Season of Growth
Hair and tears
12 June 2010
Season of Growth, Solemnity, Year C
11th Sunday in the Season of the Year. Also Immaculate Heart of Mary (Diocesan Feast) and Mission Sunday Appeal. Also the Sunday when my move to Fairy Meadow Parish was announced… Announcement of Co-Cathedral Like a great artistic masterpiece, Luke tells the story of the day that a Pharisee invited Jesus to a festive meal,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
Commissioned in the Trinity
6 June 2009
Season of Growth, Solemnity, Year B
Matt 28:16-20. After the 96 days of Lent and Easter we move back into Ordinary time – but before we do there are two feasts to remind us of the whole direction of our Christian lives. Almost all of the other feastdays are connected with events in the life of Jesus and the saints, but…
Chosen by Christ
16 May 2009
Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B
6th Sunday of Easter (Year B)In the Gospel (John 15:9-17) Jesus beautifully illustrates one of the key distinctions of Christianity – that it is not about our striving to find God, but about his choice of us to be his disciples and to live under the commandment to love. I discovered this personally some twenty…
Passion Sunday – Year B
4 April 2009
Lent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B
In this familiar story we can forget the dramatic elements of this most powerful story and not allow the drama to impact upon us. Mark’s Gospel (chapters 14-15) provides many unique points, including the woman with the smashed alabastar jar of costly ointment, the singing of songs of praise and the young man wearing only…
Greeks and seeds
29 March 2009
Lent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B
Our Gospel today begins with the strange reference to some Greeks wanting to see Jesus. They are also coming up for the festival – the great festival of the Passover – a sign that the influence and reputation of Jesus has moved beyond the local Jews – now even foreigners are coming wanting to know…
Grace and works
22 March 2009
Lent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B
Lent 4B – Ephesians 2:4-10 Last week we had the 10 commandments (Hebrew: mitzvot); this week we have the final verses from the Hebrew Bible (Tanaka) in 2 Chron 36 which record the failure of Israel to live up to these commandments which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and exile. It is only through…
Lent 2B – The binding of Isaac
7 March 2009
Lent, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B
When studying Biblical Studies at Sydney University many years ago, I studied under a lovely Rabbi who highlighted the significance and power of this passage from Genesis 22 – the binding of Isaac – called the ‘aqedah sacrifice’. It still disturbs and challenges us to reflect deeply on the nature of faith and the call…
Exclusion and Embrace
14 February 2009
6th Sunday (B) – Leviticus 13; Mark 1:40-45 It did not take long during the week before we began to hear victims of the terrible bushfires that ravaged Victoria last weekend ask why did this happen? Who is to blame? Was it the fault of the arsonists who lit the fires, or the greenies who…
Exclusion and Healing
14 February 2009
6th Sunday (B) – Leviticus 13; Mark 1:40-45 During the week we have heard many stories from the bushfire-ravaged centres of Victoria – many incredibly harrowing and horrific of great loss of life and possessions; some magnificent and miraculous of escape and rescue. Among these stories we have also been presented with others as victims…
Immediately
8 February 2009
During this liturgical year, we read from the Gospel of Mark. Each Gospel has its own style and personality. In John there are long discourses from Jesus with rich theological insights; Luke, written to a Gentile audience, has beautiful parables like the prodigal son and the good Samaritan; while Matthew, written to a Jewish audience,…
Teaching with authority
31 January 2009
The words and teaching of Jesus were always closely united. This was clearly the intention of God from the beginning – this was the way that he wanted for his people. God wants us to know the truth, and he wants us to be changed by our encounter with him. This is only possible when…