Reflection. Quiet Prophecy
Christian discipleship calls all of us to be prophetic, to be advocates for justice, to help give voice to the poor, and to defend truth. But not all of us, by temperament or by particular vocation, are called to civil disobedience, public demonstrations, and the picket lines, as were Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Daniel […]
Saints and Nature. Hildegard. The healing food
Hildegard of Bingen, who lived from 1098 to 1179 in present-day Germany and was declared a saint and a doctor of the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. She can be considered one of the first environmentalists in written history (the oldest of these handed down orally are often lost): even before Francis […]
Oral Literature. How iGola, the cat, comes to live with the man
A man was sitting in his comfortable cave. The fire just outside the entrance was burning brightly, its flames dancing up from the crackling wood casting moving shadows across the walls and lighting up the serious faces of the animals who were sitting listening to what the man was saying. “We have been friends for […]
Kenya. Savings and Credits in Cooperative
An initiative of the Huruma Self-Help Group, it makes credit accessible to that segment of the population excluded from formal economic circuits. It all started in the Christian communities of Kariobangi, a suburb of Nairobi. In 1991 Verona Huruma Savings and Credit Cooperative (VH Sacco) was founded. It is an informal savings group made up […]
Mission Diary. Malawi. In the shade of the baobabs
Father Mathurin Mokpi-Dewe tells us about his mission in a rural area I am in Lusungwi in southern Malawi, a rural part of the Archdiocese of Blantyre. The parish is dedicated to Saint Kizito. In our community we are three priests. Our natural environment is truly beautiful. I remember on my first visit to the […]
Rajagopal. Towards a dignified life
As Gandhi’s heir, he brought the method of non-violence to the conflicts of youth gangs and peasant marches for land rights. He has just been awarded the 2023 Niwano Prize. He has himself called just by his first name to avoid being identified with a caste. And for fifty years in India – following the […]
England/Wales. New National Shrine of St Oscar Romero
The Diocesan Shrine of St Oscar Romero at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, has been elevated to the status of a National Shrine for England and Wales. Commenting on the elevation to a National Shrine, Archbishop of Southwark John Wilson said: “We are very grateful to the Bishops of England and Wales for their support in […]
Oral Literature. The Nyanjira smile
Once upon a time, there was a girl of enchanting beauty. Her name was Nyanjira. She had soft, smooth skin and a very sweet smile that was always just a little intriguing. What particularly caught people’s attention, however, was her lower teeth. Not because they were as white as milk or particularly well aligned, but […]
Mission Diary. Mission along the rivers
Sister Fátima Lay Martínez belongs to a consecrated religious of the Catechist Sisters of Jesus Crucified. She writes about the mission in the Peruvian Amazon region. We live in Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon, surrounded by nature and large rivers. Nonetheless, drinking water is only available for about five hours a day, […]
India. Sr. Ambika Pillai. A New Life
She is seated at a table while answering the children’s questions around the table, all busily creating decorations out of coloured paper. Sr. Pillai, a member of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Garden, is the secretary of Navjeevan (New Life) Children’s Home in Khandwa, a town in the central Indian state of Madhya […]