It was on this Second Sunday of Lent two years ago (24 February 2013) that Pope Benedict gave his last Sunday Audience in St. Peter's Square. On that Sunday, the gospel...
john oconnor
send our roots rain
I spent much of the day driving around the lower Hurunui. Last week I saw it from the air. The land is dry. Very dry. We have not had rain for months and the land is...
Lent & springtime
"In these days we are in the heart of the season of Lent. The word "Lent" comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning "to lengthen" or "spring - the lengthening of...
four years on
February 22 will remain a memorial day for the city of Christchurch. Four years ago today, our city was devastated by earthquake. 185 people died tragically on the day,...
Aesop, Noah & 2015
For my seventh birthday my Godmother gave me my first book without pictures. It was called simply “Aesop’s Fables,” a title made up of two words that I had never heard...
Traces for Feb
One of the highlights of my monthly reading is the Traces magazine of the new movement Communion & Liberation. A few months ago the decision was taken to no longer...
sign of hope
There is something about the rainbow that gives a boost of hope in the midst of a day's demands. The Bible account of Noah's ark is well known - and this is where the...
eat pancakes
The day before Ash Wednesday, is ‘shrove‘ or ‘pancake’ Tuesday. This day is more widely known as Mardi Gras (ie fat Tuesday), or ‘Carnival‘ (literally ‘goodbye meat’)....
follow the good
I'm thinking ahead a couple of days to Lent which begins this week on Ash Wednesday. I heard someone once say that Lent was a kind of "boot camp" for the Christian, a...
Cardinal John Dew
Just a few hours ago in Rome Pope Francis created a group of new cardinals from many of the geographical peripheries of the world including New Zealand and Tonga. This...
Latest Posts
talking together
Many of us began 2020 with hope-filled goals for the year. Perhaps we were still tracking well through February into early March but then the virus threat became lockdown
with new minds
You might have heard the story of the Mexican fisherman who every morning rose early and fished for a couple of hours to catch enough to feed his family and to maintain his simple peaceful lifestyle.
stay safe
“All will be well”, clinging to the beauty of our humanity and allowing words of encouragement to rise up from our hearts.
without fear
This path involves accepting the fact that I am not locked down, I have instead allowed my fears and anxieties to lock me up.
Good Friday
Anyone who really wanted to get rid of suffering would have to get rid of love before anything else, because there can be no love without suffering,