On the night before he died, in referring to himself as the “true vine” Jesus was using a potent image. Vines were familiar to the apostles as part of their lives but they had also learned in scripture about the false vines of the past. The Old Testament recounts tales of Israel like a vine that had been planted and looked after by God but due to the people’s infidelity, the vine failed to deliver its fruit and became corrupt. … Read More
Attempting to deal with the perennial problem of passing the Faith on to the next generation engages many of us and taxes our own creativity to the utmost. It has been said that it is much harder to bring the new evangelization to a Christian nation than to those people who have never heard of Christianity. What about our country? The deeply held belief that Ireland is still fervently Catholic can be reinforced when we see the crowds at pilgrim … Read More
St Benedict lived at a crossroads in the history of Europe, at the beginning of the so-called dark ages, yet shines as a light for our faith and for European culture over a thousand years later. This saint has had a profound impact on the religious and monastic life in the west like no other, and consequently on the whole culture of our continent. Pope Paul VI declared St Benedict to be a principal patron of Europe in a beautiful … Read More
The Eagle, the king among the birds of the air as the lion is king among the beasts of the earth, graces more than a few pages of the Sacred Scriptures. The swiftness and height of the eagle’s flight is often referenced by the Sacred Authors. Sometimes the eagle represents sin, death and destruction. Other times he represents the love of God for his people, and the saints for God. As the eagle is the king of birds, it is … Read More
There is one means more whereby we are to secure ourselves the great graces of Lent; it is the spirit of retirement and separation from the world. Our ordinary life, such as it is during the rest of the year, should all be made to pay tribute to the holy season of penance; otherwise, the salutary impression produced on us by the holy ceremony of Ash Wednesday will soon be effaced.The Christian ought, therefore, to forbid himself, during Lent, all … Read More
But it will be asked: ‘Are there, then, no lawful dispensations?’ We answer that there are; and that they are more needed now than in former ages, owing to the general weakness of our constitutions. Still, there is great danger of our deceiving ourselves. If we have strength to go through great fatigues when our own self-love is gratified by them, how is it we are too weak to observe abstinence? If a slight inconvenience deter us from doing this … Read More
Having spent the three weeks of Septuagesima in meditating upon our spiritual infirmities and upon the wounds caused in us by sin, we should be ready to enter upon the penitential season which the Church has now begun. We have now a clearer knowledge of the justice and holiness of God, and of the dangers that await an impenitent soul; and, that our repentance might be earnest and lasting, we have bade farewell to the vain joys and baubles of … Read More
Patriarch Kirill of the effectively nationalised Russian Orthodox Church, not only refuses to condemn the crimes against humanity perpetrated in Ukraine by his long-standing friend Vladimir Putin: he has described the war (without even using the word “war”) as part of an imagined and imaginary struggle against sin and pressure from liberal foreigners to hold “gay parades” as the price of admission to their ranks. Kirill, in a ridiculous sermon delivered before the start of the Orthodox Lent, repeated Mr … Read More
Catholic Voice is now available to read online. You can purchase individual issues for €2.00 or you can take out an annual subscription for €46.00. The paper is best viewed on a desktop computer or laptop. Once you have purchased an issue you can view it online or you can download it as a pdf document. Once downloaded you can print out individual articles of your choice. Catholic Voice Issue 321 from 16th July 2021 is free to view to … Read More
From The Garden of Eden in the beginning, to Gethsemane and the garden near Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre where our Lord was crucified and buried, and to the Tree of Life in the heavenly Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, there are gardens at key moments in Sacred Scripture. Surprisingly, the Bible does not tell us what flowers where found in these gardens, yet flowers do appear in other places in Holy Writ. Sometimes flowers are used by the inspired authors … Read More
