Discipleship
Setting our face towards the Lord
2 July 2013
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
The Gospel of Luke begins and ends in Jerusalem. Until the Gospel today (from Luke 9:51-62) all the action has taken place with Jesus ministering around the area where he grew up – Galilee – in places such as Capernaum, the lake, Nain and Mount Tabor. But there is a decisive shift at the beginning of…
Disciples of the Messiah
23 June 2013
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
The theme for the World Youth Day this year, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil next month, is “Go and make disciples of all nations” from the end of Matthew 28. Which in some ways begs the question of “what is a disciple?” What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? What are…
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…
New day knowing
31 March 2013
Discipleship, Easter, Seasons, Teaching
The one thing that each of the Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus begin with – is that it happened on the first day of the week. Now in Jewish reckoning, the seventh day of the week was the Sabbath day (Saturday) – the day when the Lord rested from the work of creation,…
Palm Sunday
24 March 2013
Discipleship, Lent, Seasons, Teaching
Jesus demonstrates what it looks like and what is possible as a human being to say a complete yes as a servant of the perfect will of God. Most of our life is marked by living with compromise and settling for second best – or worse for addiction, failure and sin. As we walk with…
Shining Clouds
24 February 2013
Discipleship, Lent, Seasons, Teaching
We read today from the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Luke – a chapter which saints and scholars across the centuries have told us is the centre of the Gospel. Before Jesus begins his journey towards Jerusalem, he begins this process by gathering the disciples together (always a sign of the church) and he…
Resignation of a Pope
11 February 2013
Late last night, as for most major breaking stories in these days of the prevalence of social media, I saw through Facebook and Twitter notifications on my mobile phone that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, had announced his resignation, to be effective at 8pm (Rome time) on 28 February 2013. Since the first source…
Woe is me yet here I am
10 February 2013
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
I consider myself to be rather good at designing and maintaining websites, so perhaps the equivalent scene in today’s gospel (Luke 5:1-11) would be if – for example – Bishop Peter happened to drop into the parish office after a frustrating day of work, where new components or installations were not working on the Diocesan…
Sex, money, power and Jesus
8 February 2013
It is said that the majority of newspapers and magazines sell with stories about sex, power and money – and the corruptions that these cause. The headline on the Sydney Morning Herald today certainly bears this out. Both readings today – Hebrews 13:1-8 and Mark 6:14-29 – certainly also focus on the effects of these,…
Baptisms and pillows
13 January 2013
Christmas, Discipleship, Epiphany, Seasons, Teaching
Gathering to celebrate the Eucharist on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the liturgy provides fantastic images to reflect upon. From the prophet Isaiah who reminds us that the Lord will not crush the bruised reed, to the Lord Jesus who after he comes up out of the water receives the gift of…
Marriage in the kingdom
7 October 2012
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year B
A line in the first reading (from Genesis 2) caught my attention today: “The man gave names to all the cattle…” I wondered how many species of cattle there are that they are worthy of a special mention? Mainly, the line caught my attention because it reminded me of growing up on our farm, and…
The holy huddle of discipleship
23 September 2012
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year B
As Jesus and his disciples make their way back from the mountain-top experience of the transfiguration and the ultimate revelation of Jesus as the Messiah, it is little wonder that the disciples remain confused. Jesus has been teaching them and preparing them for the day that they finally grasped that he was the true Messiah…
Choosing to follow the Lord
27 August 2012
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year B
As we come to the final of five readings from John 6, we arrive at the crunch moment in the chapter. Although confusion, grumbling and complaining have been part of the whole chapter – and would have reminded the first readers of the people of God complaining in the wilderness of Sinai in the book…
Mustard Seed Mary
17 June 2012
Even though as a family we would gather to pray the Rosary every night, I have never had a strong devotion to Mary, and some forms of Marian devotion have been a real turn-off for me. So when I was discerning which Diocese to join, the fact that the Patronal Feast of the Diocese of…
Go make disciples
3 June 2012
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…
Love beyond walls
13 May 2012
Discipleship, Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Teaching, Year B
In the first century, the standard expression of the Jewish faiths was strongly influenced by the Pharisees, the most populous of the many forms of Jewish sects that were active at the time. Unlike other groups which were often on the fringes of Jewish society or groups such as the Sadducees which were deeply embedded…
Passover and redemption
6 April 2012
Although John spends more time describing the events of the last supper – including the conversations across five chapters of his Gospel – he doesn’t give us the details of the institution of the eucharist. He does give us plenty of details around the event, including ensuring that we know that it all unfolded…
Called to follow
15 January 2012
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”
The way of grace
31 July 2011
The Gospel today begins with Jesus withdrawing to a lonely place to mourn and pray after hearing of the death of John the Baptist – his cousin, friend and comrade – only to find that this secret place has been invaded by crowds of people. Although he could respond in many ways, Jesus chose the…
Blinded by the light
3 April 2011
Discipleship, Lent, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
To truly appreciate the full scope of this sixth sign in the gospel of John – the healing and faith of the man born blind – we need to remember the full scope of John’s spiritual vision. John is always leading us to look back to the beginning of creation and forward to the wonders…
Goat or Calf?
25 March 2011
During this Mass for the Anointing of the Sick, the Gospel of Lent week 2 Saturday was from Luke 15 – the parable of the Prodigal Son. We often focus on the younger son, but this brief reflection looks at the older son and compares the two by way of the two animals that the…
Worry, money and insurance
26 February 2011
The fact that Jesus repeats a phrase seven times in our Gospel reading today perhaps suggests that there is something he wants us to learn. In a world that values money, security and wealth much more highly than the glories of God’s creation, the words of Jesus invite us to embrace a different way of…
Salt and Light already
6 February 2011
As we continue to journey through the sermon on the mount, lest we imagine that the kingdom of heaven is only something that will happen in the distant future, today we are given two promises that serve as concrete declarations of the kingdom breaking into our present reality. Jesus tells the crowd of disciples (who…
Longing for the Lamb
17 January 2011
In last Sunday’s feast of the Baptism, we saw that Jesus – despite the expectations of John the Baptist – identified with sinners and went down into the muddy waters of the Jordan River. This week in Brisbane we saw first hand the destructive power of nature in the floods that have devastated so many…
The today of salvation
31 October 2010
As we move into the final stage of our journey to Jerusalem in the gospel of Luke we find Jesus on the move through the town of Jericho. On the wings there appears this short, wealthy chief tax collector who for some unknown reason decides that climbing a tree is a good way to avoid…
Happy Fathers’ Day – so hate your mother and father!
5 September 2010
Sunday 23 – season of the year (C); Fathers’ Day In the Gospel today, we have this most striking response by Jesus as the crowds of people flock to hear him – ‘unless you hate your father, mother, sister, brother, wife/husband, children and even hate yourself, you cannot be my disciples.’ Clearly Jesus needs to…
Two visions of discipleship
18 July 2010
The short story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) is often told in terms of the contemplative life versus the active life. Even though Mary seems to be the hero of the story, it is Martha who is honoured with the feast day (29 July) – perhaps that at least provides some balance for the…
On a mission from God
4 July 2010
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…
Freedom and the iPhone 4
26 June 2010
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
13th Sunday in the Season of the Year (C) – Setting our face toward the Lord. In the first reading from I Kings, we meet Elijah at the end of his ministry, when his service begins to be more about Elijah than the Lord, so the Lord essentially tells him that his services are no…