Following the recent death of Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI, here is my tribute and assessment of him, originally published in a shorter version in The Tablet, https://www.thetablet.co.uk/blogs/1/2301/-doing-theology-on-his-knees-benedict-xvi-s-biblical-scholarship The music swelled to a crescendo as the clouds of incense drifted up into the golden dome of St Peter’s Basilica, threatening to obscure the huge lettering,
So I have been reflecting on how many have been quoting Mother Julian’s mantra “all shall be well” to me recently. I have to admit that, in the midst of my own personal troubles and difficulties which are, of course, overshadowed by the national political and financial chaos and the international situation of war, climate
As a child, I was brought up to consider the Royal Family a bunch of rich freeloaders living it up at the expense of us taxpayers – and at the Silver Jubilee in 1977 my revision for my Finals at Oxford was accompanied by the dulcet tones of Johnny Rotten, belting out the Sex Pistols’
The UK launch for my new book, Holy Communion in Contagious Times, took place on 21 January at Southwark Cathedral – and also online in a Zoom meeting (pictured above) – where several people spoke very kindly and generously about the book. A recording of the launch (in four parts) is now available on my
Like HG Wells’ hero at the start of his novel, The War of the Worlds, I ‘would not have believed’ that when the little country church I had started going to for a quiet midweek celebration of holy communion, had to shut its doors, that it would never open them again. It was the opening
It’s the 500th anniversary of Ignatius of Loyola being knocked off his feet by a cannonball and being forced to lie down with his legs up, taking stock of his life, over the summer months of 1521. Check out the video below for an introduction to this Ignatian year. Because the cannonball moment was what
