BIDDING PRAYERS for Sunday Mass on 15 January Introduction (by the Presider) The Lord is our light and our help, so let us bring all our needs to God: For an end…
Seamus Ahearne osa offers a refection at the end of the Christmas season.
Book Review by Joe O’Leary Theological revisionism is a dangerous investment, and fearless critical negativity can easily lead to shipwreck with regard to faith (cf. 1 Tim 1:19). Tony…
by Kate Scanlon – OSV News January 20, 2026 WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The head of the U.S. military archdiocese said in a Jan. 18 radio interview that U.S. soldiers could…
It would be difficult for us to continue operating normally without using banking services. Do we, or should we, have an ethical issue with the banking services we use as individuals and as a church?
Padraig McCarthy
We are indebted to Sharon Tighe-Mooney who has written this article for us about the very topical issue of women and the diaconate.
Sharon clearly outlines what has been the stumbling block for the hierarchy – “the fear that including women to any extent would lead to a call for admission to the priesthood”, … “Fear, which is signified by the prioritising of the preservation of the self, has been the dominant feature in the Vatican’s response, both to the exposure of its faults as well as to the challenges that are a normal part of the human evolutionary experience. That is why a perfectly reasonable proposition, to restore women to a formal ministry within their own church, has floundered.”
The Youth Of Age
…”I used to worry about sin;
now I have no time for this.
When I pick up the Scriptures,
the light streams out at me
The words tremble with life,
and shout:’Abundant Life.’
My memory is memorising:
all the strands are being drawn together.
I can now say:
‘I see, I hear, I know, I smile, I love.’
I see new words, hear new music, know in deeper tones,
I smile at my dreams, I love with the trees.
I see bright flames coming from human lips.
I see rippling water flowing in endless light.
No container on earth can keep this flowing.
All my life is now here in the palm of my hand:
I am child, maid, woman, crone.
I live it all, now more fully.
How can I now describe my lightsome life?
I see
I yearn yet.”
Hildegard of Bingen ( Praying with the Women Mystics, Mary T Malone, the Columba Press 2006)