Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

March 31, 2024

The resurrection of the English vineyard: Encountering the mysticism of wine in a glass of sparkling white

March 31, 2024

It seems fitting that during Easter tide we should take the opportunity to consider and celebrate the resurrection of English winemaking. While grapes have been cultivated in parts of the British Isles since Roman times – the medieval Domesday book records at least 40 vineyards, and once upon a time both Westminster and Holborn were

Letter from the Editor: A very Happy Easter to our readers

March 31, 2024

Back in 2022, I visited the Garden of Gethsemane – where the Lord’s Passion began with His arrest. Beside the ancient olive grove – some gnarled trees date back 1,000 years – is the Basilica of the Agony (originally a crusader chapel) where I knelt with my wife at the bedrock of stones, encircled by

Pope’s ‘foreign policy’ Easter message: What got included, what got left out

March 31, 2024

ROME – A pope’s Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi blessing, meaning “to the city and the world,” is generally understood to be one of his premier foreign policy statements of the year, a sort of 365-degree review of the global situation. Which issues and hotspots a pontiff chooses to highlight, therefore – and, equally, which he chooses

‘A tidal wave of truths’: Thomas Merton on the power of the Mass reliving the crucifixion

March 31, 2024

The Mass wields enormous power through its connection to Christ’s death on the cross, wrote Thomas Merton, the American Trappist monk, writer, theologian and mystic. “O my God, with what might You sometimes choose to teach a man’s soul Your immense lessons!” Merton wrote in his memoir the Seven Storey Mountain about his spiritual journey

Finding hope among the ruins: Rebuilding the Church in Ireland through sincerity

March 31, 2024

On a cold Spring morning on the west coast of Ireland, replete with intermittent showers of sleet, I travelled to the small town of Claregalway, just outside Galway city. Standing on the outskirts of the town are the impressive ruins of a Franciscan Abbey, whose origins date as far back as 1250 A.D. The story

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