In gratitude to Roger Scruton for his work, and as a prayer for his eternal experience of the fulness of beauty, I share one of his best-known video teachings.
beauty spot
Just after 8 each weekday morning the NZ Concert Program features a few minutes highlighted as the day's "Beauty Spot". These minutes regularly include some of the most...
hope for a church
As I prepare to leave the Hurunui after six years I am aware of the great needs of Christian communities in rural New Zealand. If one of our large Christchurch churches...
new Hurunui era
I want to share with Food For Faith readers a great grace, a sign of hope that I experienced this weekend in the Catholic community of the Hurunui. We are a small...
tasting beauty
Last weekend the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch took the decision to restore their earthquake-damaged Cathedral. While a decision about the future of the...
Sunday beauty
Today we are in a very beautiful place. I had the privilege of living not too far from here in the town of Cheviot for several years and today we are surrounded by the...
in whose eye ?
A question: Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? In recent days I have watched a couple of videos from Brian Holdsworth who is passionate about getting the message of...
the art of JMH
The response to my post yesterday marking the death of Christchurch priest Monsignor James Harrington was both overwhelming and moving. Many readers were touched to...
Mgr. Harrington RIP
It is with sadness this morning that we have learnt of the death of Monsignor James Harrington PA. Monsignor Jim, as he was widely and affectionately known, became a...
begin with beauty
The Lectionary for Sunday liturgy used by Catholics and many other Christian denominations gives us the opportunity to be united in prayer and to be nourished by the...
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Annunciation
A couple of thousand years ago, a young Jewish woman was going about her normal morning routines, perhaps with a mixture of house and garden work, chatting with parents and neighbours, aware of the local drought, the sickness of a neighbour and annoyed by the neighbourhood’s lack of sleep caused by the Romans’ noisy party the night before, when God broke into her routine and entered her life in a new and powerful way.

the real centre
Over the last month I have had the opportunity to work with many people across Aotearoa and further afield. In every retreat and seminar I have been with committed and faith-filled people who often feel as though they are on the periphery of the Church

the adventure
It’s easy to make the mistake of seeing life as a treadmill, day after day ups and downs, a movement through time from youth to old age, then death and beyond.
Too often if feels as if we are helplessly captive carried along by the momentum of all that is expected of us and demanded from us, and we risk falling into an existence mode, a daily rhythm of survival, enduring, coping and so the treadmill rolls on.

the bigger picture
Over the years, and even in recent months, weeks and days, I’ve prayed many prayers which have not been answered as I had hoped.
You’ve probably had the same experience: praying and wondering if and when or how your prayer will be answered.

moving waters
Bible questions still pop up regularly in quiz shows and they often cost otherwise sharp players much needed points.
I’m ready for a question asking for the two names for the last book of the Bible. The book often known as Apocalypse is perhaps more often referred to as the Book of Revelation.
It’s common (thanks to movies) to think of an apocalypse as a devastating and unwelcome time of destruction.