By Fr TOM McHUGH
Children love stories; so do adults. We enjoy telling stories and listening to them, too, and we love to hear a good story again and again. Our storytelling takes many forms — a mum or dad reading a story to their child at bedtime, with the favourite story requested yet again. Try to skip a few lines and you will be called back on track!
By MARY CROSBY
Reconciliation, aka confession, is the sacrament of the forgiveness of sin, which has many benefits. Here are ten…
By DEACON BARRY MELLISH
St Joseph’s Deacon Barry and his wife, Julia, are taking part in this week’s “Living Below the Line” challenge, which involves spending only £1 each day on food for five days. The challenge reconises that 1.2 billion people live on the equivalent of this every day of their lives. Here, he keeps us updated with his progress.
By Fr TOM McHUGH
“He opened their minds.” These are words of Jesus given to us in the Gospel just now. What might these words mean as we find ourselves in the middle of the general election campaign?
By EDMUND ADAMUS, Director, Office of Marriage and Family Life – Diocese of Westminster
Those of you who have been receiving and reading these weekly ‘thoughts for the weekend’ reflections since the beginning, may recall that I stated the original purpose of them was an opportunity, week by week, in between the Extraordinary Synod on the family (2014) and the Ordinary Synod on the family (2015), to focus some attention on the spirituality of Christian spousal love and family life.
This week marked the solemnity of St. Joseph, much overlooked in my view. His purity and integrity of heart, mind and body is such a wonderful and inspiring model for all of us, especially boys and men. When I think about St. Joseph, the recent words of Pope Francis in his official message for World Youth Day 2015 – “Have the courage to be happy” – echo with me where he declares, “We need to protect the purity of what is most precious of all: our heart and our relationships. This ‘human ecology’ will help us to breathe the pure air that comes from beauty, from true love, and from holiness.”
By FR. TOM McHUGH
Like every parish, St. Joseph’s is a family of families. We all know that families come in different shapes and sizes and that we each belong to one of them. Increasingly, individuals and families feel isolated and sense the need to belong to a support group that will enrich parish and family life.
By DEACON BARRY MELLISH
This case directly concerns myself and others who work or used to work in business and industry. I was a technical consultant working for a computer company involved with the selling of computers and storage systems. By themselves computers do nothing – they are morally neutral, they require people to turn them on and use them. It is how and why they are used that can change this – they can be used for good or evil. The question is, what should I do when I know that the system is being sold to a company whose ethics or purpose is completely opposite to that which I believe in?
By FR. SAJU PINAKATTU
On the first Sunday of Lent, the gospel speaks of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert immediately after His baptism. Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the desert to spend forty days. ‘Forty’ is a number often associated with intense spiritual experiences.
By FR. TOM McHUGH
Nearly 60 years ago, during a retreat for school boys, a Jesuit Priest offered us the following guide for living: place an act, form a habit; form a habit, develop a character; develop a character, reach your destination.