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Almost a century ago, writer Virginia Woolf noticed people’s tendency to approach books “with clouded and divided minds, asking fiction to be true, poetry to be false, biographies to be flattering and history to chime with prejudices.”

The nativity of Jesus gives meaning and hope to all the stories about us and the world in which we live. In the bundle of narratives that have ever been imagined and told, it remains "the most beautiful story in the world."

How do we value a human’s life? Should we rate lives on their value to their community? That would mean a life-saving surgeon would have more value than someone living on the street. Or is it potential—which would make a baby more valuable than a 50-year-old? What about the value we place on those later in life versus those at the end?

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones, says a well-known biblical proverb. We don't have to be practicing Christians to recognise its truth.

The Great Fire of Rome broke out on a hot summer night in July 64 AD.

We live in an economic system whose main fuel is loans. For this reason, the phrase “a world without credit” sounds far-fetched, to say the least.

The word sacrifice is not really a pleasant word. When you hear it, you may think of weird archaic rituals involving blood and animals. You may think of giving up something you love or like to save money or to save your waistline. Sacrifice is not a word we use often, and it’s often used with negative associations. But in a strange twist, the action...

With God's help, little guys can do big things too...

Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former US president, had a heart attack at the age of 64. Later, despite his cholesterol levels being within the normal range, he adopted a low-fat diet. However, despite the diet, he gained weight and his cholesterol levels rose, calling the effectiveness of the diet into question.

"But do you actually enjoy playing with the children like that?" a dear friend and experienced mother once asked me. Her question implied that there was a parallel universe in which a good mother might not enjoy playing with her children. It didn't take long before I became familiar with that universe myself.

There are two main reasons why we find it difficult to apologise, particularly to our kids.

On 29 May 2023, photographer Oleksandr Kuchynskyi filmed a group of children in Kiev fleeing to a shelter during an air raid.

“It was as if I were living in a fairy tale. And the most wonderful part was that I knew—hard as it may be to believe—that the story was true. None of the hardships of imprisonment touched me. The fear of the unknown no longer unsettled me, nor did the fact that, three days after my arrest, no one had yet called me...

Out of the endless series of events we experience, some we remember, and others we do not. Some often come to mind and we relish recounting them, while others we wouldn’t reveal for anything in the world.

Our number of friends tends to decrease as we get older, but this trend, which has many negative effects, can be actively combated even when old age has already set in.