Laudato Si’, celebrates its 10th anniversary on 24 May. To mark this birthday, and to reflect on our relationship with the Creator and creation, let us celebrate Laudato Si’ Week well!! We live in such familiarity with the inspiration of this encyclical by Pope Francis, as a significant backdrop to our ‘care of the earth’ that we can hardly imagine ...
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The Now of God
Sunday 11th May 2025 marks the 62nd anniversary of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Join us with your prayers. In his letter ‘Pilgrims of Hope: The Gift of Life’ (released by Pope Francis from Rome, Policlinico A. Gemelli, 19 March 2025) Pope Francis shares some special signposts for those discerning the plan of God for them, and for ...
Read More »On Old Age
The late Pope Francis wrote the preface for this book in Italian by Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop Emeritus of Milan, titled “Awaiting a New Beginning. Reflections on Old Age.” Pope Francis wrote this on February 7, 2025 before his death on April 21, 2025, at age 88. Let not the short form of this book be deceptive: these are very ...
Read More »Nano Nagle, a prophet of Love …
Nano Nagle was a prophet of love. Her dying words were: “Love one another as you have hitherto done”. Nano Nagle died on Monday 26 April 1784 aged 65 years. Her vision is still relevant Nano Nagle is not a figure confined to the past but someone whose vision is as relevant today as it was in her own time. ...
Read More »Called to the fullness of joy
Just recently, on 7th April 2025, the McGrath Institute for Church Life generously shared a presentation by the Erik Varden, the Bishop of Trondheim, Norway, on “Living with Wounds: The Passion in Theology and in Our Lives”.* In the course of his talk, Bishop Erik said: As Christians we are called to freedom, and to the fullness of joy, and ...
Read More »Joy is not meant to be a crumb
“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better ...
Read More »Do not be afraid!
This particular Urbi et Orbi prayer (2020) and blessing by Pope Francis were a beacon of hope, a reminder that even when everything seemed dark, God never abandons us. Do not be afraid! Five years later, that moment remains vivid in the Church’s memory. The image of the Pope in the rain, walking with a serene step, has become a ...
Read More »To see and care for those overlooked
St. Joseph teaches us to see and care for the those people overlooked by the world. Jesus went in search of sinners, the suffering, the hungry, and the poor, while he walked the earth, and he continues to go to the “peripheries” in our lives. God knows the peripheries of our heart, the peripheries of our soul, the peripheries of our ...
Read More »Patrick’s life in our times
As St. Patrick’s Day approaches this year with all the blessings and celebrations that it brings, we give thanks for the life of St. Patrick and the seeds of God’s presence that were sown here in the challenging social and historical landscape of (c. 385 – c. 461) Ireland. However, Patrick’s life still speaks in our times. Patrick’s life journey ...
Read More »The Christmas of our lives
The Christmas of our lives is beginning again and again, in each moment, as we rediscover Jesus with us at each unfolding. Each moment a realisation, a one-off event of welcome and joy to this Divine Presence – God with us always. Once born amongst us, the seemingly ordinary events take on a resonance and light far beyond ourselves if ...
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