De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

I saw this English folk supergroup live in Liverpool a couple of weeks back... Brilliant!! Their album got "Album of the Year" at the BBC Folk Awards 2014 and the band got "Group of the Year". Many in the band are individually famous on the folk scene, no more so than the amazing Seth Lakeman singer/fiddler/songwriter and the guitarist/banjo player/singer Martin Simpson. See their website  here . And also "The Full English" digital archive project

Here’s an interesting article from the Franciscan spiritual writer Fr. Richard Rohr that manages to summarise in a few paragraphs important developments in early Church history and the impact they had on the subsequent centuries. The Early Christian Church From Bottom to Top Tuesday, April 28, 2015 The last great formal persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ended in AD 303. Ten years later, Christianity was legalized by Constantine I. After this structural change, Christianity increasingly accepted, and even defended, the dominant social order, especially concerning war and money. Morality became individualized and largely sexual. The Church slowly lost its free and alternative vantage point. Texts written in the hundred years preceding 313 show it was unthinkable that a Christian would fight in the army, as the army was killing Christians. By the year 400, the entire army had become Christian, and they were now killing the pagans. Before AD 313, the Church was on th...

In this very interesting article on the BBC website Adrian Chiles says "Spiritually, if I'm to really "connect" at Mass, I need a good priest to help me. And by good I mean, first and foremost, that they should look pleased to be there and pleased that we're there. Often they speak of great "joy" while looking as bored as swimming pool attendants." I think that the same has to be said of all religious (and teachers too). As religious we should be people who firstly know that joy that comes from a deep personal relationship with Jesus and secondly are not afraid to let that joy radiate from us to others. We need that passion that fills the hearts of those who have something that they cannot help but want to share with others. On this day of Pentecost, I pray for all clergy, religious, RE teachers and catechists, that the JOY of the GOSPEL may penetrate our hearts ever more deeply and that following the example of Pope Francis we may be faithful...

Some interesting points made here by Pope Francis​  in this article  (an address to Bishops), for example in his reaffirmation of the importance of finding and expressing the joy that is at the heart of our faith so that we might help others to discover that same joy inside them...  “At this moment of history when we often are surrounded by discouraging news, by local and international situations that make us experience affliction and tribulation — in this framework that truly is not comforting — our vocation as Christians and as bishops is to go against the tide.” Bishops, and all Catholics with them, are called “to be joyful witnesses of the risen Christ in order to transmit joy and hope to others.” “It is awful,” he said, to meet a bishop, priest or religious who is “beaten down, unmotivated or exhausted. He is like a dry well where the people cannot find water to quench their thirst.” Pope Francis: Faithful don’t need bishops ordering them ar...

A pause in the misty rain a couple of weeks ago during my drive from Kilmallock, Co. Limerick to my Uncle Jerry's in Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary. The Irish countryside is still beautiful when you can hardly see it! http://you-app.com/post/78dcdde5-6ce0-4a88-9905-add0a780f67b

Here’s a wonderful personal testimony from the lead singer of Tenth Avenue North to accompany a single off their most recent album, the single being entitled “No Man Is An Island”. I love the way he talks about God as Trinity and the Church as community.