In the summer 2009 I had a visitor, an old friend, who had helped me with my English language before my coming to Scotland. She had very good spoken English. She came to Oban to meet her boyfriend who was working in a local hotel. At the end of her visit she came to Elgin. When I asked about her…
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Last Friday there was an awarding ceremony of the Nobel Peace Prize for a Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo. As we know, there was just an empty armchair left for him because he’s been jailed by Chinese authorities. The awarded man is one of many people detained due their non-violent opposition against oppressive laws or governments. For the last…
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‘Public services are better prepared for wintry weather than previously’. Then the winter came up and almost everybody complains about untreated roads and pavements covered with snow. The given explanation was simple: this wintry weather approached sooner than we’d expected. So public services were caught by surprise. Three years ago nobody expected the worldwide financial crisis. People saw their future…
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When the liturgical year finishes our attention is drawn to the end of time. Most of the biblical visions concerning it are associated with natural disasters like earthquakes, powerful storms, volcanic eruptions and so on. For centuries those phenomena were so unpredictable, damaging and powerful that people referred them to supernatural powers: gods and demons. In people’s minds those events…
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Today’s gospel speaks about Zacchaeus – a man of great wealth and small size. I find it hard to understand the problem with his height. I’m quite tall and actually I’ve never had a problem watching anything or someone over the heads of other people in a crowd or a cinema. My problem is different: sometimes I feel guilty when…