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Escaping the darkness by accepting ‘the beauty of the light’

April 14, 2024

“Their joy was so great that they still could not believe it” (Luke 24:41) In Sunday’s Gospel, the Risen Jesus’s disciples do not believe in him for a strange reason: their joy is too great! It seems odd, but sometimes we can lack faith for this reason: we think it is all too good to

How doubting Thomas can inspire those of us who endure a ‘traumatised faith’

April 08, 2024

“Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.” (John 20:25) Our lectionary’s translation of this verse from the Gospel of the second Sunday of Easter removes an

Was the angel in the tomb the same ‘young man’ who ran away naked during Jesus’s arrest?

March 31, 2024

“On entering the tomb they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right-hand side, and they were struck with amazement.” (Mark 16:5) Why does St Mark, alone among the evangelists, describe the angel in the tomb as a “young man in a white robe”? The only other time he refers to

Between the Cross and Resurrection: The Harrowing of Hell, according to J.R.R. Tolkien

March 30, 2024

Easter time seems to get me reflecting on Tolkien’s Catholic imagination. I have previously written about how the dynamic of grace was portrayed in the experiences of the hobbit-protagonists of Tolkien’s Middle Earth sagas. A key facilitator to this dynamic is, of course, the wizard Gandalf and the various ways in which he plays a

Who is the son referred to in ‘Woman, behold your son’ (John 19.26)?

March 29, 2024

Today, Good Friday, the Passion according to John will be read during the afternoon liturgy. We read those of Matthew, Mark and Luke once every three years, on Palm Sunday, but because John’s is read every year it is the most familiar. So familiar, in fact, that what is proposed here might come as something

In first Holy Week homily Pope urges Catholics not to be afraid of guilt

March 28, 2024

ROME – In his first major liturgy for Holy Week, Pope Francis offered an extended reflection on the spiritual underpinnings of so-called “Catholic guilt”, a by now almost notorious concept associated by many (especially critics of Catholicism) with an almost compulsive need to feel overly guilty for any perceived offense. He addressed the ancient tradition

New evidence indicates Turin Shroud not a European forgery

March 26, 2024

New scientific tests conducted on the famous Shroud of Turin have revealed that the flax used to make the linen was grown in the Middle East. The results of isotope tests provide new evidence that the shroud is the actual garment that was used to cover the body of Jesus Christ following his crucifixion –

Like us, Jesus had to learn how to pray too

March 18, 2024

The call to prayer requires teaching and encouragement. While we were made by God and for God, and have a natural desire for union with God, we need help in understanding and realising how to pursue and live this union with our heavenly Father. As we have to learn how to pray, the same is