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Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. One of the disturbing questions that arises from the horrors of the Holocaust is ‘where was God when the six million died?’ In his moving memoir, ‘Night,’ Eli Wiesel tells the story of an execution that the...

If you have nothing much going for you, Antony Pucci (1819-92) should be your patron saint.   He came from nowhere – a peasant family in Tuscany.  He went nowhere – he spent his life as a parish priest in the Tuscan city of Viareggio.   He was unattractive to look at.  He wasn’t good with words...

If you are ashamed that you need to take antidepressants, don’t be, as even the Archbishop of Canterbury is now taking them. Speaking at a recent event on mental health at Lambeth Palace, Archbishop Welby said: “I carry an inhaler everywhere.  I take an antidepressant every morning. Big deal.”   He went on to say that...

If you are a pensioner, and you spend two hours a day learning new skills, you can reverse any cognitive decline by the equivalent of up to 30 years. That is the conclusion of researchers at the University of California Riverside.   They found that pensioners who practised a new language, or attended drawing classes ,...

The National Trust was founded in January 1895, 125 years ago, to ‘promote the permanent preservation for the benefit of the nation of lands and tenements (including buildings) of beauty or historic interest and as regards lands for their natural aspect features, animal and plant life.’ This concern for our world raises an important question...

The number of people over-65 who take anti-depressants has doubled in two decades.  The increase is even bigger among care home residents, with numbers rising four-fold over the same period. One in 15 people over 65 now suffer from depression, according to a recent study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.  And a recent...

What do you do when you find a large spider web in your house?  If you ever feel some sympathy for the spider who went to all that trouble, then Felix is a good patron saint for you.  He was saved by such a spider, spinning such a web. Felix had been born to a...

Does your dog pull you down the road?  You are not alone – a growing number of people are admitting that walking their dog has become an endless tug-of-war over control of the lead.  Meanwhile more and more of us are admitting to having DRIs – dog-related injuries. Among the most painful is dog-walker’s elbow...

‘Unusual kindness’ is the unusual name for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (18th to 25th January).  The materials for the week have been prepared by the Christian churches in Malta and Gozo (Christians Together in Malta). ‘Unusual kindness’ is found in the book of Acts.  The phrase refers to the warm welcome...

Working mothers are now too busy to join Parent Teacher Associations, and in any case, people are now less ‘community-minded’ than they used to be. So says a leading headmistress who is president of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA). Over the past two decades there has been a steady decline in attendance at PTA meetings...

This year Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) marks 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  It also marks the 25th anniversary of the Genocide in Bosnia. Both dates are worth remembering.  And it is also a time to thank God for all the various people who did whatever they could at the time to defend the...

Could your nine-year-old be running drugs for a county line gang?  It is perfectly possible, as drug gangs are increasingly targeting middle-class so-called ‘clean skins’ to run drugs for them. A child criminal exploitation expert at Barnardo’s (Britain’s biggest children’s charity) explains that increased police scrutiny is forcing gangs to recruit fresh youngsters. ‘The youngest...