God’s law is not beyond our strength
“Obey the commandments that are written in the Book of this Law, and you shall return to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.” The words of Moses, delivered to God’s people as they prepared...
View ArticlePope Benedict discusses prayer life of Moses
Moses spoke with God as if he were speaking to a friend, Pope says at general audience
View ArticleMorning Catholic must-reads: 08/08/13
Pope Francis is showing that if we first “evangelise and humanise the culture, then the world will be safe for the unborn, the elderly and the unproductive“, Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston has said...
View ArticleMorning Catholic must-reads: 19/09/13
Pope Francis has called for new efforts to promote “mutual understanding between the world’s Christians and Muslims” in a personal message to Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. The Catholic...
View ArticleHow the ark changed shape
In 1985 a man called Douglas Simmonds brought a bag of miscellaneous antiquities to the British Museum for inspection. Dr Irving Finkel, the museum’s assistant keeper of ancient Mesopotamian script,...
View ArticleWill Ridley Scott’s Biblical film Exodus repeat the success of Gladiator?
The Biblical epic is back – perhaps. The latest attempt to revive what was once the favoured Hollywood genre is Sir Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings, which has opened in the United States, and...
View ArticleThe commandments free us to embrace the fullness of life with God
The Ten Commandments entrusted to Moses were not a heavy burden imposed on God’s people. To echo the words of the psalmist, they were received as a gift that “gladdens the heart and gives light to the...
View ArticleLent is more than a spiritual boot camp
I can’t remember exactly who it was, but it was a devout Catholic who said to me: “Oh, I do hate Lent, it’s so dreary.” There is, I think, a residual sense among Catholics that Lent is the price you...
View ArticleTo live as God’s children, we must sacrifice something of our sinful past
The Law entrusted to Moses, and received by the tribes of Israel on Mount Sinai, initiated a completely new relationship between God and his people. The hidden God had revealed himself as the saviour...
View ArticleWhy are we forgetting to venerate the Precious Blood?
As Catholics, we are depriving ourselves and our loved ones by not venerating the Precious Blood with more fervour and sincere reverence. Now that we are in July, the month dedicated to the Most...
View ArticleOnly when faith has surrendered our hearts to God can we begin to live the...
The Gospel is more than the history of Jesus. It is an invitation to live according to its values, and to believe with a heart surrendered to the Lord. Such faith rests on a generosity of spirit that...
View ArticleThere are countless examples of outsiders who became the instruments of God’s...
‘But who can detect all his errors? From hidden faults acquit me. From presumption restrain your servant and let it not rule me.” The psalmist acknowledges the ‘‘hidden faults’’ that so easily escape...
View ArticleFull text: Pope Francis’s message for Lent 2016
“I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Mt 9:13) The works of mercy on the road of the Jubilee 1. Mary, the image of a Church which evangelises because she is evangelised In the Bull of Indiction of the...
View ArticleCan Catholic devotion heal my depression? Right now, it doesn’t feel like it
According to the later retelling of St Gregory of Nyssa, Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai was a journey into an ever-deepening darkness. When, therefore, Moses grew in knowledge, he declared that he had...
View ArticleMemorial marking where Moses saw Promised Land reopens in Jordan
The Memorial of Moses on Mount Nebo has reopened its doors to the public amid festivities, after nearly a decade of restoration. Believed by ancient tradition to be the site where Moses saw the...
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