Crannóggy Island

  Prologue I was setting up the Christmas crib with my five-year-old grandson. As we placed the figures, he stopped and looked at the scene for a moment. Then he said, quietly, "This really isn't very joyful for baby Jesus." He was not confused. He was attentive. Taken on its own, the crib is not a joyful image. A child lies in a feeding trough. It becomes joyful when one knows what has gone before and what is to come; as one understands the full pattern of Eden, the Cross, and the Resurrection; the promise, cost, and vindication. The Nativity is joyful. The angels announce "good news of great joy," the shepherds rejoice, and the Magi worship. But it is a paradoxical joy, a joy in anticipation, precisely because it's joy despite poverty, vulnerability, and impending persecution. Joy is not deferred until Easter. It is joy under the shadow of the cross. It is the Father's love breaking into the world, the Word made flesh, already Emmanuel. God ha...

  Introduction: The First Choice A Catholic senator defends marriage and votes against labour rights on Monday. A Catholic activist champions the poor while dismissing chastity as repression. An environmental warrior fights pollution while treating sexuality as a private choice. We have fractured what should not be divided. We speak of sexual morality as one thing and social justice as another. We build entire Catholic identities around these divisions. Left versus right, private morality versus systemic sin, bedroom versus boardroom. This division obscures a deeper unity. The Second Vatican Council said it plainly: "Man cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self." From Eden to the present, human love unfolds as a single fundamental orientation: gift or grasp, communion or consumption, an open hand or a closed fist. In the modern West, we’ve built a civilisation of grasping. Radical autonomy, sexual utilitarianism, and economic acquisitiveness....

  Hi everyone, I just wanted to pop back and say a quick sorry for going so quiet these past few months. A few of you have checked in and asked if I was alright. Thank you. I am. I just seemed to disappear without meaning to. After the last post, which was so inward-looking, I found it hard to write anything else. And honestly, the summer here in the UK has been so full of news, changes, and general chaos that every time I tried to get a few thoughts down, something else happened. Before I knew it, weeks had gone by, and I was still staring at a blank page. So this is me easing myself back in; nothing profound, just a hello and an apology for the silence. I’d really love to hear from you: How are you finding things in the UK under Labour so far? What’s stood out to you these past months - good or bad? Any moments or stories that have stuck with you? I’ve missed the conversation here, and hope to get back into the rhythm of writing again. Thanks for sticking around. Peter...