This article is a chapter from John Bollan’s book on religious education, “The Light of His Face: Spirituality for Catholic teachers”. I consists of reflections on the mysteries which, as he says himself, “cross over into any sphere of life and work”.

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. [...]

Hell, for many people, is a fiery place full of horned creatures wielding pitchforks. Theologian Lawrence Cunningham explains what the church really teaches.

Mass attendance in Ireland is continuing to fall. Desmond O’Donnell, OMI, argues that counting heads at Mass is not the most important thing.

How do the choices we make in adolescence affect the direction of our future life? This is the theme implicit in Fr Brian Grogan’s account of the adolescence of Ignatius Loyola.

“An expression of his chivalric spirit, never satisfied with the good but always seeking the better” is how Brian O’Leary SJ explains the “greater glory” in the Jesuit motto, “Ad maiorem Dei gloriam”. It is also the expression of his lively apostolic spirituality.

Two unexpected visitors to Fr Brendan Comerford SJ are what he calls his “unlikely inspiration” for his article about Mary. Like them, she is our “unselfconscious exemplar”.

Fr Jack McArdle offers his pastoral thoughts and insights on different aspects of Christian living. He looks at different signposts and gifts we may have. Always easy to read, this book will be helpful to many.

Many academics and media people in Ireland have little time for a Catholic literary tradition. In fact, they don’t take the very idea of Catholic intellectual activity seriously. Eamon Maher, whose translation of Jean Sulivan’s memoir of the death of his mother, Anticipate Every Goodbye, was published recently by Veritas, [...]

Paul Murray OP sets the images of ‘descent’ and ‘falling’ alongside the more familiar images of ‘ascent’ and ‘rising’, in explaining the motion of the soul towards God.

Tony Baggot SJ identifies a common problem of people who earnestly seek to develop spiritually – the problem of not coming to terms with their psychological experience and trying to graft a spiritual outlook onto this unresolved reality.

Brian Grogan SJ sketches St. Ignatius’ physical and spiritual transformation before Our Lady of Montserrat as he prepared to set out on his pilgrimage which would lead to the creation of the Jesuits and the reinvigoration of the Catholic faith.

Brian O’Leary SJ tells us about St Ignatius of Loyola’s experience of and teaching on consolation and desolation in the spiritual life.

Martin Gani visits Avignon and learns about the infamous “Babylonian Captivity”.

This book by the Benedictine Mark Patrick Hederman gives an introduction to the Tarot, a history of its uses and abuses, a practical guide to its value as an underground map to the unconscious where the springs of our creativity are hidden, and where God can enter our lives. It [...]

Michael Byrne reflects on his journey from vagueness and doubt towards certainty and faith, and he considers what it means to be a committed Catholic in Ireland today. Kevin O’Higgins SJ responds to Michael’s article.

Edel Reynolds, teacher, tells how she sees God working in her life.

Tim Quinlan describes his personal key to survival, a spiritual perspective which helps him to bear the high stress levels which secondary school teaching induce in him.

Brian O’Leary SJ points out that in his “Autobiography” St Ignatius of Loyola shows us how God guided him from the beginning of his conversion. So in our lives we can work out for ourselves how God may be guiding us.

Brian Grogan SJ looks at how being wounded in action at the siege of Pamplona brought Ignatius to a sense of crisis in his life where he had to make a decision about his future. It also revealed how he now looked at the life he led up til then.

In 1850, Dom Prosper Gueranger OSB, at the invitation of Pope Pius IX, wrote a book which the Pope used as the basis of the Constitution “Ineffabalis Deus” which defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, on 8th December 1854. This article of a little over 4,000 words was written [...]

Peter de Rosa’s dips into our favourite Marian prayers, poems and hymns, both ancient and modern. There are chapters on Mary’s many titles, the Rosary, and on Ireland’s faithfulness to it. We also get a glimpse of how great Protestants like Martin Luther, and Muslims like the Prophet Mohammed thought [...]

David Hays maintains that survey figures show that interest in spirituality, often expressed as the awareness of ‘something there’, is rising right across the developed world. He demonstrates this from hundreds of interviews of ‘ordinary’ people which back up the view that spirituality is hard-wired into our biological make-up, that [...]

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.

Paddy O’Meara observes that the poetry and songs of Johnny Cash, Patrick Kavanagh and Kris Kristofferson have touched the hearts of countless people – touched them in a way that hymns, sermons, or the Bible may never have. There are lessons here for the institutional church.

Seán O Conaill identifies an elitist vein in present-day individualism and warns that the right response is not a return to the social and religious conformism of the past.

Brian Grogan SJ points out that Ignatius’s visit to Jerusalem in September 1523 was a high point in his life. Ever after he was able to recall in imagination the scenes where the mysteries of Jesus’ life were acted out. This became a technique of prayer that he taught to [...]

This is the Year of the Rosary, and October is the Month of the Rosary. Last October, Pope John Paul II announced five new mysteries, to be added to the traditional fifteen mysteries: Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious. Called the ‘Mysteries of Light’, the new mysteries focus on Jesus’ years in [...]

Not all of us makes the best of the hand of cards that fate has dealt us, but Paul Andrews met someone who definitely did – “one of the most remarkable people I have met”.

We should beware of neglecting the great religious value of our ordinary experience of the world, says Donagh O’Shea OP.