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The Word on the Week
September 13, 2009

Seedtime and Harvest

This was the week when the sun began to shine! It had had a couple of months off and so the Met office’s announcement of stable areas of high pressure was greeted by a mixture of relief and jubilation. The land, so long soaked in rain, began to firm up. Drains that had been blocked […]

September 5, 2009

Taking the Medicine

In an earlier era Castor Oil was deemed to be the panacea for all ills – at least those of the sore stomach variety. It tasted foul! But in those days this was evidence that it would do you good. “If it’s not hurting it’s not working” was the notion. The Castor Oil bottle was […]

August 29, 2009

Power Position

There can be few examples of the misuse of power that exceed that of an adult kidnapping and abusing a child. The helplessness of the victim illustrated by Jaycee Dugard, kidnapped at age 11 on her way to school, contrasts strongly with the power of the kidnapper, Philip Garrido and his wife Nancy. Philip Garrido […]

August 22, 2009

H1N1 Swine Flu

Give something a bad name and it sticks! The more benign medical term H1N1 has been superseded by the user friendly but more sinister “swine”. It is as if the characteristics of the pig go along with the sneezes! The one who sneezes, without using a tissue and, as the HSE campaign shows in a […]

August 15, 2009

Be My Witnesses

There is an undercurrent, seldom expressed but often implied, in our society that when a person “gets religion” he should do the decent thing and enter the church. The honest thing to do is surely to join with the like-minded. To be suitably labelled with reversed collar or other distinctive garb ensures the safety of […]

August 8, 2009

The Gospel

There is an incident in the Bible where things couldn’t have gotten much worse. The enemy had laid siege to the city; starvation was at the door and four leprous beggars reckoned that they might as well flee to the enemy as they were bound to die if they stayed put. When they reached the […]

August 1, 2009

Penury, Piety and Pandemic

Penury. The introduction of Nama (National Asset Management Agency) has produced a new type of insurance. It covers the debts of banks to provide security for depositors, shareholders and bank staff. It will deal with dodgy loans, declining assets and make payments to the banks in the hope that they will lend more wisely in […]

July 28, 2009

The Body in the Boot

It was this week that Ngema, a South African illegal immigrant, was sentenced in the High Court in Edinburgh for the abduction of a fellow country woman Magdeline Makola (38). Ngema barely knew his victim whom he beat up, blindfolded and bound hand and foot, taping her mouth so she could not call out. He […]

July 18, 2009

Snips

“An Bord Snip Nua” has spoken! Apparently we cannot continue to borrow €400 million a week indefinitely! The Report deals with reality. Our Celtic tiger is dead and her cubs are running for court protection from overseas lenders. Our own banks, paralysed by debts and supported by the government’s life-line, can only hope and pray […]

July 11, 2009

John Calvin

The 500th anniversary of Calvin’s birth on Friday has added to the recent focus there has been on the teachings that bear his name. His theological writings, especially his seminal work “Institutes of the Christian Religion” have majorly impacted on the course of church history to this day. Calvin’s thought exerted considerable influence over the […]

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