Mark Patrick Hederman OSB uses biography, art and liturgy as starting points for some creative writing. When we experience the world symbolically, he says, we find that the energy of God takes over as the operating fuel in our personalities.

This little booklet presents a dynamic vision of how the parish community can be developed as an instrument of ministry and mission of the kingdom of God in Celtic Tiger Ireland.

John Murray’s book is about social analysis. Social analysis involves examining economic, political, cultural and social structures to gain a more complete understanding of social situations. The aim is to investigate the way things are and why. It is one of the “Into the Classroom” series designed for teachers at [...]

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 [...]

From the Veritas ‘Into the Classroom’ series: Benedict Hegarty OP introduces the bible as a classic – and still living – literary text and as a sacred text, and he examines the reception of the bible in the community. This series, edited by Eoin G. Cassidy and Patrick M. Devitt, [...]

From the Veritas ‘Into the Classroom’ series: Eoin G. Cassidy looks at how we derive and process the great questions concerning the meaning of life at large and one’s own life in particular. He discusses both secular and religious sources of values which emerge from this questioning.

Tom Stack introduces a selection of Kavanagh’s poems, highlighting their mystical dimension. He alerts us to how we too, like Kavanagh himself, can experience poetry as “a hole in heaven’s gable”.

This handbook is designed by editor Brian Magee CM to help the reader prepare the readings for a wedding, so that their message can be conveyed in a way that is meaningful for the couple and the congregation. Each reading is prefaced by a short commentary, and there is a [...]

Although we understand that the cross is central to Christianity, we tend to avoid the disturbing questions which this raises in practice. Kenneth Leech explores and exposes these questions and shows that they are what gives Christianity its real bite.

Billy Swan’s “Creed of Love” is an exploration of the gift of faith and examines among other issues the importance of the Apostles’ Creed to our lives today, the connection between the Church and faith in a post-modern society and the questions asked by believers in the wake of scandals [...]

Gordon Oliver examines the difficulties and opportunities that arise in using the Bible in conjunction with contemporary pastoral practice and modern scripture studies, and in doing so opens up new possibilities for interpreting the Bible as practical theology. He guides the reader through the various approaches and perspectives that will [...]

Jack Mc Ardle outlines the Gospel readings for Year C, offers reflections, personal parables on the various themes, outlines the teachings, suggests practical responses and reinforces them all with life stories. It is particularly suited for the interested layperson.

Author Garth Lean’s story of William Wilberforce’s struggle against slavery shows that one person can make a difference, and that it is possible to combine integrity and conscience with a successful political career.

Apart from the prayers for the different times of the year, this book prepared by the brothers of Taizé community also gives practical instructions on how the elements, such as prayer around the cross, the icons and the meditative chants, contribute to our personal intimacy with God.

Brendan McGuire was born in Bray, Co Wicklow. He worked in IT in the USA before being ordained in 2000 and is now pastor in San Jose, California. Here he shares his Sunday homilies for the year when Matthew’s gospel is read. We have chosen his homelies for the six [...]

In the emerging post-secular society the Irish School of Ecumenics has a bright future. This is founder Michael Hurley SJ’s assessment of the role of an institution he fouunded almost forty years ago and which is still very much at the heart of academic and cultural life in Ireland and [...]

Brian Lennon SJ worked for many years with people affected by conflict in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. In a way that is both compassionate and challenging, he explains the myths and misunderstandings of what forgiveness is and the demands that society often puts on those who have suffered. He then [...]

From the Veritas ‘Into the Classroom’ series: Philip Barnes provides a thorough introduction to the tenets and beliefs of all the major world religions. This series, edited by Eoin G. Cassidy and Patrick M. Devitt, is designed for teachers of the new Leaving Cert religious education syllabus.

From the Veritas ‘Into the Classroom’ series: Thomas Norris and Brendan Leahy examine Christ’s vision for the world and how this vision has been received at important junctures of Christian history.

Amid the chaos and the beauty of the contemporary world Enda McDonagh sees the Other, the Holy, still powerfully present and urges us to be open. We will find, he says, that the Other is both gift and call, costing and fulfilling not less than everything.

Rev Francis Selman offers a fresh insight into many of the features of St Thomas Aquinas’s work with sections on God, the human being and moral life, as well as the means of salvation by Christ, the emotions, the resurrection, and our being drawn to God not only by our [...]

James McCaffrey OCD gives a thought provoking account of the influence of Mary, Mother of Carmel, on Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Edith Stein and Thérèse of Lisieux, and offers essential insights and fresh observations for both the Carmelite scholar and lay reader alike.

Stephen Cottrell’s vision of an evangelising church embraces Christians of every tradition, and explores practical ways of developing structures and ministries that will establish a culture of evangelism in local churches.

Donal Dorr SPS begins with the idea of mission as dialogue between Christianity and other religions, spiritualities and value systems. He goes on to look at mission as evangelisation, as inculturation, as struggle for liberation, as option for the poor and as power from the Spirit. He also looks at [...]

This article by John-Paul Sheridan is a general introduction to the Alive-O programme, the primary school religious education programme. Based on the quotation from St Irenaeus: “The glory of God is a person fully alive”, the programme aims at a holistic and integral development of the young person. It first appeared [...]

Fr John Bollan is Director of Spiritual and Pastoral Formation in the Religious Education Department at the University of Glasgow. He shows how scriptural passages yield spiritual richness for the teacher and he also supplies a practical tool-kit of materials to help students and teachers to develop their own faith [...]

“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 [...]

For the eighth centenary of the town of Callan, Co. Kilkenny, Jim O’Halloran SDB addresses his fellow Callan-ites on the topic of “The Church and the World of the Future”.

In the emerging post-secular society the Irish School of Ecumenics has a bright future. This is founder Michael Hurley SJ’s assessment of the role of an institution he founded almost forty years ago and which is still very much at the heart of academic and cultural life in Ireland and [...]