Mission

Slave Freedom

19 October 2024

Year B

Reflection on the Gospel of Mark: The Journey Towards the Cross Greetings, dear friends in Christ. As we gather on this 29th Sunday of year B, we find ourselves reflecting on the profound themes of Jesus’ ministry as presented in the Gospel of Mark. This week, we delve into the journey towards Jerusalem, the predictions…

Sharing Together

14 July 2024

Year B

Embracing the Mission: Sharing God’s Love with the World Today, I want to delve into a theme that is both timeless and profoundly relevant to our lives as followers of Christ: the mission to share the message of salvation with others. This reflection is inspired by the experiences of biblical figures such as Amos and…

Doubting faith

21 May 2023

Easter

Ascension Sunday When I was 21, I was living in a formation house as my first year of attempting to follow this desire to be a priest. Towards the end of the first year I got sick. But before I realised that I was getting sick, I had come down with Chicken pox and as…

The question of salvation

21 August 2022

Season of Growth, Year C

Sunday 21, in Year C. Jesus continues his road trip from Galilee to Jerusalem, which he begins in Luke 9:51 (eight weeks back on Sunday 13C) – heading for suffering and death. He knows the reality of rejection and disciples dropping off when the novelty wore off. He continues to invite us into God’s greater…

Gracious New Jerusalem

21 May 2022

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C

Sixth Sunday in Easter, Year C. We arrive at almost the very ending of the bible with our reading from Revelation 21 today. We are given the vision of the new Jerusalem as it descends and heaven and earth are fully reunited once again. The city is enormous – 12,000 stadia (2,400km) in each direction…

God is near the Body of Christ

7 July 2019

Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C

There is a sense of urgency in the Gospel today as Jesus sends out this group of seventy(-two) disciples to prepare the way for him as he continues to make his pilgrimage journey to Jerusalem. He had already sent out the twelve apostles on mission at the beginning of the previous chapter (Luke 9:1); only…

Feeding the hungry

29 May 2016

Discipleship, Solemnity, Teaching

One of the things that might first strike us about the readings that are presented to us for our reflection on this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, is that we are not given the account of the last supper from the Gospel of Luke. Instead we are given the only account in…

Mercy and Mission

10 April 2016

Easter, Radio Program, Seasons, Teaching

The gospel that we have today is taken from the twenty-first chapter of the Gospel of John. It is another resurrection appearance, but this time, it is not in Jerusalem, but up in the Sea of Galilee. Seven of the disciples, led by the apostle Peter, decide to go fishing. While seven are described, only…

Ascended to be present

17 May 2015

Easter, Seasons

When Jesus is described by the scriptures as ascending into heaven and clouds cover him to hide him from the eyes of the apostles who are standing and watching this spectacle dumbfounded, we are left clinging to a whole series of unhelpful categories to try to deal with this. So much of this is as…

Called and chosen to love

10 May 2015

Easter, Seasons

We often struggle with some very basic questions – like who are we? When we meet people for the first time, conversations invariably begin with a process of classification – so, what do you do? Where do you live? The Gospel today takes us to a much deeper place in our relationship with God. It…

Called to go on exodus to the others

26 April 2015

Discipleship, Easter, Seasons, Teaching

The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is one that has endured across the centuries of the Christian Church. The image of the young Jesus as the shepherd bringing home the stray or wounded lamb has been found on the walls of the catacombs, and a statue of the Good Shepherd has also been…

Continuing to leave our nets behind

26 January 2015

Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year B

Growing up on a farm that had been in my family for several generations on the south coast of NSW, my brothers and I were aware of the desire that my father had that one of us would continue the tradition and farm the land. Once we had each moved away to study and work,…

Proclamation, Worship and Compassion as the heart of the Church

26 October 2014

Radio Program, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year A

Sometimes it can be helpful to return to first principles and ponder more deeply about the purpose and deepest nature of things like the Church. Thankfully our readings today provide us with this opportunity. After the Second Vatican Council, reflection upon the nature of the church has revealed that the reality of the church can…

A salted earth

9 February 2014

Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year A

The writings of the prophet Isaiah continue to echo across the centuries to provide a challenge for us; they were certainly well-known at the time of Jesus and seem to provide the background for the teaching that Jesus gives us in the second part of the sermon on the mount. The call for Israel was…

