Brutta figuraThis conversation between Norman Lebrecht and Riccardo Muti is a few years old, but still worth listening to. I love Muti’s account of his stern Neapolitan mother, who considered it bad form to clap at the end of her son’s Read More
Drowning in DataI have found food for thought in this essay by Arianna Huffington, prompted by Pope Leo’s Magnifica humanitas. Speaking of the ‘gospel of Silicon Valley’ she writes: ‘AI is not divine. But it can paradoxically force us to have the conversation Read More
Where’s Consolation?Only in the beauty created by others is there consolation, in the music of others and in others’ poems. Only others save us, even though solitude tastes like opium. The others are not hell, if you see them early, with their foreheads pure, cleansed by dreams. That is Read More
A Vital TextIt has been terrific, these past few years, to see Dom André Poisson’s remarkable text on the prayer of the heart, the best introduction to prayer I know, published in Spanish and Portuguese. As of this summer, there is finally Read More
OdysseyEveryone’s having an opinion about Nolan’s Odyssey these days. I’ll throw in my tuppence’s worth. Having read several reviews, I went to see it last night with high expectations. I was enthralled. The film is a magnificent achievement. Of course Read More
Brutta figuraThis conversation between Norman Lebrecht and Riccardo Muti is a few years old, but still worth listening to. I love Muti’s account of his stern Neapolitan mother, who considered it bad form to clap at the end of her son’s concerts. It smacked to her of self-promotion. Even when he was a world-renowned conductor, members of the family would, in the midst of audiences’ raptures, be constrained to keep their hands on their knees, heeding her stern instruction: ‘Non facciamo brutta figura!’ Interesting, too, are his remarks on the relationship between the conductor and the orchestra, almost a little essay on synodality. And his comparison of Wilhelm Tell to the River Tiber. He rounds the conversation off by saying: ‘I have always followed the counsel my teacher gave to me: “Muti, never compromise in music!”‘
Drowning in DataI have found food for thought in this essay by Arianna Huffington, prompted by Pope Leo’s Magnifica humanitas. Speaking of the ‘gospel of Silicon Valley’ she writes: ‘AI is not divine. But it can paradoxically force us to have the conversation we’ve neglected since the Enlightenment: Who are we, and what truly defines us? Once that conversation begins, AI’s real superpower — personalization — can help us tap into the unique qualities that make us human.’ I am less optimistic than Huffington regarding the potential of AI in this regard. I do, however, agree, with this: ‘AI overtaking us in intelligence lays bare the massive category error we have made in increasingly defining ourselves by our intelligence.’ An insight that often occurs in the writings of the Fathers is the following: the index of true humanity is capacity for compassion, presupposing the winning of the heart. That is a thought to develop and practise. It might make us wise, an inalienably humane quality. As Huffington notes: ‘while we’re drowning in data, we’re starved for wisdom’.
Where’s Consolation?Only in the beauty created by others is there consolation, in the music of others and in others’ poems. Only others save us, even though solitude tastes like opium. The others are not hell, if you see them early, with their foreheads pure, cleansed by dreams. That is why I wonder what word should be used, “he” or “you.” Every “he” is a betrayal of a certain “you” but in return someone else’s poem offers the fidelity of a sober dialogue. From the collection Without End by Adam Zagajewski.
A Vital TextIt has been terrific, these past few years, to see Dom André Poisson’s remarkable text on the prayer of the heart, the best introduction to prayer I know, published in Spanish and Portuguese. As of this summer, there is finally an English version in print, in a handsomely produced, affordable booklet published by the CTS. I stand by what I say in the introduction: ‘I rejoice to recommend this little book with all my heart. It opened my eyes to ‘the boundless riches of Christ’; it pierced my heart with the light of a trust I had previously only known notionally; and it gave me a sense of what it might really mean to profess with the faith of the Church, defined at Nicaea: ‘I believe in the resurrection of the flesh’. It could do this because its author speaks with authority, of things he knows.’ Dom Poisson had a strong conviction that the life of prayer must embrace the whole person. He wrote: ‘Let us not pretend to be pure spirits. We are much better than that. We are children of God.’ For anyone interested, here is a German version, too, translated by a nun of Marienrode.
OdysseyEveryone’s having an opinion about Nolan’s Odyssey these days. I’ll throw in my tuppence’s worth. Having read several reviews, I went to see it last night with high expectations. I was enthralled. The film is a magnificent achievement. Of course it does not render the complexity of the text or the range of Homer’s characters. That is the fate of any version. Richard Bentley said as much when he told The Odyssey‘s perhaps most famous translator: ‘It is a pretty poem, Mr Pope, but you must not call it Homer.’ What Nolan does is to show why the epic matters, why the image of Scylla and Charybdis, or of Penelope’s loom, still form our consciousness; why the names of Eurycleia and Eumaeus fill us with tenderness; why the thought of Circe (terrifically dramatised) makes us shudder. He renders the text’s urgency. The typology of a civilisation dying is laboured, yet it does touch a presently raw nerve. Therefore I’m happy to indulge it. It makes you think. And it makes you want to re-read Homer. Had I not had to make an early start this morning, I’d have stayed up late into the night, The Odyssey in hand. A film producing such an effect may, I think, be called a success.
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"You are treasured. You are needed. You are the pillars that this Church is built on." What a day at Knock Shrine! On Sunday, Grandparents from every corner of Ireland gathered in the Basilica for the National Grandparents Pilgrimage, on the Read More 4 Likes
Today is Reek Sunday. The day that thousands of pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick at Murrisk, Co Mayo. The climb up the mountain where St Patrick fasted and prayed for 40 day in 441 is one of Ireland's most beloved annual Read More 3 Likes
Photos from Cloyne Diocese's postFeast day of St. Joachim and St. Anne - grandparents of Jesus and World Day of Prayer for Grandparents and the Elderly- 26th July 2026 In 2021, Pope Francis announced the establishment of a World Day of Prayer for Grandparents and Read More 8 Likes
Today we celebrate St. Bridget of Sweden. St. Bridget of Sweden was a Mystic and Saint, and founder of the Bridgettine Nuns and Monks after the death of her husband of twenty years. She is also the patron saint of Read More 2 Comments
