It is appropriate as we celebrate Vocations Sunday, to allow the Holy Spirit to realign our thinking and acting about the purpose of human existence, so that we might...
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Good Shepherd
When did you last suggest to someone that God might be calling them to serve as a priest? This Sunday (“Good Shepherd Sunday”, Fourth Sunday of Easter) is celebrated...
the funny side
Following last Sunday's canonisation of Saint John XXIII a number of websites, blogs and social media groups have been enjoying the humour of the "pope of the Council."...
pressing on
Late last week I arrived in the Philippines for a series of retreats / spiritual exercises with communities in General Santos, Manila and Cebu. Yesterday I completed...
exquisite docility
Pope Francis has just finished preaching the homily at the Mass of canonization of Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II. The phrase that touched me most deeply was...
saints JXXIII & JPII
Just a few minutes ago, in St. Peter's Square in Rome, Pope Francis announced what God has known for some time: that Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II are now...
divine mercy
Last Sunday I reflected on the significance of Easter Sunday morning for the future worship of Christians. These disciples could have chosen Thursday evening (the time...
Anzac Day
The poppy from Flanders Field in Belgium has become the most visible symbol of Anzac remembrance. When I was a very young child my father taught me the John McCrae...
war graves
In just a few hours many thousands of New Zealanders will attend dawn services to remember and pray for those New Zealanders who have died in war. On this Anzac day in...
canonisations
This Sunday Pope Francis will proclaim two of his papal predecessors, John XXIII and John Paul II to be saints. Note the careful wording of that sentence since the...
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remembering
As a preparation for this November month of the Holy Souls you might appreciate this interview on life and death based on my own experience at the time of the deaths of my parents.
Lorenzo
Lorenzo shuffled in, overweight and dishevelled and wearing an ill-fitting and badly stained clerical suit dusted with ash from his last few cigarettes. He began with risqué joke
facing entanglement
Saints are not recognised for their passionless lack of obvious sins, but because of the transparency with which they face the entanglements of life.
in the light
It was a privilege to celebrate Mass this week with a few of the Year 13 students of our Christchurch Catholic colleges as they come to the end of their school-years.
JHN & JO’C
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me.