John the Baptist was a Jewish preacher and religious leader who is revered as a prophet in Christianity and Islam. He was a contemporary of Jesus and is mentioned in the New Testament as having been a forerunner of Jesus, preparing the way for his ministry. According to the New Testament, John the Baptist was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, both of whom were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. He was known for his ascetic lifestyle, his practice of baptizing people as a sign of repentance, and his proclamation that Jesus was the Messiah. John the Baptist was eventually arrested and imprisoned by Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, and was later beheaded at the request of Herod’s daughter, Salome [ … ]

Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word [ … ]

While Heaven is depicted as a place of eternal life, joy, and fellowship with God, Hell is described as a place of eternal separation from God, where people will experience great suffering and torment. Do we choose Hell as a rejection of love? [ … ]

While God ‘can be known with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason'[1], He additionally chooses, ‘out of the abundance of His love’ (DV2), to reveal Himself to humanity. From the start God revealed himself to Adam and Eve, ‘[p]lanning to make known the way of heavenly salvation’ (DV3). After the fall, God has continued to reveal himself in history. He called Abraham, then taught the people of Israel through the patriarchs and through Moses and the prophets, that He is the one true God and to await the Saviour. Divine revelation was progressive through time, the Old Testament presenting ‘incomplete and temporary’ (DV15) understandings of God. The Old Testament prepares the way [ … ]

In the Catholic Church, Purgatory is believed to be a place or state of suffering that is temporary and where the souls of those who have died in a state of grace but are not yet fully purified are purified before they can enter heaven. It is believed to be a place of spiritual and moral purification, where the soul is cleansed of any remaining attachments to sin [ … ]

The creation of the King James Bible was an extraordinary event in literary and religious history. This was a political act of nation-building and it was a great spiritual gift, of ‘one more exact translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English tongue’, this new translation stamped with royal approval [ … ]

Second Temple Judaism refers to the religious and cultural practices of the Jewish people during the Second Temple period, which lasted from the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 516 BCE until its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. During this time, Judaism was marked by the development of various religious movements and the emergence of important religious figures such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes [ … ]

The scribes and Pharisees were two groups of religious leaders in ancient Judea, during the time of Jesus. The scribes were scholars who were responsible for copying and interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures (also known as the Old Testament). They were experts in the law and were often consulted on matters of religious practice and doctrine [ … ]

In Christian tradition, the Millennium refers to a thousand-year period of peace and prosperity that is believed to follow the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This belief is based on a passage from the book of Revelation in the New Testament: ‘And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years’ (Revelation 20:4) [ … ]

In the Old Testament, the jubilee year was a time of celebration and redemption that was prescribed by God in the book of Leviticus. It was to be observed every 50 years and was intended to promote social and economic justice in the community… The acceptable year of the Lord [ … ]

Saints are individuals who are recognized by the Christian Church as having lived exemplary lives and being in heaven, in the presence of God. They are considered to be models of Christian virtue and holiness and are often invoked for their intercession in the lives of the living [ … ]

The story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, as recorded in the New Testament’s Gospel of Luke, is a central event in Christian belief and is an important part of the Christmas holiday. According to this account, Jesus was born to a virgin named Mary, who was betrothed to a man named Joseph. Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, but they were required to travel to Bethlehem for a census. While in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable, because there was no room for them in the inn [ … ]

The Torah, also known as the Pentateuch, is the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. It is a central text in Judaism and is also revered by many Christians. The Torah is thought to be a composite text, made up of multiple sources that were written by different groups of people over a period of time and were later compiled and edited into their final form. The process of compiling and editing these sources is known as the documentary hypothesis [ … ]

As Christians, we celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day, observed on December 25th each year. While the date of Jesus’ birth is not known, and is not in the Bible, the celebration of Christmas Day on December 25th has been a tradition since at least the 4th century. It is thought that the early Christian church may have chosen this date in order to co-opt the celebrations of the winter solstice and other pre-Christian holidays that were observed around this time of year [ … ]

Our Advent prayers recall Jesus and Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, the story of the Nativity as handed down to us especially through the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is such a wonderful, intimate story, of Mary and Joseph, two people whose lives would have been otherwise utterly obscure, lived out in a remote province of the Roman Empire, far from the centre of things, to whom something extraordinary is happening [ … ]