Columns

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  On not cultivating restlessness

  Nov 02, 2016

  Thirty-four years ago when I launched this column, I would never have said this: Restlessness is not something to be cultivated, no matter how romantic that might seem.

  
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  Where is the battle ground for a field hospital church?

  Oct 20, 2016

  Not long ago, the Bishop of Rome asked Christians to move out of their comfortable church and parish premises and take the message of God’s love and mercy to those in most need – the poor, the marginalised, the “wounded”.

  
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  Contemplative prayer

  Oct 20, 2016

  Contemplative prayer, as it is classically defined and popularly practised, is subject today to considerable scepticism in a number of circles.

  
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  Soter Fernandez has always been at the ‘field-hospital’ Church!

  Oct 14, 2016

  Last year, when I met Archbishop Emeritus Soter Fernandez, he took pains to highlight two somewhat related areas that he seemed to be concerned about.

  
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  The Beatitudes and technology with a human face

  Oct 07, 2016

  Some of us might be familiar with a scene in a 1936 Charlie Chaplin movie called Modern Times in which the comedian's Little Tramp character struggles to cope screwing nuts onto machines on a rapidly moving production assembly line.

  
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  Software, moral formatting, and living in sin

  Oct 07, 2016

  While I was doing graduate studies in Belgium, I lived at the American College in Leuven.

  
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  Energy crisis — has the day of reckoning been delayed?

  Sep 30, 2016

  A few years ago, many people were concerned about the rise in oil prices and declining supplies of conventional oil.

  
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  Indulgences revisited

  Sep 30, 2016

  When Pope Francis launched the Holy Year of Mercy, he promised that Christians could gain a special indulgence during this year.

  
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  The tension over land

  Sep 23, 2016

  The other day, I visited a couple of organic farmers near where I live. I found them doing some admirable work, drenched in sweat.

  
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  From paranoia to metanoia

  Sep 23, 2016

  Sometimes, we’re a mystery to ourselves or, perhaps more accurately, sometimes we don’t realize how much paranoia we carry within ourselves.