Why Resurrection Matters
5 April 2010
http://www.robbell.com/ – Rob Bell presents a great new video on the difference that Resurrection makes and why it matters for us… all in 4 minutes. Well worth a watch! Jesus is standing in front of the temple in Jerusalemthe massive gleaming brick and stone and gold house of Godand he says destroy this templeand I’ll…
What resurrection means for the world (Easter Sunday)
4 April 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
We celebrate that moment in human history when the stone was rolled away. A sign and symbol of the separation that exists between life and death. A grave-robber had come – but it was God the Father who had acted in human history to defeat death. Death is our greatest fear and worry – human…
Death and new life in Luke (Easter Vigil)
3 April 2010
Luke 24:1-12 Hey! I’ll let you in on a little secret. Are you ready? (whispering) Dead people – well, they usually stay dead. We didn’t need the insights and advances of medical science in the past couple hundred years for humans to know that. The scriptures make it clear that no one who was following…
Namaste – Holy Thursday
1 April 2010
Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C
Jesus was an endlessly fascinating character and a simply amazing human being. Across his whole life he never failed to love and bring life to the people that he mixed and shared with, as he taught and healed and forgave sins. In more recent years we were inspired by the example of Blessed Teresa of…
Stones and the Cross – Good Friday
1 April 2010
On Good Friday we reflect on the amazing love that was shown by Jesus. Last night we remembered the nature of our call to be a Eucharistic people and to respond to the call of our baptism through lives of service. Today we continue that reflection by remembering our call to be ministers and priests….
Dining and dying with sinners
28 March 2010
Palm Sunday = Passion Sunday (Year C) The criminal on the neighbouring cross cried out – ‘This man has done nothing wrong’. Pilate had a sign attached to the cross above the head Jesus – as was the custom in the Roman Empire, to provide the charge that had been made against the victim of…
Skubala – and knowing Christ
21 March 2010
Week 5 in the Season of Lent (Year C) Paul, the Pharisee, after giving us his impeccable credentials for ministry within Judaism, then goes on to say why all of that – as impressive and amazing as it is – was as nothing compared to knowing the power of the resurrection at work in our…
The lost sons
14 March 2010
The fourth Sunday in Lent (Year C) – Luke 15. We have been pondering during Lent what it means to be in right relationship with God. Today we are reminded in the readings of the desire of God for us to have a full and complete life. We begin with the book of Joshua and…
Encountering the Sacred Tetragrammaton
6 March 2010
Lent – week 3 (Year C) – Exodus 3:1-16 During Lent we travel with specific characters. In the first week we have journeyed into the wilderness with Israel as they pondered their past and looked toward their future in the promised land – and then stayed in the wilderness with Jesus as he spent 40…
Called through a covenant of trust
28 February 2010
Each year on the second Sunday of Lent we are taken from the wilderness temptations to the heights of the mountain top experience in the transfiguration of Jesus. But in Year C the Church combines the transfiguration with the story of the Lord cutting the covenant with Abraham from Genesis 15. We shall see that…
Purification in the desert
21 February 2010
First Sunday in Lent – temptations in the desert. Deut 26; Rom 10; Luke 4 We begin the forty days of Lent by journeying with Moses and Jesus into our shared history, so that we have time away from all the distractions that we so often fill our lives with, to reflect on those questions…
Trusting in the Lord alone
13 February 2010
6th Sunday in the Season of the Year (C) – Jer 17:5-8; ICor 15; Luke 6:17-26. St Valentine’s Day. The question that lies at the heart of our readings today is – where do you place your ultimate trust / faith / hope? Jeremiah rather starkly tells us that if it is in the world…
Grace and call
7 February 2010
On this fifth Sunday we hear the call of three central biblical characters – Isaiah, Paul and Simon-Peter. The first reading (from Isaiah 6) and the Gospel (from Luke 5) offer many insights into the nature of biblical Christianity and the primacy of grace in the life of all who are called to be disciples…
Actions and words
31 January 2010
4th Sunday – Season of the Year C. When we were baptised we were Christened – that is, we were anointed with Chrism and the priest prayed, “God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin, given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into…
Finding the right walls
24 January 2010
Third Sunday (Year C). When adults attempt to teach young children how to ride a bike, they sometimes cry out decidedly unhelpful comments like – ‘just keep pedaling’ or ‘ride straight’ or ‘don’t crash into that parked car.’ When we think back on our first attempts at riding a bike, we may have very vivid…
