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.
Week 6: Pray
April 11, 2017
Go back to that moment in the garden. Go back to that moment when the water-sprinklers, those dirty little rubber-and-metal spigots you stub your flip-flop toe against in the scutch...
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Week 5: Stillness exercise
April 4, 2017
So it’s late on a Friday afternoon in the open-plan office where I work, and I need to compose the phrasing of some sort of stillness exercise by six o’clock...
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Week 5: Gospel reading
April 4, 2017
The Parable of the Wandering Sheep “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face...
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Week 5: Prey
April 4, 2017
The same master, a hearty, hirsute baritone, taught me Latin and Greek at each stop on the three scholastic terraces, prep, secondary, and college; and, because he looked quite Olympian,...
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Week 5: Pray
April 4, 2017
A word to the wise: the Lord will always surprise us. Nothing is predictable, especially prophecy, which predicts nothing other than the fact that the future is always and everywhere...
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Week 4: Stillness exercise
March 25, 2017
I know from umpteen paperback apologetics that Spiritus in Latin and Pneuma in Greek and Ruadh in Hebrew all signify breath of some sort, the oxygenating impetus that aerates biochemical...
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Week 4: Gospel reading
March 25, 2017
The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and...
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Week 4: Prey
March 25, 2017
In my first year in the senior house at school, the same good-looking Jesuit priest (so recently ordained that we still sometimes addressed him as Mr.) introduced us to the...
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Week 4: Pray
March 25, 2017
Do not despair, dear reader. The first definition of “priceless” in any reputable dictionary will tell you that it means “so precious its value cannot be determined”; “of immeasurable worth”;...
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Where to for the Irish Church?
March 22, 2017
The lead articles of the Spring 2017 issue of Studies all concur in the judgement that a phase – at least a phase – of Irish Catholicism has ended
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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