Alexander Jolliffe, Author at Catholic Herald

Alexander Jolliffe

The Benedictine way can inform our lives – and our politics

June 30, 2020

The Way of St Benedict By Rowan Williams Bloomsbury Continuum, 160pp, £12.99 Rowan Williams describes St Benedict as “uncompromisingly prosaic”. For the saint, the monastic community is a workshop, a place in which members of the community use specific tools which are lent to us by Christ, to be returned on the Last Day, when

Walking with God among pots and pans

November 21, 2019

The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Carlos Eire, Princeton, 280pp, £22/$26.95 This incisive, insightful book gets to the heart of the matter about St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). The author is professor of history and religious studies at Yale University; but he wears his learning lightly and writes wittily, weightily and warmly about

Our cultural roots are in Latin and Greek

September 12, 2019

Teenagers are studying Latin in large numbers. Some 7,000 pupils took the GCSE this year, 150 more than in 2018, according to the exam board OCR. Greek also appeals to intelligent pupils, to judge by anecdotal evidence. A website for studying classical Greek, Basil Batrakhos – the word means “frog” – has had 631 visits

A priest’s advice for surviving stressful times

April 25, 2019

Finding God in Times of Stress By Fr Antonio Ritaccio, CTS, £2.95 ($3.85) Do you struggle to hit targets and deadlines? If so, read this book. Fr Ritaccio, a priest of the Diocese of Westminster in central London, says: “We each have only a limited amount of energy with which to deal with stress. Like

Theatre: Hillary lookalike brings down Caesar

March 02, 2017

As the audience arrived at this modern-day production of Julius Caesar they were greeted with television images of Caesar’s conquest of “barbarian” Gaul. Other headlines broadcast news of war in Egypt and a suppressed rebellion in Spain. The implication being that propaganda was as rife in the ancient world as it is today. Sharply dressed

Nativity Play: A collective intake of breath at Wintershall

December 08, 2016

This year’s Wintershall Nativity Play, at Wintershall near Guildford, is likely to be even more successful than its predecessors. The compelling James Burke-Dunsmore, playing Herod, evokes a chilling malice when ordering the murder of the children, and telling his men to “put hurt and hate into what you do”. He utters a wicked line, suggesting

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