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
The vocation to love, part 3: God’s call in the Old Testament
The language of vocation, of being called to a way of life, has its origin in the Bible. The God of the Jews is both supremely Other – the sole origin and ruler of everything […]
The vocation to love, part 2: the baptismal call to be priests, prophets and kings
From time to time you hear a Christian of another denomination say, ‘He’s going into the Church’. That means, ‘He is training to become a priest.’ It wouldn’t fit very well as a Catholic turn […]
The vocation to love, part 1: an invitation
What is the best-kept secret of the Second Vatican Council? Many of the Council’s radical ideas are now so integrated into our lives that we forget how new they were. But some of its riches […]
True happiness and the real meaning of the moral life
If you are looking for a wonderful introduction to Catholic moral theology, you need look no further than William C. Mattison III’s Introducing Moral Theology: True Happiness and the Virtues. I have been working through it […]
A ‘just war theory’ or a ‘theory of peace’? St Augustine’s real contribution to the debate
Most books will tell you that Augustine was the first Christian just war theorist. This is misleading, for two reasons. Firstly, he was far from the first Christian to accept that a war might be […]
A religious sister reflects on the niqab, wearing the veil as a Catholic woman, and living in the gaze of others
At the airport security in Brittany, we had to remove our veils. This was something new. They are about twice the size of a pocket-handkerchief, and hardly the stuff for hiding a terrorist. And our […]
