So excited to share the latest edition of #OpenHouse which I had the privilege of editing. The special issue focuses on #peacemaking #nonviolence ft wonderful range of amazing contributors. We also remember legacies of #BrianQuail & #FergusKerr OP www.openhousescotland.co.uk/issue334/home/

My Thought for the Day, BBC Radio Scotland, tomorrow at 7.20am will be a tribute to Brian Quail. Photo from one of our retreats at Pluscarden Abbey.

You thumbed grit into my furrowed brow, marking me with the sign of mortality, the dust of last year's palms. The cross you traced seared, smudged skin and I recalled other ashes etched into my heart by those who loved too little or not at all. Elizabeth-Anne Vanek

None may pass though this world without experiencing loss of some kind. As an ancient hymn has it: "what earthly sweetness remains unmixed with grief?" My Thought for the Day, live from Barra in the Outer Hebrides, tomorrow BBC Radio Scotland, 7.20am and online on BBC Sounds.

Beautiful candlelit Missa Cantata midnight Mass at St Vincent de Paul in Thornliebank. I hope wherever you are you have a peaceful and relaxing Christmas day

Two Scottish gamekeepers on trial today in relation to alleged killing of Red Kites in Cairngorms National Park. NB: Comments are turned off as legal proceedings are live ⚖️ #RaptorResearch #WildlifeCrime raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/12/09/t...

Released today! The audiobook of “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination”. Available on all usual audiobook platforms. @tantoraudio #WilliamBlake #imagination #audiobooks

My RSS reader has reached the max level of subscriptions (I use this now-neglected technology to keep up to date with writers, musicians & others, especially now social media has become much more fragmented and less useful. I've been unsubscribing from sites that have not been updated for 10 years.

I had a great time on BBCRadioScot Sunday Morning Faith Forum with fellow contributors Rupa Mooker & Zara Mohammed & the skilled convening of the great Tony Kearney. Hear us here about 1hr in on celebrating Scotland, the meanings of sanctuary & asylum—& demons! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

A brilliant website for learning the names of mountains that you can see in a given panorama, once you put in your location on the map and what direction you're looking. This is what I see from my local Honeybog Hill looking north. @alastairmci.bsky.social www.udeuschle.de/panoramas/ma...

On “the co-opting of the cross” by the political right. But wait until they find that central to Christian theology is “the quartet of the vulnerable”: the widow (or bereaved), the orphan (or bereft), the “alien in your midst” (or refugee), and the poor. www.bbc.com/news/article...

On July 3, 2025, the Vatican made a historic announcement: the introduction of a new Mass “For the Care of Creation” (Missa pro custodia creationis) New Mass for Our Common Home buff.ly/Dtn9uiw