“We are not living an epoch of change so much as an epochal change, Pope Francis says. The forms of religion and their roles in different societies and cultures are also changing. Secularisation has not brought about the end of religion but rather its transformation. While some forms of religion are experiencing major upheavals, others are so vibrant that they have transcended their former boundaries. Traditional religious institutions have lost their monopoly on religion. The culminating process of globalisation is encountering resistance: manifestations of populism, nationalism, and fundamentalism are on the rise. The world community of Christians is not united – today the greatest differences are not between churches but within them. Differences in doctrine, and in religious and political attitudes, often have roots hidden in the deeper layers of people’s intellectual and spiritual lives. Sometimes people reciting the same creed in the same church pew have very different ideas about God. Among the transformations of today’s spiritual scene is the collapse of the wall between “believers” and “nonbelievers”, noisy minorities of dogmatic believers and militant atheists are being marginalised, while there is a growing number of those whose minds and heart faith (in the sense of proto-faith) and unbelief (in the sense of doubting scepticism) are intertwined. I am finishing this book in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic; around me many sick people die daily in overcrowded hospitals, and many of the living and healthy are slipping into existential insecurity. The certitudes of our world are also shaken by this experience. In addition to the long-standing crisis of traditional religious certitudes, there is also a crisis of traditional secular certitudes, especially the belief in humans’ dominium over nature and their own destiny. The state of the Catholic Church today in many ways resembles the situation just before the Reformation. When an unsuspected number of cases os sexual and psychological abuse were exposed, it shook the credibility of the of the Church and raised many questions about the whole system of the Church. I regarded the closed and empty churches during the coronavirus pandemic as a prophetic warning sign: this may soon be the state of the Church if it does not undergo a transformation ….” Tomas Halik
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- Apr 28
In today's Homily Br. Paul talked about various prayer apps that we can use in our daily prayer lives to help us remain in contact with Jesus.
For those who are interested here are some links:
Hallow is a prayer and meditation app that combines the peace and stillness of meditation with the spiritual growth of contemplative prayer. It features over 10,000 sessions of audio-guided prayers led by world-class talent such as Jonathan Roumie, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Bishop Barron, Mark Wahlberg, Sr. Miriam James SOLT, Jeff Cavins, Dr. Scott Hahn, and more!
Pray As You Go is a daily prayer session, designed to go with you wherever you go, to help you pray whenever you find time, but particularly whilst travelling to and from work, study, etc.
Biographies and reflections: saints and feasts of the day from all over the world. The readings for Mass and Liturgy of the hours.
With the Lectio 365 app you pray the Bible by meditating on the scriptures and asking God to speak through them. The app has short devotionals for morning and evening so you can open and close each day with God.
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I Am the Vine - A Sonnet by Malcolm Guite
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
How might it feel to be part of the vine?
Not just to see the vineyard from afar
Or even pluck the clusters, press the wine,
But to be grafted in, to feel the stir
Of inward sap that rises from our root,
Himself deep planted in the ground of Love,
To feel a leaf unfold a tender shoot,
As tendrils curled unfurl, as branches give
A little to the swelling of the grape,
In gradual perfection, round and full,
To bear within oneself the joy and hope
Of God’s good vintage, till it’s ripe and whole.
What might it mean to bide and to abide
In such rich love as makes the poor heart glad?
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