Pause for Prayer

Have you ever noticed just how many prayers and hymns talk about ‘men’, ‘brothers’, ‘brethren’ and ‘he’? 
I know it is a quirk of the English language, where we do not have the same abundance of masculine and feminine parts of speech as do other languages, such as Italian or French. 
I know that it […]

Mass this morning was different, and not because the principal concelebrant was the Cardinal Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone. 
Vatican Radio’s transmission station at Santa Maria di Galeria, about a 40 minute’s drive (traffic permitting!) outside
Rome, is celebrating its 50th Birthday.   
Three coaches, filled with Vatican Radio staff headed off this morning in the direction of […]

“Premature babies are blocking beds.” This was a comment in the news that, with good reason, provoked an outrage a short time ago….and I looked back to a tiny 28 week baby, born to a Bangladeshi couple who, after their first daughter, had suffered ten stillbirths.  They came to England, where the wife was found […]

It was one of those terrifying moments that causes a scream, laughter and tears, all at the same time.

I opened a cupboard and screamed as something soft, black and body-shaped fell on me from the darkened interior.  All my worst imaginings had happened. I was terrified…until I switched on the light and discovered that […]

If you are anything like me, you sometimes become frustrated at the length of time God seems to take in sending answers to prayers that feel as though they have been offered over an inordinate amount of time for things that are really very important and would appear to be things that, if I were […]