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 […]
Sr Margaret Atkins
Sr Margaret is an Augustinian canoness from the community at Boarbank Hall in Cumbria. She is also a Research Fellow at Blackfriars, Oxford.
Sr Margaret Atkins's Latest Posts
Why do you go to work in the morning?
As Christians we are called to loving service, and as adults we spend a third of our waking lives at work. So how do we turn our work into service? One of the deepest modern […]
Do you live to work or work to live?
Do you live to work or work to live? Two major Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century, Eric Gill and Josef Pieper, gave contrasting answers to this question. Gill, an artist and stonecutter, famous for […]
Time to reflect: a Lenten weekend for lecturers
Time to reflect: Furness and the Cistercians a Lenten weekend for lecturers Boarbank Hall, Cumbria 11th-13th March 2016 As Christians we are committed to understanding education in the context of the picture of God and humanity that our […]
Thinking Faith: A holiday and study week for Catholic students and young professionals
Thinking Faith – Faith and Creation A holiday and study week for Catholic students and young professionals Boarbank Hall, Cumbria 16th-23rd July 2016 Would you like: *An alternative to World Youth Day? *Daily prayer and liturgy […]
Catholics and Our Common Home: Caring for the Planet We Share
At last we are in fashion! Back in 1995 I wrote a CTS pamphlet entitled, Must Catholics be Green? It had seemed obvious to me for a long time that any sane person would want […]
Living simply: the contemporary relevance of the virtue of temperance
Laudato Si’ challenges us to live a simpler lifestyle. In this, Pope Francis follows the teaching of his two predecessors. St John Paul II wrote: Simplicity, moderation and discipline, as well as a spirit of […]
When love is poured out through one person onto a whole community
For some people, a vocation arrives unexpectedly, even in the context of apparent tragedy. For Peter, it arrived when he was taken ill at the age of three. Suddenly, a normal, healthy, little boy was […]
The real meaning of hospitality
St Augustine loved to puzzle over the Emmaeus story. Why did the disciples not recognise Jesus when he was explaining the Scriptures to them? Why did he pretend to carry on walking? He went in […]
How to think, how to consume, how to give: three ‘new’ perspectives
I have read three unusual books recently, each one of them the sort that changes the way you see the world. The first was exceptionally intelligent, the second excitingly creative, the third deeply wise. The […]
A Lenten weekend for lecturers and teachers in higher education, 27th February to 1st March, Boarbank Hall, Cumbria
TIME TO REFLECT A Lenten weekend for lecturers and teachers in higher education. 27th February to 1st March. Boarbank Hall, Cumbria. The dreaming spires have long disappeared. Today’s university lecturers are fighting exhaustion and overwork, […]
How love matures: from the Hollywood romance to a community of service and support
The excitement of the Synod has died down, and we are left with a year to ponder and pray. For the Press, it was all about controversy – homosexuality and second marriages. But for the […]
How dangerous is the internet?
It’s an intriguing and maybe alarming fact that often the very things that can do most good can also do most harm. Doctors make the best poisoners, and a ‘drug’ can either cure or kill. […]
Young Catholics in healthcare: Hope in Health weekend
Are you a Catholic nurse or doctor, student nurse or medical student in your 20s or 30s? Do you ever feel that you need more support in combining your work and your faith? Our Hope […]
Vocation to Love, part 8: ‘Remember those in prison’
Yesterday I was introduced to Zac. Zacchaeus to you, the chap who is up the Jericho Tree. But he’s ‘Zac’ to the thousands of participants on the Sycamore Tree course. You see, it’s easier for […]
Vocation to Love, part 7: Job, Career or Vocation?
My great-nephew Aidan is five. He knows what he wants to do when he grows up. ‘I’m going to be a floor-layer,’ he says. I made a suggestion about a hobby he might enjoy. ‘No,’ […]
Do animals have morality?
Christians and biologists have often, mistakenly, seen themselves as rivals. Both have argued as if there is a choice between science or religion: biology or revelation as sources of knowledge; evolution or God as explanations […]
When I was in prison you visited me
Who are the most neglected members of our society? Most likely, the 85,000 men and women who are in prison in England and Wales today. Did you have any idea it was that many? An […]
The vocation to love, part 6: remembering Dorcas
I began this series of posts, you may remember, by talking about the Vatican II’s radical idea that every single Christian is called to a unique and irreplaceable mission. I then had a look at […]
The vocation to love, part 5: Vocation as conversion
We are all familiar with the conversion of St Paul – one of the most memorable moments in the history of the Church. Artists have had a field day with it, adding a colourful fall […]
The vocation to love, part 4: The call of Mary
Luke’s Gospel begins with two stories of vocation: of John the Baptist through his father, Zechariah, and of Mary to be mother of Jesus. John is a link between the Old Testament and the New. […]
