If only we could replicate this miracle on a massive scale world hunger would be gone in a flash!

How familiar are you with farming? That was my opening line last Sunday, and I have to repeat it again today because the parable we’ve just heard requires quite detailed agricultural knowledge, as well as geographical and historical. I’m not going to pretend I have such knowledge off the top of my head, so let me share with you what…

How familiar are you with farming? I don’t want to sound like a grumpy old man (though I am one and even have the T-shirt), but it seems that with each new generation we gradually lose the connection between the food on our tables and plants growing and animals living in the fields. Once I took a couple of my…

How ironic that we are celebrating this feast of Jesus’ sacramental, the most tangible presence, in a virtual, physically absent way! This sacramental presence is so vital for the life of the Church that it has a special solemnity, held on Thursday, ten days after Pentecost Sunday (in Scotland it’s moved to Sunday for practical reasons). In normal times the…

The virus is dead. That’s a matter of scientific fact. A virus is a string of genetic code, unable to do anything on its own. It’s not alive. To thrive it needs a host, namely a living cell. Without such a hospitable environment, it can at best (from its point of view) lie in waiting, disintegrating quickly when exposed to…