I’m writing this at the end of the first NZ lockdown day and I can already see that my life could become dangerously undisciplined
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counting blessings
In these weeks we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn to live without the compulsive busyness and idol-worship that usually fills our days
survive or thrive
The reality of living in lockdown hits home for New Zealander’s today and we accept this because we are willing to do everything we can in order to stop the spread of this terrible virus.
getting real
This post is not for everyone and I have no doubt that some people will be upset with the thoughts I’m about to offer.
rethinking Lent
The games we play with projects and goals, success, ambition and achievement are powerless to deliver the stability and happiness that they promise.
confident hope
While the visible present fear is a biological virus, the fact is that we humans face fear every day.
on our knees
Who needs God (we think)? We can achieve all we need on our own. And then a completely unexpected event brings us back to earth. We are grounded. We are on our knees.
first things first
In my class with the seminarians this morning I reflected on the importance of keeping perspective. Then I left the class and lost perspective completely.
loving fathers
In these Coronavirus days there is a strong sense of shared uncertainty and fear. I had a video meeting yesterday with several friends in Italy, each in isolation in their own homes.
living law
Perhaps the most tragic misunderstanding of Christian faith is to think that it’s all about rules and regulations. This is a reduction of faith to moralism and legalism.Â
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to really see
Perhaps we find the miracles of Jesus too difficult to understand. How can we cope with what we may not have seen with our own eyes?
Many people cope with the miraculous by reducing it to what they can understand. They say Jesus just increased the blind man’s psychological vision, or opened his eyes of faith rather than actually giving him physical sight.
the rich earth
Over the years I have celebrated hundreds of funerals, many well prepared with family and friends gathering to celebrate the life of the one they love. There are efficient funeral directors, beautiful flowers, glossy brochures, photographs and video presentations, eulogies and even artificial grass and sterilised sand at the graveside.
Patrick’s day
Most people who celebrate on St. Patrick’s day today think of wearing green and enjoying good Irish music, Guinness and perhaps dancing at an Irish pub. But it’s easy to forget that Patrick was a robust disciple of Jesus Christ who brought the Good News of the ultimate and eternal liberation through Jesus Christ to the people of Ireland.
good sense
Christian faith makes sense.
And therefore living in relationship with Jesus Christ is the most sensible life of all.
This is why a spiritually mature person will be both aware of and sensitive to their environment, in touch with what they see, taste, hear, smell and touch.
an authentic life
I spent spent most of yesterday on the road to the small South Canterbury town of Albury where the community had gathered to mark the closure of their 120 year old church. While i have never served as Parish Priest of the Mackenzie region I was driver for my 93-year-old uncle Jack who was priest for the Fairlie and Albury (and later Twizel) communities both in the 1970’s and the 1990’s.