I have always thought of the first day of a new month as a new beginning, something like a little "New Year's" day. Sunday every week is the same new beginning...
john oconnor
$$$…
Here in New Zealand, today marks the end of the tax year. While a number of businesses start and finish their year at other times, 31 March looms large as an annual...
with open eyes
Can you live without the sacraments? It seems obvious to answer this question with a ‘yes’. We all know many people who have never celebrated a sacrament, and they are...
on our knees
A few weeks ago I had a couple of hours' session with a dozen teachers in one of our Catholic High Schools. My brief was to present something of the beauty of the...
Acolytes at HCC
On Thursday evening I was fortunate to be at the National Seminary, Holy Cross, for the institution of the Acolytes. The group of six included four (above) from my own...
disturbing presence
A few years ago I was inspired by a little book by Fr. Anthony Gittins, The Presence that Disturbs. The title refers to the great 1798 Wordsworth  poem on Tintern...
God comes down
While it's the morning after the Feast of the Annunciation here in New Zealand, there are many parts of the world still celebrating this great feast, so I still have...
Fra Angelico
Perhaps the best known artistic representation of today's feast of the Annunciation is the fifteenth century Fra Angelico fresco from the Convent of San Marco in...
Annunciation
One of the moments of Christian history most represented in Christian art, is the encounter between Mary, the future mother of the Messiah, and the angel sent by God....
two fat ladies
"God if you are up there, please do something, I just can't go on" CDW Clarissa Dickson Wright died this week. She was well known as one of TV's cooking show Two Fat...
Latest Posts
the way of freedom
If you sometimes feel driven and trapped by your compulsion and activity you might find this reflection helpful
it’s not magic
There is a tendency to see prayer as an incantation recited in the hope of magically causing a response. But magic is not what we want. It’s relationship with God that we are seeking.
two saints
Jesus certainly doesn’t intend to condemn the attitude of service but rather the breathlessness with which it is sometimes lived.
two great lights
Fifty years on you can’t miss how these astronauts were moved by what they were experiencing, and we can’t help being moved by the same beauty
very near
Last week’s TIME magazine featured the architect Antoni Gaudi and his beautiful basilica of Sagrada Familia. Gaudi was a holy man