Sean O’Conaill argues that we’re wrong to suppose that psychic buoyancy and emotional autonomy are the norm in mental health. We are relational, not autonomous, beings; and it is in the context of relationships, friendship, and love that emotional health is best considered.
Henry Peel OP surveys the story of catholics and education in Ireland at the end of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, a period during which anti-catholic penal legislation was on its last legs.
In “Face Up”, a magazine for teenagers, Anne Dempsey asks why hundreds of Irish teens have abortions every year. She looks at the other choices available to those who find themselves pregnant.
Thomas Brodie OP takes a close look at the motifs of harmony and disharmony in the Book of Genesis and at the stories it tells of God’s response to his people.
Chiara Lubich, foundress and president of the Focolare movement, writes that unity among Christians can be achieved only by each of us striving to imitate Christ and to follow the commandment of love.
Michel de Verteuil CSSp explains in a practical way the prayer method of Lectio Divina, a manner of contemplating scripture and integrating it with all the goings-on of one’s life.
Magali Nicole takes a look at gardening. In it she finds a model of ‘subduing the earth’ which does not involve exercising absolute mastery over it, but rather entails working with God and helping to create heaven on earth.
James McFadden sees the spirituality of Meister Eckhart in terms of detachment, of letting go of everything and living without a why.
In this Advent homily, Celestine Cullen OSB explains that the new world promised in the liturgy of Advent is not a world without pain or conflict, but a world in which God’s grace, power, and presence will be there to support and strengthen us.
Sean McDonagh examines whether corporate greed is forcing us to eat genetically modified food, and fears that new patenting rules may allow corporations to gain ownership over living organisms.
Donagh O’Shea OP warns against the tendency to think of the material world – especially the body – as something to be despised. Christian spirituality enjoins respect for all creation.
Teenager Debbie Thornton wonders if teens today are too self-involved and busy to be really interested in justice issues. In another part of this feature from Face Up magazine, Sue Leonard interviews some Belvedere students about their sleep-out to raise money for the homeless.
James Wallace C.Ss.R. proposes that we take three model characters as our ‘companions’ for Advent: John the Baptist, the prophet Isaiah, and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Paul Ross tells the story of Fr John Murphy, a country curate who was hanged for his role in the Wexford Rising, during the 1798 Irish rebellion.
Bill Long remembers spending Christmas with his friend Thomas Merton at the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane, Kentucky.
Maria Forrestal FMM wonders if as a Franciscan she should be a vegetarian. How, she asks, should a Franciscan sister live out the attitude of St. Francis of Assisi towards animals and the whole of creation?
Celine Mangan OP uses the two quotes which follow to bring awareness of how the animal world can teach us humans how our actions are causing destruction to planet earth: ‘The land mourns and all who live in it languish; even the fish of the sea are perishing.’ (Hos.4.3) and [...]
The writer senses we have a call as Christians to care for the earth.
