Service and worship
31 March 2013
What an amazing night it must have been! Already the Lord had demonstrated his incredible power in the nine plagues that Pharoah and the Egyptian people had suffered because they had still not let the people of God go free, so that they may go into the wilderness to worship the Lord their God. But…
Colours and emotions of Holy Week
28 March 2013
During this most extraordinary week that we call Holy, the liturgy of the church leads us in a confusing journey through the final week of the life of Jesus. Even the colours that the church chooses for each liturgy demonstrate the range of emotions that we are called to enter into during this week. From…
Palm Sunday
24 March 2013
Discipleship, Lent, Seasons, Teaching
Jesus demonstrates what it looks like and what is possible as a human being to say a complete yes as a servant of the perfect will of God. Most of our life is marked by living with compromise and settling for second best – or worse for addiction, failure and sin. As we walk with…
World Youth Day message 2013
17 March 2013
This week at the World Youth Day preparation session held in Sydney, I gave the opening formation session, breaking open the message that was given by Pope Benedict for the WYD to be held in Rio de Janeiro in July this year. While the recording on the day did not work, I have since re-recorded…
Misery and Mercy
17 March 2013
With the election this week of Pope Francis, many people have been excited by his choice of name, his evident humility in bowing and asking for the blessing of the crowd, his payment of his hotel bill, catching the bus rather than being chauffeured and many more; but others have been disturbed by this simplicity…
Scrawny goat and fatted calf
10 March 2013
The parable of the lost sons (Luke 15:11-32) is so rich and so regularly commented upon, that today I will note only a few things. We perhaps miss the extent of the insult that the younger son levels against his father when he asks for the share of the inheritance – not only is he…
Naming God
5 March 2013
Bible, Lent, Seasons, Teaching
When we come across Moses wandering through the wilderness, caring for the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, we are not told how often he has come to this particular place. Although the text calls it the mountain of the Lord, it is clear that is anachronistic – it only becomes worthy of that designation as…
Shining Clouds
24 February 2013
Discipleship, Lent, Seasons, Teaching
We read today from the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Luke – a chapter which saints and scholars across the centuries have told us is the centre of the Gospel. Before Jesus begins his journey towards Jerusalem, he begins this process by gathering the disciples together (always a sign of the church) and he…
Worship and Temptation
17 February 2013
On the first Sunday of Lent each year, we remember why we journey through the wilderness for forty days when we hear about the journey of Jesus – driven by the holy Spirit into the desert – for forty days of prayer and encounter with God. We must first note that temptation should not only…
Signing Sowing in Tears
15 February 2013
The NSW Catholic Bishops released a Lenten Pastoral Letter in response to the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, called “Sowing in Tears”. The letter itself is a fine example of authorship by committee and says all the kinds of things that one would expect such a letter to say. The opening…
Sound the trumpet
13 February 2013
Ash Wednesday reflection – with the students of St Paul’s Primary School, Camden. The short, three-chapter book of Joel provides a call and response by the people of God suffering as a result of a national calamity – a plague of locusts has destroyed their grain and grape crops, so the people are running out…
Resignation of a Pope
11 February 2013
Late last night, as for most major breaking stories in these days of the prevalence of social media, I saw through Facebook and Twitter notifications on my mobile phone that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, had announced his resignation, to be effective at 8pm (Rome time) on 28 February 2013. Since the first source…
Woe is me yet here I am
10 February 2013
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
I consider myself to be rather good at designing and maintaining websites, so perhaps the equivalent scene in today’s gospel (Luke 5:1-11) would be if – for example – Bishop Peter happened to drop into the parish office after a frustrating day of work, where new components or installations were not working on the Diocesan…
Heaven, Hell and God’s love
9 February 2013
Heaven, Hell and God’s love Presented over a two-day seminar, these workshops open up the theme of the place of the resurrection of Jesus in the life of Christians, considering what society teaches and understands about death and what happens after death. The seminar looks at the teaching of scripture and…
Sex, money, power and Jesus
8 February 2013
It is said that the majority of newspapers and magazines sell with stories about sex, power and money – and the corruptions that these cause. The headline on the Sydney Morning Herald today certainly bears this out. Both readings today – Hebrews 13:1-8 and Mark 6:14-29 – certainly also focus on the effects of these,…
Coming to Mount Zion
7 February 2013
New Creation, Season of Growth, Teaching
