Arthur Middleton on Pastoral Ministry The context of priests and pastors must always be ecclesial rather than secular, and rooted in a living relationship to Christian revelation: Baptism, the Eucharist, the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and the grace of orders [...]
Beyond Words Andy Hawes is Warden of Edenham Regional Retreat House The experience of spiritual direction assumes one very important thing: that the person seeking counsel can explain something of their spiritual life in such a way that the person from [...]
Our chef combats heresy with hollandaise Last month, lamb; this month, eggs. It's all seasonally symbolic, you see – and no hint of a butchered and butterflied Easter Bunny anywhere. I find that there's very little that can’t be improved [...]
Thurifer’ finds himself in a commemorative mood Grave matters Those who share my interest in wandering around cemeteries, locating graves of the famous and infamous, and savouring funerary monuments would appreciate the tour of the West Cemetery of Highgate Cemetery. The [...]
Allan Barton on some medieval titles of Our Lady This woodcut image is taken from a Missal printed in 1555. It is a Missal according to the Use of Sarum, and – like many liturgical books of the sixteenth century destined [...]
BOTTICELLI REIMAGINED Victoria and Albert Museum until 3rd July I do not know whether the curators of this show are cynical, stupid, or deviously brilliant – cynical to promote so much trash; stupid not to know the trash is trash; or deviously brilliant to show [...]
Many ‘Black Virgin' statues are found in central France, round the Auvergne: one of the finest is found just north of Clermont-Ferrand, in the village of Marsat (1: Puy-de-Dôme), a place of pilgrimage for over a thousand years. A very [...]
A creative and friendly inter-faith dynamic continues in the parish of Small Heath, Birmingham. The Hussainia Mosque and All Saints' Church plan to host a day of lectures on the subject of Mary – a figure of great prominence in both [...]
Sr Wendy Renate Rhodes SOLR – or just ‘Sister Wendy', as she was known to the many thousands who pass through Walsingham each year – died on 23 March, aged 64. Fr Alex Lane writes: Wendy's father was in the army, [...]
Graham Lunn writes with some recent news from East Anglia The Norfolk sky is variably beautifully clear and dismally grey, the pheasant have been shot and the pigeons multiply, and the Holy House of England's Nazareth flickers, as ever, in candlelight. [...]