Water and wine transformed
16 January 2010
Second Sunday (Year C) – John 2 captures the prophetic sense of the new life that is missing from the experience of Israel’s life. The 6 stone water jars represent the very best of life that humans can accomplish. What is missing is the joy and vitality of life – and that is why Mary…
The grace of baptism
10 January 2010
The Baptism of the Lord (Year C): Luke 3; Titus 2:11-14,3:4-7 As we finish the Christmas season and then start a new year, it is natural that we should look ahead. Our second reading today provides a brilliant way of doing this. Paul writes to his co-worker Titus, who is on the island of Crete…
A new kind of king
2 January 2010
Feast of the Epiphany (Matthew 2:1-12) This great feast evokes and inspires so many different things in so many different people. The sight of these strange strangers at the crib has given rise to so many attempts to fill in the details of who these magoi / magi / wise men / astronomers / astrologers…
Holiness today
26 December 2009
Feast of the Holy Family. In the lives of the saints we are presented with different models of how to live a live dedicated to the Lord. Perhaps this is because there is in fact no one way to be holy – all that we can do is to look at the lives of people…
Mary the revolutionary
24 December 2009
Christmas 2009 – a revolutionary ChristmasChristmas often brings out the very best in us; but of course it can also bring out the very worst. If we are honest, we can probably admit that at times all we want to do is gag at the very mention of it. Sometimes we tell the story of…
Leaping and dancing for joy
20 December 2009
4th Sunday of Advent – Year C. (Luke 1: 39-44; Micah 5:1-4) In a survey published in the Sydney Morning Herald this weekend it seems that around 68% of Australians still believe in God, but only 27% believe that the Bible is literally true. Which may not be a bad thing, if by literally true…
Vatican Museum App on iTunes
17 December 2009
Last night I downloaded the new The Vatican Museums Interactive guide for iPhone and iPod touch. It is a great little app with wonderful audio commentary and fantastic detail on many of the wonders of the Museum. A really well-executed application and great value for only $5.99 in the Australian iTunes shop. Go on -…
What must we do?
13 December 2009
Third Sunday of Advent (C) – Luke 3:10-18. When you look through the teachings of Jesus, a number of themes emerge – love, prayer, money and faith. But as you consider the teachings of Jesus according to these categories, it quickly becomes apparent that Jesus talks about money and possessions far more than he talks…
The word of hope
6 December 2009
Advent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C
Second Sunday of Advent (Year C) – Baruch 5:1-9; Phil 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6. Luke begins the account of the ministry of John the Baptist with a list of strange names – what is he doing and why is he doing it and how does it relate to the splendour and integrity of a people lost…
The coming of Christ
29 November 2009
First Sunday of AdventJeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thes 3:12-4:2; Luke 21: 25-28;34-36. Happy New Year! As we begin this new season of Advent (and new liturgical year), you might imagine that we would have readings that speak of preparing for the birth of Jesus, or that would take us back to the very beginning of creation….
Building the kingdom with Christ the King
21 November 2009
New Creation, Season of Growth, Solemnity, Teaching, Year B
Sunday 34 in the Season of the Year – Feast of Christ the King (B) Sometimes, especially when we live in a Constitutional Monarchy like we do in Australia, and we have strong democratic beliefs – and perhaps even more so if we are republicans – the idea of celebrating Christ as King can seem…
The end of the world – of death
15 November 2009
Week 33 – Season of the Year BMark 13:24-32 Often when we are presented with a passage like the Gospel that we have just read, we are left scratching our heads and wondering what on earth (or heaven) is going on. Of course there is a fascination in our world (like theirs) about the end…
The gift of the widow
7 November 2009
Sunday 32 in the Season of the Year (B)Mark 12:38-44 and I Kings 17:8-16. The gift of the widow who has nothing to give. Play MP3Recorded at St Michael’s Nowra 9.30am (14’30”)
Blessed by God
31 October 2009
Season of Growth, Solemnity, Year B
All Saints Day (Matthew 4:25-5:12) The gospel passage that we usually call the Beatitudes seems to be one of those passages that is ‘trotted out’ for almost any occasion – from weddings to funerals to commitments of ordination and religious profession. But what on earth is it about? What does it mean to say that…
What do you want me to do for you?
24 October 2009
Sunday 30 (Year B) – Mark 10:46-52 It was a hot day. There was barely any breeze blowing to provide any relief to the heat of the valley; just enough to carry the insistent smell of sand and the salt from the Dead Sea just a few miles away. Which meant it was pretty much…