Dermot Roantree
Dermot Roantree is content editor with Irish Jesuit Communications. He has a doctorate in Modern History and many years of teaching and of e-learning projects behind him. He is married with two children.
Lent 2018: Week after Lent: The Displacement of Home
April 1, 2018
Read 1 Peter 2:4-12 When did secularity become ascendant in Ireland? Was it when pubs were allowed to be opened on Sunday in Northern Ireland, which only happened in 1989?...
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Lent 2018: Week 7 – The captive God
March 29, 2018
Read Matthew 27:11-26 Throughout Lent, we have considered the complex meaning of “home” in the Scriptures. Home is both a thing to be treasured – a destination longed for by...
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Studies: poetry, landscape and God
March 20, 2018
The Spring 2018 issue of Studies gives top billing to articles on poetry, particularly “lines of convergence and divergence” in Patrick Kavanagh and Seamus Heaney
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Lent 2018: Week 6 – The wandering God
March 20, 2018
Read: Luke 15:11-32 The parable we consider this week is perhaps, along with the Good Samaritan, the best-known and most-loved of all Jesus’ divine yarns. There is, of course, no...
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Lent 2018: Week 5 – The refugee God
March 13, 2018
Read: Matthew 2:13-18 How rare it is that in the midst of the crass consumerism and sentimental spirituality that is modern Christmas that we reflect on the first people invited...
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Lent 2018: Week 4 – The shock of exile
March 5, 2018
Read Psalm 137 and Jeremiah 30:12-17 While “exodus” is a central motif by which to make sense of the entire Scriptures, “exile” plays a similarly large role. In exodus, the...
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Lent 2018: Week 3 – The hope of home
February 28, 2018
Read Joshua 3:7-17 Abram was called out of Ur and on that pilgrimage he received a new name (Abraham) and a lineage. But the children of Isaac and Jacob found...
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Lent challenge launches strongly
February 21, 2018
The 10-Minute Lent Challenge kicked off at the Galway Centre of Spirituality and Culture last week.
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Lent 2018: Week 2 – The risk of leaving our father’s home
February 19, 2018
Read Genesis 12 The reader cannot fail to note the decisive break between the end of Genesis chapter 11, where we come to the end of the story about Babel...
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Lent 2018: Week 1 – The first eviction
February 14, 2018
Read Genesis 1-3 Let us begin at the beginning. To do that – to read Genesis 1-3 again at the start of Lent – we must begin by putting aside...
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A life of kindness & dedication: Sean Ó Cearbhalláin S.J.
August 26, 2026 - Fr. Seán Ó Cearbhalláin, S.J., remembered for a life of faith, teaching and service, died peacefully in Hong Kong on 23 August 2026.
Going with gratitude and blessing
August 21, 2026 - Friends and colleagues of the JCFJ gathered to bid Kevin Hargaden a fond goodbye. He marked the occasion with a final lecture.
Remembering a unique Jesuit/Protestant school
August 18, 2026 - Irish Jesuits visited Drogheda this summer to mark a significant event in the town's history involving St Oliver Plunkett and their Order.
The landscape that influenced C.S. Lewis
August 11, 2026 - In his August Messenger article, Kevin Hargaden explores the Irish landscape that moulded C. S. Lewis's soul and his writing.
Latest Podcasts
Healing for the soul
August 18, 2026
‘The Soul Also Keeps the Score’
July 3, 2026
Sharing bread in Bethlehem
July 2, 2026
‘The grandeur of humanity’
June 15, 2026
Latest Videos
Pope Video: For evangelization in the city
August 5, 2026
Pope Video: For respect for human life
July 3, 2026
Pray with the Pope: For the values of sports
June 2, 2026
Pray with the Pope: For priests in crisis
April 13, 2026
Latest Books
‘Dreaming A New Dream’
March 19, 2025
‘I am infinitely loved’ – Messenger booklet
August 21, 2023
Messenger autumn catalogue
August 8, 2023
‘Brothers in Arms’ – Ignatian Camino book
July 3, 2023