Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

December 25, 2023

Light in the darkness: war in the Holy Land brings the Incarnation into clearer focus

December 25, 2023

An apocryphal story, one of my favourites, has been doing the rounds in diplomatic circles for decades. Late one Advent in the middle of the Cold War, the British ambassador to Washington received a call from a local news station, and answered it himself. “Your Excellency,” said a voice at the other end of the

‘On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me’…Good King Wenceslas, on the Feast of Stephen

December 25, 2023

Try teaching the words of Good King Wenceslas to a ten-year-old Ukrainian who’s still finding her way in English. I’d thought it would be easy, but clearly I hadn’t been concentrating in all the years I sang that song. I had the vague idea of a king in a fairytale castle setting off with his

‘On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me’…Robert Southwell’s ‘Burning Babe’

December 25, 2023

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shedAs though his