Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

More people join health and fitness centres each January than at any other time of the year. And well over half the newcomers will be gone again – within a month. Perhaps there’s not much commitment to begin with. Or maybe, they lack motivation because they haven’t made themselves accountable to a personal trainer. (One...

‘…and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.’ John 12:3 A story runs of how a lady was having tea outside a tea shop late one afternoon, when she became aware of a pleasant scent filling the air. She asked the waiter the source of the scent and was told that it...

If you enjoy listening to music, ever notice how the kind of music that you like changes throughout the day? According to research published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, our tastes over just one day will vary in preference to a perceived tempo, loudness, bounciness, and danceability. In late morning, we tend to...

Are you wondering about which charities to support this year? Does it matter to you if your money is used wisely or not? If so, then Maedoc of Ferns is the patron saint for you this month. He certainly knew how to deal with people who would waste his money. Maedoc (d 626) was born...

It was George Jennings, an English sanitary engineer and plumber, who in 1851 invented the first public flush toilets.  He said: “the civilisation of a people can be measured by their domestic and sanitary appliances.” Yet now, across the UK, public lavatories are in dismal and steep decline. The number of lavatories maintained by local...

Editor:  We have provided some notes on the Season and some of its saints… As Saints’ Days do not change from year to year, we have offered material on many of these days before.  The sections marked with asterisks are new this year. 1          Eloi – a patron saint for the euro?  3         ...

It’s many years since Europe switched over to the Euro (January 2002).  So, this is a good time to remember Eloi, bishop of Noyon, who was born in Gaul, and started out as a goldsmith.  He entered the service of Bobon, the royal treasurer.  He went on to become master of the mint for King...

Ignatius Loyala sent his friend and follower Francis Xavier (born 1506) to the Orient as a missionary.  What a missionary!  Imagine David Livingstone, Billy Graham and the Alpha Courses rolled into one.  His mass conversions became legendary – he baptised 10,000 people in one month and in just ten years of work was credited with...

Thousands of our churches are currently involved in various mission initiatives across the UK.  If it is tough going at times, we should spare a thought for poor Birinus, a priest from Lombard, who was sent here on his own 14 centuries ago.  Pope Honorius 1 gave him the daunting task of being the apostle...

Osmond is the saint for you if you regret Brexit, and believe that immigrants can bring good to Britain. Osmond came to England from France back in the days before EU regulations.  It was shortly after 1066, and he was a Norman, following William the Conqueror. Osmond himself was no soldier, but a gifted and...

One person you are bound to run into this Christmas season is Father Christmas.  These days he seems to frequent shopping malls and garden centres.  If he looks tired, just remember that he has been around a long time and gone through a lot of transformations. Father Christmas wasn’t always the red-suited, white-bearded star of...

One account of how Father Christmas began tells of a man named Nicholas who was born in the third centre in the Greek village of Patara, on what is today the southern coast of Turkey.  His family were both devout and wealthy, and when his parents died in an epidemic, Nicholas decided to use his...