cross out of the palm yougot on Palm Sunday. I also remember how quickly the palm placed behind thecrucifix at home went from green to that faded, dried-up, yellowish colour. By thetime Palm Sunday came around again the...

We don’t hear what happened to the woman in the Gospel after her encounter with Jesus. I think it likely that her life would never be the same again. Whatever the reason for the way she had been living before, her reason for living from then on was Jesus. He...

In this most beloved of the parables of Jesus, great spiritual benefit can be had from looking more closely at the figure of the father. We are usually inclined to focus on the two sons and ask ourselves where we might fit in with them. That is surely also very...

God always takes the first step. Look at creation. Look at his appearance to Moses in the first reading. Look at the coming of Jesus in the flesh. God is always motivated by love, especially when we are in difficulty. He appears to Moses to tell him that He is...