INFAMOUS for the ridiculous, mothers can often be heard saying “There’s enough dirt in those ears to grow spuds,” or “Close that door. You’d think you were born in a field.” And they’re also partial to claiming the down-right-impossible: “If you fall of that wall and break your legs – don’t come running to me.” Yet, few would doubt a mother’s well-meaning intent. They are the ones who love us when the rest of the world doesn’t. The ones we … 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
It is surely without precedent in the tradition of Catholicism that people who still call themselves Catholic can attend a Naming Day ritual in place of Baptism. If this occurs it must certainly be only because the sacraments of the Church, which were instituted by Jesus Christ, are not recognised or understood. This leads to the conclusion that the nature of grace acting on the soul of the individual is also not acknowledged or understood. We most often encounter the … Read More
NB – Parents be warned! This article contains material that is not suitable for children. – NB We live in what is known as a media age where much of what is communicated to us comes by way of various different screens – the television – mobile phones – tablet devices – computers and laptops. These screens are being used very effectively to promote propaganda. This amounts to an artificially constructed narrative that the governing powers want you to believe … 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
My father was a great man for celebrating Christmas. He loved to decorate the Christmas tree and was always buying new sets of interesting lights. I remember the coloured ‘sputniks’ and the icicle lights. One year he hung Christmas tree baubles from the wooden beams that ran along the ceiling in the hallway of our house in Dublin. He was always thinking up new ways to display the Christmas cards. My father loved to create things, especially out of wood, … Read More
In this article I would like to take a break from the bad news and focus on some good news, a light shining in the darkness, if you will. But let us begin by praying an Ave for our bishops. Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. Sometime in either 2009 or 2010, my family and … Read More
When Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Health was secretly filmed in an amorous embrace with someone who was not his wife, he gave as his reason for resigning his high office his failure, by that furtive embrace, to keep a safe and infection-beating distance from a non-member of his household in accordance with pettifogging, incomprehensible and no longer necessary rules that he had himself eagerly inflicted upon everyone else. However, there was not a word of apology from Mr … Read More
The Church has long been seen as the arch-enemy by totalitarians, who hate and fear the independent-mindedness and unwillingness to defer to any mere Party Line that are the glorious consequences of loyalty to God, country and family. The most effective tactic of totalitarian fanatics is organised reputational assault on all who have proven publicly successful in opposing their false ideology. Here, “false” has a particularly strong meaning: for the hallmark of totalitarianism, in all its forms, is its insistence … Read More
