Reflections & Homilies

Pentecost How can one relate to the unseen Spirit? The paucity of our various languages reveals the difficulty of expressing just who the Spirit is to us, and the wisdom of Christianity in its best sense, uses descriptive metaphors and symbols just as Jesus' teaching in the gospel does. The manner in which we use our various languages to describe the Spirit does not capture or determine the essenc... Read More

Seventh Sunday after Easter The period between the Ascension and Pentecost is always a slightly strange one, in that we have celebrated the Lord's leave taking and wait in a kind of vacuum for that great outpouring of the Spirit on the nascent community which becomes in time what we know as the Church. This period may seem slightly artificial as the reality of the experience of the Resurrection, a... Read More

Pope Leo XIV has sent this Ascension Day Message to Thy Kingdom Come. 'Dear brothers and sisters, I am pleased to greet all of you taking part in this year's "Thy Kingdom Come" ecumenical prayer event, and to assure you of my spiritual closeness. Each year, during the Advent season, Christians address God with the words, "Come, Emmanuel." With great urgency we cry out for the fulfilment of Isaiah'... Read More

Pope Leo dedicated his catechesis at the General Audience on 13 May, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, to Our Lady, who he described as the perfect model, member and mother of the Church. As he arrived in St Peter's Square, passing through the crowds in the popemobile, Pope Leo stopped and knelt at the spot where, on this day in 1981, St John Paul II was the victim of an assassination attempt. "T... Read More

During his Regina Caeli address on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV reminds the faithful that Jesus loves us forever and unconditionally, and that His love for us moves us to love others. "The Lord does not leave us alone in life's trials," Pope Leo XIV told pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square. Before reciting the Marian prayer of the Easter season, the Holy Father reflected on the day's Gospel according ... Read More

Sixth Sunday of Easter Most of us may have little remembrance of our own baptism, but I am sure we can recollect the day of our Confirmation, a ceremony where we took that step into the adult life of the faith strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit. In recent years some of us will have become familiar with the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, particularly if our parish community has ... Read More

"The Church is the pilgrim people of God on earth who, drawing precisely on the final promise, reads and interprets the dynamics of history through the Gospel, denouncing evil in all its forms and proclaiming, in word and deed, the salvation that Christ wishes to bring about for all humanity and His Kingdom..." Pope Leo XIV stressed this at his weekly General Audience on Wednesday morning in the V... Read More

During the Regina Caeli prayer on Sunday, with pilgrims in St Peter's Square, Pope Leo said that Jesus' words to us take on new meaning in the light of the Resurrection, much as they did for the early Church. "What once eluded or troubled the disciples now returns to their memory, warms their hearts, and gives them hope", the Pope said. Reflecting on the Gospel of the Last Supper in light of the R... Read More

Usama Nicola writes in Bethlehem Updates: Today marked the final session of the icon-writing course that began in January. While the city was busy with the noise and tension of local council elections, I stepped away into a different kind of space, one of silence, prayer, and attention. I spent five hours completing my icon, and we ended with prayers and blessings, for the icon and for each of us ... Read More

Fifth Sunday after Easter We all need reassurance sometimes, I don't think I have ever come across anybody who doesn't. Of course this is almost an art in itself, the human demonstration of care and support from one to another, may reveal itself in a variety of ways according to the situation, but it is most often in a gentle word or simple touch, which goes a long away to alleviating our worrie... Read More

Today, millions of people continue to suffer from hunger. This threatens the dignity of the most vulnerable and questions the way we live and share our resources. In his prayer intention for this month, Pope Leo invites us to pray that no one might lack the food they need and that we might learn to live more responsibly, recognizing that the earth's resources are a gift for everyone. He also encou... Read More

Pope Leo XIV ordained ten priests during Mass in St Peter's Basilica on Sunday morning as the Church celebrated the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Basing his homily on the Gospel of John, in which Jesus said: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly," Pope Leo pointed to the generosity of the newly-ordained priests as a sign that this promise is still being lived today. The Po... Read More

Dublin Archbishop Dermot Farrell delivered this homily during Mass this afternoon in the Basilica of Our Lady at the International Eucharistic and Marian Shrine in Knock, Co Mayo, during the the annual Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage. Mary Byrne O'Connell, Patrick Byrne, Patrick Hill, John Curry, and Bridget Trench are not names we know. These people were five of the 15 visionaries here at Knock in 18... Read More

Fourth Sunday after Easter Many of us are radically detached from the countryside and the real rhythms of time and season, a lot of this is our own fault, urbanisation and what follows from it creates a life where we are run by electric light that allows day to be extended in to the darkness of night, and where clocks regulate our comings and goings, risings and settings! That is part of the uneas... Read More