Thought for the Week

Daily bread

“Give us today our daily bread.” We say those words every Sunday, some of us twice. Some of us may even use them in our own prayers during the week. They are magnificent words, and we sense the rightness of praying them, expressing as they do our dependence – every day – on our loving

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The last tear

The actor Nick Nolte is now 74 and not enjoying life. “I cry every day,” he says. “It’s nothing tragic or anything – it’s just life. I cry when I try to get out of bed, because I’m in my 70s and my body hurts like hell. Once my joints are moving, I’m all right,

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The reality of evil

The Archbishop of Canterbury was in town last weekend, and on Sunday afternoon he addressed the clergy of the diocese. When it came to time for questions, he was asked to comment on Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. It would have been a tough question to ask a politician, let alone a church leader. Nevertheless, following

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Who wants to live forever?

The average life span of a mouse is 2.3 years. Mouse UT2598, which lives at the University of Texas Health Science Center, has already lived 3 years and is still going strong. Its secret is a compound called rapamycin, which appears to slow the ageing process. If – and it is quite a big ‘if’

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Don’t waste your suffering

I recently came across a very short booklet – only 12 pages of text – by American pastor and author John Piper, written just before he had surgery for prostate cancer. In typically robust fashion it’s called, ‘Don’t Waste Your Cancer’. What he has to say is pithy, wise, compassionate and deeply biblical, and could

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Stephen Fry on God

You may already have seen the video clip from an interview with comedian Stephen Fry, which is due to air on Irish TV show The Meaning of Life this evening. Fry is asked what he would say to God if he died and had to confront him. Part of his reply is to say, “How

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A matter of trust

The actor Jack Nicholson, now 77, has a reputation for womanising, but he now lives alone in Hollywood, spending his days playing golf, taking long naps and watching films with friends. The sad fact is that he cheated constantly on his long-term girlfriend Angelica Huston before leaving her for another woman. Sadly, yet probably not

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“Je suis Charlie”

Who could have missed the T-shirts and placards a couple of weeks ago bearing the slogan ‘Je suis Charlie’ (‘I am Charlie’), expressing solidarity with the staff of the magazine Charlie Hebdo following the gruesome attack on their offices which left several of their colleagues dead and a nation in shock. Other similar acts of

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Location, location, location

We are familiar with the idea that location is, if not all-important, at least highly important. Most of us put a lot of thought into where we choose to live, and then put a lot of energy into making our homes look as we want them to. The value of a property is affected dramatically

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The Theory of Everything

‘The Theory of Everything’ is the current film telling the story of the relationship between theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and his first wife Jane Wilde. I presume it takes its title from Hawking’s search – shared with other physicists – for a single unified theory to explain the essential workings of the universe. I am

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