Words unspokensound loudest for those who hearwith the inward ear. A smile unbrokenby kindness is knownto maim, wound and kill. For those who feel,it’s a cut to the bone.When one smiles in silence, it is sharp, polished steel,or perfect benevolencecarved in stone. Read more

Fr Newman has a new website and blog. Under the link Divine worship you can go through a cool slide show of High Mass at St Mary’s. How blessed we are to have been brought to such a vibrant parish! For Ash Wednesday the place was packed, the liturgy was splendid and the spirit truly penitential. Last evening the church was crowded for Stations of the Cross, Benediction and Confessions. I was in the confessional for an hour and a... Read more

In a recent comment a reader asked about the Immaculate Conception: about the Immaculate Conception. As a mere Anglican I still wonder ‘why?’. It may be so but surely Our Lady would still be unique in creation even if she were not immaculately conceived?Good question. May I humbly recommend my book Mary: A Catholic-Evangelical Debate? Even for those who are not Evangelicals, the Catholic arguments are put best I can. One answer to the question is this: to be fully... Read more

Every year this argument comes up in our household: I’ve heard that every Sunday is a feast day of the resurrection so you can break your Lenten fast on Sundays. Sure enough, if you count the ‘forty days’ from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday there are actually 46 days, so if you take out the Sundays you do get 40 days of fasting. So what’s the verdict? I’ve given up booze for Lent. Can I have a tipple on Sundays?... Read more

St Augustine says that by asceticism we empty ourselves to make room for God. If you have a sack that is already full there is no room for anything else. If you have a life that is already full you have no room for God. Empty the sack to re-fill it. Empty the life to make room for God. It is our unquenchable desire for more–we know not what ‘more’– that drives us to seek God, and it is this... Read more

Incarnation Why should a single object—one small stone,a rose, a picture or a Chinese vasesummon strong passions? Why should onechild singing high and clear lift you to the stars,while a leaden sky hurls you down to hell?How literal. And yet, what other wordshave you? With what language can you tellof your silent discourse with another world?And what is incarnation now? If notone object, then everything. And whatis Resurrection now? Out of the dyingspring all things green against the grey sky—the... Read more

I’ll be on Relevant Radio’s morning show tomorrow 9:00 EST talking about the crisis in Anglicanism. Tune in! Read more

Roving Medievalist posted this picture of Bayeux Cathedral, and it brought back a memory. As an Anglican priest I was travelling in France, and took some time to stop at Bayeux. It’s a quaint town with this neat little cathedral, and a great museum where you can view the famous Bayeux tapestry. I had been puzzling for some time over the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and had come to the very Anglican conclusion that it was a permissable pious... Read more

Being a married Catholic priest has made some readers curious and they have asked to see photographs of my wife. This is Alison. You can see she has a slight facial hair problem, but I love her anyway… Read more

  For those who enjoy the English sense of humour (note spelling all you Brits) Fr Tim Finigan relates a tale from Oxford. The story has to do with the early attempts to sell contraceptives more widely in Britain. Now, of course, condoms are handed out willy nilly (‘scuse the rude pun Brits) in schools, shops, train stations and everywhere else you can think of. Apart from the theological and ethical problems with contraceptives and teenagers, the practical problems are... Read more