Mary is Jesus' mum. Mary was with Jesus his whole life. What does that tell us about Mary's role in His life?

One of the great things about being the mother of a large family is that there is always someone to hand the baby to when you need a few minutes to get something done. One of my little girls is the ‘go-to’ second mum in the house and she delights in being her little brother’s first choice!

I grew up looking after kids. In my extended family, there were always kids knocking about - there still is even to this day! With so many children about, it meant that once I reached 8 years old or so I was put in charge of entertaining the little ones, along with my older cousins.

Do you feel as if your relationships are as good as they could be, or are they sometimes a little stuck?

This week marks 3 years of Hearts+Minds! What started as an idea over coffee between friends - to develop an online platform for women that goes beyond the superficial, and aims to uplift and inspire women wherever they are in their daily life - has now blossomed into a fortnightly podcast, weekly blog posts and countless events where women can find community and friendship.

Have you ever stopped to wonder how our memories are made? Life is so busy these days; we’re always rushing from one hasty activity to the next, only to fall into bed at the end of the day, tired and worn out.

Our guest on this episode feels she has done a good day's work when her clients look in the mirror and fall in love with themselves! Mercy of Miss Mercy Make-up Artistry has had a long and successful career as a make-up artist. Her passion is making people good about themselves.

What does Easter mean for you? Is it just another of those feasts that turn up on the calendar charting the arrival of spring? Bringing in its wake hosts of golden daffodils fluttering and dancing in the breeze, as the famous poem says? Or does Easter have another deeper meaning in your life’s trajectory?

When we think of Easter at this time of time of year, with spring in the air and the end of winter we can be joyful. But it is also a feast that speaks of who God is and who we are. God who has died for us and we, his children who are so loved.

Here we are in Holy Week, on the cusp of Easter. In a sense, this final week of Lent is like that last final stretch of a marathon; we are nearly there and the end is in sight. Yet this is also the time when we might feel most tempted to give up on those resolutions we’ve set ourselves because…well it’s almost Easter.

About a month ago as I was making my way down to bed, I began tapping on my phone to set my alarm for the next morning. Suddenly the screen froze completely. Realising quickly that frantic continuation of the tapping wasn’t going to fix it anytime soon, I did what any good IT expert would do … turned it off and on again. Unfortunately, nothing.

It happens all of the time. We try not to let it bother us. We blame ourselves for not being where or who we think we should be in life by now. We feel left behind. On this episode, our guest Gobnait O'Grady reminds us that the “University of Life is our best qualification”.

I think it’s fair to say that over time we have grown apart from nature and what we sometimes forget is, we are part of it. Nature is not a place we visit or something we look at from afar: it is home. And with Spring edging closer, now is a perfect time to think about how we can connect to nature.

We are a storytelling nation. Perhaps it comes from the bardic tradition when stories were passed down from generation to generation. Novels tell stories and we all love them, especially those ones that contain the insatiable capacity to remain lodged in our memories long after dry facts have passed over us. Stories impact us because they embody life and tell us truths in an entertaining and unforgettable way.

We often think we are time-poor because we can be bad at time management or disorganised at times. Our guest speaker on this podcast episode, Maria Kilcommins, speaks with us about why this may not be the case and how oftentimes, it is technology that is at the root cause of our time deficits.

Walking through Dublin city centre on Ash Wednesday, I exchanged glances with a gentleman passing me on the footpath. Both of us were wearing ashes on our foreheads. It was a moment of connection, acknowledging each other's faith and observance of the holy day.

The earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 was the most devastating natural disaster ever experienced in the country. In this episode, Denise O’Mahony describes her experience at the centre of a logistics operation to bring relief to a devastated people.

As a child, one of the first things I often heard people mention about Lent was to ask the question, “what are you giving up?” Random strangers or people who never seemed to talk about anything else to do with matters of faith, would suddenly speak about what they were ‘giving up.’ And the default was always chocolate and sweets!

It seems as though our world is in a constant state of flux. Everything has sped up in a way that forces our brains to deal with an unprecedented rate of change in almost every aspect of our lives; from family dynamics, to personal relationships, to our workplace or even the modus operandi of our work.

Perhaps you feel like you're skimming the surface of life or stuck in a rut ... from a Catholic perspective, it can be a very positive reality because renewing yourself is very much anchored in Christ.