In Hebrews 12 we arrive at what can be argued as the climax of the letter/document with a description of two mountains. The first, although unnamed, clearly refers to Mount Sinai and the place of the reception of the great covenant by Moses. The frightening scene is related powerfully – complete with a blazing fire,…
Changed by black fire
27 January 2013
Bible, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
The scene that is described in the first reading, from Nehemiah 8 is certainly most extraordinary. Hearing that after almost a century since King Cyrus had allowed the people of God to return from Exile to the promised land, Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the civic official in the Persian court organise to return with…
Timely weddings
20 January 2013
‘Nuptial imagery rings through the bible like peals of wedding bells’ (Bishop Tom Wright) Today we have the fourth of the great epiphanies – when the true identity of Jesus is revealed. Although it may be tempting to imagine the scene of the wedding at Cana as a contrast between the stale water of Judaism…
Baptisms and pillows
13 January 2013
Christmas, Discipleship, Epiphany, Seasons, Teaching
Gathering to celebrate the Eucharist on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the liturgy provides fantastic images to reflect upon. From the prophet Isaiah who reminds us that the Lord will not crush the bruised reed, to the Lord Jesus who after he comes up out of the water receives the gift of…
Many epiphanies
6 January 2013
When I caught up with some friends during the week to celebrate a mutual friend’s birthday, the conversation turned to the Feast of the Epiphany and the celebration of Christmas. Mainly this was because one of the guys was a deacon in the Coptic Orthodox church, and he was gently berating me and the other…
Holy family saints
30 December 2012
When you drive around in Sydney’s south-west, with all the road-works around, you are bombarded by an increasing array of signs – some permanent, some portable, some flashing and variable. Road signs can help you to know what the speed limit is, or if there is a sharp corner looming, or a change in the…
Belief in ‘god’ at midnight
25 December 2012
The early church began to realise after the events of the death and resurrection, that this is the God who was revealed in the baby born in Bethlehem. God has come in the child born in the manger. God has come in Jesus of Nazareth; if we want to know what God is like, we…
Belief in ‘god’
25 December 2012
Bible, Christmas, Seasons, Teaching
We are told by surveys and the media that more and more Australians no longer believe in ‘god’. Yet, if you asked them what the ‘god’ that they don’t believe in is like, I would have to say that I don’t believe in that ‘god’ either. For most people, god is a being who is…
Grace impels us to go in haste
22 December 2012
Advent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C
The liturgy through the season of Advent provides events and characters to meditate upon. We are joined by Hebrew Testament prophets in our journey who express the hopes and longings of the generations of people for the Messiah to come. In the weekday Masses, Isaiah provides the main voice, but in our Sunday Masses, we…
Rejoice in the day of the Lord
15 December 2012
Advent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C
As a society we so often accept poor substitutes rather than the fullness of life experience that is offered to us. When we journey through the season of Advent, it can at times feel like a poor substitute for the season of Lent. The reality is very different – because the character of the season…
Arise and look to the east
9 December 2012
Advent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C
The readings today reminded me of being in Brisbane at the start of last year, when the devastating flood waters that had claimed too many lives in the Lockyer Valley moved downstream towards the city. Authorities did not want any more lives to be lost, so did all that they could to ensure that the…
Days of darkness
3 December 2012
Advent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C
We begin the new liturgical year (Year C) in much the same tone as we concluded Year B – with a focus on the destruction of Jerusalem. So it seems appropriate to reflect on the events that would have so marked the lives of any Christians living in the forty-year period between the wonderful events…
King for the world
25 November 2012
The sense of royalty that we have is very muted. We live in Australia in a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as our head of state. Yet, the role of the Queen (or her representatives in the Governors and Governor General) within our lives is very limited, and severely restricted under the constitution and…
Shining lights in darkness
20 November 2012
The final Sundays in the liturgical year always feature readings that are drawn from the more apocalyptic readings in the scriptures. Drawing from the mini-Apocalypse of Mark 13, our Gospel this Sunday has often confused people. Indeed Mark suggests that people may well misunderstand it, when he adds the note to the reader in verse…
Arise, go and live
11 November 2012
Both the first reading and Gospel feature widows – one of the most vulnerable groups in Israel and the ancient world. When there is no social safety net, widows relied on other family members and the wider community to provide the sustenance that they could not earn themselves. There lot was even worse when times…