De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Lent is a time when we should be looking to give more. I don't think this necessarily means just financially, but most of us will do our best to support a favourite charity at this time. Quite some time ago now, I remember someone questioning my charitable donations to a certain organisation, inferring that they might not be spending the money I donated in all good faith as wisely as I might like. I was a bit upset at the time, after all, I am doing something good, aren't I? The point is, if we are not discerning about who we give our money to, and it is used for evil purposes, we defeat our very purpose in giving in the first place. To this end, SPUC have published a very useful guide to the activities of charitible organisations which shows the discerning giver exactly where the money goes. It is very worthwhile checking it before you give. Have a look now, you might be surprised how "un-catholic" some of these charities actually are! Today, the Cath...

From Scott Hann on Facebook today: How God shows his love in and through Pope Francis!!! As he 'tweeted' in August: "Lord, teach us to step outside ourselves. Teach us to go out into the streets and manifest your love." Then again in September: "True charity requires courage: let us overcome the fear of getting our hands dirty so as to help those in need." So he practices what he preaches... Here he is, yesterday, locked in a loving embrace with a severely disfigured man afflicted with neurofibromatosis, a painful genetic disorder that causes thousands of tumors all over the body, and which leads to the loss of hearing and vision, as well as severe disabilities resulting from nerve damage from countless tumors. The Catholic Herald suggests that this photograph is Pope Francis’s real first ‘encyclical’. Karl Stuebe reports for the Herald from Rome that the widely circulated photo is an encyclical in the sense that the “message” of the Holy Fat...

...For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get." ( Matt 7:1-2 ). This line of Scripture is one of the most misused there is in the whole Bible. It is usually trotted out when someone with faith objects to some immoral action. The accusation is that you are being 'judgemental'. Whether you are dealing with an adult child who’s living with her boyfriend or coping with an adult sibling who has announced that he is gay, we struggle with he dilemma of whether to allow the child or sibling to practice the immoral lifestyle in the family home. Do I have to let them spend the night? What do I tell my kids? How do I deal with this in a loving way? Can I truly love my neighbour while rejecting his immoral lifestyle? Is it any of my business? The simple answer is to say "Jesus never judged anyone, he loved everyone and love and forgiveness are the path to the arms of our Lord". This has been the trend ...

Welcome to this, the twenty-eighth of my reflections on the theology of the Sunday readings at Mass. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I sincerely hope that this reflection will inspire you. You might find that it answers a few questions you may have, but most of all I hope that it will show you how fantastic Sacred Scripture is and perhaps enable you to share some of my love and passion for the Bible as you begin to comprehend how layered and multi-faceted it is, and what a carefully considered part of the Mass the readings are. If you want to know how these posts came about, please read my first post in this series  here . I would like to think this regular blog would be a great help to anyone who reads at Mass, to enable them to foster a deeper understanding of the message they are trying to impart to the congregation. There are several different ways to read this post. I would suggest the first thing to do is to look at the relevant...