In Dennis O’Driscoll’s humorous poem, Non-Stop Christmas, “Christmas is always coming. There are only ever so many days still left”. Well, the shopping and the frenetic activity which have characterised…
It took a bit of adjusting, coming in from the bright sunlight to the small, dark, one-roomed house. It was the House of Mary in the ruins of Ephesus, in…
The last day of November is the feast of Saint Andrew. It also coincides with the beginning of Advent, the start of the new Church year. This is appropriate as…
The feast of Christ the King is surely one of the strangest feasts associated with Christ. The very idea of him being a King doesn’t fit easily with the Gospel…
Of all European cities, Berlin is arguably the best suited for a discussion on remembrance. A visit there a few years back, taking in the Wall, the Holocaust/Roma/Sinti and other…
The poet, T.S.Eliot, once said that April was the cruellest month. I don’t know what he had against April, but I would have thought that the cold, dark winter months…
Prisons are sacred places. There our society claims control over the lives of men and women; there we assume the role of God. And whether the prison is a large…
Pope Francis’ choice of Assisi for the launch of his latest Encyclical last weekend was well made. The town of St Francis and St Clare was surely the ideal place…
Last week someone called me “an angel” for something I had done for them. It’s not the first time I’ve been called “an angel” and I’m getting to like it.…