Is it right to fear God? What is the difference between a destructive fear and a “holy trepidation”? An Advent homily by Fr Stephen Wang: Look around you at the chapel walls. Look at the […]
Hannah Vaughan-Spruce
Hannah Vaughan-Spruce is an experienced catechist and youth worker, who now works for the Diocese of Portsmouth. Some of her Jericho Tree articles were first posted at her personal catechetical blog Transformed in Christ. They are used here with permission. See http://www.transformedinchrist.com/
Hannah Vaughan-Spruce's Latest Posts
How to awaken curiosity about the faith in our friends and colleagues
One of the most difficult things we can encounter as Christians are friends who have no interest at all in Christianity, even if they “respect me for being a Catholic”. It is like a bridge of trust is there, […]
St John Paul II – Access All Areas
JPII – Access All Areas was published recently by One by One Press, a project of the Irish Dominicans. The book comprises 23 short chapters which reveal in manageable chunks the thought of Saint John Paul […]
Five Reasons to Discern Your Charisms
It’s been a couple of weeks since the Called and Gifted Workshop we held in the Diocese. It was truly a blessed time – many, many people have spoken about how blessed they were by the event. […]
The journey
I love this teaser video for the Youth 2000 festival in Walsingham this summer – THE festival of the summer if you’re 16-30. There is more info here. This year there are LOADS of coaches travelling […]
Preparing for Confirmation: thoughts, experiences, tips, advice, and much more
What a week! Thank you everyone for all your good wishes and encouragement. There have been so many enquiries about the programme. With this in mind, I wanted to share a bit more of the background story… […]
Some exciting news about the Confirmation Programme
Well, people, there’s been a long build-up to this and it has been somewhat hectic since I’ve been squeezing it in among everything else… But – finally! – I can let you know that the Confirmation programme I have […]
Evangelisation: the miracles God can work through us when say Yes and put our trust in him
In this series of posts, “From the Mission Field”, I am sharing some inspiring stories: people open to the Holy Spirit, allowing him to do amazing things in their corner of the world. May these stories […]
HTB Leadership Conference 2014
I can’t let this week go without writing about the HTB leadership conference… Now, nearly a week later, it’s like trying to grip onto the wonderful gifts of God we received, and not to forget […]
Evangelisation: inspiring examples and encouragement “From the Mission Field” #1
Anyone in need of some ENCOURAGEMENT?! In this new series of posts, “From the Mission Field”, I want to share some of what I can see the Holy Spirit doing through some wonderful people around the country. […]
Can you have evangelists without first having disciples?
I came across this video earlier this week. Obviously, it comes from a Protestant context (so their concept of worship is not ours), but essentially, it is saying exactly the same thing that we Catholics […]
Notes for Holy Week
~ 1 ~ Well, everyone, welcome to Holy Week. Some words before the Palm Sunday Procession struck me: “Let us commemorate the Lord’s entry into the city for our salvation, following in his footsteps, so that, […]
Where do people go when the course/programme has finished and they are hungry for more?
It often happens that you get to the end of a really fruitful programme/course/series in your parish, and people start to ask, “What’s happening next?” “We want to continue, this has been the experience of […]
Forming intentional disciples
I’m re-reading Forming Intentional Disciples, people… Yes, in fact, I think I could read it three or four times. You might want to revisit with me some of the key points, because often we can […]
“Let’s just stop catechising children”
Joanne McPortland over at Patheos has been causing something of a stir… She is proposing that what is wrong with the parish formation set-up is that it has, for too long, been catechising the wrong people […]
The spiritual art of planning
Nowadays, a lot of my life involves scheduling, planning, organising, juggling. Doodle polls are becoming a very dear friend in the uphill struggle of conquering multiple jam-packed diaries to schedule a meeting. Maybe (although I’m […]
Do Catholics really know their bibles?
Earlier this week, in our Catholic parish, we began ‘A Quick Journey through the Bible‘, the Great Adventure eight-session course; and we were maxed out with around 70 participants showing up. I was excited to […]
Quick takes on catechesis
~1~ I love what Mgr. Charles Pope has written in this article on the plan he’s made for children’s catechesis in his parish. What I love most is his realisation that: It became clear to me in […]
Realising that our lives are not about us
Father Robert Barron has a brilliant article responding to the recent Time cover story, “The Childfree Life”. While Time empathises with women who feel “sidelined” and “scolded” by “a culture that often equates womanhood with motherhood”, Fr […]
Sacramental service station?
A little shout-out to all the parishes out there… Come on now, be honest Is your parish a sacramental service station? What do I mean by this? A service station is somewhere we pass through, on the […]
“Full Sweep” Youth Catechesis
It was refreshing to read Archbishop Vincent Nichols’ words about catechesis for young people. He said we need to transmit to them the “full sweep” of the Catholic Faith. Thank you Archbishop – I couldn’t agree more. When […]
