After a day of quakes, following a shakey night, we are driven to prayer before heading to bed.You might find the Collect prayer, from the Revised Missal's Mass "in...
john oconnor
Christmas: story or reality ?
Many people think of the events of the first Christmas as a story. "The Christmas story." While some stories convey the truth (or at least 'a' truth), many other...
New Year
Early this morning as I drove to Darfield to celebrate Mass I listened to Hymns for Sunday Morning. I was very aware of the morning as the first dawn of the new year. I...
Holy Innocents
Surrounded by presents and tinsel, peaceful nativity scenes and Christmas goodwill, it is easy to forget the full reality of the Christmas event. At the time of the...
Christopher Hitchins – and faith
Last week Christopher Hitchins died. You may know him as 'the athiest', or the author of books such as "God is not Great".For the past three years I have had the...
Christmas 2011
A couple of Christmas links below. The pope speaks powerfully of the reality that is 'God with us' in his Midnight Mass homily."Formerly, people had spoken of God and...
pope speaks to NZ bishops
Links to reports from the NZ bishops' ad limina visit to Rome last week:Radio Vatican...
bugs and bells gone and God lives on
At Christmas twelve years ago we were anxious about the possible negative consequences of the Millennium Bug. Despite our fears the citizens of Christchurch unplugged...
OLV Christmas Mass times
This posting of Christmas Mass times at Our Lady of Victories has been deleted to prevent confusion as Christmas Mass times change from year to year. You can check the...
birth and death
Take a moment to appreciate this Millet masterpiece. Even if you have never seen the image before, you will guess that these peasants are praying. When the one who...
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all the help…
If you are anything like me you need all the help you can get to stay focused on the beauty of the presence of Jesus Christ alive and active in the midst of daily demands and circumstances. Around the world in many languages people are praying with the Magnificat...
be rooted
It's a beautiful Sunday morning here at sunrise, the bells of the monastery have been ringing calling the monks to prayer, and in a couple of hours we will gather with the community and other retreatants for the Sunday morning monastery Mass. We have a wonderful...
retreat & reality
A brief Saturday morning live video reflection from New Norcia, a couple of hours north of Perth in Western Australia. I hope you are getting a chance to "retreat" in the most helpful sense of that word this weekend. Tap on this link to watch: Â Saturday Morning in New...
leaders & vision
I was interested to hear of the publication today of a new book on leadership written by NZ Â "leadership coach"Â Diana Jones. Tap on the image below to hear one of the interviews that whetted my appetite. I was especially interested to hear the emphasis on emotional...
ordination homily
A number of Food For Faith followers have requested to read the homily given by Bishop Basil Meeking DD, Bishop Emeritus of Christchurch, at the Christchurch priesthood ordinations earlier this month. It is printed in full below. A major challenge facing...