Association Of Catholic Bloggers

   Did you ever wonder what you hear through a stethoscope? H/T to Father Z .

This column, updated 28 September 2011,  appeared in the short-lived Negros Times  13-14 October 2008. The above was the picture that appeared with my weekly column. Yesterday, the feast of St Vincent de Paul, was Lala's 'Official Birthday'. I only remembered that today and thought of posting my three-year-old article here. Both Lala and Queen Elizabeth II have have two birthdays, the real one and the official one. Lala’s official birthday is September 27 and she turned 32 yesterday. Queen Elizabeth’s official birthday is celebrated in 53 Commonwealth countries, but not on the same date. Only the Falkland Island observes her official birthday on her real one, April 21. In the United Kingdom the Queen’s official birthday can be on the first, second or third Saturday in June. She turned 85 on her last birthday. While there’s no confusion about the date of birth of Queen Elizabeth, there is about that of Lala. The young Princess Elizabeth was born in a palace in London. L

Sitting in the Adoration Chapel recently, my eyes were continually drawn to a print of The Return of the Prodigal Son, by Rembrandt. There is much to contemplate within the scene, but on that particular day it was the prodigal himself I returned to again and again. Broken, dirty, battered, he’d been shamed and brought low. And yet there is yielding peace in his very bones as he accepts his father’s embrace. He has surrendered. He knows who he is and where he belongs. Every line of his body, the very profile of his face is eloquent with that acceptance. He makes no excuses for his tattered clothing, the hole in his shoe, his bare head. Rather, he is open, and receives his father’s healing touch, his father’s blessing. The beauty of this parable is that we see fragments of ourselves in each of the characters: the father who hopes, trusts, and forgives; the faithful son who questions the justice of the rebellious son’s welcome – and perhaps to some extent also questions his

Fr James Doyle, Fr Brian Doyle OP, Bro Rory Doyle OFMConv The photo above, courtesy of the Irish Dominicans, was taken on Saturday 3 September in Murrintown, County Wexford, in the south-west of Ireland, when Father Brian was ordained priest by Bishop Denis Brennan of Ferns. His brother Father James (Jim) is a priest in the Diocese of Ferns, which includes most of County Wexford, and his twin Brother Rory is also preparing for the priesthood as a Conventual Franciscan. The three brothers are featured in today's Irish Independent : Engineer brothers down tools for life in the priesthood . The twins have doctorates in engineering. Father Jim worked with the Irish agency Concern in Cambodia and Burundi and found his vocation there. Father Brian with his parents Joan and Brian senior ( Irish Dominican Vocations ) Ten years ago I did mission appeals on behalf of the Columbans in the Diocese of Lancaster in the north-west of England. I met two of the three Burns brothers who, like t

One of the books I am reading at the moment is the autobiography of the late Rosemary Clooney. I was drawn to her story because I heard that she died a "good Catholic", but her journey to that point was often horrendous. I recommend it to those who have problems with addiction and suffer from depression. Rosemary's main suffering came from the breakdown of her marriage to the actor Jose Ferrer. She was a loveable person and had many admirers and friends, one of them being Bing Crosby who was a great help to her when she was really down. Towards the end of her life, she "came back to the fold" as she described it, "to stay". When I was a child and teenager I didn't care for her style of singing. I have rediscovered her and was able to get a wonderful CD of her jazz recordings which are excellent. The book is available at Amazon. Mine is a used copy in very good condition. The CD was also fairly cheap. If you are interested in "show