We can see some beautiful things in the course of our lives. I think particularly of a field in Alsace on a blazing hot day, with the heat making the corn shimmer, or sailing into Stralsund harbour and seeing a townscape largely untouched for centuries or walking into Kykkos monastery for the first time and taking in the sheer opulence. Last summer I climbed to the top of the central cathedral in Berlin and was rewarded with a stunning view of the city. This urge to climb or sail seems to...

There are all kinds of dreams, are there not. Dreams which we forget the second we wake up, no matter how immersive and occasionally preferable to reality they may be. Dreams which turn into nightmares which we are happy to forget, personal dreams and dreams for others. What are your dreams? We are supposed to be able to achieve our dreams, be they of wealth, avarice, charity or for good or ill – we say ‘you can achieve anything’ to children, which always seems rather unlikely. I have done...

Sometimes people like to say that the Assumption of Mary is ‘not in the Bible’ and we have to accept that scriptural references are...