The Barefoot Journey Home

Over the last weekend, Catholics from all around the world would have no doubt become aware that the Holy Father has issued a Moto Proprio. It appears that after years of Pope Benedict acknowledging the right of all priests to celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form, Pope Francis has decided to revoke this right and impose certain restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.  Apart from the fact that the Traditional Latin Mass can no longer be celebrated in parishes, the new Moto Proprio dictates that the Diocesan Bishop must give authorisation for any priest to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass, and that the Bishop must only grant such authorisation to clergy and groups who do not deny the validity of Vatican II and the Magisterium. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to accompany a friend of mine to attend a Traditional Latin Mass at a SSPX chapel. While I found the rite to be beautiful, I must admit that what I encountered at that Mass was nothing short of t

"Forgive and Forget" It's something we often tell to our children and even to ourselves. It's no secret that all of us get hurt from time to time. It's also no secret that all of us hurt others from time to time. As Christians, we know that we ought to forgive those who hurt us. Our scriptures remind us of the importance of forgiving one another in many passages and stories. The grace to forgive one another is part of the Lord Prayer, the prayer which Jesus himself taught us, the prayer which most of us pray on a regular basis.  However, is there really truth in this term, to Forgive and Forget? Certainly, we ought to forgive one another as freely as we have been forgiven by our compassionate God. But have the scriptures ever indicated that we ought to erase from our memories all incidents in which we have been hurt? I don't think so. I might be wrong, and I'm open to being corrected if so, but none of the passages in the Bible which speak of forgiveness i

In the first reading from our scriptures last weekend, the prophet Ezekiel heard the spirit of the Lord speaking to him, sending him to the camp of the Israelites, to the rebels who have turned against God. God chose to send Ezekiel to a place where people really needed God, to a place where the people seem to have abandoned God, and abandoned their faith. Sounds familiar? Maybe because the people who live in our world today have also abandoned their faith.   Two years ago, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris caught fire. And of course, there was quite a lot of damage done. Many of our Catholics were posting on social media about how sad the situation was, and about how sad it was that such a beautiful Church had been destroyed. But how many of us actually were crying over the fact that people in Europe have abandoned their faith, rather than for the destruction of a Church which is also in fact a tourist attraction? The Churches in Europe are almost empty during Mass on Sunday. The C