Resurrection
New Creation Bodies
14 April 2024
Embracing the Transformative Power of the Resurrection: Insights and Reflections Today, I want to delve into the significance of the resurrection of Jesus and its far-reaching implications for humanity, as we discussed in our Easter Sunday gathering. The Road to Emmaus: A Story of Revelation and Hope Our conversation began with the captivating narrative from…
Shells and Tombs
30 March 2024
Embracing the Journey of Surrender: Lessons from the Way of Saint James As a priest and a spiritual guide, I’ve had the profound privilege of leading a group of pilgrims on a transformative journey that has left an indelible mark on my heart and faith. Today, I want to share with you the insights and…
Resurrection Bodies
9 April 2023
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
First Reading ‡ Acts 10:34.36-43We have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 117:1-2.16-17.22-23This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. Second Reading (option 1) ‡ Colossians 3:1-4Look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is. Gospel ‡ John 20:1-9The…
The first fruits of the new creation
14 August 2022
New Creation, Solemnity, Teaching
First Reading ‡ Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6.10I saw a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon beneath her feet. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 44:10-12.16The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold. Second Reading ‡ 1 Corinthians 15:20-27aAs members of Christ all people will be raised, Christ first, and after him all who belong…
Resurrection Is (Easter Sunday)
17 April 2017
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching, Triduum
One of the limitations of celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus is that for so many people in the church, they still operate with a tri-part understanding of creation, even though they know that this is not the case in the physical universe or according to the laws of science and nature. So we still think…
My Lord and My God
3 April 2016
Although each of the Gospels is carefully crafted, the Gospel of John provides an extra layer of rich reflection which reveal the degree to which the beloved disciple as author has pondered deeply his own experience of the life and sayings of Jesus in the light of the experience of the early church and the…
Arise from the sleep of death.
28 June 2015
New Creation, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year B
Death was not God’s doing. So how do we make sense of death and how the Christian should approach this stark reality? How should we respond to our natural instinctual and evolutionary reaction to fear death? The teaching that the book of Wisdom offers and which is then magnified by Jesus in these two tightly woven stories…
Celebrating the Easter Experience
7 April 2015
Entering into the experience of Easter is always a profoundly moving event. I found this year to be no different – even though it was the first time that I have had the chance to lead the liturgies in a parish that I am responsible for which added its own stresses. The liturgies and encounters that…
Journey and Encounter on the Road to Emmaus
4 May 2014
Discipleship, Easter, Radio Program, Seasons, Teaching
In the final chapter of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, there are three stories about resurrection appearances of Jesus: all of them take place on that first day of the week – the first Easter Sunday, and all of them take place centred on Jerusalem. In this well-known story of the road to Emmaus we…
New Life #StartingToday – Easter Sunday
20 April 2014
When Jesus makes his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on the day that we call Palm Sunday, the crowds acclaimed him as the Messiah and welcomed him with great joy. But the first three gospels record him doing something very strange as his first act of coming into the city – he goes into the Temple…
Lazarus / El’Azar – Unbound and unsmelly
5 April 2014
Death is something of a problem! The Gospel today, taken from John chapter 11, tackles the very real question of the significance of death full on. Jesus is good friends with this family of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. So naturally, when Lazarus is sick, the sisters send Jesus a message to…
Changed into glory with the Lord
15 March 2014
Lent, New Creation, Radio Program, Seasons, Teaching
In the journey through Lent each year, the Church leads us first out into the wilderness to be with Jesus during his temptations, and then on the second Sunday of Lent his three closest disciples join Jesus as they journey up a high mountain. The strange event which the bible calls Jesus being transfigured is…
Resurrected temple
11 November 2013
Bible, New Creation, Radio Program, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
The long journey that we have been on with Jesus which began in chapter 9 of the Gospel of Luke – the journey from Galilee in the north down to Jerusalem has finished and Jesus has made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem – which the church celebrates each year on Palm Sunday. So all the…
Ascension and Mothers Day
12 May 2013
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…
Loved by the risen Son
14 April 2013
Discipleship, Easter, Seasons, Teaching
The final chapter in the Gospel of John is simply fascinating – on so many levels. The fact that the beloved disciple, the author of this gospel, whom tradition has always named as John, the brother of James and son of Zebedee, clearly finishes the gospel at the end of chapter 20 is curious in…
Remember and believe
31 March 2013
Discipleship, Easter, Seasons, Teaching
I remember a day when I was bushwalking in the coastal range down the South Coast, and I had been walking for a while just below the ridge-line – so I was unable to actually get a view of the breath-taking coast-line. At one stage I saw a rocky outcrop that was just above the…
Resurrected body
22 April 2012
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
One of the lovely things about the Gospel today (Luke 24:35-48) is that it deals with the nature of the resurrected body of Jesus and demonstrates that the disciples did not share the same drug-induced hypnotic experience, or simply remember the warm and fuzzy experiences of Jesus invoked by a vision of his ghost,…
Resurrection Sunday
8 April 2012
Although we profess and declare that Jesus Christ is risen, and that through the resurrection, death has been defeated – sometimes it can feel like nothing much has in fact changed. Just this morning the news announced the discovery of a the dead bodies of around 100 young men killed in Syria – many showing…
The road from Emmaus
7 May 2011
Bible, Easter, Seasons, Teaching
This powerful resurrection story is well known and often repeated. It shows the creative power of Luke’s narrative and has intrigued saints and scholars over the centuries. One saint who has a wonderful commentary on the story is St Bede the Venerable, the famous 8th century English historian and doctor of the Church. He brings…
Living on the third day
24 April 2011
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Welcome to the third day – the day when everything is different because of that day – which John calls the first day of the new week, when the tomb was empty. On Friday we waited in silence and we mourned and lamented. We so often live our whole lives on Friday. We are shocked…
Resurrection Day (Vigil)
23 April 2011
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
The Easter Vigil provides us with the opportunity to be immersed within the story of our salvation and the continuing work of God – from creation to redemption. So it is only appropriate that we make Alleluia our song as we celebrate the day of Resurrection and become builders of the new creation.Play MP3Recorded at…
Roll the stone away from the stink
9 April 2011
This most powerful healing story – perhaps the ultimate miracle with the raising of a man four-days dead – begins so simply with a description of the fact that a man called Lazarus was ill. Most of our English biblical names have come to us via the Latin Vulgate translation. In the original Hebrew, Lararus…
Easter Sunday
13 April 2009
The first Easter day marked a massive change in world history – no longer would death have the final say. We are called to share in this work as well by being his people and to work to bring about new creation around us by opening ourselves to the kingdom of God and the power…