The Parables of the Kingdom

The Parables of the Kingdom

In St Matthew’s Gospel we find many teachings of Jesus, expressed in parables, little stories which illustrate the teaching readily and are easy to remember. Generations of preachers have admired the simplicity and power of the parables, “art concealing itself”....

The Baptism of Jesus

By Fr Seán Maguire The Church celebrates the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus in January. The feast brings the Christmas season to a close and marks the beginning of ‘Ordinary Time’. The Sacrament of Baptism has been explored in detail in recent editions of Totus Tuus,...

The Brown Scapular

“Those who die wearing this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.” Do you wear a brown scapular?  If not, then you must get one! In 1251 Simon Stock was the superior general of the Carmelites. This religious order had been undergoing persecution,...

Interview with Sr Lucia in 1957

Below is Fr Fuente’s brief 1957 interview with Sister Lucia of Fatima. On December 26, 1957 Father Augustin Fuentes, who was preparing to become the postulator of the causes for beatification of Francisco and Jacinta Marto, met with Sister Lucy at her convent in...

The Rich young Man

By Fr Brian McCarthy In this article we look at one passage of St Mark’s Gospel, his encounter with the rich young man (Mark 10:17-27), as an example of how to read the New Testament. I can’t include the passage itself here because of shortage of space, so I suggest...

Quo Vadis Irelanda?

By Frances Hogan Ireland, where are you going? Do you know what path you are on? Do you realise the direction you are taking? The world is watching in disbelief as a Catholic country dismisses its inheritance and its culture….but for what? No country can survive...

The North American Martyrs

By Fr Shane Sullivan Singleness of purpose. So might someone paraphrase the early Jesuit spirit. Everything was put at the disposal of the Jesuit’s singular purpose as laid out in the Spiritual Exercises’ First Principle and Foundation: “to praise, reverence, and...

The First Saturdays 

By Fr Marius O’Reilly Our Lady promises to assist at the hour of their death those who help her in this devotion.  The practice of the First Saturday devotion was requested by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917.  She said to Lucia, the oldest of the three children: “I...

Mary – A very special Mother

By Fr John Keane There are twenty one in my friend Joe’s family, he has twenty brothers and sisters.  It is very difficult to keep tabs on them to know where they all are at any time.  When he comes home to his dear Mam and asks her where is Eileen today she...

The Need for Repentance

By Fr Brian McKevitt OP The German Protestant pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died in Auschwitz in 1945, wrote a lot about what he called “cheap grace”. He was fiercely opposed to it.  “Cheap grace,” he wrote, “is the deadly enemy of...