SPIRITED THINKING SINCE 1888
Life & Soul
The Christmas Stories
November 25, 2021
Rev Dr Richard J Ounsworth
How the four Masses of Christmas use different readings from the Gospels to tell the story of Christ’s coming
Nine hundred years of the Norbertines
October 22, 2021
Michael Hodges
Charting the history of the Order which has survived over centuries and is now settled in Chelmsford
The coming King
October 22, 2021
Fr Richard Ounsworth OP
As we come to the end of the Church’s liturgical year, we should consider own vanities before the kingdom of Christ
Fireworks and light
October 21, 2021
Charlie Hart
Thanks to evergreens and pyrotechnics, we have all sorts of ways to ignore the bleakness of winter and look forward to dazzling displays that will soon return
Tessa’s Feasts: Two classic apple desserts for St Charles Borromeo
October 21, 2021
Tessa Balfour
This month I have prepared two apple recipes – tarte tatin and an apple Charlotte – for St Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of apple orchards. Tarte tatin was invented by sisters Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin at their hotel in Loir-et-Cher in the late 1880s. While preparing a traditional tart, Stéphanie, knackered after a long
October Diary: Reflecting on the plight of refugees
October 13, 2021
Anna Somers Cocks
Anna Somers Cocks on the plight of those left behind in Afghanistan, the apps offering a window on that country, and the challenges of her Italian garden
The remarkable restoration of St Birinus, Dorchester-upon-Thames
October 13, 2021
Michael Hodges
St Birinus, probably a monk of St Andrew’s Benedictine Monastery on the Caelian Hill in Rome, was ordered by Pope Honorius I to England in 634 AD to convert the West Saxons. A year later he landed at Southampton. He succeeded in converting Cynegils, the West Saxon king. The latter gave St Birinus Dorchester-upon-Thames, as
Tessa’s Feasts: herring and monkfish for St Andrew
October 11, 2021
Tessa Balfour
Herring and monkfish prepared in honour 
of St Andrew, the patron of saint of fishing
Mist and moments of delight
October 11, 2021
Charlie Hart
However bleak and overshadowed life might seem, lurking among the ruins are moments of true beauty –proof that ‘nothing pleaseth but rare accidents’
Strengthening those in despair
October 07, 2021
Archie Hill
You might think poets make natural martyrs. Passionate, idealistic, enraptured by visions of artistic immortality; throughout history, barricades and prisons have been crammed full of poetic talent. But the best poets are, by necessity, listeners and observers, detached from the action where martyrs are found. When they strive for heroic death, more often than not
Helping to lift burdens
October 03, 2021
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
As we grow closer to the poor, little by little we gain their confidence and can advise them in the most terrible moments of this earthly pilgrimage. We can give them the comforting words of faith and we often succeed, not by our own merit, in putting on the right path people who have strayed
Lifeline to heaven
October 03, 2021
Sister Mary Jean
How many millions of miles rosary beads have travelled through troubled fingers only God and his Mother know. How many miracles of grace it has worked in the lives of those who were faithful to this devotion, it must keep the angels busy to record. How many times it has pulled back from the gates
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