I was recently invited to make a presentation to a group of psychotherapists on the subject of hope. As this is one of two foundational aspects of my ministry, along with joy, I was keen to do as good a job as I could in the short time available. I chose to compare and contrast…
Your hurt is people’s broken brotherhood…Defeat our Babel with your Pentecost.” These verses, from a hymn by Fred Kaan, join our hurt to that of Jesus, and our deepest desire to the will of God. God’s will is not a private matter, but a plan that covers all of humanity, indeed, all of creation—a plan…
April 22 will be Earth Day. According to an unsubstantiated tradition, Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron of ecologists, was born on that date in 1181 or 1182. Regardless of the veracity of this claim, it is an indisputable fact that Saint Francis remains for us today an important symbol of the link between religion…
Fatherhood is neither a costume one wears nor a role one plays. It is a noble vocation, filled with “joy and pain, hard work and hope.” Pope Francis referred to the joy and pain recently in a general audience, as part of his series of reflections on the family. It reminded me of the familiar…
A glance at any greeting card display would have you believe that February is the month of love. Be my valentine, reads one card festooned with vivid red hearts and roses. These days, the word love stands against so much fear and bloodshed in some parts of the world that it’s difficult to believe in…
When John Lennon recorded Give Peace a Chance in a hotel room in Montreal forty-six years ago, most people thought that he was hopelessly naive. Yet what could be more hopeful? What is naive is to regard peace as something that can be secured without love? This is the intuition that we find in the…
During the past few years, I’ve become increasingly aware of people for whom darkness, to varying degrees, plays a significant role in their life, in some cases overwhelming or even paralysing them. This has brought home to me more vividly than ever before the intuition that led Saint Francis of Assisi to beg a friend…
