Frank O’Reilly met Anne Looney who heads up the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment(NCCA). He talked to her about her work and her religious beliefs.

Anne Thurston explores the season of Advent using the themes of waiting and longing, hope and expectation. Pregnancy is the potent symbol here, along with stories of annunciations and visitations.

Carmel Wynne argues that we do children no favours when we try to protect them from the reality of death; we should, rather, prepare them in advance, in a manner appropriate to their age, for each of the events surrounding the death of someone they know.

Bill Long remembers spending Christmas with his friend Thomas Merton at the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane, Kentucky.

Sandra Cullen expresses very beautifully what it means for her as a mother to hand on the faith that inspires her life to her children.

Cardinal Newman may be declared “blessed” later this year. But it is difficult to know who he was and what he stood for. Newman preached on some of the controversial issues that still divide Christians. Roderick Strange, Rector of the Pontifical Beda College, Rome, introduces us to the man and [...]

Seán MacGabhann is an Irish-born Roman Catholic priest ministering in Canada. He sees relationship with Jesus as central to Catholicism. So his book is really a campaign to turn Catholics from concern with the institution to personal intimacy with Jesus: from head to heart, from power to service, from complexity [...]

Fr Paul Andrews reflects on some of the very positive qualities he discovered in the people he met during his stay in New Zealand.

Here Christopher Moriarty introduces us to one of Ireland’s forgotten greats of the late 19th & early 20th century, Canon Sheehan of Doneraile, Co Cork.

Jesuit priest Jon Sobrino believes that global capitalism is driven by a dynamic of greed and oppression that dehumanises people, destroys family life and threatens mother earth. It is only when the poor themselves are given a voice and become agents of their own liberation that a way can open [...]

The theologians who wrote the essays for this book have done theology a great service. They have shown how Pope John Paul II in the twenty-six years of his pontificate progressed and developed the way the Church thinks on a wide range of themes: revelation, suffering, the Holy Spirit, communism, [...]

What we hand on to our children is not so much doctrines or practices as the capacity to love. Paul Andrews SJ has a sympathetic understanding of how parents hand on their faith to their children and what’s important.

If there are concerns about immigration or racism, they should be listened to and discussed rationally, says Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, to prevent myths and rumour spreading false ideas about immigrants.

Bethany Bereavement Support Group is a parish-based ministry which aims to help and support those suffering any loss. The name Bethany recalls the visit of Jesus to Mary and Martha on the death of their brother Lazarus. In today’s world, it is not widely understood that the grieving process may [...]

In 1987 tháinig seachtar fear óg le chéile leis an Athair Benedict Groeschel, a bhí ina Chaipisíneach, chun ord úr a bhunú, Bráithre Proinsiasacha na hAthnuachana. Bhí siad ag iarraidh Naomh Proinsias a leanúint go dlúth i gcroílár na hEaglaise agus go háirithe i seirbhís na mbocht. Tá siad díreach [...]

Fr Lawrence Cunningham writes on the strong links that bind us to others who are part of the vast community of the living and the dead.

Here Paul Andrews SJ talks about making contact – with people and with God.

This is a book about Opus Dei by an insider that is accessible to outsiders. Scott Hahn was a Presbyterian biblical theologian who met some members of Opus Dei and was attracted by their life and example to investigate further, eventually joining the group himself. This is his personal story. [...]

 Ritual responses to death have changed often in the Church’s history. Liam Tracey OSM, Professor of Liturgy in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, examines especially the history of All Souls Day and some problems of perception raised by the liturgy of that day.

Justin Kilcullen, the director of Trocaire, finds time to write about a busy day in his life in February 2006.

Ceann d’ócáidí móra na bliana 1592 ar Mhór-Roinn na hEorpa ab ea bunú Choláiste na nGael i Salamanca na Spáinne. Ag cur san áireamh an caidreamh a bhí idir an tír seo agus an Spáinn san am sin, ní hiontas é go mbunófaí Coláiste Éireannach i gcathair úd an chultúir, [...]

In the last installment of his series, Alan McGuckian S.J. covers the years from Wojtyla’s ordination to his election in the second conclave of 1978.

Retired Bishop Geoffrey Robinson critiques the Church’s use and misuse of power, from the Pope to any preacher at the pulpit. He also proposes a new model of exercising authority in the Church where all the members are treated as responsible adults.

Kathleen Coyle SSC, who lectures in theology in Manila, considers the full cosmic significance of the incarnation and the sacramental character of creation.

Anne Marie Lee, from her experience of working with deprived people, stresses the importance for each of us of the value we attach to human suffering.

Tony Baggot SJ describes the contours of that exploration of the self which we need to undertake in order to have compassion on ourselves so that we can grow spiritually.

Patricia O’Neill’s world fell apart when her 12-year-old son drowned in Wexford’s Kilmore Quay in 1998. But it was also the nightmare that guided her back to her faith, as Deirdre O’Flynn reports.

Vernon Johnson’s short booklet is a valuable summary of an extraordinary life. Therese of Lisieux is a Doctor of the Church — not because she was learned but because the insights into faith in her writings are so astounding, so profound. She is one of the most loved saints in [...]

“Matt the Mitcher” is the story of ‘Barney’ Matt Talbot, from his childhood in the Dublin of the 1860s to his death on Trinity Sunday, 7 June 1925. Set against the grinding poverty of tenement life, of a large family on a small income, it tells of Matt’s alcoholic father [...]