After reading the parish newsletter reflection for this week, Peter Fleming sent a few photos from our Our Lady of Victories Parish (Sockburn) pilgrimage in 2009. Â I...
john oconnor
beauty at bedtime
It is all to easy when living alone to head for bed immediately after watching a gruesome murder mystery on TV. Â I don't recommend it!In recent years I have developed a...
Parish Newsletter
The weekly newsletter for the Catholic Parish of the Good Shepherd, Hurunui district, is now uploaded at the parish...
belonging to God
One of the problems of living at the front of the world (close to the date-line) is that the best homily ideas for a priest, arrive online (from other priests'...
through a glass darkly
This morning I listened to Fr. Robert Barron's homily for this Sunday. He reflects on each section of this Sunday's second reading, St. Paul's hymn of love (1...
weekly newsletter
The weekly newsletter for the Catholic parish of the Good Shepherd, Hurunui District, is now uploaded at:http://www.catholichurunui.co.nz/newsletter_3_February_2013.html
new horizons & decisive directions
Often in the Sunday Mass readings, there is a single clear point that leaps out at me demanding a voice in my Sunday homily. This week there are many thoughts, so I...
the Holmes interview
If you didn't catch the interview with Paul Holmes last night, you can watch it online at this link.It is a very good interview in which the realities of his passionate...
beer
taken from the placemat in a cafe:Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy (Benjamin Franklin)You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an...
faith
I have been fortunate in recent months to spend time with people who are passionate about the life of faith in an especially focussed way in response to the Year of...
Latest Posts
rejoice & be glad
Late last night New Zealand time Pope Francis' new Apostolic Exhortation "Rejoice and be Glad" (Gaudete et Exsultate) was published. Those who were looking for a dense document heavy with dogma and definitions will be disappointed. Instead the pope opens with this...
mercy
In the Jubilee year 2000 Pope John Paul initiated this Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday. In his homily on that day as he canonised a Polish nun Faustina Kowalska as a saint of the Church, he proclaimed: “It is important then that we accept the whole...
thinking ahead
It may have been a coincidence that Fr. Richard J. Hauser SJ died at 10:10 on Tuesday morning of this week, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Holy Spirit was smiling on Dick and on us knowing that we would not miss the John 10:10 connection: "I have come that you...
Suzanne Aubert
Only God can make saints, but is a great help to us when one who walked our own land is named by the church as being with God in heaven. We are encouraged in our own life with God when a "local" with human limitations and personality traits is called a model for a...
rise up
Around the world in these Easter days hundreds of thousands of preachers have done their best to communicate the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus to hungry congregations. I suspect that few have hit the mark as well as Fr. Alex in this Easter homily. You can...