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…
Ambition and the Cross
17 October 2009
Our gospel today (Mk 10:35-45) comes immediately after Jesus’ third prediction of his passion and death: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles;…
The gaze of Jesus and the one thing
10 October 2009
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year B
Season of the Year – Sunday 28B. Mark 10:17-30 Wisdom 7:7-11. Our life is defined by the decisions that we make; sometimes we manage to make good decisions – often something less than that. The first reading provides us with the example of the author of Wisdom who clearly prays for the right things -…
Marriage in the beginning
4 October 2009
Sunday 27 in the Season of the Year (B) | Mark 10:2-16 One thing that I have discovered, is that usually when a particular moral question is put to me by someone, almost inevitably there is a context – a back-story if you like. If I simply answer the question in the abstract, without attending…
Trust like a child
20 September 2009
As we move into the second half of Mark’s Gospel, the disciples journey with Jesus from the Mount of the Transfiguration back towards Galilee, and increasingly towars the cross. Jesus takes them aside to explain what is going to lie ahead – the way of suffering and ultimately death. But they haven’t got a clue…
Jesus the Messiah
13 September 2009
When reading a Gospel like our one for today from Mark 8, we can sometimes only read it as an isolated piece. If we do this, we can miss the richer liturgical and scriptural context and thereby miss much of the richness and depth that the story may be presenting to us. Let us turn…
Hearing and Speaking
6 September 2009
Week 23 in the Season of the Year (B) Mark 7:31-37 – the healing of the deaf and mute man. This healing reminds us that like the people of the Decapolis, we may well have lots of distractions that prevent us from hearing the all-important Word of God. God’s word is always meant to be…
Images of the journey
6 September 2009
I have just returned from almost 4 weeks in the USA and Canada. It was a deeply renewing and wonderful visit to catch up with friends and meet heroes; to see what I can see and discover the richness and power of the church in the mid-west. The trip began in LA (only because that…
Elijah in his struggles
8 August 2009
In the first reading from I Kings 19, we meet the Prophet Elijah having a bad day – he has been serving the Lord faithfully for some time and done all these great works – and instead of thanks and honour he is being persecuted and pursued by the deadly Queen Jezebel. Perhaps we have…
The bread of life
2 August 2009
18B – Bread of life (John 6:24-35; Exodus 16: 2-4, 12-15) When you read the Gospel of John, you must always be aware of the broad canvas upon which John writes his Gospel. He is always mindful and aware of all that has gone on before in the past – the history of the people…
Hungry to be satisfied
26 July 2009
17B – Season of the Year – John 6:1-15 This year we have been reading from the Gospel of Mark. Last week we had the story of Jesus and the disciples crossing over the lake and coming to find a large crowd of people, which he set out to teach at some length. Rather than…
The true shepherd
18 July 2009
16th Sunday in ordinary time – Year B. Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34. In order to understand our first reading from the prophet Jeremiah today, we need to understand what has been happening in the history and practice of Israel. We need to go back a few hundred years. When the people of Israel…
View from a high place
12 July 2009
15th Sunday – Year B – The view from on high (Ephesians 1:3-14) I am going on holidays in the middle of August to the United States. I haven’t been there before, so I have been looking around at various maps, trying to work out my itinerary. I have been using Google Maps to work…
His grace is enough
5 July 2009
14th Sunday in Ordinary time (2 Cor 12:7-10). One of the interesting things is that when you read the stories of some of the great saints across the pages of history, almost inevitably when you go through their story you come across some great shadow or darkness that hung over their lives. For example when…
Not dead but asleep
28 June 2009
Sunday 13B (Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Mark 5:21-34) Our first reading today begins with that rather curious line – ‘death was not God’s doing.’ It points to what is in fact the teaching of the Church about death. When we read in the account of creation, in Genesis 1-3, we get the sense that in the…
Storms in life
20 June 2009
Sunday 12B (Immaculate Heart of Mary) – Mark 4:35-41 Last Sunday I received a call from the Drug and Alcohol Department of the RNSH. A friend of mine had been admitted after an overdose of prescription drugs. It wasn’t the first time that he’d been admitted to hospital; it seemed that things had just become…