The passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on New Year’s Eve led to an outburst of articles, reports and mini-documentaries in the mass media. Most of them seemed to focus on differences between the late pope and Pope Francis, often presenting them as the figureheads of the polar opposite factions in the church, fiercely fighting for their respective corners. I’m…
“The stuff of nightmares” rather well describes last week’s weather conditions, as well as my recent efforts to keep the acres of car parks at St Joseph’s and Holy Family safe underfoot. The back-breaking and time-consuming, valiant, lone fight against the elements turned out to be mostly futile as a mix of snowfalls and short thaws followed by frost cancelled…
For the sake of this sermon, I was looking for an example of frustration but the recent turn in the weather provided me with a first-hand experience. The morning after last Wednesday night’s snowfall looked beautiful as the pristine white blanket covered the ground. In the parish garden, it was my dog who broke the unspoilt beauty by leaving tracks…
Since his early days, John was determined to reach the top level as a football player. He trained hard, and spent many hours a day in the gym, sculpting his body to look like a top player. He kicked the ball around in his garden and learnt a variety of tricks and techniques with the ball. In all his efforts…
‘If you want to be involved as a volunteer in this youth group, you must reach such and such average mark at school’ was the message conveyed to a group of teenagers in one of my previous parishes. The bar was set at the beginning of each term. Once after such an announcement, a young man approached me to talk…