De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

So the teacher Jeremy Forrest, who abducted/ eloped (?) with a 15 year old student of his is sentenced today . I have to say, my mind ran immediately to the old Police hit 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', remember it? The song deals with the mixed feelings of lust, fear and guilt that a female student has for a school teacher and vice versa, as well as inappropriateness leading to confrontation. The music and lyrics of the song were written by the lead singer of The Police, Sting, who had previously worked as an English teacher. In a 2001 interview for the concert DVD ...All This Time, Sting denied that the song is autobiographical. The line "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov" alludes to Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita which covers somewhat similar issues. Like Sting, Forrest has a musical side to his character which some, like the BBC reporter Duncan Kennedy have suggested, added to his appeal for the student who has ended up embr...

...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...