Behold the Lamb of God

20 January 2014

Bible, Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year A

When John the Baptist, sees his cousin Jesus coming towards him, it seems a little odd to declare “Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Presuming that John has not simply forgotten the name of his cousin, there must be something much deeper going on. As we have often seen…

God is near the Body of Christ

7 July 2013

Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C

There is a sense of urgency in the Gospel today as Jesus sends out this group of seventy(-two) disciples to prepare the way for him as he continues to make his pilgrimage journey to Jerusalem. He had already sent out the twelve apostles on mission at the beginning of the previous chapter (Luke 9:1); only…

Ascension and Mothers Day

12 May 2013

New Creation, Teaching

Dedicated to my mother. The first reading, taken from the opening verse of the book that we usually call the ‘Acts of the Apostles’, is clearly presented as a sequel to the Gospel of Luke. As Bishop Tom Wright says, it could just as easily be called the Acts of King Jesus, part II. For…

New exodus worship

6 May 2013

Bible, Teaching

One of the challenges of anyone attempting to read through the Bible are the encounters with the chapters that contain bizarre laws or content that seems to offer no significant spiritual content. For example, if you start with the book of Genesis, the pace and scope of the narrative will carry you through the book…

Suffering, service and mission

20 October 2012

Season of Growth, Year B

As the liturgical year draws to a close, our readings bring us ever closer to the events of holy week and the suffering and death of Jesus. Immediately after today’s Gospel from Mark 10:35-45 we find Jesus and the disciples travelling through Jericho in the final stage of their pilgrimage to Jerusalem (next Sunday) and…

Who is Jesus the Messiah?

16 September 2012

Season of Growth, Year B

The Gospel passage today is taken from the centre of the Gospel of Mark – not only is it the literal centre chapter, but it is also the place in Mark where the ministry of Jesus takes a definite turn. Jesus and his disciples are on the move. Last week, in Mark 7, we heard…

Go make disciples

3 June 2012

Discipleship, Teaching

It is no wonder that the Gospel of Matthew ends with the disciples gathered on a mountain. Mountains are key in the history of Israel, as well as being key to the ministry of Jesus. So I am sure it was with light hearts that the disciples made the journey from smelly Jerusalem that sunny…

Teaching with authority

28 January 2012

Season of Growth, Year B

Any male who had completed his bar mitzvah was eligible to read from the Torah in a Synagogue service and to offer commentary upon the reading. What the commentary contained would always be a reflection upon what the student had learned from his rabbi – who in turn would offer the insights that he had…

Called to follow

15 January 2012

Discipleship, Teaching

Recorded on my mobile phone at Zero Gravity 2012, a summer camp for 200+ teenagers held at Mount Tamborine on the Gold Coaast hinterland. The Sunday Eucharist was the culmination of the four-day camp. The readings of the second Sunday provided a great reflection on discipleship and evangelisation.Play MP312’09”

Grace, peace and purpose of Christmas

28 December 2011

Christmas, Seasons

Time magazine this year declared the Protester to be the ‘Person of the Year’ – and certainly 2011 was an extraordinary year of protests and revolutions. But it was not the first year to be noted as such – and one event that began a revolution that continues to this day was the birth of…

Signs of the Spirit

28 May 2011

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year A

As we move through the Easter season, the liturgy today moves in its focus from looking back to the events of Easter, to looking forward in anticipation of the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the Church at Pentecost. All the readings today provide insights and guidance concerning the life in the Spirit…

Chosen race and royal priesthood

22 May 2011

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year A

During Easter we have been reading from the first letter of St Peter, and we come today to what must be one of the most extraordinary declarations in scripture. Peter addresses a mixed community – young and old, men and women, gentiles and Jews, leaders and members – and to each person he reminds us…

On a mission from God

4 July 2010

Discipleship, Teaching

14th Sunday in the Season of the Year (C) Having just moved from Nowra to Fairy Meadow parish, I can see why Jesus instructs his disciples not to move from house to house: for any of you who have moved recently, you will know what a pain it is to pack and move. In this…

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