The fact of our limited time on earth brings a clarity to our vision helping us to keep the struggles of earthly existence in a broader, deeper, eternal and loving divine perspective.
a greater power
If you are following the gospel readings this week you might find them a bit fearsome with their focus on the end of this earthly world. But something much better is being offered to us
Christ the King
the king, with the crown...of thorns. It’s the last Sunday of the Church year today. In recent weeks the readings of the liturgy have been preparing us for the end...
Xt. the Kg. prep.
If you are preparing to preach this coming Sunday for the feast of Christ the King you might find these thoughts helpful. In 1925 Pope Pius XI spoke strongly against...
faces of faithfest
More Faithfest photos here from Peter Fleming. If you were there, the chances are you will see yourself in at least one of these pictures. The pics are a mix from...
more Faithfest photos
Thanks to Peter Fleming for taking and contributing these Faithfest Mass photos. more to come...
Bishop’s Faithfest homily
Thanks to Bishop Barry Jones for providing "food for faith" with this copy of his homily delivered at yesterday at the Faithfest Mass in the CBS Arena, Christchurch....
ChCh Diocese Faithfest
Today the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch celebrated the end of the Year of Faith. These images from this morning's Mass celebrating the Feast of Christ the King speak...
soul by soul and silently
There is a great Cecil Spring Rice poem that is better known for the Gustav Holst music it is often sung to. It is an appropriate anthem for today's feast of Christ the...
our maker is our monarch
What image enters your mind when you think of Christ as King? I find it hard to get beyond the trappings of contemporary royalty: wealth, glamour, and image. I’d have...
Latest Posts

stand up look up
The Israelites in their forty years in the desert were journeying from captivity to freedom, but the struggle of their desert years made them vulnerable to attack from every temptation as today’s first reading continues

confident in God
I’m not sure if children today are told the great story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, but if not let’s make sure that the parable is taught at all schools of higher learning.

the teenagers
A few years ago I discovered the wonderful way that God uses my imagination in my prayer.
Such openness to imagination when seeking God does not take us away from reality into fantasy but instead brings me into what is most real and inescapably personal and intimate.

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