By Matt Ridley in THE SPECTATOR, 21 March 2020 On Sunday, lonely as a cloud, I wandered across a windswept moor in County Durham and passed a solitary sandstone rock with a small, round hollow in the top, an old penny glued to the base of the hollow. It is called the Butter Stone and…
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Surviving lockdown and staying positive
By Caitlin Moran in THE TIMES MAGAZINE, 28 March 2020 The kitchen shelves have neatly stacked supplies. Each sink and basin has a pile of soap next to it. The elderly in-laws have been settled into social isolation – guided, on the phone, on how to access the “From the Archive” section of the BBC’s…
Reflection for Passion Sunday, 29 March 2020
The Gospel for this Sunday – the Fifth of Lent - features Jesus raising Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, from the dead. When he sees the body of his dead friend, the reality of loss hits Jesus and he weeps. There is no record (that I know) of Jesus laughing but here (for…
We are all Edward Hopper paintings now’: is he the artist of the coronavirus age?
Eerie echoes … Edward Hopper’s Cape Cod Morning, 1950 By Jonathan Jones in THE GUARDIAN, 27 March 2020 Who can fail to have been moved by all the images of people on their doorsteps clapping for the NHS last night? They filled TV screens and news websites, presenting a warming picture of solidarity in enforced…
Spring at last, and they can’t ban that
By Janice Turner in THE TIMES, 28 March 28 2020 Imagine it was winter. That’s what I thought as I queued around the Sainsbury’s car park for 30 minutes just to buy milk, as I passed a padlocked children’s playground, shuttered cafés and discarded latex gloves. Imagine it was November and we were heading down…
If supermarkets can stay open, so should churches
By Patrick Kidd Friday in THE TIMES, 27 March 2020 If I were a clergyman, I would be able to walk out of the vicarage this morning and take a stroll as my government-prescribed exercise (“give us this day our daily tread”), raise my hat to parishioners from a safe distance of two metres, before…
Our response to the coronavirus pandemic reveals who we truly are
By John Carr in 'America', The Jesuit Review, 26 March 2020 The coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented health crisis, a growing economic disaster and a fundamental moral test. Our response demonstrates who we are, what we believe and what kind of society we are becoming. Terrible times reveal our true values, priorities and character as…
My oldie generation is privileged and selfish
By Max Hastings in THE TIMES, 24 March 2020 Monday’s broadcast by the prime minister reflects the fact that we are witnessing the unfolding of a global tragedy, of which the economic dimension is likely to prove more devastating than the viral one. The old merit special compassion so long as they are alive because…
Britain is coping with the coronavirus crisis because of the quiet heroism of its citizens
By Stig Abell in THE TIMES, 25 March 2020 There’s something I am trying to do less at the moment: terror-scrolling on my phone. I am sure many of us do it too much: first thing in the morning or – even more perniciously – last thing at night, cycling through news websites or social…
‘Give me liberty, or give me (grandma’s) death!’
By Michael Sean Winters in The National Catholic Reporter (USA), 26 March 2020 Growing up Catholic, attending a small country church in the late '60s and early '70s, every Easter Sunday we sang a saccharine hymn called, "Alleluia! Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise." (Listen to it at your own risk: It creates a dreadful…
