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 […]
Fr Martin Boland
Fr Martin Boland is a priest in the Diocese of Brentwood. He is currently Dean of Brentwood Cathedral. Some of his articles here were first posted on his personal blog The Invisible Province. They are used with permission. See: http://theinvisibleprovince.blogspot.co.uk/
Fr Martin Boland's Latest Posts
Is there a difference between “suicide” and “assisted dying”?
The Assisted Dying Bill that comes before the House of Commons would “enable competent adults who are terminally ill to choose to be provided with medically supervised assistance to end their own life.” This is […]
The meaning of marriage
I once saw an elderly couple being interviewed on television. It was the day of their fiftieth wedding anniversary. They were sat awkwardly beside each other on a lumpy sofa in their living room. Heavily […]
Brentwood Stations of the Cross: BBC Meditation
This Good Friday Meditation was broadcast on BBC Essex to as part of the Brentwood Stations of the Cross Programme. It includes reflections by Fr Martin Boland and others associated with the project; scripture meditations; […]
From high fashion to a meditation on mortality and transcendence: the Alexander McQueen retrospective
It is easy to mock the world of high-end fashion for its preening, Zoolander excesses. With every passing Spring/Summer, Autumn/Winter collection, the business of fashion can be dismissed as a superficial enterprise, an ephemeral exercise […]
The Brentwood Stations of the Cross 3: the full programme of events
THE BRENTWOOD STATIONS OF THE CROSS – MAIN EVENT Saturday 7 March – 10 am Talk given by Fr Martin Boland, Dean and Parish Priest, Brentwood Cathedral on The Brentwood Stations of the Cross with […]
The Brentwood Stations of the Cross 2: what the fifteen artists actually did
Each artist was given the title of a Station together with an identical blank twelve inch square aluminium panel. They were completely free to respond to their allocated subject in whatever way they chose. I […]
The Brentwood Stations of the Cross 1: religion and art in dialogue
The popular view is that religion and contemporary art hold each other in more or less tolerant disdain. For those who have religious beliefs, contemporary art, having given up on the pursuit of beauty and […]
Modern slavery
Slavery would have been familiar to Job. It’s not surprising, then, that he uses it as a vivid image of all that brings humans beings to their knees and demeans them. Job asks, Is not […]
Loneliness, part 4: the experience of Christ
An acceptance of the “original solitude” of Eden is called, in time, to mature into the loneliness as experienced by Christ in Gethsemane. In Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI writes of this defining event: […]
Loneliness, part 3: Pope John Paul II and ‘Original Solitude’
The early chapters of Pope John Paul II’s theological project, The Theology of the Body, develop a philosophical anthropology based on a close reading of the Genesis creation stories. John Paul II contends that the […]
Loneliness, part 2: the experience of the priest
The popular description of loneliness emphasises its social dimension. Loneliness is the absence of companionship, a failure to create and sustain a web of meaningful, supportive attachments. Circumstance or choice means that some people live […]
Loneliness, part 1: the human condition
For many people, loneliness is that facet of human existence that they most dread and, from which, they tirelessly labour to escape. Yet, loneliness is one of the distinguishing hallmarks of our humanity. It is […]
Do I ever just praise God for who he is or am I always asking him for things?
The fourth chapter of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the liturgy, speaking about the Divine Office, says that when “this wonderful song of praise is correctly celebrated…then it is truly the voice […]
The difference it makes to sing the psalms
The Hebrew word for a “psalm” is mizmor which translates as “something sung”. The psalmist instructs, “Sing to the Lord with the harp/with the sound of music.” (Psalm 97) He’s issuing an imperative. When the […]
The dense mystery of the Breviary: the experience of a young seminarian
My breviary was a farewell gift from my mother and my sister. They presented it to me the night before I left for seminary. I had been told that this was the essential kit that […]
The sound of silence
In loco isto dabo pacem. In this place I give peace. This is the motto of Pluscarden Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in the Highlands of Scotland. At Pluscarden, the peace that God offers a distracted, […]
A priestly vocation – to be an ambassador for Christ
On the day of my ordination, 14 September 1996, I gave people a prayer card. It’s what newly ordained priests often do. On it were written four words: Pray for Martin Boland and above this […]
Can you love someone with words alone? From Walt Disney to God’s touch in the sacraments
I have just seen two great films in twenty four hours: Her, a dystopian sci-fi vision of a very near future, and Disney’s Frozen, which goes into my top three films of the year. Very […]
Desert Island Priests at Brentwood Cathedral
In this series of interviews Fr Martin Boland will be speaking to six priests of the Brentwood Diocese about books which have influenced them in their spiritual journey. Thursday 6 March Fr Kevin Hale (Leigh-on-Sea) .. Journal […]
The question is not whether we will die – but how we shall live
An address given by Fr Martin Boland at the St Francis Hospice “Light up a Life” Service, on the 2nd Sunday of Advent Last year, I went to visit a man, a parishioner from the Cathedral here […]
