Oscar Wilde once said, “be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” It’s a call to really be the unique and unrepeatable person you are. There is something very compelling about authenticity and the choices we make say a lot about who we are.

I recently received some Christmas cards in the post. It’s such a novelty, because receiving actual post which isn’t a shopping item or bills is unusual. I enjoyed checking the postmark and looking at the handwriting to figure out who had sent it. The anticipation of opening a card from someone I’ve not seen in months forms part of the excitement!

At the beginning of the holidays one summer, after a long year, I stumbled across Anna Karenina. All 800 pages. You may have read or heard about it.

Emotional intimacy isn’t something that happens overnight; we could spend our whole married lives working towards it. Here are six things we can do in our marriages to cultivate stronger emotional intimacy:

No matter what level of faith people have, Lent is a time of year that always captures attention. Not least because we mark the beginning with ash on our forehead! Maybe it’s because of long established cultural norms here in Ireland that we’ve always associated Lent as a time when we ‘give things up’ and you might find, in conversation with others, that it’s never really considered as a time people look forward to!

St Augustine is noted to have famously said to God, prior to his conversion to the Christian faith, “give me chastity and temperance, but not yet!” After many trials and tears, this man went on to become a renowned saint and Doctor of the Church - meaning his writings and teachings have particular importance and value.