A Catholic Monthly Magazine

A Silver Lining to a Cloud of Grief (0)

The pragmatic lens through which an adolescent boy looks is very narrow and has room only for himself. The pragmatic lens through which a mature adult man looks can incorporate the idea of doing things for others.
-- Celia Lashlie,He’ll Be OK, Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men

They say when one door closes, another door opens.… More

Parables in Stained Glass (2) (0)

Last month I showed how the Parables of the Foolish Virgins, the Talents, the Wedding Feast, the Sower, and the Prodigal Son had been depicted in stained glass. Here are some more of the thirty or so parables Jesus told.

In Matthew 13 Jesus told two similar parables about the Kingdom of Heaven being like treasure. … More

Abba Father — Who Are You? (2) (0)

‘Closest to the Father’s Heart’

It is impossible to get inside someone else’s ‘skin’. We get glimpses from what a person says or does. But to experience life from within another person’s consciousness, that’s a mystery beyond us. And rightly so.… More

Ash Wednesday Reality (0)

When I was a small boy in a small town, Ash Wednesday embarrassed me. We had a succession of parish priests with thumbs that seemed gargantuan to a child. They deposited great day-lasting dollops of ash on all available foreheads. Even babes in arms were not exempt: ‘Remember man that thou art dust …’.… More

Francis Speaks about St Joseph (0)

Feast Day: 19 March
God’s Dream

Today I would like to ask that St Joseph grant all of us the ability to dream because when we dream great things, good things, we draw near to God’s dream, what God dreams about us.… More

Stations of the Cross (0)

The text is adapted from the ceremony led by Pope Francis, at the Colosseum, Rome, on Good Friday, 30 March 2018.

The photos, taken by Glen McCullough, are of the Stations in St Benedict’s Church, Newton, Auckland, and are used with the permission of the Parish Priest, Monsignor Paul Farmer.… More

SMSM — Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary (0)

Collaborators in Continuing the Mission of Mary in the Church (2)

If SMSM became an official branch of the Marist family in the Church and able to continue the work of Mary as women who are missionaries, Marists and religious, it was due to the active role of the Society of Mary.… More

The Winter of God, by James K Baxter, (0)

The winter of middle age is sent to us so that we should learn to throw our natural youth as a willing sacrifice on the bonfire and grow young again in God. It is only those who cling desperately to the natural level – to a sexuality that may be inopportune, to material possessions, to social status, to a sense of failure because of unachieved material ambitions – who are forging out for themselves a thoroughly lonely and ice-encrusted old age.… More

God … Disguised as our Life (0)

It was Paula D’Arcy who wrote, ‘God comes to us disguised as our life’.

Paula D’Arcy wrote those words after a drunk driver killed her husband and one-year-old child, when Paula was just 27, and three months pregnant.

Frederick Buechner echoes a similar insight.… More

A School for Prayer (19) (0)

The Way of the Body

St Dominic and the ‘Nine Ways of Prayer’ (2)

What the Nine Ways of Prayer tell us

By Fr Craig  Larkin SM, 1943 - 2015

It is clear that in all these pictures we are seeing Dominic at his private prayer.… More

Is Lent Your Cup of Tea? (0)

Ash Wednesday is upon us once again and the season of Lent beckons. Once upon a time we all took the Lenten fast very seriously along with the various requirements for Fasting, Mass attendance, Reconciliation and Lenten resolutions of our own. … More

March Saints (0)

Saint Katharine Drexel
1858-1955

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Katharine Drexel was the second daughter of Francis Anthony Drexel, a well-known banker and philanthropist. Her parents instilled in their daughters the idea that their wealth was simply on loan to them and was to be shared with others.… More

The Church of Notre Dame de France, Leicester Place, London (0)

London West End conjures up images of the world of theatre and entertainment - Evita, 42nd Street, Les Misérables; even a glimpse of Michael Caine on the red carpet at the premiere of King of Thieves!

In the midst of this is Notre Dame de France Church, a focal point for French-speaking Catholics in London.… More