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After ‘Abstract Lent’ there is a second risk, a ‘Formal Lent’.  Most of us see Lent as a time when we ‘must’, we ‘ought’, we ‘have to’. Fine, but what do we ‘need to’? Is there more to Lent than religious obligations and dietary restrictions? Is there a deeper truth beyond the ‘form’ of Lent? […]

The Lenten journey has begun: out of the slavery of the land of Egypt, through the desert, to the freedom of the Promise Land. Sorry, can you repeat? What do you mean by ‘slavery’ and ‘freedom’? Pharaoh, Egypt, desert?  What are they? We all run a huge risk: Lent in abstract. In his Lenten Message […]

Next Wednesday ashes will be put on our heads as we hear the exhortation to works of penance and repentance. We know, it is about fasting, prayer and alms-giving. But, why? And, what for? Why? Because of sin. What for? Not to die, but live! After the grievous sin of human pride, with Adam’s rebellion, […]

Early in January Pope Francis inaugurated a ‘Year of Prayer’ ahead of the 2025 Jubilee Year. Last week, the Pope announced the setting up of a ‘School of Prayer’. What will it involve? I don’t really know(!), but I think the Pope will speak about our hands. When we pray, we use words, loud voice […]

“Today we begin the Year of Prayer, a year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and the absolute need for prayer in personal life, in the life of the Church, and in the world.” With these words, at the end of last Sunday’s Angelus, Pope Francis announced the need to prepare in view of the 2025 […]

The herald Angels singing, the Shepherds of Bethlehem, the Magi from the East, Mary and Joseph, they all seems so, so far… Yes, far but not over, no. Theirs was a decisive experience, the same for us: to see God made man. “And so… let us look at Him. Let us wonder at His humility. […]

The Shepherds of Bethlehem, the Wise Men from the East and the first disciples of Jesus. What do they all have in common? They searched and they found. Yes, search and you will find too. The Shepherds of Bethlehem were awake in the night, vigilant. The silence of the night made them attentive, alert, in […]

Today, in Lisieux (France), comes to end the Jubilee Year commemorating the 150th anniversary of her birth and the centenary of her beatification. Her name, Marie-Francoise Therese, born on 2nd January 1873. She entered the Carmel on April 9th, 1888, wih the name of Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Died September […]

Today, 31st December, Feast of the Holy Family, is New Year’s Eve. A ‘new’ year is about to begin. Will it be a new beginning? Or, more of the old same? Will you(and me) win the temptation to remain still, never leaving the ‘labyrinth’ of our fears? Fears, schemes, old ways make for an immobility […]