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 […]
Culture
Testimonies of faith
The Diocese of Portsmouth seems to have been putting some energy into its evangelisation and outreach through media. See this short video which is a young man’s testimony about his faith and what it means […]
The Passion of Jesus, Trafalgar Square, London, Good Friday – 18 April
The huge Wintershall cast – including a donkey and horses – in colourful costumes, realistic scenes and a heart-moving crucifixion and resurrection: The Passion of Jesus makes a great impact. The Passion of Jesus has […]
How to enter into the Passion and Resurrection of Christ
Lent is passing so quickly and we are in the final days before Holy Week. I don’t know about you, but I always find the emotion of Holy Week quite hard to take. Perhaps it […]
A meditation on Holy Week and the Passion of Christ – in a UK shopping centre
In 2013, Ten Ten Theatre – the Catholic professional theatre company – staged a Passion Play based on the Stations of the Cross involving over 250 people from the local churches and schools in Runcorn and […]
The foetal body-burning scandal: facing the truth of a throwaway culture
An investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches has revealed that the bodies of thousands of miscarried and aborted babies have been incinerated as chemical waste, with some used to heat hospitals in a waste-to-energy scheme. The programme can be […]
Two powerful plays for young people about relationships, choices and the pressure to conform
We are delighted to announce Ten Ten’s latest production at The Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden on Saturday 26 April. Babies and Chased are two short plays which explore the lives of teenagers as […]
Mitochondrial transfer: science that crosses lines for no good purpose
Three-parent embryos are the most high-profile recent development in reproductive technology, and an area where the UK is striving to take a leading role — hence the government consultation on new rules to allow it. Scientists, […]
From Matthew McConaughey’s Oscar to a spiritual awakening in San Antonio many years ago
[Guest post by Katy Whisenant] Seeing all the publicity surrounding Matthew McConaughey’s Oscar has been a bit of a surreal experience, as not only did we grow up in the same small town near the […]
Geocaching and the search for God
A few days ago a gang of us from the Pure in Heart London prayer group took advantage of the good weather and went for a ramble in the beautiful Surrey countryside. There really is […]
The Scent of Lemons: the non-neutrality of new media and emerging technologies
In the last 20 years or so, the revolution in communications technology has radically changed the lives of billions of ordinary people. In many ways, this technology has made our lives easier: communication is speedier, […]
Soldier to Saint: London performance in April
RISE THEATRE is delighted to be returning with their second national tour of the ground-breaking play ‘Soldier to Saint’, to be performed across 21 venues. This includes a one-off London performance @St Aloysius Church Hall, Euston […]
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 […]
‘A Tale of Two Sausages’ – a talk by Simone Lia
‘A Tale of Two Sausages’ – 7pm Thursday 20th February A talk by Catholic comic book artist and illustrator Simone Lia – author of “Please God, Find Me a Husband!” Be inspired, feel motivated and have […]
What if the person you love doesn’t have a body?
Her, the new film by Spike Jonze, is a beautiful meditation on love, friendship, artificial intelligence, regret, virtual reality, surrogacy, time, gaming, grief, embodiment, self-creation, community, and the only half-acknowledged weirdness of falling in love […]
The role of the media in constructing distorted views of ‘ideal’ beauty
Following on from yesterday’s post about beauty, a reader recommended this ‘Killing Us Softly’ video featuring Jean Kilbourne, about the way the media manipulates images of women and presents a distorted and actually destructive picture […]
Are you beautiful? How do you know? Who makes the rules? Who tells the truth?
I heard a talk on Saturday about the biblical idea of beauty, and how distorted our own ideas of beauty have become within the prevailing culture. As an introduction, the speaker showed this ‘Onslaught’ video […]
The creative energy that is released through the dialogue of actually making art
John Berger, the art critic, wrote a brilliant article called ‘A Professional Secret’ (collected in his ‘Selected Essays’). It is a reflection, amongst other things, on the spiritual experience of painting. In it, he raises […]
Facebook on its 10th birthday
Jemima Kiss reports on the first ten years of Facebook, which was launched from Mark Zuckerberg’s student digs on 4 February 2004. By the end of 2013, Facebook was being used by 1.23 billion users […]
A weekend for young Catholic nurses and doctors to reflect on issues of healthcare and faith
Are you a Catholic nurse or doctor in your 20s or 30s? Would you like to share ideas about living your faith at work, in the context of prayer and friendship? Then join the Hope […]
The Experience of God
The new book by David Bentley Hart, The Experience of God, is a fantastic read. Not only does it successfully offer several coherent points of departure for discussion of what ‘God’ means, it is also full […]
