a suitable temple Ten years ago, to mark the centenary of the opening of Christchurch’s Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Michael Hanrahan wrote “A Suitable Temple” -...
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Cathedral update
It doesn't take long for nature to begin to take over a Cathedral. Christchurch's Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament has been closed to the public since September...
things that endure
The news of the week in our local Church of the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch is that every attempt will be made to save the nave of the earthquaked Cathedral of the...
media release
There is a moment in Gerard Smyth's "When a City Falls" which for many Christchurch Catholics captures the devastation of the earthquakes. Gerard has led us through...
spirit speaking
A couple of hundred years before the Pentecost event, a decree of King Ptolemy V of Egypt was inscribed on a large granite slab. Because the same inscription was etched...
present reality
Our gathering for the Spiritual Exercises continues today after a full Friday evening and Saturday. Late in April more than 25.000 people met in Rimini (on the Adriatic...
living intensely
It is a great pleasure and a privilege to be with friends in the Philippines once again. This time we are gathered at the Trappistine Monastery near the southern city...
Ascension Thurs?
I often re-read the books that I consider to be spiritual classics. Some of these were written decades or centuries ago. Others, including Pope Benedict’s second “Jesus...
in Christ alone
I was a bit stunned today to see this sign outside one of the local churches. Think of the first disciples of Jesus arriving in Rome after Pentecost. These simple...
lights
At the Hawarden church early morning on the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Street light, tabernacle light, but soon the light of the rising sun will overwhelm all other...
Latest Posts
the new life
I’ll never have the experience of a mother giving birth to a child and I’m ok with that, with mothers commenting that men have got no idea what real pain is.
broken ?
Broken like a light-bulb, good for nothing? No! I’m broken like a jigsaw puzzle, full of potential and ready to become what I am created to be.
worshipping what ?
if we don’t make a conscious choice about what or who we worship, we will indiscriminately and sub-consciously grasp at something or someone to place at the centre of our lives.
which team
And how beautiful it is! It is like getting our lives back, getting a new chance. Nothing is more beautiful than to have a new chance.
growing young
Sometimes when I’m with a group I may know the meaning of every word they use but I have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.