Since the year 2008 we’ve been living in financial crisis. Cuts, austerity measures, bailouts, recessions – these are the keywords used to describe our economic misery. Politicians propose a variety of solutions, quite often mutually contradictory. One of the most popular is giving away money, directly or indirectly. With regard to other nations or countries, we call this approach populism.…

Last Sunday we saw in the gospel Jesus sending the Apostles on a mission to preach and to cure people. A week later we see them coming back and telling Jesus what they’ve done and taught. They must have been incredibly effective as there were so many coming and going that the Apostles had no time even to eat. Their…

In the early 1990s I spotted a new fashion in mountain trekking: retractable poles. In my eyes, people using them looked very professional. I would have been happy to have my own set, but they were horrendously expensive. Luckily I had a pair of disused one-piece ski poles, and I decided to use one of them. What a boost to…

Years ago, in my second parish, I was extremely fortunate to find a group of young musically talented people. They formed a modern band and after several weeks they started playing and singing modern hymns of worship. Sunday evening Mass, one of the five in the parish, became a Youth Mass. The main difference between this and the more traditional…

Last Sunday I was speaking about people feeling guilty because their adult children were rarely going to church or not going at all. My suggestion was to stop thinking about your past errors – regardless whether they were real or just imagined – and supporting them here and now. Obviously we cannot change the past, but we can and should…