I feel it almost every day in my dealings with people who are suffering and who yearn to be relieved of their pain immediately, all at once, in a jiffy. They explain their situation in a minimal [...]
We will never fully understand the mystery of pain and suffering. Because it is a mystery, it terrifies us, questions us, scandalises us… to the point of making us deny God’s goodness [...]
There is a story told in Holland, which is perhaps more myth than truth, that goes like this: “Once upon a time there was an old church. For many years, when entering the church, everyone [...]
A handful of days more and we will be eating our grapes to the rhythm of the New Year’s Eve chimes at the stroke of midnight on 31 December. This annual celebration provides us with an [...]
The lights in the streets and the sparkle in the shops have been heralding the arrival of Christmas for some time now. Everything heralds festivities. Despite all the objections to consumerism [...]
In all living beings there is an incredible growth force, an unstoppable and blind impulse to live and grow. A true story illustrates this. A man noticed that weeds had grown in his house to such [...]
Just as it is important to have empathy, to help others and to want to please them, it is also important to be able to say “no” to them. However, many of us find it extremely [...]
Most humans care about money. More than we realise or declare: We look at the prices of goods, we look for paying jobs, we are continually making decisions about home economics. The way we spend [...]
I don’t know exactly why most people maintain the false certainty that life is perpetual. We give little thought to the fact that at some point it will end. We are horrified to bring up the [...]
I have a fellow missionary who is allergic to plastic flowers in churches. He can’t stand them. When he sees them on an altar in plain sight or even on a hidden pedestal he removes them [...]
