In Prince Caspian Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy are drawn from a country railway station in England, to a Narnia that is thousands of years older than when they were there last. (Narnian time, they discover, runs differently than our time) They soon learn of Prince Caspian’s plight and set out across an unfamiliar Narnian landscape to [...]
The author of many short stories and two novels, Flannery O’Connor was a bright, witty and controversial writer. One of her most famous and shocking quotes is “tenderness leads to the gas chambers”. The quip was borrowed by fellow Southern novelist Walker Percy in his novel The Thanatos Syndrome, but what did O’Connor mean by the thought [...]
There are some Catholic liturgical purists who reject the use of hymns in the liturgy. I understand their argument. The liturgy stand alone without the need of extra hymns. The psalms, chant, antiphons etc are full and adequate. Then there is the other point that some traditionalist make with their noses in their..."Hymns are Protestant!" they sniff. [...]
A recent report from the St Barnabas Society in England gives the numbers of Anglican clergy who have gone over to the Catholic Church since the early 1990s. At present nearly one third of Catholic priests in England are former Anglicans. I was one of the Church of England priests who left and was received into [...]
I came across this article this morning about television personality Jon Stewart who says he is not religious but wishes he had faith. He was born into a Jewish family, but says about our human existence: "I think that's my biggest problem is, it's like, I know that there's probably a gap between, like, we are [...]
As long as I've been a Catholic I've been critical of the fact that we have so few decent hymns to be used at Marian Feasts. Either it is a soloist trying their best with Gounod's Ave Maria --which too often sounds like a strained warble and a reach for the high notes--or it is everybody [...]
Today is the memorial of St Martin of Tours and he will be most remembered and preached about concerning the famous episode in which, as a young Roman soldier, he gave his cloak to clothe a beggar. His example will be held up to us and we will be reminded of our duty to the poor. [...]
The other day I indulged in a bit of a rant against the mainstream Bible scholars who have made an industry of de-bunking the gospels and trying to show them to be late compositions written by anonymous authors to add mythological magical details to the story of Jesus the peasant preacher from Galilee. I received this [...]
I was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church over thirty years ago. I had been brought up in a conservative fundamentalist home, became and Anglican, went to Oxford to study theology, was ordained and served in the Church of England for fifteen years before "coming home to Rome." I then worked for seven [...]
This week the leaders of GAFCON - the Global Anglican Future Conference-- declared their organization to be the Anglican Communion. Severing the historic ties to Canterbury and the Church of England, the leaders of GAFCON have declared that they have not "left the Anglican Communion" instead they ARE the Anglican Communion. What is GAFCON? It began [...]