“WELL that was a waste of time!” I recently overhead these emphatically exclaimed words. I am reluctant to provide further details as to the circumstances that gave rise to that utterance, lest some individuals reading this be able to name the culprit. It suffices to say that a deceptively pedestrian phrase set me thinking. For a Christian, can anything ever ... Read More »
FOR those of you who have visited Salisbury Cathedral, I need not relate the fact that the thirteenth-century spire of the building towers over the surrounding countryside. It is readily visible from the local train station, making it a helpful guiding landmark for any visitor who – like myself – is unable to catch the bus due to budgetary ... Read More »
I REMEMBER the Prague metro as being a rather impressive series of tunnels and spectacularly steep escalators. The descent is so precipitous that, upon first experiencing the swift and seemingly vertiginous journey into the earth, I could not help but think that I was entering into the opening chapters of a Jules Verne novel. The graffiti on the metro walls ... Read More »
WHEN the new academic term began a few months ago we were subjected to the occasional round of ‘padding’ – a lecturer, who had seemingly not prepared sufficient material for the first lesson, allowed the students to dissipate a considerable amount of time by discoursing at some length upon the intimate details of their lives. This was ostensibly undertaken in ... Read More »
IN conversation recently I have had occasion to notice an increasing number of people making ready reference to their “conscience” as justification for a particular decision or course of action. On the face of it this would seem a rather laudable development, were it not for the fact that the rapidity and regularity of the invocation has led me to ... Read More »
‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?’ (John 2:4) I KNOW many people who visibly wince whenever the ‘Wedding at Cana’ is the Gospel of the day. It is certainly jarring to hear those words spoken by Our Lord to Our Lady – it seems rather rude at first. I know of a priest in South Australia ... Read More »
I THOUGHT it was just me. However, upon discussing it with my fellow friars over lunch – and even other students from different religious orders at the theological college – it turns out we have all had the same experience. Upon meeting for the first time, wherever the location and whatever the occasion, my conversation with a fellow Catholic will ... Read More »
I READ a terrifying story recently. It recounted the story of a couple who, rejoicing in the birth of their first-born child, learnt but a short while later that she suffered from a rare, terminal illness and that she was unlikely to live beyond her first year. As predicted, their daughter died when she was seven months old – she ... Read More »
Cycling into the theological college every day brings with it many unexpected benefits. It is a 22km round-trip and this affords me the opportunity to have many an interesting interaction with my fellow road-users; sometimes we even exchange words as well as hand-gestures. A few months ago, I was rather taken aback by a question posed to me by the ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
