In my last article, I introduced you to Franz Stampfl, my athletics coach when I was a boy. When transposed from the sporting life to
I was so sorry to hear that my boyhood hero died recently. His name was Roger Bannister, or Sir Roger Bannister as he became later.
Many years ago, I attended a retreat given by Fr Michael Hollings, who was in great demand as a fearless and outspoken preacher. The retreat
Just over five hundred years ago, in 1509, Henry VIII became King of England and it was because of him that Protestantism was introduced into
Some events and some experiences are so awesome that we find it difficult to capture them in words. The first Christians, for instance, found the
Pious Fantasies I couldn’t fault my doctor when I went for a private consultation, but in his own home, he seemed to have left his
It was at Easter in the 1970’s that I first met my wife. I received a phone call from the local convent asking me to
The local Charismatic group were celebrating forty years since their foundation and were preparing a special Mass for that purpose. The readings, the psalms, and
The Holiest Man I Have Ever Met During a series of talks that I gave to Cistercian monks in Cameroon, I was able to spend
Book Launch I said in the first part of the lecture to launch my book, that the famous moral philosopher Professor Joad insisted that the
On the 15th February, I had the honour of sharing the launch of my book, Wisdom from the Christian Mystics with Kevin Grant, former editor-in-chief of
Many years ago Bishop Casey of Brentwood, England, asked me to set up a Residential Retreat and Conference Centre in Chingford, London. He wanted to use
My school report was so bad that my eldest brother was commissioned with the task of teaching me to read. But when he could not
I saw my grandfather forty years after he died. I loved I him with all my heart, not because he gave me toys, bought me
A friend took me to a Christmas dinner at a local pub noted for its good food. It was also noted for something else too
When Charles Dickens wrote, “God is love,” on the workhouse wall, he was, of course, being sarcastic. He knew there was no love in that
The Sacred Heart Is Mr. Loving When I was a boy, I used to call people by what they did. My older brothers used to
Like most European Catholics I was born and brought up in the aftermath of the Renaissance influenced by a spirituality that owed as much
In his book, Small is Beautiful, Schumacher said,”Although people go on crying out for solutions, they become angry when they are told that the restoration
I found myself placed next to a high powered High Court Judge at a dinner party in one of the most exclusive clubs in London.
Although we do not like to admit it, even to ourselves, we still believe that prayer suddenly happens, or never happens at all. We kid
There may be evidence for a Big Bang, but there is no evidence that there was simply nothing, ‘no- thing’ whatsoever before it. What went
I first began to understand certain mystical truths as I prayed at the place where Jesus was crucified on the first Good Friday. I have
Did you know that you can’t really pray without distractions? Don’t take my word for it, take the word of St Teresa of Avila. When
