Catholic diocese of Christchurch
a daily guide

a daily guide

On this Second Sunday of Advent Food For Faith gives the floor to Christchurch Bishop-elect Paul Martin on this first Sunday after the announcement of his appointment....

Bishop Barry Jones

Bishop Barry Jones

It is with great sadness that we have received news of the death of our Catholic bishop of Christchurch, Bishop Barry Jones, peacefully at 3.30 this morning. This...

language of form

language of form

I had the privilege earlier in the year of meeting with Washington DC based, internationally renowned, Catholic architect James McCrery. For a couple of hours in his...

ChCh build plan

ChCh build plan

Bishop Barry Jones has issued a pastoral letter on the building plan for the Catholic diocese of Christchurch, a single plan involving the repair and strengthening of a...

thinking next year

thinking next year

A few months ago I was speaking to a young person who said he hoped to know his plans for next year by the middle of this year. Since then a number of other people have...

Latest Posts

Ascension

Ascension

Most people think of the Ascension of Jesus as being a ‘departure’ moment. Jesus was here and now he is gone. We imagine Jesus going up into the clouds and the disciples waving farewell from below.
This is an unhelpful image.
It is essential that we understand what does happen and what does not happen in the Ascension event.
It would be easy to wrongly think that in his ministry showed us how to build the city of God on earth, and now he has gone and the mission is left to us.

touching the sacred

touching the sacred

A few years ago I was on Rēkohu Chatham Islands for what has become one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most sacred days, the ANZAC day of remembrance in gratitude for those who gave their lives, their health, their youth, their service that we may live in peace.
The art above was produced by one of the students at the local Te One school.

every which way

every which way

A good number of Food For Faith readers have discovered one of the more recent FFF initiatives, the weekly Homily Studio.
The recording of this half-hour podcast is one of the highlights of my week.

in the room

in the room

Today’s reflection marks the end of the FFF Lent-to-Easter daily email posts. Thank you for your company on this journey.  While these daily posts (for those who have signed up for the Lent / Advent reflections at this link) will take a break until Advent, those who have signed up to receive every post or regular posts at this link.  You might take a moment now to visit this page now to check your email preferences.

During retreat this week I found myself pondering just how difficult it is to accept that God, in Jesus, is really with me today.

disciplined discipleship

disciplined discipleship

As I write I’m nearing the end of retreat days with a group of fifty priests from across the USA.  As I mentioned a couple of days ago the diversity and youth of the group is remarkable with the majority being aged under 40 and a good number ordained for fewer than five years.