From Pope Benedict's Palm Sunday Homily 2012"...what is really happening in the hearts of those who acclaim Christ as King of Israel? Clearly, they had their own idea...
john oconnor
inspiration I
From Benedict XVIJesus of Nazareth, From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection(March 2011)"If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and...
antidotes in a busy week
This is a busy week in New Zealand. Â Schools finish their first term tomorrow. Â Work is busy before the Easter break.We don't have time to read much. Â So over the next...
"April is the cruellest month"
If you appreciate good poetry, this entry is for you.As the calendar turned over a new month last Sunday, this opening line of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" played in...
Chrism Mass II
A collection of Video Clips from Pope Benedict's Chrism Masses in recent years. Â This Mass is celebrated in Rome on Holy Thursday, but may be celebrated in a diocese on...
Chrism Mass
Tonight, priests and people of the diocese gathered with Bishop Barry Jones to celebrate the Chrism Mass.After the bishop's homily, the priests renewed their priestly...
picture of the week
Some weeks ago it was reported that the Ria Bancroft Tabernacle doors from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament had gone missing from storage. Â They had been removed...
daylight saving
Tonight we put the clocks back an hour. It is the end of 'summer-time' in New Zealand.It is really only in the twentieth century that 'daylight saving' was seen as...
a week to remember
This weekend's palm branch procession and reading of the Passion of Jesus begins our move into Holy Week. It is most helpful to see these days before Easter as a week...
parish newsletter with extras
A growing number of people of the Catholic parishes of Hurunui read the weekly newsletter online. Â This week we are experimenting with an addition: the online...
Latest Posts
lost in grace
An interesting experience this weekend on the new Christchurch Belfast bypass road. GPS has not yet caught up with the fact that after several years of planning and construction the new motorway is open. Instead of following the road, my car's GPS showed me driving...
at all times
I have a friend from the USA staying for a few days and soon after his arrival we headed for the hills. That's a bit metaphorical because our first days were at a small seaside town, but now we really are in the hills in the heart of New Zealand's Southern Alps....
the networkers
In recent years I have marvelled at the steady emergence of the new Christchurch western transport corridor bypass, a key stage of the unfolding city motorway network. Before the first turf was turned on the project, years of planning had drawn on the best of traffic...
cemetery visits
Here in the Hurunui in the first weekend of November each year, priest and parishioners meet in each of the eight cemeteries of the parish to pray for those who are buried in each cemetery. Our prayer is simple and brief, five minutes of prayer together before people...
FFF: a new era
Dear Friends, It was almost eight years ago that Food For Faith began. The beginnings were small, a blog intended to last for a couple of weeks during a Holy Land pilgrimage. When the pilgrimage was over, the blog continued and then continued some more as I realised...