Fr David Howell, Author at Catholic Herald

Fr David Howell

Understanding Jesus’s presence with ‘wild beasts’ in today’s Gospel

February 18, 2024

“The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.” (Mark 1:12-13) In the Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent, why does St Mark mention that Jesus “was with the wild beasts”? It

The mystery of Jesus’s ‘stern’ moment with the leper (and with us)

February 08, 2024

“Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone'” (Mark 1:43-44). Our lectionary translation for part of this forthcoming Sunday’s Gospel uses the word “sternly” for how Jesus speaks to the leper he has just healed. But does this translation really work? On one hand, Jesus has reason to

Even Jesus needed downtime

February 04, 2024

Sunday Gospel reflection: Parsing the devil’s use of ‘us’

January 28, 2024

“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” (Mark 1:24) Why does the demon in Sunday’s Gospel use the plural “us” rather than the singular “me”? Jesus’s following words of exorcism clearly show there is only one demon involved. When a devil interferes with us, he wants to identify himself with us, so we

Let us repair our nets

January 21, 2024

“He preached in these words, ‘Only forty days more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed.’ And the people of Nineveh believed in God.” (Jonah 3:4-5) Why was Jonah’s preaching so effective in today’s first reading? His words were simple, but they were strengthened by his witness: he had come alive from the belly of

In the face of calls to abolish, the Church must remember clerical celibacy is a gift from God

January 17, 2024

There are many angles from which to analyse clerical celibacy today and the suggestions by some that it’s high time to end the practice. I would like to focus on two: its history and a personal reflection. The Catholic Church sometimes remembers aspects of its tradition which have fallen into disuse – such as her

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