It was on 23 March 2020 that Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the UK public must stay at home, and the first national lockdown began. We hope that the articles and reflections on the Covid-19 pandemic that we have published have helped you through this immensely difficult year. Our thoughts are with all of our readers who have suffered greatly and lost loved ones during the pandemic, and we continue to pray for you all.
Praying with the Jesuits in Britain this Lent:
As we near the end of our Lenten journey, it's not too late to focus your Lenten prayer by joining one of the retreats on offer from the Jesuits in Britain this year:
The past year has confronted us with the question of whether we want to go back to how things were, or to ‘grow back better’. Pray As You Go, in collaboration with Sacred Space and Margaret Silf, help you to reflect prayerfully on that question >>
Get to know the person of Jesus better in order to live a deeper and more authentic Christian life of service. 'Knowing Jesus' is a retreat that includes scripture, art and music to pray with, and other daily resources to help you deepen your faith. Follow the retreat >>
From the archive for the feast of St Oscar Romero (24 March):
‘Starting from the world of the poor’: Martin Maier SJ traces Oscar Romero’s personal transformation up to the moment of his martyr’s death in the middle of a sermon on 24 March 1980. Read >>
San Romero de América: Even before his canonisation in October 2018, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador was already a saint to many, as Julian Filochowski explains. Read >>
The people's saint: Who was Oscar Romero? How did he make such an impact on the Church in El Salvador? And why was he killed? Read >>
Telling Romero's story: Jan Graffius writes movingly about preserving Oscar Romero's possessions, which tell of his own Gethsemane. Read >>
Fra Angelico’s fresco is one of the most familiar and celebrated depictions of the encounter between Gabriel and Mary. The arrangement of the scene draws the viewer into the intimate relationship that is being established despite the distance between the figures – how is James Hanvey SJ moved to respond? Read >>
When we contemplate the Annunciation, are we trying to understand, to penetrate, to grasp the transcendent mystery beneath what, on the surface, is very ordinary; or to recover a sense of the very ordinariness of the events which bore so much theological weight? Read >>
Dorian Llywelyn SJ surveys the history of artistic representations of Gabriel’s visit to Mary. How are developments in theology and devotion reflected in these depictions, and how can they help us ‘to discover our place in the mystery of the Annunciation?’ Read >>
In the first reading for the feast of the Annunciation, we hear the first use of the word 'Emmanuel' in the bible. God offers a sign to King Ahaz, but the king refuses it. Read >>
