Over the last few years, we’ve seen the arrival of various religious communities in our diocese. The most recent are the Apostolic Sisters of St John who now live as a small community in Aberdeen. Such arrivals thrill many across the diocese; the enthusiasm and great expectations are unnaturally high. Perhaps we are so enthusiastic about these newcomers because their…
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A wee boy was sitting in the pew and looked with confusion at a priest in front of him. The priest was holding something white in his hand, both his hands raised above his head; clearly, the priest was showing something. The boy’s confusion sprang from the obvious disparity between what was being shown and the words uttered by the…
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Have you made your New Year’s resolution? Mine’s is to help all my friends gain twenty pounds, so I’ll look slimmer. And I decided to read more this year, so I put the subtitles on my TV. New Year’s Day is the accepted time to make our regular annual good resolutions; now, a week later we can begin paving hell…
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I really didn’t feel like going to church this morning. I tried to negotiate with God and decided to flip a coin. For tails, I’d go back to bed; for heads, I’d watch the telly; I’d go to church if the coin landed on its edge. I tossed the coin up in the air and it landed into a small…
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Weasel, worm, sloth, slug, vulture, snake, pig, rat, dog, cow, chicken, fish, shark, monkey, wolf, dinosaur… That’s just a tiny selection of animals used to describe people. We use them to express our tender affection towards those we love or to express our dislike of others. Sometimes we use such phrases to vent our frustration or to clearly show our…