Blog

let’s pray

Mar 15, 2017

I am often surprised and saddened to hear people speaking about their own experience of prayer with a degree of uncertainty and lack of confidence. But when I hear them...

four years on…

Mar 14, 2017

It was on this morning four years ago that in New Zealand we woke to the news that Pope Francis had been elected. I recall being in the Cheviot Four Square store a few...

the greatest journey

Mar 13, 2017

If you were asked to name the greatest journey ever made, I wonder what you would answer. Take a moment to think about it. Maybe you're thinking about a journey made by...

transfiguration

Mar 12, 2017

It is Saturday evening as I write and I have just arrived back in Amberley after the Vigil Mass at Hanmer Springs. The Christian Sabbath has begun. In my homily at...

time off or Leisure?

Mar 11, 2017

On this Saturday morning you perhaps you are able to look ahead to a weekend that is a bit more relaxed than the work or study week. However I know too that is is very...

reality – or fantasy

Mar 10, 2017

I call it the magic carpet idea of prayer: the thought that prayer is a way of escaping from our present reality, floating away to a peaceful place before at the end of...

self-esteem & sin

Mar 9, 2017

It is perhaps surprising that in a time when fewer people have a sense of sin, more people seem to suffer from a lack of self esteem. Could it be that a deep awareness...

here and now

Mar 8, 2017

God cannot work in your past or your future today. God has worked in your past, and God works in the present to heal the past, but God cannot today work in your past....

pray like this

Mar 7, 2017

Thank God it's Tuesday! Last week the parish was involved in six ecumenical services, two for Ash Wednesday and four for the World Day of Prayer. It is a moving...

T.G.I.M.

Mar 6, 2017

While "Thank God it's Friday" (T.G.I.F.) is a common end-of-week cry of relief, it's a rare person who welcomes Mondays with the same enthusiasm. As you begin the new...