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Jackie Tevlin, a MBIT alumna has kindly agreed to post her poem "St Clare of Assisi".  Thank you Jackie!  We welcome other alumnae to submit poems, artwork or stories. St Clare of Assisi Blessed soul of grace, Attentive to the preacher's word, A palm you waved in joy - Receiving the light of faith, Whilst waiting on His command. Trapped in the pain of glass , Looking out but never in, With wealth of ermine - Kept in style, kept in frustration. Unable to begin responding to God's plan, whilst tucked up safe within A fortress walls. Let me loose, let me cast off [...]

Living the Triduum in a Pandemic and beyond.  A post by Dr Sue Price. A few years ago, I delivered a paper at a Conference on Suffering and Diminishment.  This paper was subsequently published in Pastoral Review (May/June2019) entitled: Living Good Friday, moving into Easter Saturday, but can Easter Sunday be real? I was exploring my experiences of working in a children’s hospice, looking at the grieving process of all those concerned.  I saw a connection between the movements within bereavement and the movements of the Triduum.  This connection between what we experience in real life and what we [...]

On 1st  February, Professor Fiona Ellis (Roehampton University, UK) spoke on the topic of 'Meaning, Desire and God: An Expansive Naturalistic Approach'. The lectures started with the overview of two categories of approaches: atheistic/naturalistic and theistic/supernaturalistic. Then explored the 'desire solution' of Richard Taylor, proposed in his 'Good and Evil' (1970), identified a number of difficulties with Taylor's position and his critique of the religious framework, and ended with references to Friedrich Nietzsche and Robert Pippin. To view the lecture please visit Margaret Beaufort Institute's YouTube channel by clicking here.

The video recording of the launch of Dominic White’s book, including a response by Catherine Pickstock, Norris Hulse Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge is now available on the Margaret Beaufort Institute YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/f-4NArJ6CnU. Living in the age of the retouchable selfie, the issue of how one presents oneself to the world has never been more critical for those navigating the world of social media.  In this book, Dominic While asks how might the long tradition of the Christian gaze, found in scripture, art, theology and philosophy speak into this selfie generation?  What , in this context, might [...]

Musings on the Readings for the Thirty-Third Sunday of the Year - 15th November 2020 When I am working with parish groups exploring how the readings for each Sunday are put together, I have fun explaining how the First Reading is usually from the Old Testament, it's purpose being to point towards the Gospel. However, this Sunday's offering seems to be, at first glance, far removed from doing that. What does a tribute to a good wife have to do with the Parable of the Three Talents? And how to weave into it the message from the Second Reading that [...]

A very Medieval Pilgrimage and the Power of Relics Evelyn Nicholson - April 2020. Since my own conversion to the Catholic faith some years ago, I  accepted the idea of relics, but never really ‘got’ them,  rather enjoying the reports that St Teilo had his mortal remains divided into three portions, so that the three monasteries connected to him would each have a fair share! [1]This view changed in May 2016, when I learned through social media, that a relic of St Thomas Becket was being temporarily brought back to Canterbury Cathedral by a Hungarian mission, following reception at London [...]

A Tribute to Cambridge Professor Nicholas Lash Nicholas Lash, Norris-Hulse Professor Emeritus of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, died aged 86 at home in the early hours of July 11. His funeral is to be held today at noon at the Cambridge Chaplaincy, Fisher House. Nicholas was involved in the formation of the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology. Janet, his widow, says he was honoured and proud to become a Patron. Both Janet and Nicholas were pivotal in raising funds to purchase the Institute’s buildings which now house the Lash Library, his entire personal collection. Professor Janet Soskice, Chair [...]

After a bad morning, bad in every sense, It was good to walk again in fields of green, to take in dappled sunlight in the shaded lanes To be soothed by the glide of a brace of swans in a brook.   Then through a curved gate to a grassy plain flanked by horse chestnut trees,in flower, I was not prepared for the encounter. You dropped in altitude, majestically beautiful, your breast aglow.   Dark wings indented and streaked with white. You eyed me with great interest, circled low for seconds long. In that moment we made bargain and a [...]

Surprise Training When you say “Surprise!”, everyone reacts differently. For some, it is something nice to look forward to, for others it is an unpleasant experience, an uncontrollable element that breaks into your life. But one thing is always the same – it is not possible to train for it, because of the essence of its unpredictability. That is why we often find ourselves in situations where we are surprised, whether it is a good/bad grade at school, the unexpected behaviour of a person close to us or the loss of something important. And I’d like to talk a [...]