Pretoria Catholic

Why Nations Fail is a popular title of a book and study in the field of economic growth and development literature. It goes that good institutions like the courts, schools, universities, etc are essential to strong democracies and a well-functioning state that can resist the constant minority elite attack on institutions. The authors study throughout history why institutions collapsed, like the Roman Empire, or why resource-rich countries in South America and Africa are so prone to elitist groups corrupting and looting the state. Strong democracies are associated with strong institutions. When weakness infiltrates the institution, it slowly decays and rots, eventually collapsing a once strong institution. Midday Mass at Notre Dame of Paris Cathedral, 4 May 2026 South Africa is known as a young democracy but with a well-formulated constitution. In recent years our democracy has been tested and continues to endure attacks on the state, with much emphasis from a small minority elite grou...

I travelled to Paris for a work trip earlier this month and, from there, I was a stone’s throw away from Ireland. I spent two days visiting my cousin and her family, who have lived there for over three years. They took me to visit a very special place in Ireland called Knock. We had the wonderful opportunity of making a pilgrimage to the most profound Shrine of Our Lady of Knock. Apparition Chapel, 9 May 2026 The Basilica of Our Lady, Queen of Ireland, and its surroundings are home to the Shrine of Our Lady at Knock in Cnoc Mhuire, Ireland. This is the official account listed on the Shrine site: “On 21 August 1879, 15 people of varying ages witnessed, over a period of two hours, the apparition of Our Lady, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist on the gable of the Church. To the right, in the centre of the gable, was a plain altar on which stood a lamb. Behind the lamb a large cross stood upright. Angels hovered around the lamb for the duration of the apparition, which was enveloped in a...

“Daddy, is heaven beyond the moon and stars, and how is it higher than space?” — Leo At as little as four years old, the question of heaven — where it is and what it will be like — is already pondered in our hearts. Noah and Grandpa, 14 Oct 2024 When the Pharisees asked Our Lord when the Kingdom of God was coming, He said that the kingdom would not be determined by some set of signs and wonders, or by people saying “here it is” or “there it is.” For, in fact, “the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21). Our Lord then recalls the terrible times of Noah, when people refused to listen, and of Sodom, when fire and sulphur rained down upon the city, destroying people. Then comes the punchline: those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. When they ask Him, “Where, Lord?”, He answers, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” Our Lord is telling us that the door to the Kingdom of God lies in letting go of our need for contr...

 A while ago, my boys were watching a show on YouTube called Science Max . In the episode they were enjoying, they were making paper aeroplanes and then “maxing them out.” What caught my attention was that they used the design based on the paper aeroplane that holds the Guinness World Record for the longest flight. Watch clip here The man behind that record did not simply sit down one afternoon and happen to fold the perfect plane. He had always loved folding paper aeroplanes, but then spent about ten years studying the ancient Japanese art of origami. Through that discipline, he learnt techniques he could bring back into the world of paper folding, and eventually used them to build an aeroplane capable of enduring a remarkably long flight. What fascinated me is that even a paper aeroplane is not as simple as it looks. If it dips, the flaps need adjusting. If it leans, the balance is off. Even something so light requires precision, discipline and patience if it is going to fly wel...

A few months ago we went away for the weekend to a little resort nestled in a ravine in Limpopo. It was the tail end of winter and so the chill of the early morning would bite, but this also meant watching the sun rise over the mountain, slowly pierce through the trees, stretching the first rays of the morning sun through the thick of the bush that had been in complete darkness through the night. Bela Bela, 07:17 - 26 July 2025 This made for prayer inspired by the treasure of nature, free of the distractions and hustle of city life. The sight of the sun sparked the words of the Mass in the common Eucharistic prayer, which quotes Psalm 113:3: "From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the LORD is to be praised!" The sun rises and sets day after day without fail. As I sat there, I realised how small I was in the universe, a tiny insignificant dot at the tip of Africa in some random bush. However, at the same time, I felt so loved that in the immensity of the univers...

I received a gift of this plant from my friends, Alex and Thato probably about five years ago. It was originally two succulents in a small boot pot. Over the years it started producing new shoots so I transferred it to a bonsai training pot. I put this training pot next to my desk and one day I ate an apple took some of the seeds pushed it into the pot and honestly forgot about it. At the end of November, I saw three little shoots sprouting and realised the apple seeds had taken. Two of the sprouts were growing nicely until...   Apple seed sprouts, 9 December 2024 First, let me start by saying this blog will be very personal and intimate but this sprouting of seed is a testament to something the world has neglected in the past 60 years or so and this parable is very telling. If you search global fertility rates by country you find a marked decline from around the 1960s when the data was first collected to now. In the 1960s the average number of children per woman was around 5 ...

Have you ever had a dream which created some panic? A while back I was having a consistent dream that I would return to school and in my dream I was never studying for the subjects or attending the class and it would make me worry that I would sit in the exam and know nothing. Now, this is a random dream and it has been years since I was in school but in the subconscious of dreamland I was going to sit in the exam, know nothing and then fail the exam. Now imagine for a moment you wake up and that dream becomes a reality. I think that is how Adam and Eve may have felt when they had committed the first or original sin.  Satan and the Beast of the Sea, by Jean Bondol and Nicholas Bataille "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons... 'I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself" (Gen 3:7,10) The devil's lie was an empty promise. The serpent said to the woman, "You will...

 It is 17:49 on the 4th of September 2024, and I have been stuck in an elevator at my office building for more than 30 minutes. I work on the 20th floor and when pressing the floor to travel down to the basement I got stuck. There is nowhere to go it's just the four walls around me, my computer bag and my guardian angel in the elevator with me. So in these moments, all becomes quiet and we become in touch with our inner selves, our souls. The mirrors in the elevator are positioned opposite each other so if you look into the one mirror you see multiple reflections that seem to run into infinity. If I were in a movie scene I could spice the scene up and start causing panic with highly unlikely scenarios like: What if the elevator cable starts fraying? What if I run out of oxygen? What if ... Fortunately it was pretty chilled and the technicians got me out after 50 minutes.  Stuck in the lift, 4 September 2024 (17:48) So after that dramatic introduction on contemplating death and...

"What's wrong with the world, mama?  People livin' like they ain't got no mamas I think the whole world's addicted to the drama Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma."  (Where is the love - Black Eyed Peas) Raphael (our third son), 13 April 2024 Deep down inside all of us, there is a desire to want to make the world a better place. We see suffering, brokenness and hardship around us and this can leave us begging the question why? Where is God in all of this?  In the second part of the series on ToB, we go deeper and this may help us realise that God has not left us nor does he desire we suffer. We discover that in fact, God has loved us completely by giving us freedom to choose.  In Genesis, we read about Adam. We should think of him more as a placeholder name representing humanity rather than an individual person. Why? The word Adam means human being and so God is telling us the story of all humanity. We label him, Old Adam. We know three thin...

In high school, I attended a leadership conference that used the bestselling book 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers' written by Sean Covey the son of the author of 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People'. This book has some important Christian undertones but also some advice for us to borrow in the Christian life. This blog retrofits this to look at how we can apply them to our spiritual life.  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens - Sean Covey As Christians, we are called to be apostles in the middle of the world just like the first apostles who were some ordinary fishermen and rough around the edges but after encountering Our Lord and receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost it all changed.  So here are seven habits we can try to develop to be more like the first apostles and carry out what our Lord asks of us: Habit 1 - Be Proactive  We are responsible for our own happiness in life. However, what makes us happy is not found externally beyond our souls but ...