Columns

• 

  Technology and humanity: A call for ethical responsibility

  Mar 28, 2025

  Pope’s prayer intention for April

  
• 

  Laetare – Rejoice always!

  Mar 28, 2025

  This weekend, the universal Church celebrates Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. The entrance antiphon for all Masses this weekend starts with “Rejoice Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning” (Isaiah 66:10-11).

  
• 

  The person of Jesus and the mystery of Christ

  Mar 28, 2025

  I was raised a Roman Catholic and essentially inhaled the religious ethos of Roman Catholicism. I went to the seminary, earned theological degrees, and taught theology at a graduate level for a number of years before I ever started making a distinction between ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christ’.

  
• 

  An invitation to respond and embrace new life

  Mar 22, 2025

  Reflecting on our Sunday Readings with Fr Ravi Alexander, OFM Cap

  
• 

  Don’t we belong to each other?

  Mar 22, 2025

  The truth is that we must remind ourselves that there are no insignificant people in this world, and a diagnosis, disease, or disability does not reduce the value of a person.

  
• 

  Access to education – Opportunities and barriers

  Mar 22, 2025

  Pope Francis’ prayer intention at the beginning of this year focused on the right to education: ‘Let us pray for migrants, refugees, and those affected by war, that their right to an education, which is necessary to build a better world, might always be respected’.

  
• 

  I am the only Catholic….

  Mar 22, 2025

  Early within the season of Lent, one hears of the Rite of Election where those who may be baptised (also called catechumens) at the upcoming Easter Vigil are called together to meet the local bishop and others in the same journey as themselves.

  
• 

  Fasting financially this Lent

  Mar 22, 2025

  We have reached the Third Sunday of Lent, a milestone in our journey of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.

  
• 

  Casting out demons through silence

  Mar 22, 2025

  There is an incident in the Gospels where the disciples of Jesus were unable to cast out a particular demon. When they asked Jesus why, he replied that some demons can only be cast out by prayer. The particular demon he was referring in this instance had rendered a man deaf and mute.

  
• 

  What the Blessed Mother teaches us about beauty and wisdom

  Mar 22, 2025

  Years ago, I sat in my afternoon theology class at Franciscan University as my classmates, professor and I had a lively conversation about our Blessed Mother. As we discussed her immaculate conception, we pondered how it might have affected her in the “little” aspects of her life.