Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

The early Church was slow to dedicate a liturgical day to offering prayers and masses to commemorate the faithful departed.  But in time prayers were offered on behalf of dead monks, that they might attain ‘the Beatific Vision’ through purification, which the Church later described as Purgatory.  Odilo, the powerful abbot of Cluny, (d 1049)...

The morality of hunting has made the headlines in recent years, but here at least was one man who was converted while hunting.  Hubert (bishop, d 727 AD) was out on Good Friday hunting stag when he came across a stag with a crucifix between its antlers.  This so shook him that he converted to...

Why should being a ‘lay’ person stop you from as full a ministry as being ordained?  Here is a saint for all lay people who suspect they can do as good a job…. Charles Borromeo was an Italian who lived in Milan from 1538 to 1584.   His uncle, Pope Pius IV, made him Archbishop of...

Before you take your bucket out to do a street collection… Zoom Zoom Zoom! Does marriage make you happy? Social lifeline to older people In praise of peanut butter Women like hugs Diamonds are for lockdown… Spare a thought for your furry friend Nurture your friendships Cost of plastic bags to increase Lower your hostility...

Back in 1605 Guy Fawkes managed to stow a good few barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords without anybody noticing.  He was part of a Roman Catholic plot to murder James 1 of England and his parliament at the state opening.  Fortunately, Guy Fawkes was found – and stopped – in time.

Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: do what I told the Galatian churches to do.  On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.  (1...

The pandemic is leaving a “lasting digital legacy”, and changing the UK’s internet habits and behaviour “indelibly”.  So says a recent Ofcom study. Since March we have broken the four-hour barrier, which means that, on average, we spend more than a quarter of our waking hours each day online. That is up from an average...

It may. But then again, it may not. Research spanning 40 years has found that being married does not necessarily make people significantly happier than if they were divorced or single. Psychologists at Michigan State University found that, while married people showed a slight increase in happiness, the difference was still less than one percentage...

All in the month of November Poppy Appeal 2020 Remembering Engels, co-founder of Communism The destruction of Coventry ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ – the beginning of the permissive society? Help our wildlife before it is too late When did you last buy a single-use plastic bag?  Zoom to that stable in Bethlehem?  Green grow’th the Holly...

It was: 500 years ago, on 28th Nov 1520 that the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sailed into the South Pacific and named the waters the Pacific Ocean. 200 years ago, on 28th Nov 1820, that Friedrich Engels, German socialist philosopher and social scientist who collaborated with Karl Marx to found modern communism and co-write the...

It is not a surprise that older people are demonstrably happier when they can stay in touch with friends and family. Now recent research by University College London (UCL) has found that people over 50 who use the internet for communicating with loved ones, have better mental health. But they tend to feel worse when...

Look out for the Poppy Appeal again this year, but not so much via street collections. Instead, the Royal British Legion will focus on contactless donations, as a safer way forward during the pandemic. One such method will be ‘point of sale donations’. This means that when you shop at your supermarket and reach the...